A couple of snippets of diving and ocean news
Unfortunately, none of the news snippets include me finding my dive instructor card, which is still residing with Lord Lucan & Shergar. Will go to the police box tonight and if there’s nothing there then I’ll give PADI a call tonight and get them to issue me a replacement card.
First news story is courtesy of the BBC, and is talking about a prehistoric fish that scientists have been trying to find out about. This fish has been given the name, Dunkleosteus, and has the most powerful bite of any known fish, living or dead. It was possible for this fish to focus its bite and provide up to 22,000lbs per square inch of pressure. In laymens terms, that’s a hell of a lot. For more info, check out the story at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6195188.stm
The other news snippet is that I finally got my Smartcom back last week! After 2 and a half months of being with Scubapro, they have finally sent me a replacement model. Hopefully this one won’t suffer the same fate as it’s 2 predecessors (which both developed the same problem, despite me getting a replacement model for the 2nd one). This computer I have is a brand new shiny model, and I dived with it a little nervously on Saturday. I was expecting it to go crazy, but it performed admirably, and I’m looking forward to diving with it again the next time I head out.
There we go - nothing too exciting there, but a couple of notes for you to mull over. Students have tests at school this week, and I’ve written 3 of them this term, so I suppose I should go and continue marking them. Take care and dive safely. Next entry will be on my return from Tokyo:)
Lost my OWSI card - man I need a lobotomy
Well, things were all going so well, but it seems it’s come to a rather abrupt halt. Headed out with my dive buddy last night for dinner and had a very nice meal. Went to my wallet to pay and found that my dive instructor card wasn’t in it’s regular slot. “Rather strange” thought I, but I assumed I’d just thrown it in my dive log binder after diving. Got home and proceeded to search through my entire apartment and card, and can’t find the damn thing. I’ve also called the Japanese dive shop I rented tanks from and they don’t have it either. Disturbingly, the last time I remember having it was when I picked up the card from having dropped my tanks off. I went back to the car and put the card on the roof while I took my wetsuit. I can’t believe that I’m so dumb as to drive off with the card still on the roof… or am I??? If that’s the case then I’m hoping someone will have handed it in, but to who? The Japanese dive shop don’t have it so my next thought is Kadena Marina. I’ve got my buddy who used to work there calling them and seeing if anyone’s assumed that I’m US military and handed it in there. If that’s not the case, and nobody has handed it in to the police around Sunabe, then I’ll have to get in touch with PADI and get a replacement card issued. All highly annoying, and I have no idea where it is - it could be with Lord Lucan & Shergar for all I know! So am not best pleased with myself at the moment, but am trying to keep hope that it’s going to turn up. Continue reading this entry »
A busy week… this is starting to resemble work!!!
Well, the past 7 days have been pretty hectic, which is one of the reasons that I’ve not been able to write an update to this blog for so long. The other reason is that I’ve not had too much to say, and I’m always an advocate of the phrase “If you have nothing good to say, it is better to say nothing at all”. But with that in mind, here’s Dave’s quick-capsule review of recent happenings in Okinawa.
From Wednesday to Friday, we had our foreign teachers’ Mid-Year Conference, where we supposedly are meant to share ideas on activities we can use in class and how we can become better teachers. Personally, it’s the most tedious 3 days of the year. I’ve nothing against the concept of this conference; it’s just that I’m at a high level school agnd most of the workshops and activities mentioned can’t really be applied to my classes. For example, it’s hard to implement music and games into a Model United Nations class about AIDS in Africa. But I have to admit it was marginally more interesting than I thought it would be. I was pleased with the response I’d got from other teachers who came to me talking about the recent suicides caused by bullying at school and what we could actually do about it. And in one of the workshops on classroom management, the presenter asked me to say a few words about it to promote awareness. I’ve a few ideas in my head at the moment and am just checking them out with the Prefectural Board of Education, but if they get the go-ahead it could turn into a big, Okinawa-wide project. In addition to attending the conference, this year I was asked to make a presentation on preparing students for speech and debate contests. Initially I wasn’t that keen, but I decided that I had a couple of ideas that I could share with people. Plus the fact that I would have a co-presenter helped too. Saying that though, 10 minutes into this 90 minute presentation, the mic was handed over to me, my co-presenter having exhausted their material. Slightly unexpectedly, I ganbarimasu-ed and managed to make it through most of the workshop giving little anecdotes and stories along the way.
After the conference ended on the Friday, I taught my first EFR course to some of the teachers. Originally 4 people had signed up to the course, but only 3 turned up (the 4th was absent, despite being told repeatedly by myself and other candidates to turn up). That went pretty well, and there were some very interesting questions thrown up about situations that could happen in real life. I think I managed to answer them adequately though, and thecourse students did really well on the skills. I also managed to get the details of a couple of other people who are interested in taking the course, so I’ll try to schedule another one in the not-too-distant future.
Saturday morning was spent finishing up another OW student, and she did really well. She was a little nervous after OW dives 1 and 2, and delayed finishing up the course for a few weeks. I was starting to get a little worried about her finishing at all, but she did both dives without any problems, and was great on the skills. I could see her confidence building as we went through the dives (as it invariably does) and she seemed really pleased to have finished the course and to be certified as a PADI Open Water diver. That’s the most rewarding part - when you see the confidence building in the student as they realise they can actually dive by themselves and their comfort level underwater increases.
And that’s about all I’ve got to report. This week is a 4-day week as Thursday is Labour Thanksgiving Day in Japan. So I will hopefully celebrate by going diving - all I need is a dive buddy! A bunch of my regular buddies are going to Ishigaki so I might have to call on some of my reserves. If all else fails, I’ll borrow a pony bottle and go diving with Han (i.e. solo). I’m still no further do deciding where my next international trip will be… it will probably depend on whether I go ice diving in Hokkaido or not in March, as that will eat up quite a bit of my money. If I don’t, it could be another trip to Thailand, or maybe somewhere a little more exotic to go diving
Last of all, a big congratulations to an old friend from Maldives, Miki Fukamachi, who got married in Yamaguchi on October 22nd. She’ll be heading back to Maldives and Malhos for her honeymoon, and it’s made me realise 2 things: firstly, how long it’s been since I’ve seen her & that I should go up to Yamaguchi next year; and secondly, how much I want to see Maldives again! Until next time, take care and dive safely.
Autumn and the Winds of Change are coming…
Well it looks like Autumn is on the way, with the winds shifting to the northwest, making diving much more difficult. The breeze is starting to pick up in general, and you can feel that the temperature here has dropped a few degrees. Every week the water temperature is dropping half a degree or so, and will continue to do so until it hits about 20C – it’s lowest over the winter months. So now we find out who really wants to dive! A lot of people can get turned off diving during the winter – they feel a little cold after one dive without a hood and/or gloves, the water has a little more chop than usual and the skies are dull and grey overhead. As far as I’m concerned, put me in a 5mm wetsuit with my gloves and I’ll get in the water whenever the conditions are good enough!
My first Discover Scuba Dives, lots of nudibranchs, and more conservation news
Well, the weather decided to pick up this weekend after a pretty gloomy week, which has cheered everyrone up. Just as we thought winter was coming, it looks like summer and the sun is making a comeback. It’s 9:30am here in Okinawa, and the sun is beating down already. So what better way to spend the weekend than in the water?
On Saturday I had 4 Discover Scuba Dives: one teacher who’s been in Okinawa since August, and 3 of her friends from Osaka who were visiting. I decided to take them down in 2 buddy pairs as 4 people on DSDs could get pretty ugly if one of them has a problem and I’ve got no DM helping me out. So we geared up at Sunabe and went into shallow water to do the basic skills before heading out. One student had quite a few problems initially, but she’d been feeling pretty nervous about the whole experience. We took things really slowly though and eventually she managed to get through the regulator clearing and mask. We then headed over to a little deeper water and descended. I used a float and line, with both students keeping hold of the line throughout the dive. They were a little nervous to start with, but the fish soon started coming closer and getting curious, and it became enjoyable after that. It was really rewarding to see the girl who had been having problems initially really enjoying it - even with the reg in I could tell she was smiling underwater. The 2nd group had no issues at all and I had a longer dive with them. They all seemed to love it, and one guy has said he wants to come back in Feb and do an Open Water Course. That’s great, as it means that they liked the experience I showed them. But man, those things are stressful! I can’t remember off the top of my head what the maximum instructor-to-student ratios are, but you’ve got to be very good to handle more than 2 on your own. All you need is one student to start going up and the other to start going down and you’ve got serious problems. So I’m going to stick to buddy pairs for now if I’m doing that alone. Continue reading this entry »