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.
So with that little grievance out of the way, onto a report of what I’ve been up to. Well, on Saturday I embarked on my first solo dives, mainly due to a lack of dive buddies being available. I borrowed Brian’s pony bottle and strappedit to my chest, informed a couple of people where I was heading and made sure I double checked everything before getting in. The dives were nice and peaceful actually, and I can see why a couple of my friends really enjoy it. The only sound you can hear when you get away from people is your own breathing, and the crackling of fish biting away at algae on the reef. PADI don’t recommend solo diving, although they do seem to concede that it is a technical part of diving and should be done by people with experience and relavent training. I’m a little surprised that they don’t offer a Solo Diving course as part of their DSAT technical diving arm. I think SSI/TDI offer this certification and I think there are a lot of experienced divers who already dive solo that would want to take the course to increase their understanding of the risks involved and what they can do to minimise them. There would have to be stringent prerequisites for this course (a certain number of dives or a certain level of training achieved), but it could be something they implement in the future, as technical diving becomes more mainstream. The dives were fun though, and I was much more aware of myself and my diving situation regarding my air supply and depth.
On Sunday I was teaching an EFR course, rather out of the blue. A guy in Okinawa was doing a Rescue Diver course and his dive instructor wasn’t an EFR instructor (you need first aid certification to get your Rescue Diver licence). So he did a search for EFR instructors in Okinawa and my blog was one of the first websites that showed up. Marvellous scenes! So he contacted my last Wednesday and we hsatily scheduled a Primary Care/Secondary Care/Care For Children course on Sunday afternoon. It was fun, and I could tell this course went much more smoothly than the last one. I’m learning what makes a good and bad course, and hopefully getting better at it. Just need to keep practising, especially with the diving courses. I want to try and schedule something in the middle week of December before I leave for Yonaguni. It will give me some more certs, get some divers more competent in the water and give me a little extra pocket money for my travels.
Speaking of travels, a return trip to Thailand could be in order at the end of next April. As well as seeing a few old friends and getting some diving in, there’s the Asia Dive Expo 2007 running in Bangkok from April 27th to the 29th. The PADI Asia Pacific bigwigs will be there so it will be a good chance for me to network and lose more of my posessions! There’ll also be high ranking people from DAN and all the major equipment manufacturers so hopefully I’ll get to see some new things. The flights won’t be cheap given that Golden week is coming up in Japan just after I leave, but it could very well be worth it. And on a similar theme of travelling, I head up to Tokyo for my long weekend on Friday night, so my next post here will include a trip report including some of the sights and sounds of the big city. And then it’s only 4 and a half weeks until my trip to Yonaguni, and I’m getting very excited about that.
Think that’s about all I’ve got to tell for now. Will write an extra entry if I manage to find my diving card at Kadena Marina or the Koban (police box) up in Sunabe, but I wouldn’t hold your breath to be honest. Take care, dive safely and keep a good hold of your posessions.
P.S. Here’s a news story I found which may interest and amuse you. The opening paragraph reads: “A double amputee has been jailed for a year after leading police on a high-speed car pursuit, using modified broom handles to control the vehicle”. Need I say any more?! The link is here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/wear/6192628.stm
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