“HELP! Jim is drowning!”
That kind of kick started my stay here at Liquid! Let’s go back a bit before I get into the rollercoaster of my first few weeks here.
I arrived 12 days ago at Liquid and learned that a lot can happen in 12 days. The first day was all about introductions, getting acquainted with everyone and of course having a few beers at The Lodge in the evening. A great way to start my new adventure I might add! This is my first time in the Philippines and so far I love it! Everyone I have met within this short time has been just great, from the people at the airport and in the airplane, to the staff and guests at Liquid. The mentality here could be summarized in short as “Relax and let’s just be nice to each other and respect each other.”
Anyways, time to talk diving! I arrived at Liquid as an advanced diver and after a few fun dives to get back into the swing of it; I started my PADI Rescue Diver and Emergency First Response (EFR) courses. It took 5 days to complete both courses and involved learning a lot of theory and practicing skills such as, how to give CPR and basic first aid for the EFR course. The Rescue Diver course is all about safety. It is pretty full on but a lot of fun, you learn stuff like how to get an un-responsive diver from the ocean floor onto the boat while maintaining an open airway or seeking a lost diver using search patterns.
Liquid also threw in some extra’s, referring back to the first line of this blog. Their reasoning ‘you never can tell when s*#t will hit the fan so always be prepared!’ Not to give away too much, but some of the staff almost drowned, got lost at sea and someone even got hit by a Jeep. Eventually, lessons learned and everyone survived!
Now EFR and Rescue Diver are finished – and yes I passed and celebrated in style that night! The next big one will be PADI Dive Master course, which I am doing over a span of 3-6 months. As a Dive Master Trainee (DMT) the next few months will be all about learning theory, practicing skills, demonstrating skills, assisting instructors and last but by no means least….. Diving! In the meantime, I also signed up for some extra specialties, more on that later!
Every week I’ll be posting another blog about the life of a Divemaster Trainee (DMT) here at Liquid Dumaguete.
Now it’s time for a happy hour beer, see you next week!
