Saturday 6/23/12

Today was a pretty awesome day for me. Water was very calm and nice which is always good, especially when your assisting with a new diver trying to attain the first basic Open Water certification which lets them dive down to 40 ft or 12 meters. The students name was Enzo and he lived in Guatemala city, spoke two languages and was an all around good guy. The kicker was the Enzo is 12. The major majority of new divers of course are adults so when ever you have a child to certify it always presents a new set of opportunities that you need to adjust to. This was the first child that instructor "Tom" had certified and that I had assisted with so we were not exactly sure what may come up during the confined water portion. (Confined by the way is kind of a misnomer. Confined in Utila is just is a shallower part of the ocean...no pools to work out of here) I'm pleased to say though that Enzo breezed through his first set of skill demonstrations with relative ease. Adults only trust you so far and then survival mode kicks in and they just say "screw you" when something feels very foreign or scary to them. If an adult reaches this "screw you" stage most likely he/she is going to dismiss all teachings and safety measures and try to shoot for the surface like a SeaWorld dolphin after a beach ball. Children on the other hand expect you to be the authority on the subject and to protect them and because of that are much more willing to simply listen and do as you do knowing that you will look out for their wellbeing. After skills we did a little dive and of course he was a little erratic and rushed but for a 12 year old who had never breathed underwater before, he did great. I have seen many adults with less poise and over the next couple of days it will all start to come together for him...to click. Tom led the dive with me behind and he stayed between us as we monitored him for safety or any sign of distress. Enzo pointed out every pretty piece of coral and every tiny fish or shrimp and was truly excited from start to finish. All the things that he was amazed by were things I took for granted a long time ago. The effect was that Enzo...a 12 year old basically reintroduced me to diving and I instantly was laughing under water and it all came back...the excitement, the thrill, the sheer wonder of it all, all the reasons I started diving in the first place. To hear a small child scream in glee, through his regulator, under the water as he sees his first Eagle Ray gliding by, lifted me in a magical way. I was reminded how awesome it was to see my own Sammi, lugging her tanks to the dive site and descending for the first time into a wholly alien world and how much I love sharing that with her and how naturally she took to it. It also reminded me that I have other children who would be just as thrilled to enter that world and how I need to get them diving. Everyone should dive. People have no idea of the actual universe that awaits below, how miraculous and beautiful it all is. In this place YOU get to be the bird, flying lazily by and the fish simply accept you as one of their own, albeit particularly ugly and awkward by their standards but still accepted. The sad truth is that probably 95% of the population will never...ever know. I'm one of the truly lucky ones and if your reading this silly blog of mine then perhaps you have an interest and one day soon you might decide to be one of the lucky ones too. It shouldn't take a young boy to remind us of how lucky we are but it did and he was up to the job..

Thank You Enzo