1) Taking (and passing) my Divemaster exams.
There's a two-part exam to become a Divemaster. Like all other PADI tests, it's extremely easy. Here's something like what you'd see on the test, see if you can get it right:
Your buddy signals that she is out of air. What should you do?
A: Swim away from her--you need your air.
B: Ignore her, she'll be fine.
C: Pull out your underwater cell phone and call 911.
D: Give her your alternate air source and slowly ascend.
If you can't figure out the right answer, please don't become a diver. Or at least, don't be my buddy!
A: Swim away from her--you need your air.
B: Ignore her, she'll be fine.
C: Pull out your underwater cell phone and call 911.
D: Give her your alternate air source and slowly ascend.
If you can't figure out the right answer, please don't become a diver. Or at least, don't be my buddy!
2) Completing all the Divemaster skills.
The skills a Divemaster must do are actually the same skills as in the open water class, but now they have to be instructor-level demonstrations. Some are easy, like taking the regulator out of the mouth and putting it back in. The hardest skill for me was a 50-foot no-mask swim, which took me a few times to get right--and I almost killed two people by making them laugh underwater. I practiced a lot, so I got a lot better!
3) Swimming.
A few of the divemaster skills I had to perform were timed swimming exercises. There's a 400m swim with no gear, an 800m snorkel, and a 15 minute water-tread with hands out of the water for the last 2 minutes. I didn't get great marks on all the swimming stuff, but I passed. And I didn't drown, so that's good.
4) Leading snorkel tours for cruise ship tourists.
On cruise ship days (about half of each week) I go to our beach with some other unpaid interns like myself and cater to cruise ship tourists. Most of them are actually pretty nice and good about listening to our instructions--don't touch the coral, don't walk on the coral, don't feed the fish, etc. Mostly I give snorkel briefings and help newbies learn to snorkel, but lately I've been leading tours a lot. This basically consists of me pointing out fish and hoping they don't swim away while I'm talking about them. The hardest part of these days is setting up the big event tent, and that's not particularly hard.
5) Helping out with Rescue Diver courses.
We have a few new divemaster interns who weren't Rescue Divers already, and being a Rescue Diver is a requirement to become a Divemaster. I had already been certified a few years ago through my study abroad program, so I didn't need to do it myself, but helping out with the courses is fun. I get to be the "victim" who injures and/or kills herself in a variety of ways, then gets hauled around and out of the water by the rescue student. Being a Rescue Diver isn't just about rescuing people in the water, though--you're never safe from your stupid coworkers! The whole staff tries to get in on the fun.
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| Oh no! He's cut off his finger! (He couldn't find any ketchup, so he used curry sauce for blood!) |
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| Oh, and his 'dismembered finger' was a carrot! |
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| "Diver, diver, are you okay?" |
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| It's important to put the finger on ice and stabilize the victim's head. |
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| Welp, looks like he'll be okay. |
In addition to the 'severed finger' incident, we also had someone fall down the stairs, an electrical accident, and more. Rescue days are long, but fun!
6) Taking photos in shallow water.
Lately I've been sitting in about 10 feet of water and taking close-up photos of tiny things. The small things are way cooler than the big things. I'm almost done editing my last batch of photos, so they should be up soon!
7) Changing my flight plans.
This last one is probably the most exciting! I have been extremely fortunate to have my flights changed to give me an extra month here. I called United last week to see if it was possible to change my flights, since I wasn't quite ready to come home in two weeks. It wasn't possible because I had booked through a booking agent. The deal was that any new itineraries had to match the old one, which wasn't possible because United had changed their flight schedules.
Fortunately, the girl on the line put me on hold for 40 minutes while she talked to her supervisor. She came back with a one-time deal to change my flight for free to March 28th. I hadn't talked to my housemate about staying longer--after all, I was just calling to see if it was possible--but I said yes. I was expecting a charge of at least $300, which is United's international flight change fee, so I got really lucky! Plus, my new itinerary is more direct, and gets me home in almost half the time!
So what's the moral here? Good things come to those who wait... patiently on hold for 40 minutes!
8) Creating new lionfish recipes.
In other news, I was the happy recipient of several lionfish today! I bought a fillet knife and a de-scaling tool at the local marine shop last week, so I'm glad to put them to use. I'm a terrible fish fillet-er, and I certainly need more practice. It doesn't help that I'm scared of spiking myself on their venomous spines!
Today I got four fish (woohoo!) and made two different small dishes. I don't have any recipes, I just kind of throw things together and hope they taste good.
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| Well, they're colorful... but are they tasty? |
Dish #1, on the bottom, was similar to a fish dish I had in Korea. I removed the head and guts, rubbed it with olive oil, curry, and garlic salt, then wrapped it in aluminum foil and baked it for about 15 minutes. I didn't time it, but it came out pretty darn perfectly.
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| Mmmm lionfish! |
I think next time I might remove the skin, because it came out a bit slimy. But other than that, the flesh was soft and perfectly cooked. Even after removing the skin, the fish still had plenty of flavor.
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| The spines are still on there! |
The lionfish has some small bones, but they all pulled out like a dream. Lionfish garlic curry bake gets a 7/10.
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| I had trouble cutting off the tail fin, so I left it on. After the fish was cooked it just fell off! Perfect! |
Dish #2 was a fish cake shindig based on an incredible chicken ball a friend made recently. When I say incredible, I mean that I could eat these chicken balls every day. They are probably one of the top ten things I've ever put in my mouth, and considering that they're not made of chocolate, that's saying something. On a scale of 1-10, those chicken balls were 1000's.
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| My fish balls. |
Sadly, my fish cakes weren't as divine, but I'd give them a 6/10. They were made of minced lionfish, celery, carrot, cilantro, salt, and pepper. That sounds really healthy, right? Well I even deep-fried them in olive oil. I'm all about being healthy--stop laughing!
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| Yummy! |
These tasted pretty good, but the recipe could use some improvement. For starters, fresh cilantro would definitely be better than the frozen stuff I used. Olive oil wasn't ideal for deep-frying, although it worked better than I expected. I think the fish cakes also need some kind of binding agent, like egg, because one completely fell apart in the frying pan. Whoops! But for a first attempt at fish cakes, I think I did pretty well!
That's all for today, but I've got a ton of really cool photos to share soon, so check back in a few days!
Cheers,
Ashton
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