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Hi everyone,
It's getting cold here. A miserable 27 degrees and I could have sworn some some drops of a clear liquid fell on my windscreen the other day. They were gone too quickly for me to identify them.
Ryanair continue to bus people by the plane-load onto this crowded Mediterranean outcrop. Many of them armed with a snorkel or an Open Water diver certification or both. While the client numbers may not be conveyer belt diving the workload comes from the sporadic start dates and varying levels of experience. For example last week I had on one dive, two Open Water Dive 1 students, 1 Open Water Dive 2 student, 1 Enriched Air Nitrox Dive 2 student and 2 pleasure divers. Hmm... as you can see the Maltese don't have a word for dull*.
So you can imagine that when I was gifted 5 beginners (DSDs) at a beautiful dive site the other day I was pretty chuffed at the opportunity. This dive site has a steep slope maybe 75m long running from the car park down to the water (say twice the gradient of the coal harbour slip). Everybody got in took their breaths. Smiled. Fell over in their fins. The usual DSD experience. I took them down to 3m in the crystal blue water through a boulder garden. 1 minute in, I did my usual turn and signal. One of the girls (16) signalled problem so I ascended with her and left another instructor with the group. On the surface she told me her 'lung' wasn't working. Taking a few puffs on the reg I began into my the equipment is safe; it is working speech. Then she clarified. Her lungs were not working. She couldn't breathe and was having a full asthma attack now. She managed to tell me her medication was in the truck and she had to have it. I think my thoughts were something along the lines of 'FOCK'.
Anyway, teaching all those rescue courses paid off somewhat I think. That or just pure adrenaline. Suffice to say I got her to shore. Beached her. Sprinted to the truck. Sprinted back. Fell on my ass (with everyone watching the drama of course) and presented her with her medication. Thankfully her breathing resumed normally and as such so did mine. She's seen the doctor and is returning to dive again tomorrow. I'm taking the inhaler in my camera housing this time!
Life here is a series of moments and a series of stories. It has got a pace to it that I feel adept to and more so in the last week. However other people and places are a hollering and I know my summer here is coming to a close. I'm doing my best to take it all in - I even watched a sunrise this morning at 5am. It does still count if I was going to bed yeah?
Anyway, I need to go aquasure all my gear together for another week of work. I just wanted to keep my promise of getting a newsletter to you all every so often. I hope things are going well wherever you are. I'd a great weekend back in Dublin, even though it was cold! It was great seeing you all and catching up. Please forward this to those emails I may not have with me. Take care and talk soon.
Stuck on a small island in a big sea,
Rob
P.S. Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/subaquaman
*This is my hypothesis. I actually don't know if the Maltese have a word for dull. I'm sure they must.
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