“Okay, you’z will now flip backwardz off da boat.”
Chris had the sensitive blonde ponytail and beard, but he wasn’t messing around. We learned that he was about to take his next course in training in order to teach instructors how to teach, so we followed his lead and flipped back, immediately feeling like Bond girls.
As it had been when I learned to do a roll in whitewater kayaking years back, so it had been with diving; once I was under water, my brain immediately thought that I needed to gasp for air. But Chris and the video had reminded me that the tank on my back supplied it. All I had to do was inflate, and then deflate, my BCD (the vest that held my tank and me), keep the regulator in my mouth, breathe deeply and slowly, and remember to never stop breathing, which was the number one rule in scuba diving. That was until the next day when a new instructor started teaching the safety skills.
Martine, the strappingly handsome Argentinean, was going to be my instructor on this second day. It threw me for a loop since I had grown attached to sensitive ponytail guy, Chris, but I was already out of sorts since Nayomi had gotten a cold after that first day, and with blocked ears, could no longer join us. I was on my own now, but was committed to the challenge. Luckily, she rode on the boat, snorkeled, and took movies of me learning how to dive for moral support.
Martine was even more no-nonsense than Chris was, but his brown eyes were deep enough to keep me attentive. After more instructional videos coupled with evening reading and homework over the next two days, he always reminded me to, “Just tink. Tink about what you have tu du,” he’d say as his tan torso glistened while the sun hit the ocean. Martine was the “crack the whip” kind of instructor that I needed, particularly when I had to exhibit certain skills such as, taking out my regulator underwater and taking off my mask and swim a bit before replacing it. Each time, as my head clouded over with anxiety, he’d simply remind me to get out of it, “No worry, just tink.”
