The Dolphins, the Shark, and the Evil Sea Monkeys : Part I
Posted By Todd Storey on 10 October 2006
Three Plus One
Perfect timing. There, going into a side door, was The Gang. A gang of four: two dark haired men, a brunette woman, and a third man with shoulder-length blonde hair. My heart caught in my throat as I realized I was looking at some of my personal heroes: Kirk Krack, Mandy-Rae Cruickshank, and Martin Stepanek. They were here! This was real! Dear God, am I having a stroke?
Tales Out of School
A short time later we were all assembled and ready for school.
The lecturing was informative and entertaining, the most memorable performance being the disappearance of Martin's guts. He took off his shirt and showed us a negative diaphragm exercise which he introduced by telling us "This is how you want to look when you're going into the store to steal cantaloupe". The demonstration was met by what's probably the usual outcry of shock, awe, and slight revulsion- especially when Kirk stuck his hand in under Martin's rib cage and told us he could feel Martin's beating heart. This truly has to be seen to be believed.
Wet, Then
Lecture over, time to head out to the high-diving well and pool. I was flattered when the instructors all used my suit lube, and Mandy observed that I'd made it correctly: "Somebody knows how to follow directions!" My only faux pas was my choice of scent: coconut. Turns out the scent of coconut doesn't blend so well with that of...a certain other scent that can arise when a certain fluid is forced out of the lower body during a dive. Hey, how was I to know?
The 15'/5m deep diving well was our venue for running through rescue scenarios. We then moved to the lap pool to work on static breathholds. I managed a 3:45, not, quite making the 4:00 we were all attempting. I came up to find a video camera in my face, held by none other than DeeperBlue.net's own Paul Kotik, our fourth instructor for the course. He was hoping to catch a spectacular samba on film, for use in future classes. No such luck, I was fine! Heh heh. We switched, and my buddy's progress through his series of holds was interrupted when the lifeguard ordered us all out of the pool: a classic South Florida tropical thunderstorm was rolling in.
Sushi of the Shtars
Class over for the day, the gang of four and six of us students went out for dinner. For sushi. I swear, these PFI people really are human dolphins. It was really nice to sit there in the restaurant, just talking about whatever came up. This is what I really enjoyed. Some people like to hang out with celebrities just so they can look or feel important. Me, I like seeing people as just that; people. People that, no matter how many world records they may hold, put their wetsuits on the same way I do: one leg at a time.
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