The House of Pooh!

Geschrieben von: Richard Wonka Mittwoch, 22. April 2009 um 16:21 Uhr

A certain Poohness has creeped into our lives, with assigned Winnie-The-Pooh mugs brought over by Nikki. And for reasons unknown to (this) man the Tigger mug has been assigned to me.. All of this has now culminated in a window painting of Eeyore, Pooh, Piglet and Tigger to welcome us home yesterday.

Nutters they are, Leif and Nikki.

Otherwise, life in Dahab is being nice. We're busy working almost every day, either on the learning side, co-guiding dives on scuba or on the teaching side, coaching friends and giving courses in the summer that is growing on us.

Sebastian Näslund's Duck™ has been revamped and pimped, sparkling in the swedish colours.on our patio and the Bizzy Blue Hole is taking off and Dahab is teeming with known and unknown faces of freedivers from all over.

And We freedive.

 Now I'm off. Dolphins and a manta ray have been reported from the South and there is a chance - if ever so slight - that they are travelling north and if they do, then We freedive with dolphins!

the learning curve

Geschrieben von: Sarah Freitag, 10. April 2009 um 21:44 Uhr

After days of notching up dives it is now time to get the books back out and do some more studying for the Dive Master.  I had forgotten that studying is a task in its self and find myself so easily distracted when reading through the DM manual, like writing a shopping list or doing this blog instead :) What is interesting though is that soon Richard and I will be having to demonstrate underwater some skills that students will have to then copy. This involves us doing some of the scuba skills broken down into bite size segments and done in very slow motion. Below the water it looks normal (of sorts), but out of water stood in front of the bathroom mirror at home it just looks wrong. Even more so when I find myself mouthing the words to my actions in slow motion too.....i.e. youuuu - point finger at student, watccch - point two fingers to (not IN) own eyes, meeeee - point finger to own chest!

 I miss freediving! 

sink or swim

Geschrieben von: Sarah Whitcher Samstag, 04. April 2009 um 22:18 Uhr

Richard and I had our swim test yesterday for our Padi Dive Master certification. Whoever said that freedivers were fit and elite atheletes clearly have not seen Richard and I swim. Richard did infact put in a galant effort, after complaining and worrying about his swimming technique he beat me by a full 30m. If it were a race over 50m then that would be no problem for me, my first 50m I sprinted like I was running away from a very scary sea monster. So needless to say that for the other 350m my swimming resembled that of a bedraggled and miserable wet cat!

Next was the 800m snorkel.....easy for us freedivers with our enormously long fins. Yes we should make light work of this. Ha! I got very bad lactic acid in my calf muscles and swam the whole way cursing my enormously long and very stiff fins. Would have been better with a front mounted snorkel and my monofin :)

Then came treading water for 15 minutes with the last 2 minutes with hands in the air. This was quite possibily the most stressful...treading water being relatively easy in the high salinity of the red sea. No the stress was coming from the crazy wind surfers who had just found a new game of 'aim for the heads of the daft Dive Master Trainees while they tread water'. We retaliated ( or rather everyone apart from me) by singing in their loudest most proud voices a German beer festival song! It was enough to keep the windsurfers from coming too close again and for me to be thankful that I had decided to wear my ear plugs. 

The last test was a diver tow for 100m. Not sure if from the beach you would be able to ascertain who was the victim and who was the rescuer. My lungs were burning, my legs cramping and I was ready to just inflate Richards BCD, sit on his back, use his fins as paddles and row gently back to shore. Padi...listen up I have a new scuba divers tow :)

We passed the swim test and have vowed to keep fit and swim more often. We will start our new fitness regime on.............................................(to be filled in when we start our new fitness regime) ;)