Dispatches from the Patriot Scuba 2012 Roatan trip-my last trip with Patriot Scuba (at least for the time being).

After an absurdly early departure from Washington which, amazingly, went off without a hitch, we had a layover in Atlanta. Desperately in need of caffeine, I ran into my friend Mirta in line for coffee. Seeing her felt like an appropriate bookend for this journey. She was on her way home to Roatan after visiting family in Italy with her new daughter. For many years Mirta has run the dive operation at a fantastic little resort called Las Rocas, which is tucked away at the quiet end of West Bay Beach on Roatan. Almost eight years ago, after a rough patch in life and on my first vacation in way too long, I wandered up to the dive shop at Las Rocas and asked Mirta if she had any room on the boat that morning. I was immediately made to feel welcome and within a few days of diving, and of not doing anything too stupid underwater, like family. The ten days I spent diving at Las Rocas mean a great deal to me as they really changed my life, and for the better.

The staff instructors, Willie and Arturo, both still good friends, were a blast to dive with and something of an inspiration. They are both extremely skilled professionals, but what got to me was the fact that they were doing what they loved most, doing it very well and sharing that enthusiasm with their customers. As Willie used to say, they were living a rich man's life without the hassles of getting rich. I had a good job, but I couldn't claim that. After I got home I spent the next few weeks in a bit of a fog, part of me not having returned to "normal" life at all. My head was still largely in Roatan, so I made a fateful decision to join it there. I called Mirta and asked if she would be willing to take me on as a Divemaster candidate. After two months of very hard work and very big fun, I came back to the States with my Divemaster program complete and, as they say, the rest is history.

Arriving in Roatan has always had the feeling of coming home and
this trip is no exception. The Patriot group couldn't be nicer, with dive experience ranging from beginner to expert. And CoCo View never disappoints. Nora met us at the airport and in no time we were comfortably set up in our rooms and getting ready for the mandatory checkout dive. Our days here include two boat dives per day, but on the way back in to the resort one can do what is called a drop-off dive where the boat drops you off at the end of one of the two house walls so that you can swim directly to the resort, usually with a stop at the Prince Albert, the excellent house wreck. The house walls, CoCo View wall and Newman's wall, are healthy and thriving. The Prince Albert was a freighter and can be very well enjoyed from the outside. For those with the training and experience, it also makes a wonderful penetration dive, either into the wheel house or from hold to hold in the main body of the ship. I have always loved diving wrecks and coming back to the Prince Albert is like seeing an old friend.

Over the past few days we have seen eels, rays, lobsters, toad fish, lion fish, crabs large and small, sharks, sea horses, puffer fish, blennies, gobies, cleaner shrimp, squid, octopus (octopi?, octopodes?, who knows)- you name it! John has been busy teaching up a storm with AOW and several specialties in the mix. I've watched-and I always love seeing it on these trips-as people get better and better and more comfortable underwater. Our guide, Eddie, has the most amazing set of eyes on him. He can spot the smallest, coolest animals without, apparently, even trying. On Wednesday we took a special three tank trip to the East end of Roatan where we dove the rarely visited and therefore pristine reefs there. The East end has hardly any development so we seemed to have the whole world to ourselves. After two great drift dives we had lunch and then swam to a tiny deserted island to pursue our private Robinson Crusoe fantasies. The dive operation here at CoCo View is really first rate, and we ended the afternoon with a nice wall dive and then a ride back on the fast boat to the resort. Wednesday's happy hour featured live music and half priced drinks, though a few intrepid souls denied themselves in favor of a night dive in search of the elusive nocturnal octopus, which was quickly located. The shore diving is unlimited and available 24/7-a dive glutton's delight. And for that reason CoCo view does attract plenty of dive gluttons.

The resort itself is simple but clean, well run and completely oriented to divers. The buffet meals are delicious, plentiful and varied and the staff will go out of their way to make sure everyone is satisfied. A couple of people in our group have special dietary needs and they have been met with the best of humor. People come back here year after year-the record being 120 visits by one person. Now that's a satisfied customer! My wife, Colleen, likes to describe it as an Adirondacks lodge plopped down in the Caribbean. Our rooms are on stilts over the water and we each have chairs and a hammock on our private deck.

But alas, all good things must come to an end. On Friday, slightly worn from a busy week of diving, night we had a rum punch party at the bar with a fantastic local guitarist. The guy could really play and had some serious rock star moves. Saturday morning came all too soon-bleary and thankfully rainy. Less than perfect weather makes leaving a little easier to take. After breezing through security and a wait in the lounge, we boarded the flight north and back to the normal world. Many thanks to Jeff and Merial for making this trip a reality. But above all, many thanks to Colleen, Victoria, Faith, Jose, Jennifer, Tim, Joanne, Earnie, Bret, Mike, John & Constance for being such great dive and travel companions to one of my favorite places on Earth. Let's do it again sometime!

-Miko

Diving for life

Let’s be completely candid for a minute.  While diving is statistically one of the safest sports out there, it comes with some inherent risks.  I mean, we make it seem pretty nonchalant but, bluntly put, we are underwater breathing compressed air.  Yet, we are never more acutely aware of this as when we take that first puff off of the regulator, when that first frenzy of bubbled breath rushes by our cheeks.  The irony, of course, is that this is when we are the safest divers, while we still respect the magnitude of the sport, while we are constantly remembering that SCUBA stands for self-contained UNDERWATER BREATHING apparatus and isn't just a funny word for a cool sport.  But as we dive more and more, as we learn that there is no need to be afraid or nervous, we lose some of that respect.  We forget that what we are doing is incredible; it begins to feel commonplace, almost the norm.  That is when the dangers of the sport begin to creep back in.  We lose the vigilance of the novice that kept us glued to the rules and to our tables.  We feel fortified in our skills, impregnable in our technique.  But the ugly truth is that we aren’t and it is in that state of mind that recklessness is born.  That’s when we get in over our heads (if you’ll excuse the bad pun) and into trouble.  Too often it takes a close call to remind us of the soft spots in our routines.

I think that is one of the best things about the Rescue Diver course.  It usually gets taken at a stage in our diving development where we need reminding why the rules exist, why those pesky tables matter.  Most of us, with any luck, will never have cause to use the skills we develop in the rescue diver course but what we will use is the self-awareness that comes with the course.  Ideally, Open Water should teach us to be aware of ourselves, Advanced Open Water should teach us to be aware of our surroundings, and Rescue Diver should teach us to be aware of the divers around us.  However, I find that most divers don’t really become self-aware until their rescue class.  Nothing highlights the effects of one’s own actions as effectively as showing how they can save a life.  The course forces you to see how your actions affect other divers, how drastic those effects can be, and by extension how lax standards put yourself and everyone around you at risk.

It is this self-awareness that truly keeps us safe.  Rescue should be a last resort.  Safety begins with self.  This is the biggest and most important lesson of the Rescue Diver course and consequently easily the one most students struggle with.  Learning how to tow a tired diver or deal with a panicked one is really the easy part; learning to master yourself in the water is far more daunting.  That is why so many rescue students get hung up on the gear removal while towing an unresponsive diver.  It forces you to become comfortable with your skills, to focus on a complicated task, and still keep yourself safe.  That is a lot to ask from any one diver so it comes as no surprise that the metamorphosis in a student who makes it through the course is palpable.  The shift in confidence is incredible but arguably the most impressive change is the renewed respect for the enormity of the sport.  They realize that rescue divers don’t make us safer because they can save the distressed.  They make us safer because they themselves are safer divers.  We should all be lucky.  We don’t just owe it to our buddy.  We owe it to ourselves.

Changing Lives

A few weeks ago, I was manning Patriot Scuba’s booth at the biannual Occoquan Craft Show.  It’s a big deal for the merchants in this area as it attracts tens of thousands of people from various walks of life though this otherwise quiet town.  It’s the kind of event where most people weave their way through the throngs of tented booths more often than not finding themselves in conversation with one merchant or another until the whole event takes on a social feel.  Our booth gets a lot of this social interaction as even non-divers find themselves wandering in out of curiosity.  That particular day, I greeted a passerby with our usual “Ready to start diving?” but received an unusual reply. 

“I wish,” she said through a sad sort of smile.  She could see the question forming in my eyes and preempted it with a rather sad story beginning with a gruesome car crash and a badly fractured spine and culminating in a bout with cancer that left this survivor with a permanent limp.  Her features were thick with the melancholy of possibilities lost, dreams of diving dying all over again in her eyes.  That’s when I mentioned the HSA (Handicapped Scuba Association).  The loss on her face cleared like so much fog as she took the medical forms from my hand.  The electric sensation of hope returning to once despondent features was palpable.  “Thank you,” she beamed tripping slightly on her words.  “I never thought – I never knew that I could still – Thank you.  Thank you so much.”

It is moments like this that keep me teaching.  Nothing compares to the feeling you get watching it all click with a student.  There are plenty of students that butt up against challenges in dive classes, fear of the water, low confidence or physical limitation.  Some overcome these faster than others but, regardless of what the challenge or how long it takes to overcome, watching that metamorphosis from struggling student to successful diver is awe inspiring.  A student who pushes through their perceived limitations and reaches a level of success they previously thought impossible is forever changed.  That sort of achievement liberates people from the shackles of their own self-imposed limitations and the change is tangible.  Changes like that permeate the lives of those students, giving them the confidence to succeed where once they met only failure.  I've had more than one new diver tell me that open water changed their lives, that they had more confidence at work, at home, in public.  They stand taller, breathe easier, and take on life with an easy smile.  I want to be a part of that change.  I want to help people grow like that. 

Teaching diving allows me to be a part of that experience.  So send me your wide-eyed students, send me your scared and your skittish.  Send me all of your “problem students” and your novice divers.  I’ll take them all just to see the look on their faces when can’t becomes can.  Every smile and look of astonished joy makes all the hard work worth it.  Scuba diving changes lives and that is why I teach.