Andrew to the Rescue.... Or Not?

Ok, so last week I was able to achieve a new high in diving, assisting one of my instructors in keeping an eye on a diver who had the potential to be under additional (unwelcome) stress.  This week I was to actually  be trained on working with and dealing with people who were under stress.  Saturday and Sunday were scheduled to be "dive" days.  I put dive in quotations as the weekend was going to be less about diving and more about Rescuing.  Not necessarily my favorite topic or class, but one that is necessary to make me a well rounded diver and essential for me to make Master Scuba Diver and eventually Dive Master, Instructor, MSDT, etc.... 

So here I was, meeting one of the best instructors imaginable, Miss Virpi Kangas!  If you don't know Virpi or haven't heard me talk about her you obviously haven't been reading my blog...lol.  Pretty much click on any of my previous blogs and you'll read all about her, or better yet, go back to the beginning and get the whole story from there.  Anyways, I arrive at the site, Virpi is already there and we start building our kits and begin to chat about the day and the plans.  As we start planning out the day she advises that she has pulled some strings and my good friend and another amazing instructor of mine Ward Conley is going to be our DM for tomorrows training, which prompts my question, "Do we have a DM coming today as I am the only diver?"  You see, as a little background, there was scheduled to be two of us in the class, as mentioned in The Master Scuba Diver Challenge!!, but while I was at the shop grabbing my gear the day before I found out that buddy had some family issues and wuld be unable to join us for the weekend... unfortunately due to some mis-communication, Virpi was not aware that I would be the only diver for the day!  So needless to say, her initial answer to my question was a stunned look, followed up with, "Huh?"....lol.  Needless to say, trying to do a Rescue class that requires demonstrating elements is very difficult with only the instructor and student...  So with a quick call to Shannon Virpi set out to sort out our action plan while I completed assembling my kit.  Once completed on her call Virpi confirmed what I figured the suggestion would be, which was to post-pone the in-water part of the training until such a time as all of us could be there.  But Virpi, being the amazing person she is, offered to still go for some recreation dives since we were already there.

Part two of the plan was for me to,bum bum bum, yes you guessed it, write my final....

EXAM!!

So positioned nice and warm in my van, Virpi and I reviewed some of the Rescue material and then, as if I wasn't stressed enough about tests...lol... Virpi sat right beside me in the passenger seat of my van while I wrote the 50 question multiple guess exam on what to do in an emergency.  

Well.... as has been the case before, my worry was for nothing, I managed to write my test and after reviewing my answers and struggling intently over questions 14, 15 and 16 for which I was unsure of the answer, I ended up with a perfect 50/50!

At this time Virpi and I took a look at the water, felt the bitter cold wind and decided, nope... not gonna dive!... lol.  I know, I know I hear all of you out there who have heard me talk about how I would dive every chance I got and how I wish I were a fish so I never had to leave the water... and... and ... and... then I go ahead and call off a dive while already standing in the park with my kit nearly built... but I have it a really good reason... it was freakin' cold!!!...lol.

After deciding to forgo a dive for the day and stowing our gear it was time to head for home, so before heading out I decided to message home to let the family know I was on my way.  You think having to reschedule my Rescue class would be tough to handle, or skipping a dive would be a tough thing to miss... Jenn messages me back to let me know that while I was not Diving and not completing my Rescue class Joshua scored his first ever soccer goal... and I missed it!  Needless to say driving home my 50 didn't feel so special anymore, I had missed his first goal on a quickly ending season and who knows when the next one will come....  Arriving home the first thing I am greeted with was Josh jumping into my arms and with his mouth moving at the speed of light I heard all about the game and how players had gone home because it was too cold (told you it was cold..lol) and how he had been running to the spot he'd been practicing in his FIFA 2010 soccer video game and bang, the ball was right there and right off his foot and into the net.  Apparently he was ok with me missing the goal, and I was ok with him chatting my ear off for the rest of the day as we relived the moment over and over again.  I didn't get a dive in yesterday, but instead of others living their adventure through me, I got to live one through a 10 year old soccer star and his first goal, a goal in a 1-0 victory to send his team into the final game of the play-offs.  One of my greatest loves is diving, that's plain to see, but my greatest love is my family, so it was a great weekend after-all.