MesKiwiAdventure: Dive! Dive! Dive!

   It is winter time in the southern hemisphere. A perfect time to sign up for an open water dive course? No?   None of that warm, sunny, tropical diving experience for us! Heck no. Resort course, no way! We really want to know how to dive properly.
    As you can see from the above picture, there is a great way to feel warm while jumping into cold water. Take along two beautiful blonde women! Poor me, poor me!
   The person on the left is Imke Van Kessel, a Dutch medical student, who worked at Broadway Health for a month during her final year of medical school. She was keen to get certified in diving while here. When she found that Kim and I might be interested too, she was happy to help organize a group course to share the cost.

You will recognize the blonde in the middle of the picture. She is the one whose cold feet I have promised to keep warm for the rest of my life. It took a little more convincing to get her signed up for the course. Not nearly as much discussion as we had before going up Mt. Ranier last year, but some convincing none the less. Fortunately plans for her brother, who is a diver, visiting us this coming November, and statements like "Wouldn't a dive with your brother be fun?" brought an agreement to participate.
Bev and Trev at Porpoise Dive in Paihia took us on as their students. Trev managed the in water training while Bev took us through the bookwork/testing portion of the course. Bev helped Kim find her inner SCUBAN. (That's SCUBA Nerd, as Kim digested every last detail of the instruction manual.) Trev, who enjoys underwater photography, took the majority of these photos. Trev has an amazing ability to have a look of wonderment and encouragement on his face no matter how incompetent his students attempts at a skill may be on the first time through. I'll have to keep that in mind when teaching students in the future.

Notice the warm weather clothing on Trev!

After an evening and a day in the pool at Kawakawa, we were ready for the first of our four open water dives. Bev and Trev work from the philosophy of starting with cloudy water and moving to clear water as their students gain confidence and experience. By the third dive, we all were excited by the new world that was opening to us. Happy to say that we will be looking forward to many more dives when the weather warms here in New Zealand.