EFR, Diving, and Partying

Fish on starfish.

Today was the second half of the EFR Instructor course. I did more teaching skills exercises. Today I practiced EFR skills for use on a child. There’s different EFR techniques for both infants and children. It’s quite interesting and I hope to never have to use the skills I learn.

Anemones

After taking the final exam (which was easy), I ended the course and officially became an EFR Instructor. Class ended by mid-afternoon so I was able to have a “fun” dive—a dive purely for enjoyment, not requiring skills or evaluation—with Maziar. This was my first fun dive since visiting Puerto Galera this year. It was a nice taste of the world outside the IDC. Something to look forward to.

In the evening, I hung out with Maziar at the Point bar. There we ordered several appetizers and several rounds of happy hour beer. There was a large group of Australian divers at the bar which livened up the place. As usual, I intended on only drinking a few beers, but the Australians bought two rounds of shots for everyone at the bar. Thankfully, I didn’t have to study for anything the next day.

A round of B52 shots from the Australians.

Maziar and I decided to go to downtown Sabang before the Australians ordered another round of shots. On our way to a disco, we met up with two friends I met at the Point bar—Beverley and Rebecca. Beverley is a Taiwanese girl from Canada who works for the Associated Press. This sparked my interest because I’m interested in photojournalism. I forgot what Rebecca did. We all agreed to meet at Broadway bar to shoot some pool and just hang out.

Beverley and Rebecca hung out at Broadway.

Maziar and I hung out and had some beers. We managed to play a game of pool, which was only 20 pesos, until the girls came back. I eventually forgot how many rounds of beer we all ordered. After several games of pool, we went into the Broadway disco to watch the girls dance. We had several more rounds of drinks. I remember walking out to puke in a bush only to have the security guard tell me to go to the restroom. I passed out on the bar until Beverley and Rebecca came out with my camera. We walked back home, and I passed out.

- jason