My 1946 Speed Graphic camera that I left back in LA.
This morning I helped instructor Pete out with his Rescue Diver class. It’s nice being on the instructor side of things because you don’t have to do nearly as much work as a Divemaster or student. The Rescue student was an older Dutch guy named Huub and the “victim” was Grace. There were several different rescue scenarios we did and I was responsible for making sure Huub did certain skills correctly. Pete oversaw the rest which was good too see and learn from.
During the last scenario, I jumped into the water near the dock and put on my equipment. In the water, there was a strong smell of sewage. I looked around to see where it was coming from, and just in front of me I saw a piece of human feces. I kicked it away in disgust and swam away from it. I noticed the “Gran Turismo” boat had just left the dock. Someone must have just used the bathroom. So, so, so gross. I felt slightly nauseous when I got out of the water and was a little concerned about getting sick. I washed my equipment really well.
At 2 PM I went on a dive to “Sabang Wreck” to guide Grace for her Divemaster mapping exercise. It was my first instructor related dive which was an easy dive where I was just her buddy. One of the perks of being an Instructor or Divemaster is getting free dives. Divemaster Julio went with us to guide us around because I wasn’t familiar with the dive site. The dive went well but there was a lot of current. When we surfaced, we surfaced into diesel fuel. Not a really clean day in terms of swimming in water for me. Fuel at least can be used as a cleaning agent.
Right after the dive, I had Grace do her “tired diver tow” exercise where she had to tow me for 100 meters in a certain amount of time. I was a little cautious getting into the water near the dock where the feces was before. She needed to swim 100 meters in under 3 minutes 15 seconds in order to do well. She completed the exercise in 2 minutes 36 seconds.
After we cleaned up, really well, I went into Grace’s file to sign her off on the skills she completed. It was the first time I officially signed anyone off, and it was an exciting feeling. I guess it’s the feeling of being put into an authoritative position and seeing people look up to you for advice and direction.
While waiting around at El Galleon, I talked with Jacob who has always interested me since I met him because of his living situation. He’s the guy that works about 3 hours a week supporting his software product in the US that pays for all his expenses here in the Philippines. His lifestyle here is expensive since he does tech diving everyday. You get an idea of him from looking at his keychain—keys, a LED flashlight, compass, a device to detect wireless networks, and a USB thumb drive with all his work on it all connected with a “suicide clip” termed from tech diving. I’m interested in his idea of living abroad but getting paid back home, but not tech diving.
Jacob mentioned that there are several books out there that talk about the idea. One book he mentioned that’s actually a top seller in the US is The 4-hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. It seems like it’s something that only recently started becoming more commonplace because of the Internet. I’ve met several other people that have investments in their home country that pay for their living abroad. It’s easiest when the cost of living at home is more than the cost of living abroad; get paid more and live for less.
At 5 PM, I sorted through my dive log that I’ve neglected. I synchronized my digital dive log with my paper version. I also went through and sorted some pictures. I found the collaborative photo publication JPG Magazine very interesting.
First of all, the simple layout and art direction of the site is attractive. The idea behind the magazine is interesting—any photographer, writer, or journalist can submit their work where anyone can vote on what they want published. It’s an “open source” magazine created by the readers for the readers. Each issue is theme based with photo galleries, essays, and articles on photography, techniques, etc.
Pali Lookout in Oahu, taken with the Speed Graphic.
What makes it an interesting publication is that it focuses more on the creative side of photography in an alternative manner. They talk about how to modify your toy camera, or how to use blur creatively instead of the usual photo magazine talking about latest camera gear, reviews, or composition 101. Imperfection and randomness is far more interesting than controlled perfection. I digress, but I’m excited about JPG Magazine and will hopefully be able to contribute to it one day. I uploaded a photo I took with my 1946 Speed Graphic camera to their transportation theme. We’ll see what happens.
By 11 PM I was tired of being on the computer so I ate dinner at Point bar with Maziar. Oh, I also had two beers too.
- jason
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