flights

Before I embarked on this second trip to Singapore, I enrolled in a scuba diving course through Bamboo Reef diving school in San Francisco. Because I’d procrastinated, I had to take my lessons during Memorial Day weekend. This meant I had to go with private lessons instead of a group class, which would have cost half the money. But it also meant I got undivided attention from the instructor, an enormous Irish bartender named Paddy.

Paddy hurried me through the instructional DVD, let me skip the medical disclosure form, fed me the answers to the final exam. This worried me a little, because I actually want to know what I’m doing when I hit the water.

But all this allowed us to spend extra time in the pool – learning by doing. He made sure I understood the important stuff about breathing, ascending, understanding the dive tables.

Now I’m in Singapore, and I’ve booked a three day trip to Malaysia to get my open water certification.