I have once again been called upon for my excellent skills as a safety diver – I am to help Crazy Ivan with his last two dives with his Open Water class and I get a free boat trip, free meals and a free last dive.

What a trade!

The original boat chartered was the Mr. C – the world renowned party SCUBA boat.

For whatever strange reason, the Mr. C – “couldn’t get the compressor certified” and had to cancel – there are rumors that the Coast Guard won’t let it out on the ocean ever since it broke down at Catalina in April, and had to be towed and dry docked.

The boat was switched to the Sand Dollar – this is the first time I’ve gone on this boat.

Ivan had seven students – a little too many for him to keep an eye on alone.

It was my job to do what I had done in previous years for Instructor John – keep the group together and handle any problems that I may observe.

Me and Crazy Ivan.

It took about two hours to reach Black Rock in Catalina; the boat was all students, class staff and four divers from Utah.

Logged SCUBA Dive #382

Black Rock, Catalina, CA
Dove with Crazy Ivan’s Open Water Class

In With: 2500 psi
Out With:1500 psi
Max depth: 25 feet
Waves: Mild chop
Visibility: 4-20 feet (depending on how much the bottom was churned.)
Water Temperature: 65 degrees
Total Bottom Time: About 20 minutes

I was the first to jump off the boat – I was getting hot and really had to take a leak.

I floated for about 15 minutes while all of Ivan’s students jumped in and swam out to me.

The first 30 minutes or so was surface skills – weight belt and BCD removal and replacement, then Ivan did the simulated emergency swimming ascent with all the students in pairs.

The students, who are younger and lack the insulating fat that I have were getting really cold.

I had to take one student back to the boat – he couldn’t get down because he had a cold and was too congested to equalize.

All of us then descended and made our way back to the boat – a slow 20 minutes, with me taking up the rear of the line.

One of the student’s tanks fell off the BCD – Ivan was able to remount the tank underwater with no incident.

As most of my friends and my three blog readers know, I have been looking for a SCUBA diving vacation destination for 2012.

I went to The SCUBA Show specifically to find a vacation place, but ended up going off the beaten path.

I immediately eliminated Brazil as a destination, for personal reasons – mainly, I could not handle one crazy Brazilian woman, let alone a whole country full of them.

I also considered a few more things:

– It can’t be a tourist trap, especially a resort geared towards just taking tourists’ money.

– It can’t be too crowded.

– I want contact with locals; I don’t want to hang out with tourists (I eliminated North Korea on this).

– It has to be economically feasible as far as the cost of hotels and beer.

– I need to feel like an adventurer, not a tourist.

– I want people to look at me with that “WTF?” expression when I tell them where I’m going or where I’ve been.

I narrowed it down between going to Cuba or Albania…

And the winner is…

ALBANIA!

Talk is cheap, and anything can come up between now and next year, but I am determined to go.

I have applied for a US passport as of today.

To get into Albania, a US citizen doesn’t need a Visa, just a passport that’s more than six months old.

So, taking that into consideration, along with the money, I should be able to book my trip in January or February with the intent on going after California lobster season – April or May of 2012.

Diving opportunities are rare in Albania, but I did find one place located in the town of Saranda that is run by a group of Poles:

Polish Diving Base – Albania

Here is their introduction video on Youtube:

To watch this video on YouTube, click here.

So, I have about nine months until I anticipate going – plenty of time to save money, book the trip and practice Polish and Albanian.

I will elaborate more on this planned trip as it gets closer.