Scuba Len

In an entry a month or so ago I told you about our Scuba instructor, Len. Well Len is still our scuba instructor, we are still not certified and we still have 3 more dives to go. Len is one of those guys who you love to hate and hate to love.All of our friends have taken a weekend course, or at most, a few weekends within one month to become certified. Even those who began after us were still finished weeks ago. Since we began scuba over two months ago we have gotten to know Len quite well. We have discovered that he cancels on you with less than a day's notice, he loses his cool at the drop of a dime and his reckless behaviour has made me cry on at least one occasion. We have also discovered that he is a big softie, he invites us out on his family boat outings and he is overly generous with his supplies of pop, goggles and anti-fog cleaner. On Saturday we were scheduled to do a two tank dive that would leave us nearly finished our certification. As soon as Blake and I arrived at his place (two minutes early I might add) we could tell he was in a bad mood. The other three group members arrived ten minutes late and we were then subjected to a five minute speech on lateness and he told us he did not have time to do two dives due to our tardiness. However, another five minutes later, a group of three frat boys showed up and we discovered they were also on our dive. Once on the boat Len proceeded to get in a heated argument with one of the boys about safety. At the top of his voice he proclaimed that he was the safest operator in the country (however, only a week earlier I had the scare of my life when he gunned his speed boat directly into oncoming waves in the open ocean, launching myself and a fellow diver four feet in the air multiple times). The argument lasted quite a few minutes and left all of us not involved a bit scared of him! He must of felt badly about both the argument and cancelling our second dive, as he took us to the StingRay City dive site, where we did our first open water dive with a family of 8 stingrays. The magnificent rays floated above our heads and inbetween our legs. They are very affectionate and love to have their underside rubbed. They followed us around for our 40 minute dive, often rubbing up against us! What an amazing experience. It definitely made up for his behaviour. Back on the boat he privately invited us out for a sunset cruise to Kaibo followed by dinner, and a night swim.He told us he had finally fixed up his big boat and needed to take her out for a cruise. We couldn't help but accept! That evening we met Len's family and had a blast on his 70's style yacht while cruising the north sound. Blake even jumped off the upper deck of the boat for a night swim. But no trip could possibly be complete without some idiotic stunt on his behalf. Upon our return that evening there was a pirate ship docked in the quay. I could see that he was pulling up alongside the ship, and I noticed that he also had a protruding radio antenna that was aligned to hit the mast of the pirate ship. I mentioned this to Blake, but we both assumed Len would notice. He didn't. There was a loud THWACK as his antenna got caught up in the rigging and his antenna was ripped sideways while doing unknown damage to the pirate ship. Radio frequency was lost and Len now has to fix his yacht... again! Once again Len has proven himself to be a great host and a dumbass all at the same time. Can't wait for our next dive trip!
Pictured above: Hanging out on the old-school yacht, Blake diving off the boat