Columbia, the Last Certification Dive

Excerpt taken from “Does This Island Go To The Bottom?”

 

“We were in the midst of thick mangroves somewhere in Columbia with two shady looking characters manning the boat. Cartagena is where the cruise ship docked and that’s all I knew. Pretty Boy and I had our students on their last certification dive. As I looked at their faces, I could tell they were thinking the same as I was. It was an endless, slow tour of navigating the narrow channels, then out to open ocean then back into the mangroves.

There was no way in hell that there is any diving around here. No possible way.

Finally, the cut throat Colombian crewmen killed the two outboard motors and tossed out the anchor. I was relieved to see that there was no body tied to the line.”

Reviews:

Excellent Read

“This is by far my favorite book within the realm of “diving books”. I have read it over and over.” – Amazon

Great Entertaining Read!,

This review is from: Does This Island Go To The Bottom?: The Adventures of a SCUBA Instructor in the Caribbean (Kindle Edition)

“I actually laughed out loud many times when reading this book. It is a great read and thanks to Eric, I had a few sleepless nights because I did not want to go to bed, I wanted to continue reading it. What I admired about the writing of this book is the raw factor you get from it. Eric does not hold back in language or opinions, but you don’t find yourself offended at all. You can tell that this is Eric’s passion and I could visualize every part he wrote about because it is written very well. I honestly could even feel the warmth of the sun when reading this and I live in Northern WI! You will not get bored. If you are like me and have never been to the islands, never been scuba diving…or even if you have, this is a must read!!” – Amazon

 

“I read this book almost in its entirety and it is not for the faint of heart. Disturbing on so many levels. A rather sobering view on the scuba industry and dive ‘professionals’ narrated by the author.” – ScubaBoard.com

 

“Phew! I’ve just finished reading this whirlwind ride through a Californian diving instructor’s real-life experiences in the Caribbean of the 1990s, and still don’t know quite what to make of it . . .” – Divernet.com

Review in “Diver Magazine”

Here is an honest review of my book “Does This Island go to the Bottom?” by the editor of the UK’s 1 selling dive magazine, Diver Magazine and its online format Divernet.com. I am honored and grateful for the editor to take the time to review my book and feature it in the magazine. It’s an awesome feeling to know that something you worked so hard at is selling over seas!

Thank you Diver Magazine.

Divernet | Scuba Diving | Scuba News | Scuba Gear | Underwater Photography

Click link below to go strait to article.

http://www.divernet.com/other_diving_topics/reviews/1938171/does_this_island_go_to_the_bottom_by_eric_h_pasley.html

Snippet from “St. Croix, USVI”

This short snippet is from the chapter “St. Croix, USVI” from the book “Does This Island go to the Bottom?”

 

All I knew was that I could feel the nitrogen fizzing through my blood stream. I felt like I was outside myself, a zombie with drool down my chin. This is it, Pasley. This time you are gonna get bent for sure. Arms and legs twisted like a pretzel as they put me in the re-compression chamber on St. Thomas for two twelve hour sessions.

So there was only one logical thing to do. And that was to belly up to the bar and get loaded. If I was going to get bent why not speed up the process and be drunk at the same time? But I never did get bent. I just woke up the next morning with blood shot eyes, a pounding headache and a horrible taste like a raccoon shit in my mouth.

 

Pictured below is Cane Bay Beach, St. Croix. The snippet refers to how I felt at the end of the many back to back days after I had done five dives with students and certified divers. Crazy reverse dive profiles, of course.

Scuba Girls

Get them in the water young. Teach them all you know. They will be the future of our oceans. Kids are awesome to teach. Even though it looks like an underwater circus, my daughters Girl Scout Troop had a blast!

Girl Scout Troop 4380

My daughter’s Girl Scout Troop is less than a week away to taking the dive! 12 giggling, and sometimes hyper, 8 year old girls will be in my Bubblemaker class on the 20th of March. Some would say I’m crazy, a glutton for punishment, “you have your work cut out for you” and even, “I wouldn’t want that responsibility.”

Maybe so, but teaching groups of 24 obnoxious and rude cruise ship tourist a resort course, for days on end, has made me into a humble master of control and patients when dealing with large, inexperienced divers in the underwater environment.
Besides, as a scuba instructor, I feel it is my obligation, my duty, to introduce my daughters troop to scuba diving. To teach and pass down knowledge as it was taught and passed down to me is why I’m an Instructor.
And knowing that maybe, just maybe, one of those girls will take the experience and apply it somehow in their future life, is a reward beyond words.

My wife, Lori-who is a Divemaster-will be covering my back and she’ll also be shooting video footage with our GoPro camera, which I’ll post on the next update after the class.

It’s going to be a blast!