Navigating Phenom's adventure

My diving buddy who I wrote about a few days ago will be referred to as the Navigating Phenom (NP) just to make things easier. A while ago NP and I were talking about his first open water experience. He had the great fortune to be able to do his certification dives on a very scenic island that has abundant marine life. On the first dive, which is really just a tour, he and the instructor were swimming along admiring the bountiful life around them. Suddenly, the instructor became very excited, pointed very excitedly, and started swimming away from NP. At this point NP was very confused, but followed along and suddenly right there in front of them appeared a huge humpback whale.

NP said he was impressed but did not understand at the time why the instructor was so excited. He told me later that he thought that he would be seeing whales on most dives. Of course, he later realized that he was very fortunate to see a whale at all, not to mention that it was his first open water dive! Talk about beginners luck.

Tomorrow, NP and I will be taking two groups of students through their certification dives for open water certification. The weather should be great and perhaps the visibility too. Unfortunately, we are doing our certification dives in a fresh water environment, so the chances of seeing a humpback whale or any significant marine life are out of the question. Perhaps I should take a toy whale along and produce it when NP least expects it!