For the beginning of September I had planned an activity well in advance – and have been waiting for that impatiently. Finally, yet another plane (how many more times I‘ll be fighting over this heavy luggage at check-in?) took me to Luqa airport on Malta.
I have met Pamela and Karl Allmark way back in March, when (not a Scholar then, yet) I visited LIDS (London International Dive Show) to meet some of the people I would be in close touch with, some other people that would be hosting me during my year, and then lots of other great people. Pamela and Karl run Oxygene Malta, a dive centre in Sliema, just accross a bay form La Valetta (cities on Malta tend to be quite small, they change names every kilometer or so when you move around, and come in large numbers). Then in London, 5 minutes after I met them, they offered to host me for a DSAT Trimix course! And that was one of these things that I really wanted to do when being a Scholar.
Karl and my future instructor, Sven, picked me up from the airport. In pleasantly warm – despite the late night – air, after northern Europe, yet in a car, I learned my Maltese ABC – such as, that you drive on left here, too, or that Malta has it’s own language. I had no time to do the homework before the visit – shame on me.
Starting the next day, coursework started. Knowledge reviews, exams, self-learning and some lecturing – mostly after-hours, as I have stayed over with Sven at his well-over-a-century-old stone-walled house. They call it on Malta a house of character, and no wonder why they do that… And diving! We started slowly, Sven gave me lots of time to get ready with the rig I was to use on my course. That was pretty useful… It was first time for me to use Northern Diver Divemaster drysuit, and Apeks Tek3 regulator set – both sponsored by their manufacturers! Once I got fully comfortable, a steep learning curve of DSAT quickly took us out of regular runtimes. I soon found myself diving the magnificent wrecks, marking many wars that Malta has been through – the ones I wouldn’t reach safely without the trimix. On this course too, I could finally make a full use of my Suunto HelO2 computer, both as an additional back-up runtime, and as a double-check for the decompression schedule. It was quite amazing, to see it let us go from water within very small distance from generated tables. Our final dive was done on HMS Southwold – we paid it a rather short visit, 72 meters of water and course assignments making us hurry, but we still got to see Apeks. It’s a budgie (a small parrot) that Oxygene Malta used to have at it’s shop – after it’s death, they decided to bury it in a sealed jar, filled with oil, and place it on that particular wreck.
That last dive, was a completely overwhelming experience. It felt (and it was, actually) like passing some new door, or making next, big step in my diving education. Before arriving to Malta, I have been researching a lot of theory – not only for the actual course, but also cause of my big interest in it – so we slipped through the classroom parts without problems. The practical part though was largely challenging, and dealing calmly and clear-headed with all the problems arising, both simulated and very real, too, make one (or maybe it’s just me) proud of oneself. It taught me also a lot of humility, as it showed me, how very simple things can go wrong. Whenever given a chance, I will be back to diving with some helium in my tanks, increasing my limits slowly – but moving them forward.
Next days on Malta were much more relaxing. I have spent few days yet diving with Oxygene, sightseeing and snorkeling on some of Malta’s beaches – generally, exploring Malta.