December 14th, 2005
Diving and a bust wrist
A couple of weeks ago Emma and I took a holiday to my parent’s new pad in a little place called Luz, near Lagos, on the southern coast of Portugal.
A bust wrist
We arrived nice and early in the morning, after our parents met us at the airport, and between all of us (Em and I, my brothers and parents) we all began the task of setting up home — building beds, moving furniture, unpacking boxes etc. It was during this that a lone footbal on a tiled floor proved far too tempting. I took a small runup to boot it at the wall and went arse-over-tit on the slippy floor. My wrist was not chuffed about being landed on.
Three hours later, an x-ray and some pretty good painkillers and it turns out I’ve torn some ligaments in my right wrist. A pretty crappy start to the holiday and put a bit of a downer to mine and Emma’s planned PADI open water diving course we were attending in a weeks time. However, after eating plenty of painkillers and the work of the local doctor as was able to being the course.
Scuba Diving
For years, Emma and I have wanted to learn how to dive, ever since visiting Australia years ago and since we’re off there again in March I thought it’s about time we sort it out. So, we booked ourselves on a course.
The day of theory (videos and exams) was pretty straight forward although lots of alarming stuff about decompression sickness and lungs exploding. The second day was spent in the coldest swimming pool I’ve ever been in. Even with 7mm of wetsuit (hood, gloves and boots) we were all bloody freezing. Lots of exercises was the order of the day — everything from removing your mask underwater to what to do with a bust regulator. Despite trying to be careful with my wrist, this day completely knackered it again. So, that was that.
My brother and his mate went on to complete the open water dives and Em and I will complete these in Australia in April (should be a tad warmer than the Atlantic in December!)
A photo gallery
I’ve finally got myself sorted and built an EE photo gallery. It’s pretty barebones at the moment and exists mostly for me and my family, but have a look if you fancy.
The road to recovery
I started physio today (acupunture too, which was a bit odd), so hopefully my wrist will be ok for snowboarding in France in four weeks time. Then in only six weeks before SXSW…
Unlucky re the wrist. Nasty.
Hopefully you’ll be on form for snowboarding. I did my ankle in recently, and found that ultrasound was quite useful… or was it that placebo thing :)
Good to hear you’ve taken up diving Mark — my Wife and I have also just taken it up (http://damien.propellerglobal.com/?p=20) — and plan on taking our Advanced courses in January. We also did some diving on our holiday in Fiji last month (http://damien.propellerglobal.com/?p=24).
We’re lucky enough to live in Brisbane (I’m an exile from just outside Middlesbrough) which has some great diving — I saw a 2-3m wide Manta Ray on Sunday.
April in Brisbane’s Moreton Bay should be about 26C so I’d leave the 7mm suit at home. We just bought 3mm suits this week. Good Luck and if you need tying up with a good school out here, drop me a line!
Wow, one of my favorite bloggistas comes to my country and even busts his wrist here! Dude!!! We’re not worthy! ;)
Seriously, I hope your wrist recovers fully from the accident, and yes, the water temperature can get pretty nasty around here (until you get used to it, that is).
But now that I think of it, I wouldn’t quite choose December to try the Atlantic Ocean…
Damien — We’ll be heading up to Cairns and surrounding area for about a week before flying on to Sydney. We’d like to see a bit of the rainforest so it might just be a couple of days in Cairns to get the Open Water course done on the reef. Should be looking forward to it, although I’ve heard it can get pretty busy.
ior3k — It’s cold, but not as cold as the UK, so it wasn’t too bad. Apparently, my brother told me, the sea was a lot warmer than the pool we were in. Like you said, maybe December was a bad month to learn :)
Cairns is a great area to do the course and the Daintree rainforest is stunning. The water will be even warmer up there but make sure to wear a full suit (no arms & legs cut off) as the marine stingers can be pretty bad up there.
Have fun!
Yes,yes,but the important things is did you score with the tempting kick that you took.
I fully empathise with the ball just asking to be kicked. It is a powerful force and you are only mortal.
Nah, I missed :(