The Water Nymph

My sister is a constant source of amusement to me. She's also a bit of a daredevil. When I was on the phone to her the other day, she told me that she was having a day off work and the plan for the day was 'naked snorkelling'. Before I go any further, that is not her in the picture so no requests for her email please! Although it actually could be, she's in the best shape of her life.

She spends her life in the water and on her days off goes back into it. As a professional divemaster (she works in the dive centre I used to own) she has a very physical job. I know this, I've worked with these people and have the highest regard for the job they do. Not only is it physically demanding, they literally hold people's lives in their hands, thanks to the PADI system of certification and the fact that too many 'licensed' divers have hardly any time in the water under their belt. This leads them to being very unpredictable in times of stress, and there can be many of those at 20+ metres in the open ocean, for someone not used to being at that depth or in a current. She was telling me that the other day that she was leading a group of 11 divers with just one other divemaster. 11 people with a very diverse level of training and experience. One of them did in fact panic and had to be taken up to the surface by the other divemaster, leaving her with ten divers of differing ability to take care of. I think that was one of those days she'd gladly have traded in her wetsuit.

I never operated the business like that. I always ran smaller groups to ensure my divemasters weren't put at risk, nor were my customers. But times have changed. She also does a minimum of three dives a day with no meal breaks. Between the dives they are washing gear, filling tanks, keeping the wet area in shape. I used to make sandwiches for them, fill the tanks for them, clean the gear for them, so they could sit down for half an hour with something to eat and a hot drink. Just think, those people live in their wetsuits from 8am to often 5pm or beyond, cold and wet and soggy. I guess, though, the mighty Euro speaks. It was just something I couldn't do, running things to the point the divemasters were over-stretched. I'd never have forgiven myself if something had happened.

So come her day off, she's in the car heading for this little cove she's found. I asked her if it was totally secluded. Oh no, not really, people can and do look down into it. My sister the exhibitionist. I love her joie de vivre. And I envy her self-confidence in abandoning all clothing and just feeling the water on her skin. I asked her about nude diving but she assures me the BCD (buoyancy compensation device) would chafe just a little too much.