Roving Gnome Travel Blog: Canada Day Eh!

Canada Day happened to coincide with the weekly Blue Marlin Monday Night party. This party was actually a Hawaiian theme but I had brought some Canada flag tattoos for the event which were well received, and everyone wanted to sport maple leaf that night, particularly the Indonesian restaurant and bar staff. It was also a huge party because this is the last Monday party before Ramadan begins and no parties will be held out of respect for the Muslim population who are fasting. The only parties on the island during Ramadan need to be “silent discos” which means there is no music but everyone has headphones that give you your own personal music… sounds funny and interesting.

Chrissie and I got into the Canadian spirit by wearing some flags and maple leafs on Canada Day

One of the DMT’s (Divemaster Trainees), Arne, finished his program and officially became a Divemaster that night also. The culmination of his training was the stress test in the afternoon which he and Chrissie did in the pool. The stress test involves two divers having to fully exchange their gear underwater including BCD, tank, regulators, mask, and fins while only breathing from one regulator and not surfacing. This means that you breath two breaths, pass the regulator to the other diver while you hold your breath and remove some article of your gear then take the regulator back to take two breaths while your buddy removes a part of their gear, then repeat until you have completely exchanged your equipment. This must be done within in 10 minutes. Blue Marlin builds on this and adds in the requirement for DMT’s to also exchange wetsuits while fending off hellish underwater attacks by their mentors. The attacks included shoving a full cylinder of air under their legs and opening it (lots of bubbles and confusion), taking their masks off them, turning off their air (the worst), taking fins, inflating their BCD’s so they float up and a myriad of other abuses. This hazing went on and on for 45 minutes until they ran out of air. I felt so bad for Chrissie and Arne! This was definitely cruel and unusual punishment. But they did it! I don’t think I would hold up for that long. My stress limit is a bit less than that.

Chrissie forgave her mentor Signe later that evening.

The true culmination of the DMT program is the Snorkel Test. This is even worse than the stress test in my opinion. Arne’s mentor dressed him up in a ridiculous costume (in this case, a Viking) and put a snorkel and mask on him in front of a crowd of onlookers. Then his mentor poured 1 L of mixed booze and juice down the snorkel straight into Arne’s mouth. This might not sound that bad, but remember, Arne was also wearing a mask which covers his nose so he wasn’t able to breath. When he needed to “come up for air” he had to spit out the snorkel and whatever was left of the booze. Awful. The cocktail of choice… also awful…. Vodka Joss and Orange Juice. Joss is a powdered energy drink similar to Redbull and it is a “thing” on this island to do Vodka Joss shots (you take a Joss powder packet, pour it in your mouth, take a shot of vodka, shake your head to mix, then swallow and it tastes terrible). Needless to say, Arne puked within 5 minutes of drinking it. So awful. I’m really considering asking to be excused from the snorkel test. Not to be a party pooper but I’m not 21 anymore and that does NOT look like fun.

Arne in his Viking costume

The crowd of onlookers

The snorkel test

After the hazing was complete, the party continued well into the wee hours of the morning and included a limbo and hula-hoop competition, lots of dancing, buckets of booze (literally), and lots of fun… maybe too much fun as evidenced by the photos below ;)