Still Alive & Kicking!

I realize I've just disappeared for the past 10 months, and many rumors have sprung up as to what happened to me. Every time I see someone in public and they say "hey weren't you Harry Blalock, that radio guy?", I say no, he's dead, I'm the dive guy. So I guess it should really come as no surprise that there are the perpetual rumors that I have actually died, but rumors of my demise are greatly exxagerated, trust me. A new owner took over the radio station that I was managing last May, and after determining he was a complete dweeb I thought it might be a good time to retire from radio and pursue my dream of having my own dive business, well full time I mean. I had a very busy first year as a dive instructor and dive guide on the island of Saipan. I certified over 75 new divers, which is quite a few when you realize that I do mostly all private lessons, no classes. I also became a Master Scuba Dive Trainer and have a whole slew of specialties that I teach now as well. I also became the primary Saipan dive guide that MDA, the big dive shop on Guam sends all their divers who want to dive Saipan to. That has also been a very nice cushion to my instruction business. And that's in addition to the military that have already heard about me through word of mouth and come looking to dive with me. Then I've also had quite a few couchsurfers come to stay with us and get certified while they were here as well. If you've never heard of couchsurfing, it's a very cool concept, check it out at http://www.couchsurfing.com/ I've certified couchsurfers from London, South Korea, Germany and I took a couch surfer from Israel out on a Discover Dive. It's been a lot of hard work, but I wouldn't trade it for my old life, not in a million years. So you can see why I've been a little busy and haven't had a lot of time to update my blog. But I've had several people tell me lately that they really miss my blog and that they think it brought a lot of business my way, so I promise to try to find time to update you more often.

As long as I'm bringing you up to date, I suppose that I should also tell you that Kelli and I are about to become grandparents, our son Josh and his wife Regis are expecting our first grandchild in the middle of March. So Kelli and I are taking a very rare vacation for 2 weeks and going to meet our new grandson, Adam Patrick Blalock from March 15th through April 1st. I know, it's very hard to believe that I'm actually going to be a grandpa, I'm simply not old enough! But in spite of specific instructions from me to both of my kids to wait until I was 50 to turn me into a grandfather, my son had to defy me and make me a grandfather when I was 49 and 5 months.

I've had an awful lot of people who come to Saipan and want me to take them on a couple Grotto dives. After having dove the Grotto well over 1,000 times, I'm probably one of the most experienced Grotto guides around. The top picture is some of the Gregorian fan coral that lines one of the swimthroughs outside of the Grotto. It is quite spectacular to swim up through the passageway and look up through the fan coral. In the picture directly above, a few sea whips are lit up by the flash and stand in contrast to the deep blue of the ocean out the other side of the cave. I know where the sharks and barracudas like to hang out, I know all the best places to find the nudibranchs, and most importantly, I know how to get you safely over to the rock in the Grotto and out of the water safely. Many people are under the mistaken impression that just because they are certified, they are qualified to dive the Grotto. If you don't have extensive experience in the Grotto, you need to go with someone who has or you can very easily get yourself into big trouble in a hurry. This big white tip reef shark was hanging out in the fan coral cave when I took some divers down last Saturday morning. I've seen him there several times before, but none when he was as friendly as this one. He just kept going out and coming back in putting on quite a show for us. All in a days work. That was a 4 Grotto dive day for me, and I have to admit that those days definitely take their toll on me, but again, it sure as heck beats sitting in a radio station talking about idiot politicians. Yup, the work is hard, the hours are long, and occasionally the students can be very challenging, but there is just no better job satisfaction than seeing someone's eyes light up when they see their first turtle on a dive. Absolutely priceless!