Chapter 749: Diving
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
"I'm sorry, man, I'm very sorry. I shouldn't have questioned you. My perception is still too narrow. Obviously, there are many people who are great in this world."
Brother Wolf looked at the owner of the boat and at his daughter. Then he reached out and touched his daughter's hair. He said slowly, "I forgive you."
"Thank you," the owner of the boat said and then went back to his cabin in despair. He did not come out again the whole night.
After spending a night at sea as usual and seeing the sunrise on the sea, they returned to shore and left King Island for Melbourne by express boat.
Big Quinn, Godzilla, Hannah, and the others went to Melbourne to have a look around the tourist areas. Li Du, Hans, Brother Wolf, and Sophie followed Li Du and went to learn diving.
They signed up for a crash course in diving led by team coach David Max, a southern hemisphere diver and a celebrity in the diving industry.
The magnificent and vast sea had always beckoned to good men. The Australian ocean had particularly clear blue water, and a rich and colorful undersea world which attracted numerous divers to explore and linger in every year.
Many countries had a niche sport such as ice hockey in Canada, cricket in India, and table tennis in China. Australia was famous for its diving.
Diving could be divided into three modes: snorkeling, deep diving, and freediving.
Snorkeling was the simplest. It was a sport in which people floated on the surface of the water with the help of breathing tubes and fins.
Deep diving mainly referred to scuba diving, using compressed air bottles to breathe underwater.
With scuba, you could go deeper into the underwater world and see more wonderful ocean scenery than with snorkeling.
Diving was more complex than snorkeling. It required diving equipment and some diving skills. The diving coach needed to accompany the divers in the sea. If they wanted to explore more about diving, they could take a diving test.
These two types of diving were the most common and were relatively easy. However, what Li Du and Hans had to learn was a third type of diving called freediving.
Freedivers did not carry air with them and only went as far as possible through their own lung capacity and their ability to regulate their breath.
Comparatively speaking, freediving was the most demanding form of diving. It required not only rich diving experience but also great physical strength.
Li Du met half of the requirements. He had no diving experience, but he did have great physical strength.
Hans was regarded as useless in the sport. He was physically weak and had no rich diving experience.
The four signed up for the class, which together cost nearly 10,000 AUD, but it allowed them to meet the famous diving coach, David Max, in person.
He held two of the world's eight freediving world records and was among the top three and five among other freediving records.
After they signed up, the freediving assistant took them straight to Max's training ship.
David Max was a young white man. He was tall and handsome, about two meters tall and not much shorter than Godzilla.
He was in very good shape, streamlined for the sea with a muscular body and a charisma of his own as he stood in the bow of his ship with the wind in his hair.
They introduced themselves by shaking hands. Max then asked, "Why do you want to learn to freedive?"
Hans laughed. "We love the sea, man."
His answer did not satisfy Max, who said earnestly, "I need a real answer, and then I will teach according to your aptitude."
"What's the difference?" asked Hans.
"There's a big difference," Max said. "If you really love free diving, I'll teach you how to do it professionally.
"But if you want to get hot girls' attention with free diving, I will teach you how to maintain good posture and play it cool in the water.
"If you're doing something while freediving, like harvesting abalone, sea cucumbers, and lobsters, I have to teach you how to protect yourself."
Listening to Max's patient explanation, Li Du said, "We are in the last category. We are abalone fishermen."
In many countries, wild abalone was caught by hand but tools could be used, such as oxygen tanks and underwater electric knives. However, this was not the case in Australia.
So, Li Du and the others could only freedive, not scuba dive.
When Max got their answer, he nodded.
Then he said, "Think carefully, do you really want to risk your life to make money? Before I start, I have to tell you Forbes has named diving the second most dangerous sport in the world. Several people die each year because of this sport."
"We don't need to do dives that are so dangerous. We don't need to dive more than 100 meters deep or even more than a few dozen meters. Maybe just ten meters," said Hans, while spreading out his hands.
"Ten meters is not enough. It has to be at least 25 meters," Li Du said, thinking about the depth of the distribution of the black gold abalone.
"Does it need to be that deep?" Hans was surprised.
"Of course. The abalone in the shallow waters has been fished out long ago. To make money, we have to go deeper and take risks," Li Du said.
Hans hesitated for a moment. His blood raced with the need for adventure, but he knew his health and feared he would not be able to do it.
"That's all right, man," Max consoled him. "I have a special secret training book from the Bayao people, and if you like, I can teach you how to swim freely down to 40 meters of water in a week."
Hans was surprised. "There is such a great secret training book?"
Brother Wolf, who had been silent for a long time, said, "First of all, you must puncture your eardrum. Are you sure?"
Max looked at him in surprise and said, "How did you know that?"
That sent Hans into a panic, and he cried, "Never mind how he knows it, is it true that you have to puncture your eardrum to dive?"
"I'm joking," said Max with a smile. "But if you really want to learn this skill, you really have to pierce your eardrum. The Bayao people are all deaf. It's a pity."
Frustrated, Hans said, "I can't. I can't hurt myself just to dive. Are there any other tricks?"
"Don't think too much. Enjoy the ocean. I'll start teaching you snorkeling. Then you will find out that the enthusiasm of the ocean is not limited to just the surface. You will eventually want to go deeper and venture out more," Max said, patting him on the shoulder.