Open waters training - second course: 8/30

Duration: --

As I got on the metro, I thought of the Walker #19880 I made as a fictional character – or in other words, I wished I had something that can make me invisible.

To my surprise, there are more handfuls of red-and-yellow figures than I anticipated besides me on the train - that means today's event might be huge, maybe as packed as yesterday. Some also threw curious glances at me from another carriage. I stayed on the metro until the end of the line and hopped off at the last station. I took the escalator upstairs. Several bright gatherings of other associations that can probably be spotted a mile away are already there. In spite of that, my team was 30 minutes early to the training so I had to take the bus and hopefully catch up with them.

The route was eventful- The destination was up in the mountains, so there were a lot of twists and turns and extremely steep climbs. I hopped off at the wrong stop and had to wait for another bus to come. Finally, after what felt like an hour, I found my team gathering at a clearing in a rocky area, with tall, thin blades of grass all over the place. Not unlike yesterday, the weather was scorching hot as well.

Given the number of people that I saw before at the station not long ago, I noticed a lack of other teams of bright red and yellow figures in the area. I asked the coach - who was distributing equipment at the time - he said the event was huge, except most of those I saw are either training at the dam downstream or even further downwards from there, which is coincidentally the exact wrong stop I just leapt out of. The location's safer and deeper - but even more freezing too.

After the warm-up, there was a two-hour lecture about the safety and introduction of whatever procedure we're about to carry out. As usual, I gave up listening after about fifteen minutes and spent the rest of the time stacking a fortress out of stones like a nine-year-old. Basically the exact same thing, but without a typhoon from last year.

The area was again divided into four sections, and our team as well. Our group went to the first section upstream, which was 1v1 - One person floats down from ahead and the partner carries said person back to shore. Then we swapped positions, and after that, one of the coaches ran us through how to save people with a lifejacket again. Everyone soon got the hang of it, and we proceeded onto the next section.

In this one, we operate as a group to cross the river. Everyone took the coach's orders more or less with a grain of salt, seeing as he required us to grip onto one another's lifejackets tighter and make the chain smaller to "avoid being swept away", while he himself waded around us, shouting orders with no difficulty at all the entire time. However, the coaches on the other side explained what happened last year, and with me as confirmation, they drank in the story and did the procedure much better on the return trip.

The next section was, of course, rope. The coaches almost laughed – as soon as the team was given the chance to actually rescue someone with it, not only my group, but everyone else also had fun aiming for the victim's faces and using them as a moving target rather than a practice dummy. We went at it for around another half an hour before the coaches called everyone upstream.

We were redistributed into two groups instead of four, and as we exchanged looks at each other in bewilderment, the first group was arranged in a huge circle - again, they reminded the group to hold tight to each other's lifejackets - then the coaches pushed the whole circle down.

The current pushed them even further downstream like a waterpark attraction, and that seemed like the most exciting part of the lesson. Some laughed. Others cheered. A few screamed for no reason at all. Soon after it was our turn - for some unknown reason we spun uncontrollably instead, which made it all the more exhilarating.

After that, it was already way past noon - we were supposed to have the lesson dismissed already, but seeing as we're already here, the coach organized more events and activities exclusively for us, which the team all agreed on gratefully.

Everyone swam to a huge rock at the other end of the river, its edge standing about one meter above water level, perfect for diving. The coach explained that this will be the last time we can see them this year, if we have anything to confess or goodbyes to say, now's the time. Someone volunteered first, then the coach stopped him mid-sentence. He then added, now with a slightly evil twist of his tone, that the person would have to back all the way up as he grabbed onto the collar and held him over the edge.

Image reference:

After he yelled goodbye to everyone in a raised, panicking voice, the coach dropped him. He crumpled into the water unceremoniously as everyone laughed. Everyone was compelled to do so as well- some yelled minor profanities, some yelled goodbye also, some yelled their future wishes, and I pulled the coach down into the water with me before he could let go.

After everyone had their fair share of having plunged in the cold river from a meter above, the training was dismissed. Me and some of the others stayed and skipped stones until my dad came to pick me up. The riverside was a beautiful sight - the water was clear and brilliantly blue, and the plantlife on both sides adds a lot to the scenery. Needless to say, it was the best training I've had. I look forward to next year.

(Same association, but this isn't my team, by the way.)

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Additional notes:

* FINALLY. After half a year of procrastination, school, an exam, lost files, more procrastination(hello darkness my old friend), I finally got the chance to rewrite the last day and complete the whole book. Unless more people read this, I doubt I'll write another next year - it's just the same course again.

* About the music... Although I don't like the lyrics much, the beat drop is awesome. You should try.

* The dam held up most of the water at that time, almost all rivers in Taiwan are still unsafe. If you look at Taiwan's topography, most of the area covered by them are up in the mountains - 

 - and the thousand-meter height difference builds up a lot of velocity in the currents. Otherwise, during times like these, the place is a famous destination for swimming, and fishing as well.

* Well, this is the last day after all... I suppose I should say something that I didn't have the chance to say on the rock before.

* Thanks to every fellow to-be lifeguard that went through every part of the entire course with me.

* Thanks to the team of coaches, who gave it their all teaching and helping the team every year, despite having little to no profit in return. Although water safety is an important issue here, I doubt the government cares much, budget-wise - even the head coach of the association is seriously underpaid. 

* Thanks to the CTWLSA, the association that made everything possible in the first place. 

I have only heard tell of them through distant word of mouth and from the print on the back of textbooks, and I still feel quite remote from, and insignificant to the association, as though it was a gathering of high-profile presences like deities on lofty thrones that occasionally sends an examiner or a course instructor down from up above. But despite all that, I still want to tell them thank you. 

(If you're from Taiwan, here's a link to their website: http://www.ctwlsa.org.tw/)

(And here's the link to the ILSF if you're from other countries: https://www.ilsf.org/)

* Thanks to MelancholyMallow, my first reader and the first also to stick with me from the beginning, when I was still training, to the very end. Thanks to everyone who read this work and got here too - I hope you had a great time and most importantly, I hope you learned something.

Goodbye.