Being Bit by Bachi

Growing up in a Japanese household, the concept of bachi was something that was constantly instilled in us. Very loosely, bachi means "what goes around comes around". It's like laughing at someone falling and then tripping two seconds later.

So this past weekend, Dural, Kevin, Leschon and my brother were getting scuba certified and they had to do a few certification dives. Since Keidi and I are already certified we decided to join them in the water and see if we could take some pictures. The dives were at Electric Beach on the west side (which is the complete opposite side of the island that I live on) so Keidi and I tried to meet up with them in time for their second dive.

Since we were hella far away and Keidi had already run a 10k that morning (she finished 2nd in her age bracket) she decided to bring along some lunch to eat on the way to the dive site. Of course, I had always been taught that you shouldn't eat right before you get in the water because you might cramp up and drown.

So as she's eating, I remind her of this little nugget of wisdom. She kind of flippantly remarks back something to the effect of, "I starting just eating snacks before swimming but now, with proper training, I have worked up to full meals". So I comment back, "Well, if you cramp up, I'm not saving you so I hope you can swim."

When we got to the beach we couldn't find anyone (but we did see their cars) so we decided to hit the water to see if we could find them. It's a pretty shallow dive (my maximum depth was only 27 ft.) but there were really cool fish and marine life.

Some sort of starfish

Some fish and other marine life

So after diving for about 20 minutes Keidi and I looked around and saw some scuba divers exiting the water. We weren't sure if those were our friends or not, so we decided to investigate. Now, my brother was borrowing my fins so I was forced to borrow a pair from someone else and we ended up being one pair of boots short. I tried to be a trooper and I shoved my gloves in my fins and used them for cushioning.

But because I didn't have any boots, I wore my slippers down to the beach. I cleverly stashed them under a dead branch and prayed that they would still be there when I returned. As luck would have it, they were indeed there when we came ashore. But since I put them under a dead branch, some thorns must have been stuck in them because when I put them on I felt something poke me. So I tried to take the thorns out with all of my gear on and I started to lose my balance. I jumped on one leg to try to regain my balance and as I was falling I remembered that there were thorns in my other slipper so I tried to keep from stepping on that foot. Well, back to the whole bachi thing.

As I fell, my leg cramped up and I just fell sidewards and hit the sand. As I was silently grimacing in pain, trying to work out the cramp (because my samurai blood dictates that I suffer in silence) I explained to Keidi what happened. Of course after mocking her in the car I didn't get much sympathy. In fact, I swear she just walked away and left me in the sand. Darn that bachi.

Keidi and I on another dive in March (when we were still friends)