Ron here. If you have a second, let’s go for a walk.
First off, happy Friyay to all of the wonderful humans out there that make up our extended diving family. Despite what’s happening in the world, we are all immensely grateful for each and every one of you for being our friends, family, and dive buddies. Pandemics come and pandemics go, but dive buddies are forever. So, thank you for being you.
Second; just… wow. A lot can happen in 72 hours. Every sport, concert, and public gathering is toast. Billion-dollar sports groups that only care about money cancelled their seasons. Quarantines on apartment blocks, hospitals, and entire nations. Air travel from Europe? Nope.
(All those jokes about cheap flights to Italy aren’t so funny now, are they? I say that as someone who may have made one or two of them. But nobody knew this was going to escalate like this.)
I woke up this morning to an email letting me know a class I’m taking next week in Washington has been postponed. My flight was on Sunday. I went to Walmart to get cat litter this morning and it looked like a scene from Zombieland. It was just entirely decimated.
Which begs the question: why should you care about Scuba Steve’s opinion on coronavirus?
You absolutely shouldn’t. These are interesting times, and everybody needs to do what’s best for themselves and those around them.
We just want to let you all know that we will still be here, doing our best to give you something to smile about, and to provide a place to escape some of the craziness of the timeline we’re living through. The shop will still be open, we’ll still be running classes (albeit, the schedule’s may change to accommodate pool closures), and we’ll still be happy to go diving if you need a buddy.
We’re going to do everything in our power to make sure we’re taking proper precautions and not exposing our students, dive buddies, and customers to potential illness. I already spoke with Jeremy, and he has a solid plan to intimidate COVID-19 into surrender. But until he gets back from Mexico (congrats on the Cave 1 certification, buddy!), we’re spending extra time wiping down surfaces, disinfecting demo masks and rental regs, and not coughing directly into the eyes and mouth of people we’re around. That last one is the biggest sacrifice of them all.
We’re going to do our damnedest to continue to be a space where you can hang out and take a break from the harsh realities of day-to-day life. Realities like having your class in Washington cancelled this morning. Or having to use printer paper as toilet paper during the coming quarantines. Or knife-fighting an elderly woman over a can of anchovies. You know, regular day-to-day stuff.
For all of those who end up quarantined or can’t swing by the shop to say “hi,”; we’re thinking of you too. We’re going to hit the social media backlogs for some of the B-roll stuff and outtakes that never quite made it to public eye, whether that was because of absurdity, profanity, or overly silly. If you don’t already, follow us on Facebook and Instagram. For those of you who don’t have Facebook or Instagram… good for you. You’re probably living better than us.
In summation: stay safe, be smart, you can’t catch coronavirus underwater, and we’re not going anywhere. We love you all, we’re here to help in any way we can, and we hope you have an incredible weekend. And hey, if you have a little extra time off work…
Let’s go diving!
-R