So after weeks of gray, the epitome of summer has finally arrived, and not a day too late.  We suffered through weeks and weeks of no color, thousands of tourists, annoying 'lifeguards' which can only help you during times of duress by blowing their whistles.  Koreans love whistles so much that while Paul and I were surfing a deserted beach just west of Sanbang-san, two random Koreans pulled their cars over, one broke out a whistle and decided to wave us in.  Obviously they weren't going to do anything else besides wave, and I'd put good money that they couldn't even swim.  So Paul and I ignored it until it was actually time to get out and head to school.  We had about a week to two week period of amazing surf here from typhoons, but I can barely remember it.  It's been about 3-4 weeks with nothing.  I mean Lake Linganore flat.  During the typhoon swell I had my biggest waves of my life out west of town.  Had a couple good days, but on the last one, the sheer power of the head and a half high surf snapped the tail off my board.  The next day it took Paul's nose from his board.  Prior to that it was a rush.  Huge drop-ins, ridiculously hard paddles and intimidating waves.
After that, there has been nothing.  It's been so flat that I ended up having time to get my advanced scuba cert.  I think I did 6 or 7 dives in 3 days including a night dive.  I went down to 30m, and also learned the basics of underwater navigation.  The night dive was by far the coolest part of the experience.  I was definitely nervous about it before being submersed, but after that, it was sheer exhilaration.  We began by putting all our gear together in the shop and doing a pre-dive briefing, and then we headed to the harbor.  We loaded up all our gear and hopped on the boat which dropped us of on a little cove on Munsom Island.  After suiting up and doing all our safety checks, we hopped in the water, being careful to time it right so we didn't hit a shallowly submerged rock.  In the water it was pitch black with a blue tint if we looked up towards the surface.  Immediately upon entering the water, our guide Ralf saw a squid flashing it's defense colors, squirting and swimming away.  During the dive we must have seen a dozen scorpion fish, 3 octopi, some catfish eels, file fish, lion fish and a huge stone fish.  The stone fish I actually found by accident.  If you don't know what it looks like, I suggest you google it.  It's a poisonous fish that blends in really well with its environment, and you don't really want to mess with it.  I found it b accident as I was about to plant my feet on the ground so that I could take a look at a few scorpion fish.  As I looked for a suitable place to land, I noticed a strange looking rock.  I got in a little closer and realized that it had eyes.  I signaled for everybody to come over look at it, at which point Ralf gave us the 'danger' signal.  All-in-all it was a pretty incredible dive. 

With this beautiful weather, I've been trying to camp more, and have spent the last couple weekends away from home.  I went the Chuja-myeon, a set of some 40 islands about two hours north west of Jeju-si and camped on a secluded pebble beach.  Followed that up with two nights at the Caribbean-esque Gimnyeong with Rob and Marion and eventually Justin.  I even had a the opportunity to go sailing in between Gimnyeong and Hamdeok (both on the northern side of the island.)   Gimnyeong was stunning with it's white sand and crystal blue water.  We were the only people camping in our little area under some pine trees and had a great time. 

Since the last post I've also purchased a bike.  Granted it's a pretty crappy mountain bike, but there aren't many options here and it was less than $50.  I've been trying to ride every other morning, at least from here to Supsom island which is only a 30 minute round trip.  It's short, but hilly like you wouldn't believe.  That ride is also gorgeous.  On one side I've got the pacific and the islands off Seogwipo, and on the other side there are tangerine fields and the volcano towering over everything. 

Other than those updates, nothing big has happened.  Unfortunately we've been losing a lot of good people off the island.  The toughest departure had to be Dave and Anna, but I have a feeling I'll see them again in the future.  It comes with the job and my lifestyle; you make friends only to leave them within weeks or months, maybe to never see them again.  But it's worth it getting to meet so many interesting people.  Really helps me see the world differently. 

This weekend I might go camp on Udo, but there's a night dive Saturday night, so I might skip the camping and stay and dive. 
Oh, one other thing, I might not be going on my surf trip post-Korea now that Pav might have to take classes.  Any suggestions on what to do?  I feel like I really should see something else over here before I depart.  One thought was going to a free diving camp in Thailand where they teach you to dive over to 30m with no mechanical equipment, and hold you breath for over 4 minutes!  Could be pretty incredible.