Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/86226
Sarasota News Leader October 5, 2012 That is why, when I answered the phone at the Pelican Press in early 2010 and heard Mel- on Dash ask if someone would be interested in doing a story about her Miracle Swimming System, my ears "pricked up." I was very in- terested. After writing two stories about Dash and her truly, miraculous system — the second feature about a Sarasota resident who won a contest to take Dash's beginning class — I had the opportunity to take my own class with Dash. My husband and I joined a group of beginning and veteran scuba divers and partly experi- enced snorkelers who gathered with Dash in Cozumel, Mexico, in April 2011. I had done some snorkeling just once before — in the Virgin Islands in 1984. Cozumel is renowned for its underwater scen- ery, but as much as I wanted to see it, I real- ized the first day on the beach with Dash and one other student that I wasn't as comfortable doing something that had seemed so enjoy- able with a big group in St. Croix all those years earlier. Thanks to her wealth of patience and support, I began venturing farther and farther from shore, all the while knowing she was keeping an eye on me and ready to offer help at a mo- ment's notice. As our trip to Cozumel was drawing to an end, I had conquered all my fears but one: I was scared to jump out of a boat into the deep blue sea. Page 79 As we neared the first of the gorgeous reefs all of us were eager to explore on that last full day of the trip, I talked with Dash again — as I had earlier in the week — about taking, literal- ly, that last big leap. She calmly and gently re- peated the advice she had told me before and promised to stay with me. I know I was in that second circle as she treaded water, waiting for me, but I finally put my faith in her more than in myself and made the jump. When I came to the surface, it was with a big grin on my face. By the time the boat made its way to the second reef with all of us back on board, I was feeling a lot more comfortable, but I still had some twinges of anxiety. After the boat stopped and people starting jumping in again, I suddenly realized I was the only one left on the boat who planned to snorkel. (My husband had stayed on shore, by the way; he didn't abandon me.) Not having voiced any fears to Dash again, I was on my own. I repeated to myself what she had told me at the first reef, and I knew she was right there in the water if I needed her. In a couple of minutes, I was closer to that first circle again and ready to jump. I cannot begin to describe the feeling of confidence and accomplishment that washed over me as I began following oth- er members of the group in the water. A close friend of mine refers to Melon Dash as my "swimming guru." What she is — what I know for a fact — is that she is a miracle worker.