#27 Orange Again.

My 26th post this year. Half way. Every time a surprise I make these milestones. It might look easy, but it often takes me a few days to think out a post. Some work well, some less. Let's see what I can bake this week.
Last week a small package was delivered from Krazys, Singapore. Two watches, both from the Rescue-G series. First was the G-9100R Gulfman. It was my second, this one is one to wear.
The second one is a bit special, at least for me. As you can read in "Orange Alert" of October 2008, I was very enthusiastic about the Men In Rescue Orange series. While I had saved for these models, I was surprised that Casio released a spin-off series in the fall/winter collection at the end of 2008, called the Rescue-G series.
A half year after the release I have the series complete with this Riseman. I actually bought the little Lego set featured in this post around New Year specially to celebrate the completion of this series.
The Rescue-G series were the same Master of G models as the Men In Rescue Orange series, but then the non-atomic versions. The color scheme of orange with black accents was the same (Mudman G-9000R model, like the MIRO series, a black case with orange accents).
The Rescue-G series is dedicated to rescue workers, like lifeguards. I live in Zeeland, which easily translates sealand. Like the name suggests, we have a lot of coastlines. The Rescue-G series reminds me to old friendships.
Our province is mostly a group of islands from which, in recent history, some are grown together through poldering (reclaiming land) or connected with the building of giant dams.
I live on the (former) island Walcheren, which is somewhat diamond shaped. From the south (Vlissingen) to the north (Vrouwenpolder) we have on the west side one long sandy beach of about 30 - 35 km, which is very popular for both people on Walcheren as the many tourists that visit our island throughout the year.
The beach is a great place to visit, but the sea can be dangerous. Specially the big ships that pass near the beaches (Wednesday evening a gasoline tanker stranded on the Flushing boulevard) cause dangerous waves for small children and the tides create dangerous currents.
It might not be a surprise we have a lot of lifeguards on the beach, mostly enthusiast trained scholars and young students, who like to work and spend their time together on the beach. Note that most people who are born and raised here can't live without the sea. When I haven't been to the sea for a few weeks, I can get very grumpy. You can find me walking on the beach during storm, rain and sunshine.
Though I never joined the lifeguards, I always had very close connections with the Middelburg lifeguards. A good friend of me was for years active on the beach and is still now involved in the organization. We went out clubbing in discotheques a lot with other local lifeguards in Belgium and the Netherlands in the early 90's. In daytime I often visited the post on the beach during daytime. Still I work once a year close with lifeguard organizations, as I support the last runner, on my mountain bike, during the annual Coastal Marathon, the heaviest marathon of our country.
Since the route involves beaches that not are all ridable by bike (or at least not as fast as a runner), I get picked up in a lifeguard truck on one beach brought from one post to the next, 8km further. At the finish all helpers eat together, so I see a lot of people I haven't seen for a long time.
Well, lets return to the Rescue-G Riseman. Actually it is my first non-Atomic Riseman (G-9200). With the Gulfman and Mudman there are functional differences between the atomic and non-atomic models, but how I compared the manuals (the manual I got looks more like a volume of an encyclopedia), except of the atomic time syncing function, the functions are exactly the same. The retail price of the atomic version was ¥28000, say roughly $280.-. I think I payed around $250.-. Not cheap, but with the US dollar doing €0,65 around that time, it was affordable.I got mine for a good price, specially because I bought 2 watches, which reduces the effect of the relative high shipping costs from outside Europe.
A G-9200R-4DR can still be found for a price around $150 - $190 (ex-shipping, which for me is often around $25!). You might consider if only the atomic time function is worth the extra $100. Digital watches keep pretty good time. The accuracy of ±15 seconds off per month is actually on most new models I bought just a few seconds. I'm trying to save money for a trip to Japan next year. If I didn't have this plan, I would have bought a 2nd Rescue-G model. Besides my respect for people who risk their lifes by saving others, I very much love the look of this series.
One question remains for me. I have no idea why the overseas series are called Rescue-G and not Men In Rescue Orange. Both names indicate the series honor rescue workers. Unlike the Men In Rusty Black, Mat Black Red Eye and Military Inspired series, this series consist only of Master of G models, which means they all could have been included in a Men In series.