Scuba diving with the fishies!

Hey everyone!
Since our last entry we had just enrolled in the Open Water Diver Course which will make Jo and I certified to dive anywhere in the world unsupervised but always with a buddy :)

Now I have to admit I was nervous, scared, anxious and all the rest while Jo was just plain looking forward to it, but I do have a couple of things against me that he doesn’t, like I'm claustrophobic which makes me panic a lot faster, I have also never done this before and he has (even if it was 6 years ago he knew the experience!) and I am coming off a bad cold which could cause respiratory problems (but Jo had a little one too and that only meant that there would be more snot than usual in our mask (yummy!!) ). Even so, with all these things against me, we went and tried it :)

On our first day we had to study our manuals and do quick quizzes and knowledge reviews, also watch 3 DVDs (telling us the same thing the manual did!) and do two quick exams. That was the morning... In the afternoon we had to learn how to assemble and disassemble our gear out of water (of course!) and then we got on the boat with a couple of other divers and our instructor ---we had an instructor all to ourselves which definitely reassured me cause that meant we would get a lot more attention (especially me -- the anxious one hehehe). We got into our suits (squeezed was more like it -- those things are hot and with the sun blaring its not much fun), got our gears on ---you try walking on a boat with a huge tank of air on your back! -- and did our first long stride into the water with our regulators, fins, masks and all that stuff....Breathing underwater is cool -- a bit scary at first because you don’t really trust the regulator and its hard to tell your brain to switch from nose to mouth and stick to it! We snorkeled out to the shallow end for our contained water dive (that means that we are always close to the surface in case of emergencies or panic attacks)... I'm guessing that from all my mentions of panics attacks you've assumed I've had one -- well, you're right! Jo did all the tasks perfectly while I had quite a bit of problem with mine at first. There is a part when you are asked to flood your mask and take the air out after -- well, as the most important rule of diving is to never, ever hold your breath, I didn’t really get how it was possible to keep breathing through the regulator and breathe out your nose while holding your mask up and removing the water (and I have contact lenses so I had to do this with my eyes closed while Jo didn’t!) Anyways, to sum it all up, I got water in my lungs, panicked a couple of times, rose up, coughed, burped and even puked (yeah, I know, not pretty but at least I got to feed the fish hehehe!!) At one point I was really bad but I was able to get my breathing and gagging under control, floated for a bit and regain the nerves to keep going...also I asked a lot of questions of what I was doing wrong and finally understood the concept!!

We spent 3 hours doing these exercises and by the end both Jo and I could switch from regulator to snorkel and from regulator to alternate air source underwater, we could flood our masks and clear them, we learned buoyancy control (one of the most important lessons as this permits you to stay in the water without floating or sinking and most importantly without touching the coral at the bottom!!) and we (our I) learned that I could do pretty much everything with the regulator that I can out here, such as cough or spit into it (necessary if you have trapped air or some water in the regulator!) Came back out of the water a little shaky but happy that I didn’t quit (Jo would have killed me and I would have been disappointed with myself! -- especially when you see 9-year-olds do it so easily!!!!) We were exhausted after that so headed home (or hotel) and watched some TV before dinner and then decided to go to the bar next door to do our next chapters of the manual with a nice cold beer :)

Today, we had 2 more DVDs to watch and 2 more quick exams before hitting the water. We first had to prove we are physically fit so the instructor (Dan from London who has been diving since '96) made us swim 6 laps (without our gear --- don’t worry) and float for 10 minutes :)
Then, in the afternoon we got back on the boat but as we were leaving the propeller got caught on a rope so we had to wait for them to cut it off (this meant me looking out at the horizon in order not to get seasick!) When we finally made it to the site we dove in for a nice 43 minute swim to get to see the coral and get more used to the equipment... I was a bit anxious at first (just from remembering yesterday's experience) but I also remember that I did master the skills needed so there really shouldn’t be a problem!

The first dive was pretty cool but we had a bit of problem with our buoyancy control at first and I was having a hard time equalizing (this means popping your ears on the way down so that the pressure outside is equal to the pressure inside your body so that you don’t experience that painful sensation in your ears you get when you free dive deep down) but it got better as we went along and our confidence got higher :)

We got back on the boat to rest and also to let the nitrogen out of our bodies and got to enjoy a bit of swimming without all the gear (it’s a really nice feeling when you finally get the fins out :) When we were nice and rested (1 hour and 6 minutes -- we had to learn to calculate all this!!) We got ready for our second dive which would involve going through some of the skills we learned yesterday like buoyancy control and flooding masks (my favorite - NOT!!) Again Jo did great (he even managed to remove his mask at one point when it got fogged and actually took out his regulator to put saliva on his fingers to put it into the mask to defog it and get it back on -- I don’t know if I could be that brave hehehe) I didn’t do too bad myself and mastered all the skills, I'm quite pleased with it and after we completed them I felt even more confident because now I knew we could do it! So, from here on it was just smooth sailing and enjoying the wildlife -- it was amazing!

We saw tons of fish, of course, of all colours, shapes and sizes but we also saw coral life, jellyfishes, conchs, water snails and the coolest of all, a crab fight (but not just any regular crab, these looked like giant spiders with really thin legs and were yellow with back spots but are actually crabs) there were four of them and 2 were battling it our for the territory -- imagine these tiny things at the bottom of the ocean and you can actually enjoy the fight like a WWF wrestling match hehehe -- one finally managed to send the other running by pocking one of its many legs into its opponents mouth -- it was great!! hehe

We came back up happy and exhilarated -- the dives went great and the wildlife was amazing!

Tomorrow we finish the course and have our final exam. Then we just have to complete 2 more dives in which we redo some of the skills we already know and get to learn to use a compass underwater -- then we will have our Open Water Diver Certificate :) followed by 2 free fun dives on Wednesday --- can't wait so catch you guys later!

Thanks for the commentaries (would still prefer to get more though -- you don’t need to register in order to post!)

Lots of love to everyone,

Jo and Fil