Scuba Diving

Since I can remember, I have always loved the water. I have also always had “a thing” for fish. But growing up in the Midwest, snorkeling and scuba diving never really crossed my mind. When we moved down here, Travis & I took up snorkeling immediately. We were so excited about it that by Trent’s 2nd day on the island, we purchased him a child’s snorkeling set. We wanted to share with him what we considered one of the coolest experiences we had ever had. He ended up being a real natural!

A couple months later our friend Jack asked us if we wanted to get certified in Scuba diving. You can get a cheaper rate if you book as a group so we decided to sign up with him. It’s a pretty big commitment because the course is 3 eight hour days (on the weekend) and it’s not cheap. We had set aside some money my parents had given us for Christmas to buy new snorkel gear, so we decided to use it for scuba lessons instead.

We ended up finding a private instructor for the same price as the diving companies charge. She said her husband, who is also a Master Diver, would assist each day. So it ended up being two instructors and three students. Most of the dive companies have one instructor to about 8 students. Little did I know what a big deal this was…..

Our first day, she taught us how to assemble our equipment, put it on, and about the major safety issues. Then she took us in the water with all of the gear on. I completely freaked out! And Travis (who had only been in the ocean up to his knees prior to moving here) was completely comfortable and calm. We went down about 10 feet and had to perform some tests. We had to take our mask off and put it back on, clear it, etc…. It was so stressful for me. I was just panicked the entire time. The main instructor basically had to “baby sit” me. She stayed right by my side while her husband led Travis and Jack through the tests. I thought I would be afraid of the fish, but I wasn’t. I was afraid to stay underwater. It was so unnatural to me. Travis blamed it on my “control” issues, but I am not sure what he is talking about. Ha-ha!

After a few tests they took us on a dive to the Wreck of the Cali. It was neat to see a ship in a million pieces underwater. There were a lot of fish around including a huge male, bright blue, parrot fish that looked like it had big buck teeth. We took an hour break for lunch and at that point, I decided I was done. I was nauseous, tired, and had indigestion. When lunch was over Gary, her husband, told me that he quit his first day. He said it was too stressful for him. He said I should try again because he is a master diver now. So I agreed to get in again and do a few more tests. It absolutely sucked. The waved were making me sea sick and it wasn’t very clear. I was counting the seconds until we were done. Meanwhile, Travis and Jack were just loving it. They had no problems with the tests and couldn’t wait to go on our 2nd dive. I sucked it up because I knew Travis wanted me to. On our way home in the car Travis kept talking about how great it was. I was still thinking he was delusional.

But after we were home for awhile, I started to think it wasn’t that bad. The next weekend, I went back for our 3rd and 4th dives. We went to a dive site near where we just moved to in West Bay. There was a coral wall that went down 60 feet. (I posted a few pictures, but they look really blue. It didn’t look like that to us.) We had to go to the bottom and perform some tests again. It was different this time. It was very clear and everywhere I looked I saw something amazing. We all passed our tests quickly so we could get to the good part, the dive.

It was the most amazing thing we have ever done. I am soooooo glad I stuck it out! We had a break and did our 4th dive that afternoon. It was even better than the morning. I was much more relaxed than the first day. I think I was just more comfortable with the equipment. I didn’t even think about being 60 feet underwater, because I was too focused on all the beautiful things around me.

We didn’t even have to go for a 3rd day because we got our 4 dives and all of our testing done quickly. We took the written test in the late afternoon and she handed us our temporary certification cards. WOO-HOO! I highly recommend it to anyone. It is an experience of a lifetime. I can’t wait until Trent is old enough to do it!!!!

I will try to keep posting photos. Jack took these because he has a fancy underwater camera. I don’t know if we will buy one or not because they are pretty pricey. But Jack will probably go with us most of the time so I will keep borrowing his pics.