Only Julia.
After a couple days of in class and pool scuba, today was my first two open water dives day. After a great sleep whereupon when I woke up I was hit with major diarrhea from the Greek salad I ventured to try last night, I headed out after a cold shower with all my gear for the pick up at 0730 sharp.
Of course, I was the only newbie, out of about 10 total divers today. Everyone else was on a pleasure dive in this evolving storm, which has made Koh Phagnan grey and rainy for about 3 days so far. Ominus? hmm....So, after loading our gear we headed out to the peir, where the boat sat rocking back and forth...I, the newbie asked if we could even dive in these conditions and was summarily snickered at and was told that you dont get to take a day off if it's raining.
Out we went on the choppy water. everyone jammed in, the instructor for the advanced divers teaching rope tying techniques and going over skills, and my instructor, as always, perched somewhere having a smoke and reading the latest gossip magazine. It had to be karma. I try to read my manual and that was a huge mistake. So, as we arrived an hour later at sail rock, this gigantic rock in the middle of the ocean that lots of sea life likes to hang out at, I am both sea sick and trying to not have an ass explosion because the out valve on the toilet empties right into the ocean where we are about to jump in to. I dont let on that I"m dying, and everyone is satistfied that I am earning my stripes. Of course, I had to choose the bikini with the push up pads. The instructor made a point of joking that I would need more weight to keep me down the whole time. Everyone is from Austrailia except for the advanced course divers, who are from Toronto oddly enough.
So, out of the boat I go with my instructor and we are the last boat there, so we have to swim about six boat lengths to our drop spot, where I wait for her to tie up the "homing"bouy. I look around. There are huge, choppy waves, it's pissing rain so hard i can't see, and about 40 other divers at the same site trying to get anchored as well. What the hell have I gotten myself in to? My stomach is churning.
No skills on the first dive. I go down and am immediately surrounded by awesomeness. fish everywhere...so many you can't even tell how many kinds there are, groupers swmming along the ledges, and bright coloured sailfish at every turn of the head. We even got to see a giant moray eel come out of it's cave and wiggle and swim about. Urchins everywhere, corals all around the rock, and a roller coaster ride up and down through little passages formed naturally in the rock. truly amazing. It's all worth it. So, around the rock we went, it took about 40 minutes, and my instructor was amazing, she showed me these cool christmas tree fish that suck back into the coral when touched, we saw lots of shrimp and sea slugs...but no sharks the first dive. I was so nervous to see one I was kind of glad I didnt the first run.
Getting back to the boat and waiting until the huge waves calmed enough to actually get on the ladder, we had lunch. After an hour we descended again, this time demonstrating skills like removing the breathing regulator and filling up and clearing the mask. I even had to breathe from Naomi's regulator at one point.
That dive was tougher. After a slow descent where my ears took longer to clear, we did the same tour around again, only this time, Naomi insisted we swim right into the pool of bull sharks that a rainy day apparently makes more abundant. I thought I would lose it. But I was calm and actually was amazed enough to like it. I couldnt believe I actually was doing this. Ask me before my trip I would have told you that was crazy talk. But here I am. Swimming with sharks. Just as I'm basking in my own glory, a bull shark, BIGGER than me comes from behind over top of us and my instructor is stoked. She grabs me and we are in awe.... I imagine my mothers heart failing. The only thing that would have made this more insane was if the shark had grabbed me and taken me into the abyss..but thankfully there is a god. Now I know why people get obsessed with this stuff.
So, back on the boat, where I proceeded to grasp on for dear life as the captain and his first mate thought it was the funniest thing in the world that I was so quiet and pensive. If anyone would have touched me I would have barfed all over them.
On land, I wrote in my divers log book, went over tomorrow's plans (omg I have to do this tomorrow even deeper) and pray for dear life that my intestines are empty by the time we depart. Ask me what I thought of it all? I would have done it again. No problem. I just conquered one of my biggest fears in the world. And I am a stronger, better person for it.
Yee haw!!!!!
After a couple days of in class and pool scuba, today was my first two open water dives day. After a great sleep whereupon when I woke up I was hit with major diarrhea from the Greek salad I ventured to try last night, I headed out after a cold shower with all my gear for the pick up at 0730 sharp.
Of course, I was the only newbie, out of about 10 total divers today. Everyone else was on a pleasure dive in this evolving storm, which has made Koh Phagnan grey and rainy for about 3 days so far. Ominus? hmm....So, after loading our gear we headed out to the peir, where the boat sat rocking back and forth...I, the newbie asked if we could even dive in these conditions and was summarily snickered at and was told that you dont get to take a day off if it's raining.
Out we went on the choppy water. everyone jammed in, the instructor for the advanced divers teaching rope tying techniques and going over skills, and my instructor, as always, perched somewhere having a smoke and reading the latest gossip magazine. It had to be karma. I try to read my manual and that was a huge mistake. So, as we arrived an hour later at sail rock, this gigantic rock in the middle of the ocean that lots of sea life likes to hang out at, I am both sea sick and trying to not have an ass explosion because the out valve on the toilet empties right into the ocean where we are about to jump in to. I dont let on that I"m dying, and everyone is satistfied that I am earning my stripes. Of course, I had to choose the bikini with the push up pads. The instructor made a point of joking that I would need more weight to keep me down the whole time. Everyone is from Austrailia except for the advanced course divers, who are from Toronto oddly enough.
So, out of the boat I go with my instructor and we are the last boat there, so we have to swim about six boat lengths to our drop spot, where I wait for her to tie up the "homing"bouy. I look around. There are huge, choppy waves, it's pissing rain so hard i can't see, and about 40 other divers at the same site trying to get anchored as well. What the hell have I gotten myself in to? My stomach is churning.
No skills on the first dive. I go down and am immediately surrounded by awesomeness. fish everywhere...so many you can't even tell how many kinds there are, groupers swmming along the ledges, and bright coloured sailfish at every turn of the head. We even got to see a giant moray eel come out of it's cave and wiggle and swim about. Urchins everywhere, corals all around the rock, and a roller coaster ride up and down through little passages formed naturally in the rock. truly amazing. It's all worth it. So, around the rock we went, it took about 40 minutes, and my instructor was amazing, she showed me these cool christmas tree fish that suck back into the coral when touched, we saw lots of shrimp and sea slugs...but no sharks the first dive. I was so nervous to see one I was kind of glad I didnt the first run.
Getting back to the boat and waiting until the huge waves calmed enough to actually get on the ladder, we had lunch. After an hour we descended again, this time demonstrating skills like removing the breathing regulator and filling up and clearing the mask. I even had to breathe from Naomi's regulator at one point.
That dive was tougher. After a slow descent where my ears took longer to clear, we did the same tour around again, only this time, Naomi insisted we swim right into the pool of bull sharks that a rainy day apparently makes more abundant. I thought I would lose it. But I was calm and actually was amazed enough to like it. I couldnt believe I actually was doing this. Ask me before my trip I would have told you that was crazy talk. But here I am. Swimming with sharks. Just as I'm basking in my own glory, a bull shark, BIGGER than me comes from behind over top of us and my instructor is stoked. She grabs me and we are in awe.... I imagine my mothers heart failing. The only thing that would have made this more insane was if the shark had grabbed me and taken me into the abyss..but thankfully there is a god. Now I know why people get obsessed with this stuff.
yes. this thing.
So, back on the boat, where I proceeded to grasp on for dear life as the captain and his first mate thought it was the funniest thing in the world that I was so quiet and pensive. If anyone would have touched me I would have barfed all over them.
On land, I wrote in my divers log book, went over tomorrow's plans (omg I have to do this tomorrow even deeper) and pray for dear life that my intestines are empty by the time we depart. Ask me what I thought of it all? I would have done it again. No problem. I just conquered one of my biggest fears in the world. And I am a stronger, better person for it.
Yee haw!!!!!
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