As a 21st birthday
present, Mum and Dad gave me the money to learn to scuba dive (and get my open
water diving qualification). After all the theory, paperwork and pool dives on
the first weekend, it was time to hit up Rockingham for our first shore dive!!
My new dive buddy was hopeless. The visibility was horrible. Silt and sand EVERYWHERE! As a requirement, we needed to learn to use a compass underwater. The drill was to swim out, turn around and swim back. Simple? After signalling to my buddy that it was time to go (twice) I turned and did 5 kicks before looking back and realising he hadn't followed. I was by myself in water that I couldn't see 3m in front of me. I spent about 10mins swimming around by myself trying to find the way back, little did I know I'd swam into a rip current that had swept me of course. I resurfaced and realised that I was about 150m away from where the rest of the divers were. The bonus was I was the only diver on the course who saw any fish, seahorses and the sunken plane!
My new dive buddy was hopeless. The visibility was horrible. Silt and sand EVERYWHERE! As a requirement, we needed to learn to use a compass underwater. The drill was to swim out, turn around and swim back. Simple? After signalling to my buddy that it was time to go (twice) I turned and did 5 kicks before looking back and realising he hadn't followed. I was by myself in water that I couldn't see 3m in front of me. I spent about 10mins swimming around by myself trying to find the way back, little did I know I'd swam into a rip current that had swept me of course. I resurfaced and realised that I was about 150m away from where the rest of the divers were. The bonus was I was the only diver on the course who saw any fish, seahorses and the sunken plane!
The next day we went
to Rotto. I was optimistic: I had my old buddy back! The conditions were great,
clear skies and no waves at all. We arrived at the first dive site and had to
jump off the boat into the water. Holding mask and regulator with right hand
and weight belt with the left I jumped in, all good! Moved my left hand to
inflate my BC, weight belt slipped off and fell 18m below. Needless to say, I
never heard the end of that.
Whilst at the first
dive spot I was looking around only to look back to find someone had put a
crayfish in front of my face. Apparently it was hilarious and they were all
laughing at the number of bubbles that I blew out when I squealed. We saw a ray
and a turtle and soooo many fish, it was amazing!
Apparently the
second dive spot was a great place to see a certain type of shark. They told me
this before I got in the water and that was all I heard them say! One of the
guys doing the course reassured me they were little vegetarian sharks so I
didn't have to worry…. Almost believed him. Once in the water, we dove under
coral and through mini caves, once again AMAZING!
Even though I was
the one to tease and I stuffed up on multiple occasions, somehow I managed to
pass the course! I'm officially a level 1 diver! BRING ON AQWA AND THE SHARKS!
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| Bec and I attempting to "dive" in the pool in Bali |
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