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Published: November 22nd 2006
Dive Instructors
My two dive instructors. Sven on the left and Dave on the right.Hello Hello!!!!!!! So I have been busy with my scuba lessons since Monday. It doesn't leave me any time to do anything. I get picked up from the hostel at 9 am and then dropped off at 6:30 pm or so. The first two days were combination of theory and pool lessons. Ok first I have to say my instructor, Dave, is super hott and he is an Aussie. (Hmmm I wonder what he is doing for Christmas?? hehehe) Anyway, we went into the pool in the afternoon on the first day of course. We geared up and went under. I had a slight anxiety attack and had to come up. Oh my god, you mean I really have to breathe in and out of my mouth and not my nose? How the heck do you do that? Dave tried to keep me under as long as he could, so I could get used to it, but no, I had to go up. Thankfully I was only in about a meter and a half of water. Ok try again. Down I go......ahhhh ok this is alright, weird I can breathe and see under there.........ahhhhhhh not feeling so comfortable.....ahhhhhh ok gotta go
Mayo and I
Dive Buddies. up!!! I lasted longer which was good, but still a little freaked out. Down again we go..........ok......breathing breathing breathing.....wow I really can breathe.....this isn't so hard.......ahhhhhhh you want me to do what under the water??? Fill my mask half full of water and let it out??? I don't think so!!! Ok breathe deeply and slowly, deeply and slowly...gotta bring my heart rate down, as when it is so high I breathe two shallow and then I panic. Ok my turn, letting the water in and....pushing it out, CLEAR!!! YAY I did it!!!!! After that I was totally cool, felt good about everything. We did lots of things under the water. We had to take our masks off completely and swim for 1 minute under the water with no mask. Doesn't sound very hard but it is. When you have a regulator in your mouth to breathe, you are only using your mouth, you can't use your nose. The masks for scuba almost plug your nose so you can't breathe. So you remove that mask and automatically you think you can breathe through your nose but you can't because you'll inhale water! And I can't open my eyes under the water
Turtle Reef
Here's a picture of Turtle Reef where we went snorkelling and saw so many cool fish. because of my contacts, so I have to swim in blackness. So once you swim around for that minute, you put your mask back on, and have to clear all the water of it. You do that by taking a big breath in through your mouth and then blow it out your nose while pushing the top of your mask so the bottom opens up slightly. Clear, all the water comes out of your mask. We also have to breathe from our buddies alternate air source, so from their tank. There are numerous other skills we have to do, but none are really to hard.
I passed the written test yesterday and today we headed out to the Great Barrier Reef f(GBR) or our first of 5 open water dives for our certification. We were on a big boat and there were probably about 70 people on it, including our class. There were people on it that are already certified doing dives, people just wanting to snorkel, course people, and intro divers. Pretty much the whole boat had seasickness on the way out. It was pretty funny, lots of barfing going on!!! I was alright, it didn't affect me at all. I guess all those "Ride till you Puke Nights" at the Drayton rodeo finally paid off! It was really rocky going out to our first dive site. It took about an hour and a half to get there. We first travelled to Norman Reef. There My buddy (you always dive with a buddy) Mayo (no not pronounced like the dressing mayo, Mi-o) and I had to switch instructors. We went with Sven instead of Dave. Bugger, Dave, your hott and so relaxed. Sven is a German instructor, he is also hott but appears to be more of a hard ass. Ok that's fine, now we are in a smaller group, from 10 divers, now we are with a dive group of 6, which means more personal attention to what we are doing.
First dive, ok now I don't feel so good, nerves are getting to me a little. Ok suit up and big step in! It is super rocky on the surface, but gotta do it. Our first dive is only down 10 meters. We jump in and follow a rope down to the bottom. I am feeling like I am not going to be able to do this. Ok Janine, get a grip!! You just had two days of full training, of course you can!! It's just the surface is so rocky and you are getting thrown all over the place. Ok here we go under!!!!! Everyone is jammed up on the rope, I can't handle it, I bolt out a head and giver down. To many people in my space. Sven is very impressed, I just did it and was quick. Well I didn't really want someone crashing into me. I did it for my own space, not to be a super star! We get down about 5 meters and it is so calm. The ocean bottom is sand, so we can kneel on the bottom. I can see school's of fish, not to many though and some coral. We basically swim around a bit, find our neutral buoyancy (not floating to the top or sinking to the bottom). Sven took us up to a carol where we got to see a clown fish...Hi Nemo!!!! Just keep swimming just keep swimming...... We go up to the surface and do a few skills, like change our regulator out for our snorkel and that sort of thing. Back on the boat. To refill our tanks. Out we go again. This time, I had no problem getting ready to go. But this time, we do more skills. We have to fill our masks all the way with water and clear it under water. No I HATE that!!! It sucks! But hey I did it no problem. Any of the skills we did today, I felt really good about doing them. I don't know if it is because you are so far under water and you know you just can't pop up and you HAVE to do it, that makes it easier, or I am just so excited to be scuba diving in the ocean on the Reef or what. We did mostly skills the second time around, and we went to a depth of 12 meters. You definitely have to equalize yourself when you go down, and not come up to fast, you don't want to get the bends (air bubbles in your blood). Some people's ears really bothered them going down, but mine were good. I guess that's from living close to the mountains, as I am used to "popping" my ears. After our second dive, we went back to the boat for lunch. The boat was moved during lunch from Norman Reef to Turtle Reef.
I had bought my own fins, mask and snorkel yesterday from the dive shop. I didn't want to use the companies, as one, I plan on using it all over the place, more in Australia, New Zealand and of course Thailand. And two, in the mask, so it doesn't fog you actually have to spit in it and swoosh it around. That stops your mask from fogging under water. So imagine, all the spit in the dive companie's masks, eeewwwww. Now I have my own set and I can snorkel whenever I want and when I scuba dive, I don't have to rent so much stuff. Great more crap for me to carry around!!!
After lunch we had the option of sunbathing on the boat or going snorkeling. Mayo and I went snorkeling. Why stay on the boat, you are over the GBR! So we set out, I grabbed my underwater camera. OMG!!! How amazing!! We swam over a big section of coral. So many fish! Big ones, little ones, bright green, yellow and blue ones! So far that had to have been the best experience I have had so far in Australia. I am totally in love with Scuba Diving and Snorkelling. There is a whole other world in the sea, a whole world!!! It was spectacular. I can't post any pics of it because I had a film camera, so everyone will have to wait till I get home to see them. Hopefully they turn out ok. You can rent a digital underwater camera from the dive school, so a group of us might do that on Friday (our Fun Dive) and take pics. Then I will be able to post some.
On the way home Dave was asking my lots of questions, like what I do back home, and how long I am travelling for and stuff. Hmmmm maybe he does need a Christmas buddy??? I think I will look extra hott tomorrow.....haha!
Well tomorrow is the last day of dive school. I do believe we do 3 dives tomorrow, then Friday is our Fun Dive day. We get to go out and just dive and have fun.
Well I gotta get going, the Swedish guys I met on the plane and I are going out for dinner and drinks. They leave tomorrow. Ack they just came to get me, gotta run!
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Courtney
non-member comment
Thanks for letting me live vicariously through you...nummy divers! Happy to hear you are having such a great time. I'm glad you found Nemo, he's been lost for some time now. Take care!