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Published: March 24th 2009
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Monday, March 23rd
This morning was the first two dives of our Advanced Open Water (Advance Adventure) course. Our instructor's name is Tri (pronounced Chi) and he had us swimming through hoops, literally!
The first dive was at Moray Beach. To perfect our buoyancy we had to hover in the water at a stable depth for one minute (not using your arms or legs at all) then on our backs, stomach and upside down for 30sec each. After that we had to swim through three hoops, one on top of the other, without touching them. This sounds easy until you factor in that everything looks bigger and closer under water, you have this big cylinder on your back and your gauges, LP hose and alternate air source dangle beneath you.
We finished without much trouble then went exploring. We were able to stay under for 48mins which is apparently very good. We saw, amongst other things, a Cuttle fish and more Lion fish.
Our second dive was it Tri Minh's Treasure. Here we learned basic under water navigation. We performed two exercises and we were both able to navigate back to our starting point each time. After that
we went sight seeing. We saw a big Puffer fish that made a huuuuge poop as it swam off (it looked like it was dropping its guts :-), more Lion fish, a yellow Trumpet fish, some purple and green fish that look like they are flying when they swim, and lots more. It was awesome (as usual)! That time we stayed under for 49mins. Not bad.
Today's highlights:
1. Starting our AOW course.
2. Staying under for 49mins.
3. Getting Talita's skirt.
Tuesday, March 24th
Ferdi woke with a bit of a runny nose so we were worried that he wouldn't be able to equalize. We checked with Simon and he suggested, since Ferdi could still equalize out of the water, that he give it a try and see. It turned out not to be a problem at all. However, Tri told us that we couldn't do the nitrox because someone had damaged his equipment. We weren't too disappointed cause the nitrox would have cost us an extra US$30. Instead he taught us Search and Recovery techniques.
Tri gave us full lessons on both under water photography and search & recovery. On the first dive, at Octopus
Rock, Ferdi did the S&R exercise while Talita did the photography. The S&R didn't take too long and after it was done we swam around and Talita took a bunch of photos.
During the second dive, at Moray Beach, it was Talita's turn to do the S&R using a different technique while Ferdi did the photography (the viz was a bit low). Her search pattern took her over some Clown fish's anemone, which they did not appreciate. She had to square off with an angry daddy in order to stick to her search pattern! Ferdi swooped in with the camera and Mr. Clown quickly forgot about Talita and focused all it's anger and bravado on the new invader.
After Talita successfully recovered her target we continued the dive and Ferdi took more pictures. That took care of dives 3 & 4 of our Advanced Adventure Open Water course.
Today's highlights:
1. Two great dives that yielded some nice pictures.
2. Ferdi's disappearing flu.
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Leon
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Lekker bubbles maak julle ouens!
Awesome julle! Amper klaar met die Advanced. Julle beter saam met ons kom whaleshark soek in Moz sometime!!