Scuba Diving - Part Deux

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Another step closer to our return trip to South East Asia was completed with a round of handshakes after completing my open water diving course.


The water wasn't all that cold but then I was too excited to notice. Four of us descended and when we came back up after 4 dives, we were PADI certified Open Water Divers.

I would love to say everything was awesome but there was a little mishap which ended up with me not equalizing my mask. In some circles, this is important. Ummmmm.... diving being one of those circles.

I didn't realize how bad the mask squeeze was until I stopped for gas on the way to my camp site after the dive. The kid behind the counter was like "Whoa... Dude, you look freaky!". I went to the bathroom and sure enough. I looked freaky.

The dive course itself was fairly easy and the open water was the repetition of everything we had learned in the pool sessions. The only difference being the 15 feet of visibility compared to unlimited visibility and of course the temperature. But whats a few degrees between friends. I think the bottom temp was about 53 degrees so that is not so bad.

The coolest part was seeing the fish swim by and the curious on-lookers.

I need to get in some more dives to work on bouancy and I want to try and find a good dive outfit in Thailand. I'm hoping to Dive the Similans when I get out there.

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Photos

Mask Squeeze
Never tell your dive instructor he looks fat in his wetsuit!