Scuba diving - If you are planning to try it for the first time stop reading now

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I should have learnt by now to always trust my guts, and my gusts were telling me, "Don't do it." And instead I went for it, I joined my room mate on a scuba diving trip because it was too late to buy a tour, too windy to rent a kayak or a bike and with today being Sunday there was nothing to do in town.

When I boarded the boat I began to feel scared and I knew I was making a mistake. But I had already paid quite a bit of money for the trip and I guess I would have felt a little disappointed with myself if I had gotten that far and then chickened out.

Climbing down was unlpleasant but not overly scary and neither was swimming around in the deep water. It was I was going back up that things went pear shaped. I got water in my mouth and I don't know what happened, I guess I must have opened my mouth and the thing through which I was breathing came off.

Now I am perfectly capable of staying in apnea for a few seconds, or even a minute, but I have to know that I am going to do it and mentally prepare myself. Believe me, going from being able to breathe to not being able to breath all in a sudded is pretty scary stuff. And scared I was, terrified in fact - I thought I had come to the end of my journey. Fortunately I was quite closed to the surface and so I emerged, spitting like an animal.

The next 15 minutes or so all my body was trembling and I could feel a panic attack coming. I was able to prevent it by doing some breathing exercised, something I am infinitely more proud of than having dived in the water.

I'm still a little shaken but I'm on my way to recovery. At least this time I have learnt the lesson - never go against your guts. As for scuba diving, never again.

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