Dive Master Training

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia » Exmouth
July 16th 2006

Published: July 24th 2006

Ok so what am I doing still in Exmouth and about to undertake massive training course??

I still have about three weeks left in Australia before my visa runs out so I will be leaving Exmouth and carrying on my journey down to Perth and the bottom of Western Australia. When its time to give the car back I will now be leaving it in Perth and instead of flying out of the country I will be flying back up to Exmouth. It took less than 18 hours to get a 3 month extension on my visa.

I have been given my pile of text books and stuff needed for the course, which is going to take me ages to read.
The day before I was due to leave Exmouth I went out on the boat one more time just to do a couple more dives and start getting used to the things I will be doing over the coming weeks. The boat ride out was the roughest I have been on so far. The boat was pitching and tossing so badly that we were getting soaked. By the time we reached the first dive sight I wanted to get into the water just to get off the badly rocking boat. Now if you have even tried to jump off a boat in Very heavy scuba gear while wearing fins you become very unstable, add a boat the is rocking back and forth 45 degrees each way and it becomes near impossible. Once in the water you no longer notice the heavy swell as long as you keep your mouth closed.

This was the first dive that I would not be going down with a guide in effect myself and Verena were on our own. The visibility was really bad and I was wondering how we would ever find the boat again. We were swimming along the bottom with Verena just a few feet behind me. I turned round and she was gone. After searching round for a minute a made my way to the surface to find her back on the boat. Her BCD (Buoyancy control device) and automatically inflated causing her to rise to the surface without warning. Once fixed we were back down again. This was just bloody typical for our first dive alone.

Our second dive went much better and we saw some lovely sharks, Moray Eels and Octopus. From now on I would have to be memorising these sights as soon I will be guiding other divers and I don't want to get lost while doing that!
Getting back on a badly pitching boat is even harder than getting off it. With the boat and its ascent ladders moving in and out of the water by as much as 2 metres trying to grab hold and make a safe exit was really hard.
The trip back to the marina was the first boat ride I haven’t enjoyed, being so rough and watching other people throwing up over the side of the boat did make me feel quite ill too.

Even when back on dry land it took several hours before it felt like I had stopped moving.

This was definitely my last dive for a few weeks. I'm leaving in the morning for Coral Bay and to continue my trip south. As you have probably gathered from all of this I have really enjoyed my time diving and I’m looking forward to continuing in a few weeks time.

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