On my morning run along the path along the waterfront (which is never happening again…it is way too hot to do any kind of physical activity in Hawaii, even at 7 am), I spotted a surf shop that advertised scuba diving lessons. Long story short, with a small amount of diabolical planning on my part, and a small bribe of Starbucks coffee, I had convinced my dad to let me attend the 9:30 scuba lesson. We started the lesson on dry land, learning about the dive equipment, and certain hand signals that we would then use under water. After about 20 minutes and a True/False quiz, we were ready to don our equipment and head to the pool. Donning the equipment was the hardest part. My air tank and the extra weights in my BCD (Buoyancy Control Device aka Fancy Lifejacket) probably doubled my body weight. We continued the lesson in the pool, learning how to breath through the regulator, clear our dive masks, and regulator recovery. When we finally started to swim around in the pool, I was unable to get off the bottom, that’s how heavy my equipment was 🙂 A half hour later we were finally deemed competent enough to try diving for real, and we exited the pool and walked to the ocean for my first open water dive ever. I would like to say that I took to diving like a fish to water, but that was not the case. On our decent I had a private panic attack (and may have cried just a little bit) because when I sucked in air through the regulator, I would also get a mouth full of water. I had to fight the instinct to pop back up to the surface to clear my regulator, cough, and breath. When I finally calmed down enough to remember how to clear the water from my regulator, and was able to look around my at the reef, I forgot to breath (because when you scuba dive you actually have to suck air into your lungs, it does not happen naturally) which resulted in another small panic attack. About 1/3 of the way into the dive, I got my sea legs, and began to enjoy myself. We saw hundreds of colourful fish, different types of coral, black spiky dangerous looking sea urchins and sea turtles. The sea turtles would just swim around us before continuing on their way. The dive lasted about twenty five minutes, and we reached depths on about 35 feet (a good beginner depth because you do not have to actively decompress on your ascent to the surface). I think I am hooked. I have decided to continue diving with the dive instructor Mike while I am in Hawaii, and earn my dive certification. It has always been one of my life goals to become a certified diver, and I cannot believe that I have the opportunity to pursue it. Dives two and three are on Saturday morning, and dive number four is on Monday at 8 am so that I have enough time to decompress before getting on the plane for Africa.
Africa Trip 