RickInOz

Water Baby

Posted on Wednesday 26th March 2008

Life is about trying new experiences and activites and today was a first for me. As I mentioned earlier, we had organised a scuba diving session. My sister is a qualified dive master and was keen to have a dive in the clear waters off the coast of Australia. As I had never tried diving before and was keen to spend time with her, I elected to have a go too.

The first step was a training course. After discovering my credentials the instructor cut the physiology lecture very short! Then we went through to their pool for the practical part. The instructor was patient and enthusiatic and before I knew it we were in the water and getting to grips with the equipment. There is a lot to learn in a short time, not least overcoming the instinct to hold your breath while underwater. Fortunately I cottoned on quickly and found most of the safety drills straightforward.

For anyone who has not tried suba diving I would encourage them to have a go. As a reasonably strong swimmer I like being in the water, however it was very liberating to be able to stay under the surface without having that nagging requirement to come up for air. The hour in the pool sped by and before I knew it the instructor said I was ready to try it for real in the sea.

Unfortunately the weather was playing up a bit and the sea was too rough to make diving safe for a novice like me, which was a shame as I had definitely caught the bug even with the short exposure. To compensate for this bad luck the instructor also lives in North Adelaide and his house is only a couple of hundred metres from ours. We have provisionally arrange to try again on Friday as the weather should be more favourable.

Although not qualified to dive alone, I am certified to go in the sea with an instructor or supervisor, so there is nothing stopping us going more often if I enjoy Friday as much as I am expecting to. So here in all its glory it is:

scuba certificate