RickInOz

Last Friday we completed the most important part of my introduction to scuba diving. Once the weather broke we went to Noarlunga and, after hiring equipment, went down to the jetty to get in the water. I didn’t realise how much effort just goes into the preparation, but it took longer to get ready than to do the actual dive. Since you are relying on the air cylinder and delivery system to stay alive underwater, it has to go through a “cockpit” check before you can use it.

It was a little cold jumping into the water, but the temperature was forgotten with the excitement of my introduction to open water diving. It is a very strange feeling as your face goes below the surface. The instinct is to hold your breath, but is exactly the opposite of what you are supposed to do. So after becoming acclimatised to the new experience of being able to breathe while underwater, we descended.

I was surprised how much wildlife there was so close to the coast. Not long after getting down to the sea bed we readily swam close to many schools of fish of varying species. This was a very novel experience for me being able to touch fish in the wild. We then swam around the reef getting to see a variety of different types of marine life.

The hardest aspect of diving I found was adjusting your buoyancy. This normally isn’t a problem on the surface as you want to float and the human body will do so naturally. However, when scuba diving you want to sink, but in a controlled manner. A diver carries weights and has an air jacket, but the most precise adjustment I discovered was from adjusting the depth of your breath. In other words, if you take a big breath in you have a larger volume of air in your chest and become more buoyant. To go down you simply breathe out and then take shallow breaths from then on. I suppose this is a matter of experience and after a few more dives I’ll get the hang of it. The instructor and my sister looked effortless, and I was a little jealous of their ease, so hopefully with some more underwater hours I’ll get the hang of it.

On balance it was a great experience and one I am keen to repeat. All I need is a few more sessions to get my “Open Water” certificate. Then I can dive whenever and wherever.