My First Scuba Diving Experience

It never came to my mind that I would be able to do scuba diving. One of the reasons is I have a water trauma. When I was in grade school, I fell in a huge dam and almost got drowned. I was thinking diving is really not for me. It was not until my friend who’s into diving encouraged me to try it. After a lot of encouragement and procrastination, I've gathered all my courage to do it. 

The schedule was set. We decided to do it on Easter Sunday. I was shaking in anticipation. We started at around 9 am. During the briefing, our diving instructor discussed about the rules. I was so eager to listen and make sure I remember all of it. Oh yeah, I got to remember all of it! Our diving instructor discussed the basic rules as we are just doing the Discover Scuba Diving program.

First rule: Don’t hold your breath.

It’s not normal that you use your mouth for breathing, but you have to practice and have to be comfortable breathing using your mouth just like a normal breathing.

Second rule: Breath slowly.

You have to follow a pattern of breathing. Not too slow and not too fast. 

Third rule: Ascend slowly.

It is very important to go up slowly when diving. Here’s the reason why. In scuba diving, you’re using a compressed air and your body takes extra oxygen and nitrogen. The body uses the oxygen and the nitrogen dissolves in the blood. When you go up, the pressure decreases. If you go up too quickly, the nitrogen won’t have time to clear from your blood and it would create bubbles in your blood which would damage blood vessels. That's scary! :-)

We were also taught about the hand signals, and how to equalize the ear pressure. The equipment where explained. I was so focus on the regulator as this would be the source of my life down under. After hearing all the rules, I was a bit scared but decided. There’s no turning back.

We then changed to our diving gear. We have to practice the skills which should be performed in a swimming pool. We practiced the proper breathing, mask clearing, and regulator clearing. Our instructor was so patient in teaching us until we mastered it.

 

Practicing the skills in a pool

After we mastered all of the skills, it’s time to go to the open water. Surprisingly, I’m not scared anymore. I've gained so much confidence after learning all of the skills. We floated through the sea then I just felt that we’re in the deep already. As we descended, I experienced an ear pain. My friend signaled to do ear equalization. I did ear equalization many times as we go deeper and deeper until it’s gone. When we reached the deep, I saw a man made heart shaped stone with a word “I love you” etched on it. I was then amazed by the fishes with different colors swimming over me.   

As we swam further, I saw corals moved in harmony with the sea. I saw baby fishes taking shelter in a reddish brown coral, a red and brown starfishes, fishes that swam vertically in pairs, and sea urchins with grand black thorns. It was so beautiful and amazing seeing these creatures in their natural habitat. I was so relaxed and found myself enjoying it.

We reached 31 feet deep. After 40 minutes of swimming and taking pictures, my instructor signaled that we have to go up. I didn't realize that we were under the sea for that long. Slowly we ascended. When we reached the surface, I had a big, wide smile and good feeling of fulfillment. Yes, I conquered it! I did it!

With this experience, I realized that there's nothing to be scared of in scuba diving at all. As long as you follow your instructor's instruction and master the skills then you're good to go. It also become clearer to me how important it is to take care of our seas. Oceans are our life support system. If we keep on destroying the corals, putting our trash to the sea, overfishing, there will be less or no fishes and other amazing creatures left for the future generation.

I would like to thank Trek and Dive for this one of a kind experience. If you want to experience scuba diving, you may contact them through their Facebook page.