I have always wondered and marvelled at people who went scuba diving. One of my inspiration was this Japanese girl I used to like, who dived and had this photo taken with her and this massive fish very close to her. Everytime I thought about Scuba Diving, that photo that I saw at her place creeps into my mind. Anyway, that was well over 3-4 years ago. It wasn’t until Darren challenged me during the recent ski trip that I got off my butt and take it on. The deal is that I get my Open Water licence, so that when he next comes to Australia sometime next year, we can go diving up at the Great Barrier Reef. It’s almost an embarrasment that I lived in Queensland so long, and has never been to the Great Barrier Reef!!
Anyway, I chose Abyss Diving Centre at Ramsgate to learn diving from. They are a small family-run business, with Peter being the owner. If you have seen the shop, you would have easily thought it’s a cheap, dodgy little shop. But, it turns out the people are great! Rob Anthony is my instructor (With Carl leading another group). There were 3 other learners in my group, one of them is a girl who ended being my ‘buddy’ (a person that helps me dive). Kathy, I think, is her name. Her reason to join this course, is exactly the same as mine! She also has friends that already knew how to dive, and she’s coming here, so that she can later go diving with them!
Anyway, the 1st day was less exciting. We were driven to a nearby public swimming pool, and basically spent the day learning some basic underwater skills. It wasn’t the skills that was interesting, I was more excited about the amazing array of gear a Scuba Diver has to wear! A BCD, a tank, wetsuit, mask, snorkel, weights, fins, just to name a few. My first attempt at breathing underwater was surprising successful and easier than I thought! The ‘hissing’ sound when you breath definitely reminds me of ‘Darth Vader’ from Star Wars. Besides that, it feels totally weird to only breath from your mouth. But soon, I got used to it. Lunch was simple bread roll, and pumpkin soup. I definitely felt drained after the mid-day. But, Rob promised that today will be the most exhaustive day. Real scuba diving is ‘relaxing’, as he claimed.
Overall, I went home a very happy and looking forward to tomorrow’s ocean dives!
