About 4 years ago my curiosity won out and I went to a local dive/swim shop in Sacramento. They had a class where you could simply scuba around their pool. No big deal. They put a tank on your back, you put the regulator in your mouth, and then swum (swam?) around their indoor heated pool. It was so easy! I asked the guy if there was more to scuba diving than that, and he said "not much."
Okay, I guess that is an isn't totally true. I signed up for their scuba course from PADI. I forget how many weeks it was. It was self-study of the PADI book and then we meet at the swim center to take quizzes and talk about diving. The course also included "contained" dives, meaning in the pool. We went through all the drills, like how to equalize the pressure in your ears going down, what to do in an emergency, how to put your gear on in the water, how to enter the water, and stuff like that. The finale was an open water dive, meaning in the ocean. After that, you are a certified open water diver.
Up north, the open water dives usually take place in Monterey. But since I was going to the Turks Caicos shortly after I did the quiz/contained dives part of the course, I opted to do the open water dives on vacation in the warm Caribbean waters.
It was sort of a disaster since, okay I'll admit it, I was scared!! The place that chartered the dives with Club Med (yeah, I know, club med) took us for a boat ride that lasted about 45 minutes. The water was choppy and I was afraid of getting sea sick. But I don't get motion sickness, but was afraid anyway. Then the dive instructor didn't seem to give clear direction about what we would be doing.
Step one: enter the water. Check. Step two: start descent. Check. Step three. Chaos! The other people in my group only took the resort class and they didn't really know what they were doing. One person sank, the other guy lost his mask, the dive instructor was swimming around not really knowing how to organize the dive. I managed to hang on to the tow line. That was definitely not what I needed to do to get certified in the open water.
Still, it was my very first ocean dive, and first impression are the lasting ones, right? Wow. The water was so clear. The sun lit up the underwater world like a huge, bright aquarium. There were fish everywhere! I couldn't see them from the boat, but underwater, wow they were everywhere from just under the water's surface to the ocean floor about 100 feet down. A thin barracuda swam (swum?) by. They warned us about sharks, but the reef and nurse sharks are not Jaws. From the depths I saw the unmistakable side-to-side movement of a shark swimming toward me. It was a hammerhead! Now, was that a friendly okay shark or something I should be concerned about? Hmmm, My instincts as lower form of food on the chain kicked in and I kept verrry still. But somehow I think the shark probably knew I was there.
Later that day I did a dive off the beach with another instructor to do at least one required open water dive. As we were doing the drills, a local celebrity showed up. I couldn't have been more excited to see JoJo, the resident wild dolphin that has been hanging around the people in the Turks for about 20 years. As we were sitting on the bottom sand doing drills, JoJo came right up to us, not more than ten feet away, and just sort of stayed and looked at us and we looked at him. This went on for about five minutes. I couldn't tell you who was more fascinated with the other! I was like a little underwater tea party. I was thrilled to have a good look at a dolphin this close in his own environment. My first impression was that he was much larger than what you see from a boat. Also, he managed to stay perfectly still underwater while us humans were moved back and forth by the current. He eventually slowly went to the surface for a sip of air and went on his merry way.
I eventually did my final dive a year later at Scuba Club in Cozumel, Mexico. What a fun little resort! I didn't stay there, just did the dive and got certified.
So far I have only done a couple more dives. One in Oahu, which was much more memorable because of the people I met than what was under the water. And the other time was in the Big Island off of Kona. Again, nothing to write home about. Except, of course, for the amazing and spectacular nighttime giant manta ray dive. Now THAT was remarkable/amazing/awesome/incredible!! And if you are too scared to dive, they offer snorkeling in the area. Nothing, absolutely nothing can compare to 30 or more giant manta beasts swimming within inches of you, and gracefully swooping in a circle at the last minute. It was like an underwater circus, so breathtaking, so exciting. Afterward everyone was starstruck happily chatting about such an amazing experience. If you are on the Big Island, definitely do the manta ray dive!!
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