After the last adventure of trying to stay above the water, today I tried to go under.
My first attempt at scuba diving started with a boat trip to Manukan island. Ok, the thing to start with was checking the top 10 scuba fins.
Approaching Manukan Island
I was greeted by Mark, a charismatic man from England, with West Ham United tattoos where he felt the need to have them.
A show of hands revealed I was one of 5 who did not have a PADI licence, the other 6 people in our group did. So I was with the other 4, which were 2 couples from Hong Kong and we was placed with Halid, who spoke good english and made the word ‘relax’ turn into a 10 second epic event every time he said it.
Halid told me to put on the wetsuit on board the boat once we stopped. Our conversation went like this:
Halid: Here, put this wetsuit on
AR: What, here?
Halid: Yes
AR: Take off my trousers and everything?
Halid: Yes
AR: [Pauses and stares blankly]Halid : er, you are wearing underwear arn’t you?
AR: [Pauses for a bit more to get reaction]
AR: Yes I amHalid : [sigh of relief]
I wasn’t expecting to strip down on a boat without a changing room, anyone else wanting to do this should be prepared, i.e. don’t turn up commando, preferably have a swimming outfit of some kind on underneath your outer clothes.
Anyway, kitted up we all fell off the boat into the water. I struggled at first getting used to breathing through a tube. We went over to the beach to learn some basic skills. The first was dipping our heads in and learning to breathe. It’s probably the most unnatural thing ever to go under water and breathe in. Previous experience of being underwater has proven this to be a bad idea. Didn’t do it when I was a featus, see no reason to start 23 years later.
The tip from Halid was ‘relaxxxxxxxxxx’ and indeed that was the key, but it took me a while for it to sink in. Next was kneeling and breathing at that depth. Again I struggled, to add to the pain, it was over shingle, and on my sunburnt knee that was not the most pleasent thing, but worse was getting stones trapped in the rubber part of the fin that rubbed against my (again sunburnt) foot.
Having fins on in shallow water makes moving very hard I was at the mercy of the currents, which was frustrating. After that was the skills of taking out the regulator underwater and putting it back where it should be in the mouth. This wasn’t so hard, but I did fail to retrieve it on my 2nd attempt which meant I actually drowned.
I crawled up near onto the shore to get the painful stones out of my flipper, sitting down my spare regulator (all diving tanks have 2, in case of emergency) was on the floor and some sand went in, which jammed it and released air. Halid couldn’t fix it there so told me to relax again and took 2 others out deeper as they were doing ok.
Diving instruction is second to teaching English as the most common way a traveller can make money whilst on the move so I was considering it, but that idea was quickly going out of my head at this moment in time.
Whilst relaxing, a strange long blue fish with a long nose kept circling me, and his 100 fishy friends! It cheered me up a bit, and gave me a reason why people do this.
15 minutes of relaxing later Halid called me over and took me out deeper where the others went. he held my tank as we went under, this time it was for real.
Again annoyingly due to the nature of scuba diving, I hadn’t any pictures of the actual event itself either.
Mark, Halis and me striking a pose
After floating a bit in water then going under, my breathing settled and I got more used to it. Halid still was right behind me keeping an eye out and pointing out interesting fish to me. Most of the coral looks brown underwater, the reason why is because the colour red is absorbed underwater to the naked eye, a camera lens still picks up red naturally though.
The water was nice and clear so easy to see things, I started to like diving at this point in time I am happy to report. Also being out in the sea doesn’t have the problems such as sand in flippers.
After that first dive, we all got back on the boat and went further round the island to another spot. This time we had a lot longer underwater as we knew the basics.
Halid decided me and Venus (one of the Hong Kong girls) were the weakest so went down with us 2 at first and let the others follow, despite protests from the other Hong Kong girl. About 30 seconds in and it was clear I was much more comfortable and went off on my own and Halid just assisted both the girls instead. Me and the other 2 Hong Kong guys followed behind. This was a lot more fun and everything started making more sense now.
After getting used to things, we went for lunch, which was pre packed and basic. There is a lot of monitor lizards on the island scrounging for food from the tourists and chasing each other, they move slowly in general but don’t have a problem in picking up the pace if food is involved.
Monitor lizard
After lunch, a few people pulled out for the final dive and wanted to stay on the beach. This time we went much further out to a different island and dived just before we reached that. There was a lot more coral in this area and it was better looking too. I saw a couple of jelly fish which I gave a wide berth too as well as a few different fishes and I think an eel. There certainly is a lot underwater and just to think most of it hasn’t even been discovered yet. So I now have 3 dives under my belt and think I’ll do my PADI licence at a later date, the option of being a dive instructor is still very much possible :-)
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Well done wish I could be there , sounds great fun I have to make do with aqua fit always scared of going under water.
Fantastic!
Hahaha pauses for more of a reaction, that is so like you! :D