Scuba Diving
See My Links H Scuba Diving for pics
Well, I’m certified Open Water Diver. Which doesn’t really mean much until I start having to get my advanced Open Water Diver which will give me more skills to enjoy diving. But this is a good start. I really enjoyed learning to dive and actually diving in the open water.
I got my manual on Sunday July 29 and did Ch. 1 for class the next day. I took me four days to get my cert. First two days were classroom work in the morning and diving skills in the pool in the afternoon. Some of the skills you learned are how to put your equipment together: the tank, regulator, BCD and how to check to make sure they are operational. Some of the skills are partially and fully flooding your mask and clearing it. Replacing your mask, take off your regulator and use the octopus (backup regulator). How to handle emergency situations like running out of air in the tank.
Felix Sutter, my instructor, did a great job of explaining and planning the dives. It was fun to scuba in the pool. But I didn’t come here for that.
So on the third day, after classroom work, I headed out to the dive spot called Sanctuary and finally scuba on open water. What an exhilirating experience!!! But I still had to demonstrate the skills that I developed in the pool work and actually do them in open water. I did just fine. I felt comfortable doing the skills and just did most of the work on hovering and fine tuning bouyancy as the tank empties out. Man, it’s like swimming in an acquarium. The marine life in this sanctuary and the other dive spots are awesome!
Most of my dives were at 18 meters depth and lasted for 1hr.
The most dificult thing I had to do was the 300 meter swim with snorkeling gear. I was completely exhausted as the current was stong that afternoon. I did this after the afternoon dive. Man, I’m really out of shape aerobically and yes, physically. hahahahha!
Then the dreaded 10 min. float test. I haven’t done this since High School swim class. I thought I’d never complete this because I was exhausted by that swim. I actually did ok as I floated on my back and just focused on a spot on the coconut tree and thought of good things to eat and not about the time. Ten minutes actually went by fast.
I acutally met someone from wisconsin (here on vacation), he’s from west allis, who was in one of the dive trips to Balicasag Island. Dive spots were Diver’s Heaven and Black forest. Biggest thing on the dive was the large group of Jackfish (Mackrel) and saw two eels and a lone baracuda. Freaking awesome. My first diving buddy was Markus from Switzerland and the divemaster was Eriko from Japan.
I hope to get more chances to dive in the future.
until next time, bahala na…………….
Tags: F 2007 Philippines Trip
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