I'm a Scuba Diver!

you guessed it

I'M A SCUBA DIVER!!!!

I grew up in a family that spends weeks/months at the beach at a time camping

We were always in/on/around the water

Over the years, I've gotten scared of the ocean, I started not liking the big waves. Then I started hating boats. Then I just avoided the water

Last summer I went for two swims, one of those was snorkling

Two! In three weeks!

So in January ( my summer ) husband asked me to think about doing a Scuba course

My first reaction was '' NO WAY " - I had started giving up on water/the ocean

But I thought about it, and thought about it, and thought about it

My response was still a big fat " NO "

Then a special came up on the course and I signed up

HUH ???!!!???

I was terrified, but I endured it

I did all the skills in a swimming pool first, which involved

taking the regulator ( the thing you breath out of ) out of my mouth and throwing it over my shoulder behind me, retrieving it, and putting it back in my mouth

I took my mask right off in the pool ( which is 3 meters deep ) putting it back on and clearing the water out 

My worst one was call the CESA - you take a deep breath at 6-9 meters deep, and then blow bubbles out while heading to the surface

You have to learn a lot of underwater signals 

Thumbs up does not mean ' cool ' or ' awesome '

It means ' lets go to the surface '

If you make a circle with your first finger and thumb, that means ' okay '

So enough rambling, here are the pics from my course out in the ocean - where you have to do all the scary skills again but deeper!

Here's me getting ready to go under 

regulator removal

mask removal

one of the main rules of scuba diving is to take a buddy, so that if you get in trouble, there's someone down there with you to help out

He's me and my course buddy, Mike

Here's our group, off way to the right trying not to be in the photo is our instructor

and here's me again but qualified to dive having passed my course!



Hurray!!!