A Fun First Scuba Diving Experience

My first time scuba diving ?

Yes Julieanne, I remember it well !!, as you already know, Jessica and I were there as well and we could have made a movie called.....

" Wally World Underwater"

Firstly I remember being the last person to finish my theory exam. Everyone had left the room and a couple of the instructors were trying to figure out how to give me an extra mark so I could pass.

That took half of my lunch break which left me with half an hour to find something to eat (about two miles away) and make a phone call about the new car we were thinking of buying.

I felt so pressured when I got back late and found everyone already kitting up, I went back outside to the car, opened the boot and swore into it for about ten minutes, EVERY swear word I could think of and some new ones I made up on the spot.

I definately remember calling myself a dickhead several times and asking myself what I was doing there.

A guy walking along the footpath heard me and said, "are you alright mate ??." and I replied still yelling into the boot,

"Yes, I bloody well am, that militant dick shrinking bitch is goona GET IT !!!! .......thanks for asking."

The next thing I remember is all of us trying to put our kits together about ten times and this instructor Angelo asking me, "have checked your "O" ring John, have a look to see if it's still there ??"

That was wearing a bit thin after awhile and I nearly said, " No Angelo, I haven't seen my "O" ring since this morning and as long as my bums pointing towards the ground I'm sure it's still there."

Next it was into the pool, well eventually it was into the pool, just walking to the edge with all the gear on, weight belt and all was a bloody nightmare.

I was thinking to myself, "how do people actually get PLEASURE out of this ??

Anyway, finally we were all in, lined up along the side, fourteen of us. Next we were all supposed to descend slowly and sit on the bottom in a circle.

I thought that sounded easy enough,

Some how on the way down I lost my balance, I was sideways, back to front, upside down, tumble turning, fins flying, arms freestroking, grasping for anything to steady myself, (a head, a leg, a hose, (oops) or a shoulder).

By the time I reached the bottom there wasn't ANYONE I hadn't been tangled up with on the way down and I remember quite a few hostile "looks" while we were sitting in the circle.

After flailing around in the middle of the circle like some poor half demented pre historic creature for a few minutes I managed to settle down and move to my spot.

After about ten minutes we got the sign from Tracey (instructor) to go back up. We were down about eight metres and everyone started to ascend, yep you guessed it, except me.

I watched everyone go up one by one until all I could see were thirteen pairs of fins at the surface. I realised I had far too much weight on my belt so I put some air into my bcd. I still couldn't get off the bottom, and started to panic, thinking no one would notice I was missing, or hope I WAS missing.

Because I wasn't thinking straight I didn't think about doing the obvious thing, dropping my weight belt.

I looked up at the other divers again and saw Tracey looking down at me, smiling and giving me the "unbuckle your weight belt sign".

Relieved I went up and from that point on things did gradually get easier.

The following weekend we went down to Edithburg to do our eight open water dives. Most of the dives went well except one where I was using a compass to head out to the buoy. We'd been practicing navigation on the beach, with our compass and our t shirts over our heads so we couldn't cheat. When I tried it in the water some how I swam straight into the jetty nowhere near the buoy.

On our last dive for the weekend, three of us were sitting on the bottom fourteen metres down, all taking turns to do our last two skills. a fin pivot and a controlled emergency ascent.

When I'd finished my last skill we went back down to join the other divers. Tracey came over to me with a big smile on her face, shook my hand and gave me the thumbs up.

I slowly ascended to the bouy where Matt, a Divemaster was waiting and I got the o.k to swim back to the jetty by myself.

Swimming along side the jetty a few poeple looked down at me and I thought to myself, " Yep, I've done it, you're looking at a Qualified Open Water Diver."

Julieanne and I go diving regularly here on the Gold Coast and it's just awesome.

Kit up and let's GO DIVING !!!!

John