diving my life away
i am autumn and i am a padi certified open water diver.
i never considered myself to be adventurous. but eric's persistence not to mention being influenced by my papa and ate dawn and marian (who are all divers in our family) made me go through the hell i had to endure during the australia day long weekend last january 26-28.
so there i was, on our first day of our open water diver certification, lugging my colorful polka dots jansport duffel in chowder bay, mosman with my brand spanking new mask, snorkel and booties (you were required to have these at least, everything else you can rent) filled with thoughts on how good this long weekend will be, or so i thought.
you will NEVER realize how heavy the gears are until you have them strapped to your body (i have this love-hate relationship with my cylinder). when we went to bohol after christmas (yes, eric and i were able to spend the christmas holidays in manila...more on that on a different post), my papa and sisters went diving and ALL they have to do was wiggle their way in their wetsuits and hop on the boat. NOT IN SYDNEY. you do pretty much everything by yourself. i was telling my ate that kulang na lang they make us fill the cylinder with air! i was also expecting the confined water dives will be in a pool but not with plunge diving, confined water dives are actually in the shallow part of the bay which made the lessons more challenging (you have the current to work with). in addition, ALL our dives were shore entry dives not the boat dives you normally see where the diver just jumps off the boat. so imagine lugging all the equipment with you from the dive centre to the bay. i tell you, when i woke up the next day, my body was aching all over.
it definitely was a pretty intense weekend. lessons usually run for two weekends in a row. ours was three whole days in a row! we were there in chowder bay at 8:30am and lessons would finish at around 5:30-6:00pm. imagine that! it was a combination of classroom sessions and confined water and open water dives with quizzes and exams (by the way, eric and i both got 100% on the final written exam :-P).
i was in constant communication with my ate updating her on how the lessons were going and she told me na puro reklamo daw ako. don't i have any good thing to say about my experience? all i can say is that on the last day, AM GLAD I DID IT. it definitely was an achievement for me. on the first day all i can say to myself was, what was i thinking? what did i get myself into? but they were right, it does get better. the second day was better than the first and the third day was better than the second.
we have been told that diving in tropical waters can never be compared to diving in sydney. but i was already in awe when i saw a puffer fish, a big crab, a seahorse, a ray and the highlight of my diving career so far, a fairy penguin when i was underwater in chowder bay. i can just imagine how wonderful it will be to go diving in queensland and conquer the great barrier reef (which we are already planning) not to mention going to all these amazing dive sites in the philippines on our next trip back.
was it worth it? it definitely was.
what made the experience more special was the fact that eric and i were in this together.
we have been back to chowder bay for a guided trip. this time, no more lessons, no more quizzes nor exams. just enjoyable diving.
who knows where we'll find ourselves diving next? the sea's the limit...
i never considered myself to be adventurous. but eric's persistence not to mention being influenced by my papa and ate dawn and marian (who are all divers in our family) made me go through the hell i had to endure during the australia day long weekend last january 26-28.
so there i was, on our first day of our open water diver certification, lugging my colorful polka dots jansport duffel in chowder bay, mosman with my brand spanking new mask, snorkel and booties (you were required to have these at least, everything else you can rent) filled with thoughts on how good this long weekend will be, or so i thought.
you will NEVER realize how heavy the gears are until you have them strapped to your body (i have this love-hate relationship with my cylinder). when we went to bohol after christmas (yes, eric and i were able to spend the christmas holidays in manila...more on that on a different post), my papa and sisters went diving and ALL they have to do was wiggle their way in their wetsuits and hop on the boat. NOT IN SYDNEY. you do pretty much everything by yourself. i was telling my ate that kulang na lang they make us fill the cylinder with air! i was also expecting the confined water dives will be in a pool but not with plunge diving, confined water dives are actually in the shallow part of the bay which made the lessons more challenging (you have the current to work with). in addition, ALL our dives were shore entry dives not the boat dives you normally see where the diver just jumps off the boat. so imagine lugging all the equipment with you from the dive centre to the bay. i tell you, when i woke up the next day, my body was aching all over.
it definitely was a pretty intense weekend. lessons usually run for two weekends in a row. ours was three whole days in a row! we were there in chowder bay at 8:30am and lessons would finish at around 5:30-6:00pm. imagine that! it was a combination of classroom sessions and confined water and open water dives with quizzes and exams (by the way, eric and i both got 100% on the final written exam :-P).
i was in constant communication with my ate updating her on how the lessons were going and she told me na puro reklamo daw ako. don't i have any good thing to say about my experience? all i can say is that on the last day, AM GLAD I DID IT. it definitely was an achievement for me. on the first day all i can say to myself was, what was i thinking? what did i get myself into? but they were right, it does get better. the second day was better than the first and the third day was better than the second.
we have been told that diving in tropical waters can never be compared to diving in sydney. but i was already in awe when i saw a puffer fish, a big crab, a seahorse, a ray and the highlight of my diving career so far, a fairy penguin when i was underwater in chowder bay. i can just imagine how wonderful it will be to go diving in queensland and conquer the great barrier reef (which we are already planning) not to mention going to all these amazing dive sites in the philippines on our next trip back.
was it worth it? it definitely was.
what made the experience more special was the fact that eric and i were in this together.
we have been back to chowder bay for a guided trip. this time, no more lessons, no more quizzes nor exams. just enjoyable diving.
who knows where we'll find ourselves diving next? the sea's the limit...
posted by autumn @ 4:03 PM
1 Comments:
Hi Autumn! Congratulations for getting your padi certification. I would love to dive someday. I love snorkeling too. I enjoy the calmness different fishes and corals.
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