Scuba Diving

So this weekend I finally decided to go for it and get my scuba diving license. I hate planning things, especially for a large group of people. I don't know how I got meddled into being the point person for this activity...probably when nobody else stepped up to do it! The worst is when you have ten "maybes" in the group, so I finally said ok I'm doing it this weekend, regardless of who else does. Lo and behold I had two others join me from the group. We literally got our books on Wednesday and were certified by Sunday!

Shawn, Dan, and I before leaving for the first trip

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get many pictures of underwater. First of all, our dive instructor Greg asked us to refrain from taking pictures, just out of courtesy of making sure we were paying attention to him during our dives. It's interesting how much you can actually learn in the water with only hand gestures! Secondly, without a protective case, my camera can only go up to 5 meters deep. I'll have to look into getting a case for it!

Friday we did our confined pool dives. Like a naive American, I assumed that the Fijian National Aquatic Center, recently built within the last 10 years for the Pacific Games would be an actual facility. How wrong I was when I showed up to pretty much a regular pool. Thank goodness the instructor brought extra sunscreen as all three of us assumed it would be indoors!

National Aquatic Center

Because it was Friday afternoon, there were literally hundreds of Fijian kids everywhere in this pool. Buses of kids kept arriving, most of them for an organized swim practice, but several who were there to swim for fun, and would occasionally bet with each other to see how close they could get to our group without our dive instructor asking them to give us some space :)

Dive theory, check!

We split up our four dives over the weekend, doing two on Saturday and two on Sunday. The weather was gorgeous and perfect for diving, with pretty great visibility both days. How lucky I was to learn amongst Fijian reefs; it was so beautiful and so colorful under the water. I was hoping to see some big sea turtles but we were only fortunate to swim amongst the tropical fish. I felt like I was in Finding Nemo!

Suva Harbor

Suva Yacht Club

Shawn helping load up the equipment

It was so great to be out on the water, reminded me of being out on Grandpa's sailboat on Lake Michigan! This boat was definitely not as nice, just a simple pontoon boat to get us to the reef and back, and had the necessary equipment holding spaces to make sure our tanks wouldn't fall and roll around. There were 6 of us taking the class, the 3 Americans (or as our instructor joked, "colonials") and three other Germans (a husband, wife, and a boy about our age) who are living in Suva for the time being. It was a close call trying to fit all of us with all our equipment on the boat!

Myself, Shawn, and Dan ready for our first dive!

The first dive definitely took some getting used to, although we were grateful to have some more space and depth than what the pool had offered. The deepest we went was only around 14 meters (just under 50 feet) and each dive lasted under an hour. You don't realize how exhausted you get until you're back on the boat. We learned things like what to do if you run out of air, how to put your mask back on underwater, and how to control our buoyancy and depth in the water.

Ready to dive! That's the dive instructor Greg in the background

 What a great experience and a great weekend. Although diving can be quite pricey, I have enjoyed every minute of it so far and can't wait to take advantage of some of the student scuba diving package deals! It'd be a shame not to take advantage of exploring the incredible world underneath the surface in the South Pacific :)

Scuba certified!