{"id":588,"date":"2013-11-14T00:10:20","date_gmt":"2013-11-14T00:10:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thirtythree.org\/projects\/discovertheunknown\/?p=588"},"modified":"2014-01-06T21:27:23","modified_gmt":"2014-01-06T21:27:23","slug":"my-first-time-scuba-diving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thirtythree.org\/projects\/discovertheunknown\/my-first-time-scuba-diving\/","title":{"rendered":"My First Time: Scuba Diving!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"feet<\/a>

The Great Barrier Reef!<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"DSCF3377\"<\/a>

Me and Leigh gearing up!<\/p><\/div>\n

Let\u2019s talk about my first diving experience! In all honesty, I really didn\u2019t think that I\u2019d end up doing it. I was pretty scared, but was persuaded to go to the briefing to hear more about it. I was still unsure after the meeting, but told the instructor I would think about doing it the next day. He said I could get all the gear on and get into the water and test things by submerging close to the boat for free. If I decided to proceed and go further, I would be charged $50. Another gal, Nuwankthika, decided to try it out which helped me make the decision that this was a rare opportunity that I at least needed to try. If I didn\u2019t feel comfortable, then I wouldn\u2019t go any further. Nu and I decided to give it a shot on Saturday at 8am. When the time came, we were each suited up with a lead weighted belt, mask, snorkel, flippers, and strapped on vests with our air tanks. As Leigh (one of the instructors) suited me up, I was reminded of how I felt when I\u00a0was being fitted for bungee\u00a0jumping. The fear started to cloud my brain and I was having a hard time understanding everything he was telling me because I was so focused on what the heck I was actually going to do. The fear wasn\u2019t as intense as when I was about to bungee, but I was very aware that it was still present to some degree.<\/p>\n

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About to submerge…<\/p><\/div>\n

Nu and I jumped into the water along side our instructor Scott and he proceeded to take me under water with him to do some checks. The first check was to make sure I could get any water out of my mask while submerged. Passed. The next check was to be able to remain calm and to continue to breath out if the air respirator got disconnected from my mouth for some reason. Passed. After passing the tests, I could feel Scott leading me further underwater. I started to feel very claustrophobic and the realization that I couldn\u2019t just get up to the surface to breath really freaked me out! I immediately started panicking and signaled to him that I needed to surface. I told him what I was experiencing and started to cry. Crying actually helped me to release the tension and fear that I was feeling. I could actually feel my body needing to cry to get the fear out. After a few tears, laughs and deep breaths, I decided to head back down. Seeing Nu under the water below me being totally fine also helped push me to give it another shot. And I am so glad I did!<\/p>\n

\"DSCF3510\"<\/a>After we released our grip on the rope, Scott wrapped our arms around his and we proceeded to go deeper into the ocean. The next challenge for me was equalizing my ears. As you get deeper, you have to release the pressure build up in your ears or else you experience a lot of pain and it could rupture\u00a0your eardrums. Mine took a while to equalize and I experienced a lot of discomfort, but eventually they released.\u00a0The feeling of being completely surrounded by the sea while still\u00a0breathing was incredible!! We glided through the walls of coral reef and interacted with the fish and other fun creatures. We checked out some anemones, snapped our fingers and watched it retreat back into its hole.\u00a0 We eventually got to separate from Scott and be on our own for a bit. It was so amazing. Kicking around in the sea, admiring the wildlife including some reef sharks, and gazing up at the sparkling surface now and again to put things in perspective. Holy cow, this is so cool! Between all the hand signals and listening to my breath, I was completely marveled at the fact that I was actually scuba diving. Its almost hard to remember exactly what we saw because I was so distracted by just the fact that I was breathing underwater! The experience was phenomenal and I can\u2019t wait to do it again. And to top it all off, I was in the Great Barrier Reef! Holla!<\/p>\n

Magical side note:<\/p>\n

While on my 6th<\/sup> snorkel of the 2-day trip, I had a magical moment with a sea turtle. As it was surfacing, I was able to swim next to it, look into its eyes and touch its shell. It hung around for a minute and I felt like we had a moment! It was a very special one indeed.\u00a0\"DSCF3517\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you ever have the opportunity to try scuba diving, give it a shot! Or even go for your diving certificate! I know I\u2019m considering it now. Scuba diving is such a wonderful experience that I hope more people can be a part of. Fight the fear and do it anyway! \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Let\u2019s talk about my first diving experience! In all honesty, I really didn\u2019t think that I\u2019d end up doing it. I was pretty scared, but was persuaded to go to the briefing to hear more about it. I was still unsure after the meeting, but told the instructor I would think about doing it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thirtythree.org\/projects\/discovertheunknown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thirtythree.org\/projects\/discovertheunknown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thirtythree.org\/projects\/discovertheunknown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thirtythree.org\/projects\/discovertheunknown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thirtythree.org\/projects\/discovertheunknown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/thirtythree.org\/projects\/discovertheunknown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":668,"href":"http:\/\/thirtythree.org\/projects\/discovertheunknown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588\/revisions\/668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thirtythree.org\/projects\/discovertheunknown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thirtythree.org\/projects\/discovertheunknown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thirtythree.org\/projects\/discovertheunknown\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}