My First Dive Trip

So, it had been 3 months in the planning and I had finally done it. I am a certified PADI diver although it didn't come without a bit of pain. Ok, maybe not 3 months. Couple of weeks before we were due to go out on the boat trip, I thought I was not going to be diving as I had run out of weekends to do the course before the trip and the instructor still hadn't told us when we were doing our pool and theory session. We ended up doing this in the week we were due out on the boat. Best way I guess, that way we would still remember what we had to do once in the sea.

It was a painful week as we had a book AND a DVD to get through on top of a busy week at work and the pool sessions and all other lifey stuffy. The theory bit was a murder. Life's too busy to be sitting down reading and learning from a book. The DVD was even worse, I kept falling asleep everytime I turn it on and it's a good 3-hr DVD!

So, after all our pool sessions over and done with, Friday came and we're all set to leave work on the dot at 5.30pm. There were about 15 of us. Needless to say the drinking spirits were on a high! As soon as we got on the boat we got our beers from our special cooler and got on the sun deck to lounge. It's a pretty big boat and suprisingly spacey for the number of people on the boat.

We set off at about 8pm after waiting for a few late-comers. Tsk tsk! Dinner was served and we were away. After dinner we were asked to check our equipment and make sure everything fits. Here's my equipment - and my beer!! :P

By about 9pm, we had already set up home next to our beer cooler and the party had begun. The vodkas and JD's all came out and everyone were on a high.

By about 11pm I was well and truly pissed. The pic says it all....

From here until my third dive, there were no pics on my camera. I had gone to bed about 2am on the first night, having drunk half a litre of vodka and a few beers. My first dive ever was at 10am the next day. I thought I would be alright. Boy, was I wrong! Hangovers are normally pretty mild for me. But put me on a boat, I was rotten as hell. I threw up rather comically before the first dive. Although it was comical at the time. My instructor was nagging me 'I told you not to drink so much' What is he, my dad?!?!

But the first dive went pretty well. We were in the Tioman Marine Park. Not a lot to see, sandy bottom and a fake wreck. We had to concentrate on doing our skills right. I was ok in the water. As soon as I surfaced I was feeling ill and seasick again. Needless to say I threw up before my second dive. All of my breakfast and lunch. Second dive was also all sorts of skills testing which went well. I was feeling fine by dinner but learnt my lesson and stayed off anything alcoholic!

Our third dive was a leisure dive as there was a mild current so we wouldn't have been able to stay still long enough to do any skills. We went to the dive site on a rubber dinghy and I must say, trying to get back on the rubber dinghy is no glamour school stuff. They literally yank you onto the boat and you fall flat on your face! But the water was beautiful and visibility was a good 10m. I should've read up on the fishes we might see. Saw a few things but didn't really know what I was looking at. My instructor shone his torch on a moray eel hiding in the rocks and I didn't even know I was looking at one!! I cut my legs on the corals pretty badly though, still learning to control the buoyancy and stuff.

Our last dive was the most fun although visibility was only about 1m and we had a few final skills to get through. At one point my dive buddy lost me and there I was in the middle of the ocean not being able to see beyond a metre and wondering what I should do. All I can think of was how to do the 3min safety sto without a watch on me if I had to ascend on my own. Luckily after about 5mins my instructor found me and we were away.

I thought I'd done pretty well to get the certificate considering I was feeling pretty rotten on the first day. OK, self-inflicted, I know. Thank god they didn't stop me from getting into the water and just got on with it.

So here I am, now officially a diver. Before this trip I had planned to doing some travelling once a month. Now I think I'll just do my travelling in the water. Diving is just so much fun and I felt very comfortable indeed in the water... probably until I see a shark one day. But for now, the next trip will have to be at the end of June. Don't think I can leave it for much longer than that. But I've heard that we may have enough people to charter the whole boat to ourselves in September. Now that's gonna be a trip not to be missed! I shall certainly have a fresh bottle of vodka on the boat with me!! ;p