Scuba Diving

Scuba Diving
On Febuary 20 I spent money and did my first ever scuba dive on 4 mile reaf. I think the biggest thing to get used to is having to breath through an aparatus, and under water. I have used similair gear before when I took my H2S course, and it wasn't a very big leap to do it under water. Anyway we got suited up flippers, tank and all and got in the water. There were 3 of us rookies out on this short 5 meter dive, along with a certified dive instructor in the case that we got ourselves in trouble. We are all arranged around this down rope attached to the boat slowly starting to decent towards the bottom. At about 2 feet below the surface the girl panicked and shot up like a cork towards the surface. Her brave boyfriend followed her quickley and was instantly reminded of the earlier lesson given to us by the big ugly bugger (captain of the boat) of never blasting to the surface without looking up as his head smashed into the bottom of the boat. The dive instructor sensing disaster on the door step followed the young couple. I was left forgoten alone 2 feet below the surface, the boat drifting over my head, the shadow cutting out the sun, floating and calmly watching the fish swim below my feet. I would love to say that a lonely dolphin swam up to me and I touched his nose, but that would have been to wonderful. But what I can say is that after about 2 minutes of floating I was tapped on the shoulder by my dive instructur, not wearing her regulator, looking rather stressed, who finaly came to get me. She pointed towards the surface, to a point away from the hull that loomed over me. After reaching the surface we grabbed hold of the back of the boat and I waited for my travel comapnions to get up the nerve to try a second decent. (For those of you who never have scuba dived before, and wonder why I didn't follow on my own, the reason is this. First, I was told in case something hapens to stay where I was and calmy breath, don't come to the surface as you might hit the boat. Second the vest we use holds air that can be added or removed like a balast tank in a submarine, and the dive instructor had removed more air from mine than anyone else as I was decending first.) When my head appeard at the surface I heard the captain say "Ah, there's the third one." What I missed up on the surface was this:

dive instructor to girl "Are you ok, just breath for a while and when you are ready we will try again."
Captain to boyfriend "I told you not to swim to the surface, how is your head by the way."
Dive instructor to boyfriend "Did you hit your head?"
Captain to dive instructor "Oh ya, I felt the thunk through my feet."
1 minute pass in which Captain and Dive Instructor talk down girl until...
Captain to dive instructor "Where is the third one?"
Dive Instructor to knowone in particular "Oh Shit"

At which point she came down in such a hurry that she didn't even put her breathing regulater in her mouth, she was holding her breath the whole time she was retreiving me. After several minutes on the surface, of which I swam around killing time and waiting for my diving companions to be ready. (Apparently she wasn't to worried about me to much, though she did seem to keep an odd eye on me maybe just to make sure I didn't get to far.) Eventually we once again returned to the down rope and made it all the way to the bottom. This is when the real fun begins, I have to admit I love diving, swiming around on the bottom with the fish and other wonderful things. Rock formations along with lots of vegitation. Though I have to admit I may have slightly annoyed the Dive Instructor as I may have been a little over zelous and vanished from her view within the first 38 seconds on the bottom, when she turned around to check how the couple were doing I may have dropped into a crevis between 2 rocks. When we met up moment later she may have made a gesture that may have meant that I wasn't to get beyond her eyesight again, and would greatly appreciate me staying behind her. That or she wanted me to see if a labster was attacking her butt, but I think the first one is closer. I still had fun doing under water arial acrobatiks and such, saw some lobsters, touched some sea erchands. I am so doing this on Nigilo reaf. Anyway I had a great time on the bottom lots of fish and such, but I only have a disposible camera that I won't develop for a while until I finish off the film.