Okay, so imma be real with ya'll. I'm lowkey terrified of diving. I usually always have problems with my ears and I'm scared my brain is gonna pop. Two past experiences lead me to this level of terror. I will now explain:
Okay so when I first got my Open Water certification, before I had even entered the pool, this guy goes to jump into the pool like he was jumping off a boat and his tank literally went into his head and it started bleeding everywhere because he just cracked his head open. Like I didn't even get in the water yet and already someone was almost dead (okay so that might be a little bit of an exaggeration, but the guy did crack his head wide open). Obviously he shouldn't have looked down (because ya know, GRAVITY) and maybe his tank was a bit too high to start with, but still. They're lucky I completed my certification.
Then when I was getting my Advanced certification, I might've had an ear infection while diving. Which is a big no-no. Okay, so not maybe, I totally did. But I took the yucky medicine for a whole two weeks before I went and it was supposed to be gone, and I couldn't just reschedule my dives (well, I probably could but then I wouldn't be with my other Beach Patrol-ers). Anyways, so I went diving anyways and of course it totally killed my ears. But then on like our third dive I had blood coming out of everywhere. I was coughing it up; it was coming out of my nose; it was even coming out of the sides of my mask so it looked like it was coming out of my ears bc it was that bad. I thought my brain exploded and I was gonna die because I went diving with an ear infection. They're very lucky (well I'm very lucky) that I didn't start balling as soon as I saw red. I saw my destiny all right, that destiny was death. My heart spilled onto the floor and I definitely thanked God my brain was still part of me (I Saw Red lyrics skillfully adapted to fit my situation; thank you, Warrant, for being one of my obsessions). But anyways, the instructors were like "dude it's just a nose bleed, calm down", but I've never had a nose bleed before in my life so how was I to know? They also said that at the depth of recreational diving it's actually super duper difficult aka pretty much impossible for my brain to explode and for death to occur. So that comforts me.
But yeah so anyways, I always gotta give myself a nice pep talk before diving (usually for a full week-3 days before actually) and Heaven Knows (by the Pretty Reckless) needs to be played a couple million times, but ya know, I just substitute it for Cherry Pie. Then once I'm down there I'm totally fine and am one with the fishies and life is good. It's just the getting there part.
Strangely enough, this time I was not anxious and ready to die before the dive. Maybe it's because my last couple dives have been cancelled due to weather (eh hm, HONDURAS. CAYMAN. I'm lookin at you, ya awfuls). Maybe it's because, like I said, I have been looking forward to diving in Australia for FOUR YEARS. Either way, I totally appreciate that I was totally calm the whole time.So I had to walk to the dive shop. (lol long enough background introduction, right? Time to move on to the actual story.) It was in town, a couple streets away from the main section of town. So like since I had to walk there and walking practically kills me I went early and got a smoothie and still ended up being early, but it's okay because if you're not 15 minutes early, you're late.
So I got all my paperwork and stuff situated, then they (the dive shop workers) got my tank and set it up with the equipment for me. I brought my own mask and snorkel because I heard the snorkeling was great (planned on doing that during the beach days but it was wayyyy to rough), so I used my pink mask and snorkel and was awarded pink flippers as well. I love matching!
It was a dive with me, a girl from London who would be my dive buddy, a guy from France, a guy from the shop to be his dive buddy, and a guy from Sweden as the guide. Nice small group, but we shared the boat with a group of new divers. Oh, a boat. Momentary panic quickly subsided when they said we would not be jumping off the boat to enter the water, but simply falling back off the boat (as if that's any better). I never even learned how to do that, but thankfully it was really easy and the guy said I did perfect. & I didn't die so that's obviously a good thing (if you think it's not, get off my blog right now, you jerk).
Yay! Time to dive in Australia! How exciting! We go down about 13/14 meters, and my ears are totally fine. Like no problems at all. Like the airplane hurt them way worse. Thinking back now, maybe it's because I was so calm and had no inner thoughts of death. But also maybe it's just that I wasn't sick and the water was warm and clear and almost perfect. Either way, yay for me.
Unfortunately, every positive comes with a negative (at least in my life, but I'm pretty certain it's that way for the whole universe, yin yang and such). In this case, it meant I was breathing A LOT. Usually I'm down there and I breathe so little people ask me if I'm okay. Like I do not go through air. This was my 11th dive and people usually think I'm like a profession based upon my breathing. Not this time. It was like I couldn't get enough air. Fortunately, my dive buddy was having the same issue so when I was out so was she. We lasted 39 minutes, and the maximum time was only 50 minutes, so it really wasn't that bad, just the fact that I got that low is mentally horrible for me. I thought it was because I was like super thirsty so I was drinking the air like the water bottle when we got back on the boat, but my dive buddy (yeah sorry, I don't know her name. Maybe Amelia? Is that a British name? eh, idk) brought up the point that the current was extremely strong and we therefore had to work a lot harder while underwater. This is a very valid point that is probably the reason why. My pink flippers, although super cute because they totally brought my pink gear together, were like barely an extension of my feet. I don't know how they even counted as flippers, but they definitely did not help my swimming, so I was working super overtime trying to stay with the group and not drift away. (Sorry to disappoint, I don't feel like making any drift away references here; lucky you.) This is also why, if you watch my video (WHICH YOU ALL SHOULD - it's on my Facebook now; it's too large to post to Blogger because sometimes Blogger sucks) I'm like flailing about like a drowning animal rather than scuba diving all nice and neat and hands folded and such like I'm supposed to, because I had to legit fight the current. Considering I had to come up early but also I did stay with the group on my time down there, I'm not sure who won. I'd say it was a draw.Okay, let me take a sec to mention one totally real and critical thing: the corals legit are dying. Like right now the big thing is the whitening of the coral of the Great Barrier Reef. Well, I wasn't in the GBR and this coral wasn't white (yet) but it was pretty colorless. I'm not sure if it's usually colorless in this area, but up in the GBR I remember such vibrant colors that if I go back in June and it's all white, I seriously might cry. So like it's a real issue and something needs to be done to prevent the dying of all the coral.
Okay, back to my dive. Besides colorless coral, I did see some colorful fish (the most vibrant being blue). I also saw Marlin (Nemo's dad) lookin for his kid (aka I saw some clownfish). There were some jellyfish, pufferfish, and lionfish as well, but I actually got really excited over the turtle I saw. I see turtles all the time and this wasn't a big turtle, so not sure why it was so pleasing, but it was.
Guess what? I SAW A SHARK! Okay, I admit, in the Caribbean I do see nurse sharks sometimes (like more often than you'd think based upon how hype I get at any mention of sharks) while snorkeling in the islands. (One specific time comes to mind - the time I realized I was not going to law school. Okay so like I was totally set on being a lawyer, right? Maritime of course because hello, addicted to the ocean. But like then we went on this snorkeling trip off one of the Caribbean islands [maybe Grand Turk?] and the boat driver was like "yeah I went to law school, got my degree and now I'm living the life driving a boat in the Caribbean" and I was like "woah I'm so not wasting all that money and time to get a law degree when it would probably have me end up just like this guy - totally not using my degree playing in the Caribbean" so then I decided to not go to law school, and that's when I saw some nurse sharks while snorkeling.) So anyways, I saw a leopard shark! It was really small and hiding in some coral so it wasn't really exciting. Also I thought sharks had to keep swimming or else they die? Well this guy was either dead or barely swimming. There were a few other sharks that were much more alive and swimming that the guide kept pointing out (or attempting to), but try as I might I couldn't find them. So that was kinda frustrating now that I think about it, but oh well. At least I got to see one.Then, as you know, I had to come up 10 minutes early due to lack of air. The boat driver said I could snorkel in the water if I wanted while I waited, but I was like almost dehydrated and very tired of fighting the current, so I just climbed back on board and gladly accepted a water. After we made it back to the dive shop, I filled out my dive log and started my walk back to the house for my leftover pizza and bed.
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Until next time,
xoxo,
Tasha
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