Scuba Steve

As a note, I don't want the nickname Scuba Steve to stick; however, today it was rather apropos. Today was SCUBA DAY! And it was AWESOME.

As you saw in the last blog, I finished it around 2:30am and then went to bed b/c I was utterly exhausted. (Turns out dancing is quite tiring! huh.) Well, the next morning I woke up...early. Alarm went off at 6, rolled out of bed out of need not desire at 6:05. And off we went. We got to the scuba place right on time, and drove over to a pool to begin. The morning segment started off with us swimming 200 meter and then treading water for 10 minutes. Seemingly harmless? No, it kicked my butt. Then we suited up in scuba gear and did various tasks. We practiced falling into the pool, and using flippers, and floating close to the bottom of the pool (buoyancy testing). But by far the most difficult task was clearing our masks. In the event that the mask mal-functions or leaks somehow, we needed to know how to get the water out of it ... while under water. So we practiced blowing the water out with our nose. Then (as if that was too easy) we had to take off our mask, put it back on, and then clear all the water out. Seeing (pun :) as I use contacts, I had to do it with my eyes closed. That was a test of my memory more than anything because once I started I couldn't open my eyes to see the instructors signals. But it went alright, and I didn't lose a contact! Score! Now, if some fish decides to steal my mask, and I manage to get it back, I will know how to clear the water out! ;)

Then we had lunch. Noteable thing about lunch: I had Vegemite. Vegemite is a spread that many Aussies and Kiwi like to put on bread. I suggests not trying it. It's bitter and that's about all. Rather distasteful too. But now I can say that I've tried it!

Afternoon session was AWESOME! We drove to a reef for our first real dive! We got into the water at low tide and scuba'd around the edge of a reef for about 30 minutes - which actually seemed like about 10 minutes! I saw a giant Groper fish (yes 'groper', not 'grouper') He was at least 30 inches long and 18 tall, and bright, bright blue! And we got to pet him, because he liked us because we fed him a sea urchin. (He demolished half of it in one bite! and it was pretty large) We also saw various sized fish and several schools. There were so many fish! Before we went in, another instructor was coming out and said that there were more fish today than he could remember seeing there ever before. I can see why! We all did very well and had a blast! We finish up our course on Friday. So in one week I will be officially Scuba Certified! And that's for life! Even if I never go scuba diving again, though, I feel like the dives we're doing for this training are totally worth the cost! That's the cool thing about learning in Oz, even the practice dives are amazing! I was wavering a little yesterday but now I am so thankful I chose to get certified! Thanks Pops!