We're diving at a place called Fisherman's Divers. Josie's sister Michelle got certified here last year and highly recommended it. The first day was basically just cheesy (but funny) instructional videos. Kinda like the jury duty one. The second day started off with a few more videos in the morning, a quiz, then we finally got our feet wet.
Our instructor, Mazlan, was really cool ... He reminded me of Brian. He was co-owner of the dive shop and has been diving for about 10 years I think (but everyone on the sland dives).
There's also Pequi, a guy from Spain who's doing the same SE Asia travel. He's learning with us. He's a pretty funny guy. His real name is Jesus so when we saw all our names on the board, we felt safe because we had the Son of God diving with us (although being in a Muslim country ...). Pequi is short for pequeno, which means small in Spanish, but he's not so small.
Breathing with that regulator for the first time was weird. You feel this cool air filling your lungs and it sounds like Darth Vadar ... but with bubbles on the exhale.
After gearing up, we walked into the ocean. The gear was heavy ... a good 30 to 40 pounds (12 to 18 kilos) on your back ... but Josie's pack is much heavier. Breathing underwater is like ... like ... breathing underwater. I dnt know how to relate it anything else. Maybe the first time the Wright Brothers flew in their plane or when I made that 20 foot snowboard jump ...
After a few safety checks, we went for a quick dive about 30 feet (10m) deep. When I used to go surfing, not being able to see that I was maybe 50 feet (15m) above the sea floor in that dirty, muddy swamp Huntington Beach, was actually a bit comforting, but today was AMAZING!!
We were still close to the shore, so it wasn't as corally colorful, but I saw schools of hundreds of fish swimming above me, crazy plants that look alive, and a huge, ugly sea slug. Some of the fish would swim up to me and look direcly at me.
It's a completely indescribable feeling ... like a baby swimming around in it's mother's womb full of marine life.
Yeah, fish and plants came out of Lindsay when Yuji was born. Same same as your experience.
ReplyDeleteI posted stuff in meter because I thought Kiyoko would be reading my blog, but I don't think she even looked at it once
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