Officially PADI Diver Certified!
I had such a great birthday weekend! We try to spend every minute of Josh's school breaks enjoying the island. We find that the people who only study here and never take the time to relax and explore the island do not seem to enjoy their experience here. We decided that this weekend was the perfect time for us to get our scuba diving certification. I'm glad no one told us beforehand how much work it was, because I'm not sure we would have gone through with it this weekend; but it was totally worth it.
It started off on Friday with 4 hours of scuba quizzes and a final exam, testing our knowledge on all the ins and outs of scuba diving. Afterward we went for dessert at a nice place called Shearwater with a bunch of friends to celebrate my 24th birthday. I wanted to go to Shearwater since it is so nicely decorated for Christmas and I am not feeling the Christmas spirit at all yet this year (could be something to do with the 85 degree weather we had yesterday).
The rest of the scuba diving required us to be back up at the pool at Shearwater at 8 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday to practice "skills" that we would later practice in the ocean. Getting comfortable demonstrating skills allows you to be relaxed when doing things skills like practice losing your mask 60 ft in the ocean (which is my worst fear by the way) or towing an exhausted diver to the boat. I faced my fear of flooding my mask and I have a foggy mask no more! Josh and I are both fully comfortable flooding and clearing our masks with no problem... something that would have caused a panic.
We also had to assemble our gear multiple times to fully understand how to do it on our own.
We spent the afternoons on the boat.
We did a total of 4 open water dives. After getting on the boat we would assemble our gear, enter the
water, and perform a buddy check.
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| assembling my tank. |
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| Doing our "buddy check:" making sure straps are tight, weight belt is tight, air tank is full, buoyancy control device is working, and giving the "Final Okay" |
Doing the James Bond style water entry, falling back into the water.
We visited three of Saba's 30+ dive sites around the island: Ladder Labyrinth, Tent Reef, and another site (I'll have to check my dive log), reaching depths of 60 ft. Saba is one of the top 5 places to dive in the world. We saw SO many beautiful colors, and interesting creatures; including a peacock flounder (my favorite), a brightly colored trumpet fish, a grouper (so cool), lobster, a school of blue tarpin that were constantly swimming around us, barracuda, and so many other beautiful things.
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| View of Saba from the Ladder Labyrinth Dive Site |
We always enjoyed the short boat ride home.
Exploring the underwater world give us such a view of God's creativity and how everything is wonderfully made. Scuba Diving allows you to block out all distractions and experience the beautiful creation that very few people ever really see. I often find myself thanking God for the wonderful things he has made and find it amazing how he gives such thought to the depths of the ocean. So happy to have scuba diving to experience such a beautiful place under the ocean!
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