The scuba bus picked me up at 6:45 in the morning. Fresh of a going away party and about 3 hours sleep I was primed and ready for my first ever underwater experience. I signed up for an intro dive and could snorkel the reef the rest of the time the boat was out. Things started off poorly as I tried to board the wrong ship and had to be ferried to the correct one so that I made it on in time. The day was warm and a cyclone had just hit the see we were about to sail on. To say the ride was choppy does not do it justice. Take "Deadliest Catch" and back it off a couple of notches. We were told to sit inside for the 1 hr or so ride. People began vomiting nearly immediately. Like 10 minutes into it. Asian guy sitting right across from me went through 5 puke bags before they had even introduced the crew.
They seat you with your diving groups. Groups of four and I was in group one. Group one consisted of myself, Asian guy, his gf, and a middle aged lady. Scratch the Asian couple off instantly, then never got up from that point on. The water had beaten them. Now add a couple of brothers from Ireland that were about my age. Much like Willy Wonka's factory tour, we started progressively losing people at each checkpoint. Asian couple-Augustus Gloup. Next we were suited up and I'm the water learning how to use the tanks. It was pretty damn cool. As we dunked our heads and breathed through the regulators for the first time, Irish brother #2 had a full meltdown and was pulled out. He went out saying "my mates are going to give me much shit at home for this." Group is down to three. The next step I'm the process was to lower ourselves down a metal ladder to get used to breathing underwater. We hit ladder 2 and middle aged girl had ear pain and was pulled out. She's done for the day, down to me and Irish #1. At this point I am astonished how well I am doing, as its my first time and the three thoughts going through my head are 1) this is amazing. 2) breath, you really have to remind yourself and 3) don't throw up- watching the others earlier combined with the bumpy ride was not helping me with this task.
Last step in the training process was to let go of our regulator underwater. Stay composed and the re-insert it. Again, my three steps thought process got me right though the task. Just me, Irish #1 let go of his and could not get it back. The instructor had to grab it for him and he was spooked to the point of calling it quits. Group #1- just me. So, I got a solo 20 minute underwater trip. I tell you this, the cyclone made visibility so bad it was hard too see too much. Nothing exotic that's for sure, however, I still had the most amazing time. I would have signed up to just swim around in a pool if the would have let me.
Group #2 did not fair much better than group one as I watched them one by one come out of the water. In the end, one girl made it all the way through, but she was visibly not having a good time. They asked us if we wanted to go again and for $40 I quickly jumped at the chance. Our next dive spot was much clearer and again I got the instructor all to myself. This time however I kept getting acid reflux burps and as unpleasant as they are on the surface. They are 1,000,000x worse underwater. I quickly abandoned breath and enjoy yourself and focused on not throwing up. Now, it would make a better story if I say I pulled out my regulator and became an underwater volcano of puke, and calmly put it back in. Sadly, none of that happened and I was perfectly fine.....until the ride home.
The boat trip back was much worse than out. The usual suspects were at it again, throwing up all over the place. We were forced to sit inside again, and this proved deadly for me as my seat faced backwards. Ever felt sick sitting in the back of a friends old school Volvo (Ryan Duncan)? It was much like that, and with several other passengers already throwing up (puke seems to be the focus of this post, I swear the scuba was amazing). Like Andy Defurame against the sisters at Shawshank I fight the good fight. As our instructor came over to give me my dive complete certificate I jerked up and instantly threw up in my mouth, caught it all in, and put it back from whence it came. I was not about to become another statistic. We got back into harbor and the mission was complete. What a day!!
Here are the few pics I took. God I am cheap. Never mind I can't figure out how to do them from my phone. Have to post them later and use you imaginations for now. Tomorrow I embark on a 30 road trip down the east coast in a 1976 pos campervan, with three awesome English dudes. Hopefully we all come out of it alive and sane. Going to be tons to write about that is for sure.
Good stuff, Scotty. Keep fighting the good fight!
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