Sundive picked us up at 9am for day of diving. We had a bit over an hour of pool training and then lunch. During the pool session I was completely miserable. My stomach felt sick my throat felt “cold”-y, and I just didn’t want to be there. I had even gone to bed fairly early the night before to prepare for the day. Anyway, we had lunch at Subway…I tried something new so I was proud of myself.
After lunch we got our gear together and drove down to the beach. It is about a 10 minute boat ride from the shore to Julian rocks and let me just say—I don’t like boats on the ocean. I took my Dramamine but I guess not enough in advance because I was feeling pretty sick by the time that we got there.
So I was the first to fall back into the water because “seasickness would go away as soon as you get in the water.” Not a true statement exactly. The waves were pretty big so I still continued to be rocked with water splashing over my head. The current was REALLY strong so as hard as I kicked I wasn’t getting anywhere… then I had the sensation of not being able to get enough air into my lungs. So I was the only one in the water, felt like I was suffocating and couldn’t get myself to the dang mooring line so I started to freak out a little and breathe very poorly. It made me think of Dad telling me not to flip out when I got stung by the Fire Coral in Cozumel because that was how people drowned. Diving made me want him there but thinking about it also calmed me down.
I was the first one down the rope. My ears didn’t present as much of an issue as I thought they would but I probably did plug my nose and blow about every foot or so.
We stayed right by our buddies, Dave was mine. He’s a pretty big guy and used the most oxygen of anyone… so I kept hoping his would run out and we could go up. But it wasn’t so bad after a while. Though the water conditions were not great. Visibility was about 10 meters and the current was taking us everywhere. You would feel like you couldn’t swim forward to catch the group and then you would be pushed 10 feet really quickly.
The first dive was a pleasure dive. Meaning we didn’t have to do any skills check-offs. The second we had to do a half mask clear, alternate air source buddy breathing and ascents, fin pivots, and regulator recovery.
We saw Wobbegong sharks, a HUGE sting ray sitting in the sand (probably at least 7 feet across), bright colorful fish (Nemos and Dorys), huge purple fish- I touched one, Sea Turtles (I pet one!), an eel (his needle teeth were sticking out), huge starfish, and many other things.
After the first dive we basically came back and switched out our equipment with new oxygen tanks and went right back out. The Dramamine was doing its job the second time but the visibility had gotten worse.
It was very cool to see all of the marine life, and I did enjoy it. In the morning I hated it but by 6pm when we finally got done I thought it was pretty cool.
We have two more open water dives before we get certified. I was supposed to do them on Sunday but they were leaving at 9 and I’m supposed to sing at church so I got my last dives moved to another BSU group next Friday. That’s perfectly fine with me considering we have a full day tomorrow going to the Australia Zoo. I will be fine to not spend another day diving this weekend afterwards.
I came home, checked my email, took a 45 min nap, made dinner (chicken nuggets and cheese pasta), took a shower and then headed to the cabins. I don’t want to go to the zoo…but everyone else is so I am. Oh peer pressure. 6am for 66 bucks and lots of bus travel. oh boy.
Getting ready to roll off the boat
PS.. these pictures arent mine... or even my trip
But we saw the same stuff.. and they are Craig's so its cool!
A Wobbegong Shark
Can you find Nemo?
Julian Rocks.. the location of our 4 open water certification dives
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