Hi, I'm a SCUBAholic...

I’m addicted to SCUBA and I don’t care who knows it...

Today was my first ocean dive and it was incredible! After several hours in the classroom, a final exam, and about 6 hours in a pool... we finally got to dive in the ocean! The dive instructors picked me and 10 others up about 9:30 this morning and we headed to Bryon Bay. After loading up all our gear (...it took a while...there's a lot of gear...) we got onto this tiny boat. The boat had 2 motors but looked like a raft. Although I was skeptical at first, the boat ride out to Julian Rocks was so much fun. It was like being on a really big jet ski. (Julian rocks is this big rock that reminded me of the movie, The Goonies and apparently better than the Great Barrier Reef for diving...) When I got into the water, I put my face down and the first thing I saw was a little fish that looks "Dory" from Finding Nemo. Once we all entered the water and got situated, it was time for our great descend. With SCUBA its really important to not go up or down in the water too quickly (ear pressure, air in your lungs with expand...all sorts of stupid things can go wrong...)So for the first time going down, we held on to a slimy rope for the descend. Once I got down there, all fears and anxiety vanished. It was an incredible sight...so many colors and fish were swirling past my head. The first dive was just to get us comfortable in the water, so we just cruised around. The dive instructor, Josh, pointed out some neat sea life and made sure we were all doing OK. We all kind of followed him for a while, then eventually, I got tired of basically swimming on top of people so I started to venture off on my own (surprise! hah) Next thing I know, there is a shark next to me! Initially, I was worried but, I reminded myself that it was a leopard shark, which apparently, don't eat humans...whatever....it was still huge and creepy but awesome looking. Well after a few seconds, I'm comfortable with the shark, and next thing I know, there was another one...and then another one...and then another shark! It was almost like these four (eventually five) sharks were just as interested in us humans and wanted to come over and say hello. It was pretty thrilling. I also saw a few sting rays, a huge lazy sea turtle, many puffer fish, some woebegone sharks (they remind me of the "bottom feeders" that I used to have in my aquarium at home) and thousands of fish that were about every color imaginable! After about 35 minutes, we surfaced, returned back to the dive shop for a change of air tank and a bite of lunch.

Our second dive was to test some of our skills. We had to put on our gear while in the water (harder than it would seem!) We also had to do some "buddy breathing" skills and mask clearing skills. But then we got to explore a little bit more...and it was just as incredible as the first dive. On the boat ride back, I asked the skipper if I could drive, and surprisingly he let me! It was fun for me and probably terrifying for the passengers! We got home from Bryon about 6:30 which made for a long, exhausting day...but it was defiantly worth it!
Tomorrow, I get to wake up and do it all over again!...and then, I'll officially be SCUBA certified!

BTW...
So I am here for "school"...it's not ALL play...JUST KIDDING.

On Thursday, we went on another field trip for marine biology. We went to a smelly muddy mangrove forest where my rain boots came in handy. We treked through the stinky black mud to a freshwater beach where we used a net to catch a collection of fish species. It was fun and somewhat educational I guess. I got a little mad when this crazy professor decided to put hundreds of fish into a tiny container, killing over a hundred fish! It was entirely wasteful...until the boys decided to throw the dead fish up to the 50 swarming seagulls. (cheap entertainment)

cheers, mates :)