Scuba Diving Round 2

After another very restless night of sleep, I woke up unsure if I should scuba diving again today, as my ears were still not feeling 100%. They weren’t hurting but remained unequalized - the way they sometimes feel when one is on an airplane. After seeing the great forecast for the day and receiving advice from my Psych teacher from last year, who is also a dive instructor, I decided I would give it a shot. I figured worst comes to worst (is it worst or worse?) I could snorkel and just enjoy a day out on the boat. After getting picked up by Becky, the really nice woman who has been giving me rides to and from the dive boat, the day began. I got buddied up with a man named Danny who was from Perth. I was a little worried that my slow pace and decision to not go as deep today would bother him, but he ended up being a great buddy – very patient and willing to go wherever. The first dive site was the Mini Swirl, which was part of a place called Stragglers’ Rocks. This was by far my favorite dive site so far. Not only was it really beautiful I felt very in control of the dive. There were these neat rock structures that spiraled down with several large caves underneath in the middle. This was a perfect type of place for me as I was able to slowly descend as I spiraled around the outside. Thankfully my ears were totally fine and we ended up going down to 14 M, which was more than I had anticipated I’d be able to do. At the bottom of the cave was this smallish Port Jackson shark, which is a bottom dwelling shark that is harmless.

Here are some of the other shots from the first dive.

Click for larger image

On the way up, I must have ascended a little too quickly as my ear started squeaking a lot. Content that I had made it through the dive with eardrums still intact, I surfaced and began to swim back to the boat. Before reaching the boat I blew my nose and saw that my nose had started to bleed. At that point it was pretty hard not to feel like my body was falling apart. Why am I melting!? Ahhh! After my initial shock, I remembered that when looking up advice last night for clearing my ears, I had seen that another common issue on dives was nosebleeds so I wasn’t too worried. Later when I got back to my room, I went online to see whether I could find any possible explanations. Turns out taking Sudafed before a dive (had some last night) isn’t the best plan as it can dry out the sinuses, which leads to nose bleeds when there is a vacuum. Oops!  

The second dive site wasn’t as good as the first – this one was a little more weedy and had these narrow cave type structures that didn’t look like they would fit me and my camera in – but was still enjoyable. I was able to go into one big one where I saw another Port Jackson shark. This one didn’t seem to like all the attention it was getting and ended up swimming out of the cave.

Overall, I was really happy that I went back out for another dive. The people I dove with invited me out for a beer afterwards, but seeing as I’ve done no work this weekend, I had to pass. Figured I would write this post and then get to work. 

Scuba Diving!

And just like that, I have two dives under my belt! Wasn’t that easy but man was it fun. Woke up this morning ready to go at 6 (also woke up at 2 thinking it was time to go and 4 thinking it was time to go) and had a quick breakfast in an essentially empty cafeteria. For some reason not many college students wake up for 6:30 breakfast on Saturdays.) After a quick bite, Carmen and I hopped on the bus and took a cab to the Perth Diving Academy and boarded the boat. Was definitely nice having Carmen there, even though I didn’t see her once during the dive, it was fun hanging out with her between dives and asking her for advice. Carmen is a diver-pro (just made up that term but she definitely is – before coming here she just did an ice dive!) so it was helpful following her lead in terms of setting up my gear on the boat in the most efficient manner. After about a 40 minute sail we arrived to the first reef and began suiting up. Despite Carmen’s advice that I use the first dive to get acclimated, I insisted on trying to bring my camera into the water with me. With a giant stride off the side of the boat I was in the water. They had put me in a group with four other people who were relatively beginner divers – I was definitely the most inexperienced of the group though – led by one experienced diver. As I swam around to the back of the boat to get my camera, the wind picked up a little and the boat started smashing around. Realizing that this was my first real dive ever, I thought hmm … could it be possible that I am being impatient by trying to use the camera right away? Me - impatient due to being overly excited? Never… Okay maybe every now and then. Deciding Carmen was right, I decided to leave the camera for the first dive. As I began descending my left ear started throbbing. I watched in dismay as all the other divers around me effortlessly floated down to the bottom – leaving me bobbing awkwardly in some hellish unequalized limbo. The guy leading our dive swam back up to me and went with me to the surface where he told me to try it again and if I couldn’t then I would have to go back to the boat. I felt pretty devastated… here I was off on this big adventure and I couldn’t even get started. As he swam back down to leave me to try to descend I couldn’t help but feel like I was failing. Thinking of how excited I was back on the boat, all the people I had told about my dive, and how sad it would be if I had to just spend the whole day on the boat, I decided this was not how my first scuba experience was going to end and I slowly but steadily made my way down. And by the time I reached the bottom (20M or 65 feet!) I was fine! About a minute after reaching the bottom we saw a huge stingray, which made me immediately regret my decision to leave my camera at the surface. The first reef had this rock and coral bottom that turned into this kind of shelf or wall type structure. Just seeing how many living things there were was pretty incredible. After 30 minutes we turned around and went back up for lunch. As we sailed to the little bay where we would anchor for lunch we saw dolphins playing in our wake as well as several whales surfacing. Soon enough it was time to go back down and this time I felt ready to bring down the camera. The second site we went to had these huge rock structures that formed these miniature caves, which made for a pretty interesting looking landscape. The guy leading our group said that it would be okay if I followed along above the group rather than going as deep this time. He must have thought I was above them, or I may have gotten distracted with my camera, but by the time I looked back down they were nowhere to be seen. I looked to my left and to my right (said now in an Australian accent) but there was no one to be seen. Realizing I hadn’t exactly looked at my compass on my way out, I got a little nervous. Er… where exactly was the boat? A quick look straight above me was pretty reassuring as the boat was directly above. And as I swam over a rock I saw the descent line and realized where I was. Phew. I spent the next 45 minutes just photographing the fish and coral around me and just having an awesome time. Among the two major things I learned today were the facts that 1). I have the sinuses or ears of a 6 year old girl and 2). A lot more goes into underwater photography than one would imagine. Between equalizing, minding your surroundings, remaining neutrally buoyant, fighting currents, oh yeah and adjusting the settings on the camera – a lot goes into a single shot. I was really happy I had done some reading on some recommended settings. Definitely room for improvement but for a first go I was pleased.

A little hard to make out, but these are the caves.

Thought they looked like little faces. Check out the next photo for the zoomed in version.

The little guy on the left side is my favorite. Weeeee!

Doesn't this kind of look like an ancient Greek urn?

This guy kept swimming up to me and getting in my face. Very territorial... trying to pick a fight!

Thankfully one of the other divers gave us a ride home and offered to pick me up tomorrow morning if I wanted to go again. Knowing that I wouldn’t have to take the bus and lug all my gear around made it pretty tempting to again. We’ll see how I feel by the end of the night (my ears are pretty sore), but I think I will go back out tomorrow!