Learning to Dive in the Bahamas

For my open water certification class on the west side of the island, all had been going great -- lots of time underwater and seeing all sorts of pretty sights. But now it was day 2 of the practical dives and I needed to descend on my own. My ears were barking -- making themselves known loud and clear. Actually it was not really loud, rather the pressure building in the ears felt widely uncomfortable and unsettling. Was this going to the time when I learned that I couldn’t do this sport because of my past numerous ear infections as a kid? Perhaps. As the pain intensified my body screamed this doubt, that it knew better all along, and I shouldn't have even tried.

Thankfully, the pain receded when I ascended a few feet and slowly get some control over my ear pressure. Then I proceeded slowly down again. Just the way you are supposed to from the course work and what my excellent instructor, Gigi from Stuart Coves Dive Shop, had explained. The ears released the pressure and then I resumed heading down to the ocean floor 40 feet down. Slowly, slowly I edged down through the water until my knees came to rest on the ocean floor 43 feet below the surface. I was happy and so relieved, because everything else about this new to me sport was proving enjoyable.

Part of the enjoyment comes from the sights in this diving mecca. In two days of diving across 4 open water dives and 1 long skills dive at shallow depth we had seen 2 boat wrecks, 2 plane wrecks, The Wall, reefs, tons of fish. Many of these have been featured in movies and other shows, which is always enjoyable. My favorite was the DC3 plane and Wall combo on day 2 –http://www.divebuddy.com/divesite/1288/dc-3-wall-bahamas/. This plane was left on the ocean floor for a movie and has been broken up my the storms over the last decade. It has a bunch of fish and on the day we were down a HUGE crab was chilling under the fuselage. The hue of the old plane looked great in the light blue of the water.

Then twenty feet away the Wall starts cutting away. The Wall is a underwater geological feature that is also called the Tongue of the Ocean. This tongue cuts up to 6,500 feet down to the deep ocean. The lowered depth water is this light azure blue and then the deep water off the wall is this deep, dark blue that is ominous. A few of the other divers on the boat talked about the blue being scary, and I definitely understood that reaction The contrasting colors does make it seem like anything could emerge from the depths. A big shark? A huge octopus? Maybe something really cool that I don't even know about? It all seems in play.

This last weekend my lovely wife and a bunch of our dear friends were climbing in at my favorite crag in the US, the Red River Gorge in Kentucky. It is awesome there and they had rented some houses and have had a grand old time. I would have loved to have been there. But on day two as I swam along the Wall I was swimming along and enjoying the feeling of underwater exposure in contrast to the vertical exposure of climbing.

My wife and friends were enjoying the exposure of climbing and at that moment I very surprisingly didn't want to be in the Red. I was pretty damn happy being present in the underwater world, learning new skills and seeing new sights. The feeling of a new sport is exhilarating and it was such a joy to experience that feeling this weekend. It felt all the more satisfying because I had spent years telling myself, and others, “I didn't want to try diving, I am good with snorkeling. I have past ear and sinus problems, equalizing is going to be a pain. It is so expensive.” All while people raved about diving and and I sat on the sideline.

On the boat back from many hours under the surface and seeing all those sights and pushing boundaries of comfort and skill in the water I was pretty tired. A good tired. And hungry. Real hungry. But the sunset was spectacular and things were looking great.