Well, following my less than stellar performance during my confined water dives in the UK I headed off to Mauritius.
Before my first certification dive, I requested that we just do a DSD so I could get used to the water and feel comfortable with the equipment etc. No problem they said.
This was to be a boat dive so after pootling out to the site (max 6-7m depth) we geared up. Their were quite a number of people doing DSDs so we had to wait our turn. After hanging around, geared up, for about 30 mins on the boat I started to feel apprehensive then when came the time to make my way to the platform I started to feel very nervous indeed. The equipment felt incredibly heavy and I wasn't looking forward to the giant stride. I ushered everybody else to go in ahead of me, but one of the other clients (a friend of ours, who is Rescue Certified, but having to do a check out dive as he hasn't dived in over 6 months) insisted I go ahead of him. I think he thought I'd never get in the water otherwise....he may have been right.
In I went, BC partially inflated, hand on reg and mask...no problem. Then I took my first tentative mouth full of air... WRONG! Mouth full of water!!!! I had purged the reg so didn't understand why I had a mouth full of water so I tried again...same thing. I told the DM who was assigned to me and he tried it then told me to use my octo
Now I'm more than a bit nervous and I'm not breathing well so when the DM gives me the ok sign and thumbs down, I give him the "not so good sign". We go under just a little and I feel like I'm turning-turtle so I give him the thumbs up and we pop our heads outta the water.
Eventually, after a few more attempts...and me getting increasingly agitated, I thumb the dive. He says ok we'll just swim back to the boat and when I turn to look at the boat, I notice we've drifted about 50m from it and are down current. We start swimming and I don't seem to be getting anywhere and I'm starting to feel tired...already???!!! I could feel panic start to rise...stupid, stupid me. I've got an inflated BC and a DM holding my hand, so it was irrational, but very real fear. The DM kept saying, "please stay calm madam, please stay calm" Poor guy.
So I had remembered my training and had exchanged my reg for my snorkel which was fine until the DM initiated a tow...with me on my back!! Well I don't need to tell you what happened next, but I did get my reg back into my mouth pretty sharpish!
By now the boat is full of the previous DSDers, most of whom seem to be about twelve years old and there's me, who has the training to do her first OW dive, being towed back without even diving and the most humiliating thing, in hindsight, was the sight of my fins sticking up out of the water like a pair of tombstones!!! At this point, I decided to help out with the finning, if only to save a little face.
I was so disappointed with myself. It was all purely psychological, but it seems that's the greatest constraint.
I had pretty much decided that diving's not for everyone and I was in that camp.
The next week, my husband's cousin (the dive shop owner) returned from conducting a liveaboard in the Maldives and had obviously heard about my non-experience. He just said "you should have been diving with me". I know what he means...I would literally trust this guy with my life.
The next evening, we (my husband and I) received a text saying that he was taking some divers out to the shark-pit (about 2 hours boat ride offshore) and did we want to join them? We met at the dive shop at 6.30 the next morning and off we went. The shark pit is near a rocky island and the seas were pretty horrendous...we were hanging on to the boat rails for dear life it was pitching that much. He let us know that we wouldn't be diving here...NO KIDDING?!!! LOL.
Once the REAL divers had finished messing around with sharks, we left for the second dive site of the day. Another, larger rocky island close to the mainland. We moored in a beautiful (CALM) bay and he said he was taking the experienced divers to a wreck and that he would be back in 15 minutes so we (my hub and I) should get kitted up. I said I thought I'd just have a little snorkel so I went to the back of the boat in wetsuit, finsmask amd snokel and just stood thinking about it. My husband said "well go on then!" and I said "hmmm I'm not sure". Next thing, he's pushed me off the back of the boat "$%££$$!!!" Anyway, I just snorkelled for a few mins then got back on the boat and got the rest of my kit on, although I still wasn't convinced I was going diving.
Long story short (a bit late I know) I did get in (with a textbook giant stride!) and his cousin got in front of me and held my eye contact whilst telling me we were going to do this at my pace and not to worry. After a couple of mins he gave me the ok and I gave him the ok back. He linked his arm through mine and we gently descended. Almost as soon as we were down he began pointing out pretty stuff and constantly soliciting an "ok" from me.
It was so beautiful, it brought tears to my eyes (still does). This site is so unspoiled with pastel pink and blue coral and too many species of fish and marine life to count. We pootled about looking at this and that and befor I knew it, I had been at around 8m for about 35-40 mins. As soon as we surfaced, I wanted to do it all over again. We were on the surface waiting for the others to come up before the boat came for us and he said "listen to that..." all you could hear was the water lapping gently and the cries of sea birds "...that's magic".
I did one more DSD with him and then another with a DM as Hugues had to take someone through their CMAS certification, but with each dive I became more comfortable.
Bottom line: I didn't do my cert dives and I'm not sure when I will, but I did get over my initial terror and I do know that this is something I really want to do, however long it takes.
We may be back there in November and we will definitely be back there next April and I can't wait to get wet again!
Footnote: My husband did brilliantly and, if I can, I'll post some stunning photos for you to look at. I can't wait to go see what he saw.
Edit: I've uploaded a handful of photos...worth checking out at least three of them
Before my first certification dive, I requested that we just do a DSD so I could get used to the water and feel comfortable with the equipment etc. No problem they said.
This was to be a boat dive so after pootling out to the site (max 6-7m depth) we geared up. Their were quite a number of people doing DSDs so we had to wait our turn. After hanging around, geared up, for about 30 mins on the boat I started to feel apprehensive then when came the time to make my way to the platform I started to feel very nervous indeed. The equipment felt incredibly heavy and I wasn't looking forward to the giant stride. I ushered everybody else to go in ahead of me, but one of the other clients (a friend of ours, who is Rescue Certified, but having to do a check out dive as he hasn't dived in over 6 months) insisted I go ahead of him. I think he thought I'd never get in the water otherwise....he may have been right.
In I went, BC partially inflated, hand on reg and mask...no problem. Then I took my first tentative mouth full of air... WRONG! Mouth full of water!!!! I had purged the reg so didn't understand why I had a mouth full of water so I tried again...same thing. I told the DM who was assigned to me and he tried it then told me to use my octo
Now I'm more than a bit nervous and I'm not breathing well so when the DM gives me the ok sign and thumbs down, I give him the "not so good sign". We go under just a little and I feel like I'm turning-turtle so I give him the thumbs up and we pop our heads outta the water.
Eventually, after a few more attempts...and me getting increasingly agitated, I thumb the dive. He says ok we'll just swim back to the boat and when I turn to look at the boat, I notice we've drifted about 50m from it and are down current. We start swimming and I don't seem to be getting anywhere and I'm starting to feel tired...already???!!! I could feel panic start to rise...stupid, stupid me. I've got an inflated BC and a DM holding my hand, so it was irrational, but very real fear. The DM kept saying, "please stay calm madam, please stay calm" Poor guy.
So I had remembered my training and had exchanged my reg for my snorkel which was fine until the DM initiated a tow...with me on my back!! Well I don't need to tell you what happened next, but I did get my reg back into my mouth pretty sharpish!
By now the boat is full of the previous DSDers, most of whom seem to be about twelve years old and there's me, who has the training to do her first OW dive, being towed back without even diving and the most humiliating thing, in hindsight, was the sight of my fins sticking up out of the water like a pair of tombstones!!! At this point, I decided to help out with the finning, if only to save a little face.
I was so disappointed with myself. It was all purely psychological, but it seems that's the greatest constraint.
I had pretty much decided that diving's not for everyone and I was in that camp.
The next week, my husband's cousin (the dive shop owner) returned from conducting a liveaboard in the Maldives and had obviously heard about my non-experience. He just said "you should have been diving with me". I know what he means...I would literally trust this guy with my life.
The next evening, we (my husband and I) received a text saying that he was taking some divers out to the shark-pit (about 2 hours boat ride offshore) and did we want to join them? We met at the dive shop at 6.30 the next morning and off we went. The shark pit is near a rocky island and the seas were pretty horrendous...we were hanging on to the boat rails for dear life it was pitching that much. He let us know that we wouldn't be diving here...NO KIDDING?!!! LOL.
Once the REAL divers had finished messing around with sharks, we left for the second dive site of the day. Another, larger rocky island close to the mainland. We moored in a beautiful (CALM) bay and he said he was taking the experienced divers to a wreck and that he would be back in 15 minutes so we (my hub and I) should get kitted up. I said I thought I'd just have a little snorkel so I went to the back of the boat in wetsuit, finsmask amd snokel and just stood thinking about it. My husband said "well go on then!" and I said "hmmm I'm not sure". Next thing, he's pushed me off the back of the boat "$%££$$!!!" Anyway, I just snorkelled for a few mins then got back on the boat and got the rest of my kit on, although I still wasn't convinced I was going diving.
Long story short (a bit late I know) I did get in (with a textbook giant stride!) and his cousin got in front of me and held my eye contact whilst telling me we were going to do this at my pace and not to worry. After a couple of mins he gave me the ok and I gave him the ok back. He linked his arm through mine and we gently descended. Almost as soon as we were down he began pointing out pretty stuff and constantly soliciting an "ok" from me.
It was so beautiful, it brought tears to my eyes (still does). This site is so unspoiled with pastel pink and blue coral and too many species of fish and marine life to count. We pootled about looking at this and that and befor I knew it, I had been at around 8m for about 35-40 mins. As soon as we surfaced, I wanted to do it all over again. We were on the surface waiting for the others to come up before the boat came for us and he said "listen to that..." all you could hear was the water lapping gently and the cries of sea birds "...that's magic".
I did one more DSD with him and then another with a DM as Hugues had to take someone through their CMAS certification, but with each dive I became more comfortable.
Bottom line: I didn't do my cert dives and I'm not sure when I will, but I did get over my initial terror and I do know that this is something I really want to do, however long it takes.
We may be back there in November and we will definitely be back there next April and I can't wait to get wet again!
Footnote: My husband did brilliantly and, if I can, I'll post some stunning photos for you to look at. I can't wait to go see what he saw.
Edit: I've uploaded a handful of photos...worth checking out at least three of them
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