Scuba Diving!

Today my journey is going to take us through the very scary, but fabulous, world of scuba diving.

Ben really wanted to go scuba diving. And of course, being the supportive girlfriend that I am, agreed. Since none of us are certified we decided to take the "Scuba Discovery Course." You take a lesson in a swimming pool and then go out on the boat for a 45-50 minute exploration dive with a certified instructor. Sounds easy right? That's what I thought... Who knew I could get claustrophobic in 3 feet of swimming pool water. Somehow we ALL passed our 30 minutes swimming pool lesson with flying colors! Now we were off to Redhook to board a boat and go out into the deep blue sea.
PANIC TIME!! Here goes nothin'...


Have I told you about the deep fear I have of drowning? It is completely unnatural to breath underwater!


Ok, so I finally get the hang of breathing and emptying my mask of water. What's the problem now? I float to the top! Our instructor didn't put enough weight in my weight belt so someone always had to be holding my hand. At first our instructor, the FABULOUS MISSY, held my hand because she could see that I was starting to panic. But after awhile we realized it was a necessity.



There was so much to see! The captain warned us before we went in the water to watch out for sea urchins because they are nasty little buggers! We saw tons of them! And gorgeous fish. Lisa and Russ also saw a spotted ray trying to blend in with the rocks.


When it was finally over and we were able to surface I was so proud of myself! I conquered a fear. And that's pretty darn cool.


P.S. You might be wondering how do you get from the boat into the water with all of that HEAVY scuba gear on. You can't go down the ladder. You can't dive in. You can't sit on your bum and scoot in. You walk very slowly in your awkward fins directly to the edge of the boat landing. And then take one giant step off, without look down! Oh yeah, and be sure to put a hand on your mask so that it doesn't pull off once you hit the water. I think walking off the boat was one of the scariest parts... Good thing Lisa was out there already encouraging me!!! Thank you LeLe. And Ben was behind me telling me I could do it. Thanks Benji. And where was Russ? Already checkin' stuff out in the ocean I'm assuming. Thanks a lot Rustypants.