Scuba Scuba Scuba

Woot! I am officially a PADI licensed Open Water diver! I’m not going to lie, I’ve never given much thought to scuba diving before, nor was I even sure I was going to like it. However, now I’m obsessed. Scuba diving was something that came really naturally to me for whatever reason. It was also a ridiculously fun class to take. Kind of like school, but way, way better. The first day, we rolled into our first theory class. It was a fairly large class (Which has its advantages and disadvantages, but I ultimately chose it so I could meet people) . As we went around the classroom and introduced where we were from, I met up with somebody from UCONN. It was very exciting, and him, me and another American girl quickly became fast friends. The next day we learned skills in the pool, and were mostly getting used to breathing underwater. Your natural reaction covered in H20 is to hold your breath, but if you do that scubaing, you will die. This was a very long section, but it was interesting, and it was cool getting used to the equipment. We then went to another classroom theory session, which is kind of boring, but seeing as there is a written test you have to do it. The next day was our first DIVE. It was SO CRAZY COOL. It was actually kind of peaceful, floating around fishes and stuff. Its weird, cause I really don’t like fish that much, looking at them kind of grosses me out, but not underwater. We did two dives that day, and I am simply obsessed. That afternoon was followed by a really long classroom session, but our last one, where we took the final exam. Yesterday was our last few dives, where we were able to go deeper (18m~max depth for an open water cert) and saw sting rays and corals and schools of barracudas and it was epic. That night we got our temporary certificates, and celebrated as a class.
Insert tomfoolery and shenanigans of a German persuasion?
I woke up this morning and played with the idea of staying and getting my advanced cert, but decided to go to Ko Pha-Ngan for a few days and come back for it next week. I’m really excited for the advanced, and think I want to work hard and save up, and eventually be a dive instructor. Imagine being able to do this every day, on a beach in paradise? They’re living the dream here. I wish it didn’t cost so much, but I think I’ll be able to manage it. Maybe by the time I’m 25? New life direction!
I met so many ridiculously fun people in the class, and it was kind of like college. We all lived in the resort and ran around, eating meals and drinking on the beach together. I would highly recommend it, and even though I stayed at a huge facility (Ban’s diving) it was super professional, and turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
Short on pictures, but huge on experiences!
Patience and faith,
ErinJ