We have finally finished our PADI scuba diving certification! Our experience could probably qualify us in the Guinness Book of Records for longest PADI course in history- taking us no less than 10 weeks to complete. However, we have arrived unscathed at the end (no thanks to Scuba Len who appeared to take great pleasure in planning our watery deaths several times over).
Last time I wrote about diving was very nearly the last time we dove. In between then and now, Scuba Len has managed to break his foot, fly out of country for two weeks, get his finger bitten off by an iguana and switch girlfriends three times. No doubt more action than most see in an entire year. Scuba Len's unfortunate run in with an iguana proved to be the last straw for me. Sick of his excuses I emailed him and demanded he find time to finish our course. He responded by forwarding me a picture of a stubby index finger covered in black stitches and blood and told me he was being "monitored closely by physicians" and that he was not able to dive for two weeks. It nearly killed me to wait out the weeks, but I did and finally nailed him down to a time last week. Had I been able to see into the future, I probably would have gladly waited another week... We met up with Len at his place for our last two scheduled dives, which he had told us we were doing from shore. It had been a stormy week, but the morning was beautiful. Upon arrival Len decided he wanted to take us out in the boat instead and head out to the North Wall, a dive sight renowned for its 8000ft drop off into an ocean trench and the local hammerhead sharks. Although I was a little apprehensive about the site itself, I figured we should be alright together. He explained that it was his first dive since the iguana incident and he was eager to make it a good one. As soon as we pulled out of the quay and hit the North Sound we could tell that it was wavy. Since Len's last speed demon stunt I have developed a slight phobia of boats and big waves, but I went to sit down at the back of the boat and chastised myself for being such a baby. The North Wall is located past North Sound, out in the open ocean just on the other side of a large reef that protects the sound. Upon nearing the reef the pontoon began swaying heavily from side to side. We could see that there were even larger waves past the reef and I figured Len would call it quits and we could turn around and dive elsewhere. Unfortunately Len saw these large waves as a challenge and motored the boat a few hundred metres past the protection of the reef. By this time I was nearly green from seasickness and bruised from being jolted from side to side. The thought of entering the ocean was a welcome one, since I was nearly being thrown in with every tip of the boat. At this point Len decides to tell us that these are extreme dive conditions, which is evident from the fact that the North Sound and Wall are entirely devoid of any other boats except for the gutsy Dive club who moored a half kilometre away. Since the waves were pitching the boat up and down nearly seven feet it was crucial that we timed our jump off the boat to match the height of a wave, if not, we risked having the boat smash down on our heads with 7 feet worth of force. I briefly thought about not getting off, but my sea sickness put an end to all those dreams. I geared up and stepped forward. I remember the fear while standing on the edge, looking waaaaaay down at the water before it rushed up to meet me. Fear pushed me off of the boat and into the ocean. I attempted to descend as fast as possible, but the current and waves were so strong the I was being pushed and pulled in all directions. It took nearly 15 feet before I could escape the current. Blake had entered first, so I knew I had to get down to him as fast as possible. Once we reached the bottom the dive went alright... except that Blake ran low on air. Len indicated for us to ascend, and Blake took off. Watching him near the surface trying to reach for the ladder of the boat which violently smashed into the water, and then entirely disappeared into the air, was one of the scariest moments of my life, second only to my attempt to grab the bucking ladder minutes later. I hardly noticed that I lost a fin during my exit. Once on to the safety of the boat (if you could call a pitching boat that) Scuba Len unleashed a storm of fury on us about the importance of air and buddy systems. Apparently Len said he did not indicate for us to ascend, and was busy trying to take us one by one to see the Wall (however, scuba rules state that you should never leave your buddy- so his system of taking us individually was a little risky) and we had all misunderstood his signals. Wishing the dive would just end, I crawled to the back of the boat and proceeded to get a nasty sunglasses burn while Len decided to sail around the head of the island to try and find a less wavy area. Fifty minutes of extreme waves and whipping saltwater later, we arrived at dive site two. This one was only slightly milder than the north side. The dive went better until Blake completely ran out of air and had to use Len's extra source, while Len demonstrated how long he could hold his breath (a cardinal sin of scuba diving) and pick out the stitches from his iguana finger leading to a bloody shark attracting mess. We all ascended as fast as safety would allow and got back on to the boat before Len and his stumpy finger got us all eaten. At some point during the ride back Len asked " Hey, now that you are all certified, who'd like to go diving tomorrow?"
No comments:
Post a Comment