Understated Sixzero

Underwater

Leg cramps, red skin, breaking out, overall fatigue.

Just came back from a diving trip over the weekend. And yep it was great!

I've always wanted to go ever since I heard people telling me how exciting it was. But I guess my parents were constantly worried that I might get into some danger. Then my lucky break came when my cousin was interested as well, so I decided to go with him. That eased my parents' anxiety.

From monday to thursday night, I had theory and pool sessions. The pool sessions really helped, because diving is not as easy as people on discovery channel make it looks. Ok, but truth be told, out of the nine students, I was probably the lousiest coz I took a long time to get the hang of the skills they taught us, like how to clear the mask when water gets into it, how to equalise (ie how to ease the pressure felt in the ears as you descend), and all the other skills lah. The problem with me was while breathing through my mouth underwater, I can't seem to breathe out through my nose without breathing through my mouth. It took a while for me to condition my body to separate breathing through my nose and mouth. Diving really makes you become very conscious of your breathing, something you take for granted when on land.

On friday night, we left for mersing and stayed the night there. The next morning, we took about a 2-hour boat ride from mersing to tioman. Upon reaching there, we immediately checked in, got changed, and headed back to the jetty. The boat then took us to some shallow waters and we headed down the sea. The first dive was only 6m deep. Basically, when we reached the bottom, we just did the normal skills we learnt during the pool. Then our instructor brought us around for a mini-tour, though all we saw was sand. There were only very few and small fishes.

The next dive was deeper, 12m. That dive was pretty magical. Corals and reefs abound with many fishes swimming all around us. Blue fishes, yellow fishes, sea anemones and clown fishes, schools of fishes, fishes that were daring enough to swim up to you... The rule of thumb is, if you keep very still, the fish would naturally swim up to you to check out the "new fish". But any sudden movement would cause them to quickly scoot away. They were mostly small fish, though a few times we were lucky to see slightly bigger ones. The instructor was very good, and he showed us the interesting stuff. He used a metal rod to tease the corals and sea creatures. There was one dive where he used it to "hypnotise" a baby eel. As he lifted his rod, the eel followed it cautiously, peering its head slowly from under a small rock it was hiding. Then when he lowered the rod, the eel retreated. It was almost like snake-charming! And the eel's movements were so cute, coz it looked so enraptured by the rod, moving up and down with it. Its surprised look on its face made it all the more funny!

All in all, we made a total of five dives within 2 days, the deepest being 18m. With each dive, we became better at adjusting our bouyancy by controlling the rate of our breathing. The instructor brought us through some caves to test our skills, but haha, most of us still bumped into the walls of the cave, leaving us (or me especially) with cuts all over. But it didn't make the dive any less enjoyable.

Now, I'm nursing the after-effects of diving. I have bad sunburns on my hand (and I mean super bad, like bright-red type), my body is extremely tired, the saltwater is causing me to break out (ahhh!), and I still feel like I'm on the boat. I sometimes think I sway unconsciously, or my head is bobbing from side to side. Haha, but it's an experience I wouldn't miss for the world.

posted by solitude @ 11:46 PM