My scuba-diving experience

The night-before:

Our instructors 2 of them have sent a stern warning not to do anything funny underwater as it’s a precarious situation with the wild marine life in its full form , anything can happen but not to worry if everything goes according to plan we shall survive. I am shit scared (sorry for the foul language but it brings about my emotion at that time). I express my emotions along with all the scary images playing in my mind to my friends. They downplay it as they are anyway not taking up the scuba- diving lesson….so they have no reason to fear. Anyway I go to bed with the hope that it won’t be the last time.

The day arrives:

Finally the day arrives & I am filled with nervous energy . A parasailing session is planned prior to the scuba- diving lesson but it gets cancelled after 3 unsuccessful attempts due to lack of wind speed. So we walk over to the scuba-diving training area .

There are 2 instructors sweet Sinshu(a very experienced local) & cute Tomi( a Danish fellow who has dived 60 times before…wow!) . All the girls are fighting to go with Tomi. Since we are going in pairs, albeit separately & I’m paired with a younger-than-me schoolish girl I settle for sweet Sinshu.

After some waiting comes my turn, about 6 of them who had gone prior to me ,come out with narrations of their experiences , most of them full of praises but also with warnings regarding the acute ear-pain, the feeling of breathlessness ,etc

Then I’m all suited up in a body hugging wet-suit ( which did win me a few compliments ;-) ) & guess what, due to some last minute confusion my partner has to go with Sinshu whereas I have to go with Tomi. Tomi with his red-white flowery shorts & surprisingly untanned skin greets me with a smile. I step into the shining blue waters armed with my mask, oxygen-cylinder & flippers, after which he begins his basic instructions on the various hand-signals, how to breath through the mouth etc.

Then after few trials we go down under. We are diving 5 metres & we will gradually touch the seabed.The sights are AMAZING to say the least, I have never felt soo one with nature….ooo…goose-bumps. At first we saw lots of colourful corals & small fish , as we went deeper & lower the things got bigger & better. There was a sea-cumber, a school of clown-fishes, the sea-animal, eels, big fishes whose name I don’t recollect…but the memories are something I shall take to my grave. I touched the sea-bed & played with the sand for a bit. We move around the entire area.Suddenly then it is all over & we go back to the surface & back to our lives….

On surfacing Tomi asks how many times I had scuba-dived before? And when I replied in the negative he was surprised. He told me I was very good since I didn’t have any complaints the other first-timers had & we could thus do a non-stop lesson & then asked me to give him a high-five. It was moment of pride & couldn’t stop beaming & grinning for two days after that….:):):) After a small chat with him I learnt that I am now eligible for the advanced course ..yippie. also he had dived all over the world , the deepest being 60 metres where everything was dark & scary . with that done we went for our lunch..Also i was awarded a certificate as a proof of my having completed the Beginners Course.