Several friends had persuaded me on joining the underwater adventure for quite sometime now. I've had a mixed feeling about it initially, hearing some people's horrifying experience on trouble breathing underwater and the risk of heart explosion.
After much deliberation, I decided to give Discover Scuba a go in my recent trip to Perhentian!
Discover Scuba is an experience that lets you discover the beauty of the underwater world. One will learn how to breathe underwater and a short tour into the shallow water. For more info on what it's all about, check this out : PADI Discover Scuba.
So, before getting started, I was given a few pages of form for me to fill up my details and agree that I was aware of the risk. After gathering all my guts, I signed it and decided to go for it! The last part of the form was left unanswered as Charlotte told me, those are to be answered after watching the video
The day started early! Went to Universal Diver after having my breakfast. Gary greeted me and put on a video on basic skills of scuba for me to watch. After watching the video, I had to answer few questions where the part I had left unanswered earlier. I had one incorrect answer and Gary explained to me about inflating the safety jacket for bouyancy purpose.
After that, we went to pick up all the necessary equipments e.g wetsuit, mask and fins. Finally, managed to find the fins that fit me. Soon after, I put on the wetsuit, mask, weight belt, scuba BC with the tanks, carried the fins along and off to the water we go! The tank was a little heavy though, Gary had to help me to carry the tanks into the water.
As we got into the water, I was taught basic skills of breathing under the water using the regulator. I was feeling a little panicky at first. However, Gary told me to put in the gag tightly into my mouth and breathe like how I breathe on the surface. After few attempts, tadaaa....I managed to breathe underwater calmly. As I became more comfortable underwater, I was then taught other important skills such as :
(1) how to blow the water out of the regulator
(2) how to press the water out of the regulator
(3) how to take out the regulator and put it back on
(4) how to take out the water from the mask
(5) pinching the nostrils to equalise the pressure descending deeper into the water
(6) moving the legs
anddd tadaaa......we're set to dive into the water!
As I dived in deeper, got excited to see the underwater lives, saw some barracudas, nemos, etc. Felt like a mermaid and in a different world! I must say Perhentian has one of the most interesting underwater lives I've seen (will prolly blog about the rest later).
We dived near to the jetty and about 5m underground. Took me about half an hour so for the dive and we were back to the shore. Gary said I was a natural at it! Hehe.
We dived near to the jetty and about 5m underground. Took me about half an hour so for the dive and we were back to the shore. Gary said I was a natural at it! Hehe.
After that wonderful experience, I may possibly give diving license a go sometime soon! :)
