Walker goes scuba divingMar 25, 2012
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getting ready
on the boat
here we go!
| Scuba diving by Walker Smith Today was the most exhilarating, no thrillerating event. It started like this: we woke up at 7:00am on the dot, we got on a boat to go scuba!!!! We stopped at a reef where we would snorkel, we swam over a reef that had swarms of fish and three sea snakes. It was so cool! But we weren’t done. We still had to go scuba!!! So we got back on the boat and got going. Soon we stopped at a spot where we would have snacks and take a break in the sun. Audrey and I saw a lady jump off the boat so we decided to jump off the boat too. We had so much fun. We got the whole boat to jump, but soon it was time to go. Pretty soon we made it to the spot where we would go scuba!!!! We got on our scuba gear and then our Italian instructor asked us, “Do you want to jump in commando style or climb down the ladder?” I yelled, “Commando style!” Once he explained it I felt a little scared. The special forces jump is where you sit on the edge of the boat and grab your mask and regulator with one hand and the back of your head with the other, then you fall backwards off the boat. When I tried it, it was amazing. When I hit the water the water enveloped me, creating a little tunnel that shuts in front of your face, then the water fills with bubbles. After that you rise back to the surface, because your bcd (buoyancy control device) was full of air before you jump in. We went to the anchor line where I grabbed ahold of the rope and our instructor told us to pull on the rope and go under the water and equalize our ears every meter. So we pulled and equalized, pulled and equalized until eventually I made it to the bottom. We stopped there and stopped on our knees and waited so we could get used to the water and the feel of breathing under water. Then we started to rise a little, just enough so if you reached down you could touch the ground. Our instructor told us to slowly kick with our flippers, which we did and we started out. While I was down there it felt so amazing. Your bcd kept you in the middle so you didn’t rise and didn’t sink, while your regulator kept you breathing so it was like flying. On our way there was a rock with a hole in it, in the hole was a rock fish with an eel wrapped around it and a little shrimp. Then we started to move up the reef a little. While we were snorkeling we were above large schools of fish, when we were scuba diving we were under large schools of fish. I would look up as I blew bubbles and I would watch them rise to the surface. While I was down there I saw large schools of angel fish, a stone fish and even a stingray covered electric purple dots. We slowly made our way up the reef, constantly checking our air valves, when I checked mine it was at 60psi which is really close to the red zone. When you’re in the red zone it means you have to slowly make your way up to the surface so you don’t run out of oxygen. I swam up to the instructor, tapped him on the shoulder and showed him my air gage. He told me it was alright with hand signals, but I didn’t feel alright. About three minutes later our instructor told us to all come in a circle. Then he told us to deflate our bcds then he pointed up, which means it was time to ascend to the surface. The reason you deflate your bcd is so you don’t ascend too quickly. It’s important to ascend slowly because you lungs expand with air and can pop. You also want to keep breathing. You don’t want to hold your breath. When we made it to the surface we started chatting about what we saw down there while we waited for the boat. That wraps up my blog for now, but I recommend scuba diving to everyone, because IT’S AWESOME!!!!!!! (Jay here. I didn't take any photos while we were diving because I was worried about loosing or breaking my camera. The photos are of us snorkeling before we went diving.) |
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