We signed up for the online course last April and realized on late June we still haven't done the modules.....talk about procrastination! We hammered it out in 5 days- 200+ slides at a time brought back horrific memories of studying during vet school!
When we first got to Mexico the currents were too strong due to storms so we didn't dive until the 3rd day. We crammed the confined water dives all in one pool session. The first breath underwater is pretty amazing. They talk about that during the course but it really is true.
Justin and I both had bug-boos - mine was getting water in my mask and having to then blow it out with air from your nose. Apparently I am wired to breath in through my nose and mouth and promptly got a nosefull/lungfull of water and came sputtering to the surface. Swimming without my mask was also really scary but I felt like a champion when I did it! Justin didn't like having a free-flowing regulator where you "sip" air- he couldn't get his brain wrapped around that.
The next day we were off for our first ocean dive! That was very scary and exciting. He put us down near a reef (not nearly as colorful as Nemo's reef) but with lots of cool fish! I had a slight panic moment when I had to do the mask underwater and sputtered in salt water. Unfortunately I was 33 ft underwater and had to sort it out underwater. Scary stuff but I survived!!! After we did our skills we then swam around. We saw starfish, sea horses, and even "Gill" from Nemo! (I'm not going to lie I had watched Nemo on the plane ride down and found myself quoting it a lot!)
Unfortunately Justin got really sea sick again but powered through.
The next day when we were ready to go back out we were both very apprehensive. Me because I could only think about the panicky feeling I had when I couldn't breathe when I choked and
Justin because he didn't want to get sea sick.
We got brave and went out despite our fears and apprehensions. The second day was much better and I got more confident with both dives. Joao (our instructor) was sympathetic to Justin and we parked the boat in a very smooth cove so Justin suffered only minimally with motion sickness. We finished our 4th dive and we're officially certified!!
our fearless leader and instructor Joao
It was much harder than I expected but I am super glad we did it! I feel very lucky to have learned wth Justin. We were. Very big motivators for each other. Very fun to learn something together as opposed to one of us doing something they other I already good at- skiing, horseback riding.
On our last dive we saw a Morey eel away from the rocks in a very aggressive position but no one got hurt he just bit Gale's fin!
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