Glug, Glug, Glug....

Today was absolutely amazing.  I was underwater for the longest period of time in my life!

Directly after breakfast, we headed to the dive shop for class. We had to watch the rest of our instructional video, but the final episodes were mainly about harmful marine life, being aware and respectful to marine life, currents, tides, and advertisements.  I must say, today’s movie was much less cognitive than yesterday’s.  After wards, we had to complete questions about what we watched, much like my school in Alaska.  Completing the questions and watching the movie with us was another student, Liam.  This photo shows what Liam thinks of the work sheet. 



After turning in our work, our dive instructor, Anna, told the four of us to meet back in one hour when we would go to the pool and learn to use the equipment.

Lunch break was much more thrilling than the class.  The food was good, but the coconut milk shake was unique!  The cook cut out the insides of a coconut and ground it with ice and put it back inside the coconut.  It tasted delicious! 

Back at the dive shop, the group met up and loaded into a cab.  My parents, Anna, Liam, and I arrived at a chill, mellow resort with a long winding path to a swimming pool about 1.5 meters deep.  Before getting in, we were taught about how to use and put on our scuba gear.  Five important things need to be attached to the air tank.  The mouth piece (regulator) from which one breaths, the extra regulator to help a friend if his or her tank is out of air, a vest (Buoyancy Compensator Device or BCD) with the capability of inflating or deflating to help obtain the desired buoyancy, a valve connected to the BCD to inflate or deflate it, and last but not least, the gauge to display how much air is left and the current depth.  We slid into the pool, put on our gear, and had the amazing sensation of breathing underwater! 



The first thing I felt underwater was the recognition of my breath.  When I breathed in I actually had to suck in the air through the regulator to inhale and blow into it to exhale.  This was tricky at first, but I soon got used to it.  We were allowed five minutes to swim on the surface using our regulators to get the hang of the new breathing system.  When the time came, we deflated our BCDs and sunk to the bottom of the pool.  There, the four of us kneeled and completed some exercises that our dive instructor told us to preform.

We had to take our regulators out of our mouths underwater and then put them back in.  We did the same with our masks, except we also had to learn how to clear the water out.  This involved putting pressure on the top of our masks and blowing out from our noses while moving our heads up towards the surface.  While I was doing the mask exercise, I accidentally bumped my regulator out of my mouth and had to put it back in before finishing attaching my mask to my face.  Then, we had to practice giving our extra regulators to another person who pretended to be out of air.  We did several other exercises which I think are for preparing ourselves for the worst case scenario. 

Soon the pool session was over and I discovered that breathing underwater is a whole lot more fun than in air.  We drove back to the hotel where we wrapped up the day.  Tomorrow the same again will happen, except we will take our final exams and we will spend longer at the pool.

Thank you for reading Rohan Geographic!