walking down the market street in Dahab i can hear the call to prayer, and i'm now officially a PADI-Certified Open Water Diver. three days, 7 dives, 4 quizzes, 2 videos and an exam. with the shiny card that should come through the mailbox at basecamp in London in a month or so i can now hire kit, grab a buddy and plan my own dives down to a depth of 18 metres without requiring a Dive Master. i wasn't going to do the Open Water Course. i wasn't going to dive at all due to the expense, but on the first day in Dahab Wahil from Orca Dive Dahab came to talk to us and as he went on Louise and i met eyes across the table and nodded. after the first day in the water what started as a SCUBA course (2/3 of the full course load, max-depth 12 metres, Dive Master required) turned into the full Open Water Diver.
3 days spent, US$350 gone, it was worth every cent. the first time i got out there in full kit to swim around was just incredible - breathing easy, the mask correcting my vision nicely (i'm -1.25 in each eye and the perspex mask naturally corrects between -1 and -2 under the water so i'm sweet), fish having a contemplative look at my fingertips. rolling onto my back and looking up at the surface while a school of Scissortails passed overhead, flipping into a St Peter's Cross and watching the Clown Fish dart around Mohammed (our instructor, veteran of over 7000 dives), it's one of the few things i've found in the last couple of years that compares to motorcycling as a sport, although on reflection it's probably no less expensive when you get into it.
everything went smashingly through to the end of the first day. there's a required video to watch which we covered off the night before (after returning from Mt Sinai) and by the end of the day Louise and i had decided to extend an extra day in Dahab so that we could finish off in full. Mohammed grabbed me and Louise while everyone else was distracted washing their kit and told us that we were by far and away the best divers in the group. we headed off down the street grinning like hyenas, laughing like drains, loving life and having the time of ours. day two, for me did not go so well. i wasn't feeling particularly great to start with after waking every half-hour or so through the night when an exercise half-way through the second session left me gasping for breath under 3 metres of water, then after a bit of a fun-dive we had to practice taking our masks off underwater, then putting them back on again. welcome to a book i like to call "Things That Freak Mr Raven Out For Fun & Excitement". the list is short and simple, although i shan't be explaining it all to you today. 2 things that bear mentioning at this point are thus, however: i cannot fucking stand getting water in my eyes, including opening them underwater, and i have massive problems with getting water up my nose. you might think that this would get in the way of swimming and watersports, but i've developed techniques so that i can surf or swim or whatever, even in a big swell. for starters, i always look where i'm going and what's going on around me so that i don't accidentally catch a wave in the back of the head. i swim with my head up for the most part. it's not great, but it's adequate, and if i have to go under or through a wave i'll take a deep breath, scrunch my eyes up before diving under and exhale through my nose to keep it clear before rubbing the water out of my eyes on the surface. now you want me to fill my mask with water, open my eyes, try to keep breathing without water shooting up my nose then put my mask back on and clear it? you've got to be fucking joking.
i tried. i gave it my best shot. then i breathed water, choked and jumped straight to the surface (it's ok - we were in about a metre and a half of water) coughing, spluttering and gasping. that was the end of the dive and i staggered away gutted. i didn't feel better until much much later after Louise and i snapped at each other, rode camels off into the sunset and subsequently apologised. we'd had to rush from the dive centre back to the hotel because we were late for the evening's camel ride down the beach to see the sunset over the mountains. i'm loving camels; from their oft-joked-about toes to their teddybear-ears. i've seen enough people riding them in the last couple of weeks that i've picked up a few skills, one being that if you cross one leg over the front of the saddle then cradle you opposite knee with your ankle it's FAR more stable and comfortable. we didn't hang out particularly long - out on the beach the group sat taking photos and drinking bedouin-tea (a lovely, sweet herbal concoction brewed on an open fire) until the sun was nicely down then headed off again, loping off back to the hotel and i finally started to feel a bit relaxed.
another night of sleep and day 3 brings us from a group of 5 to a group of 3. Deano and Kim have finished at SCUBA and they're now out. it's down to Mike, Louise and me. the rest of the skills are demonstrated without issues, but i'm nervous as an arachnophobic with a Huntsman on his face when it's time to get my mask off again. the methodology preferred by PADI is to let enough water into your mask to cover your nose, then breathe a little, then repeat at just below the eyes and then with a mask full. i'm having none of this. the only way i'm passing this is if i can get a solid hold on my nose so it can't try to breathe through it and when it's time i take a deep breath, close my eyes tight like i'm about to die, rip my mask off my head in one quick motion and grab my nose tight. i'm kneeling on the ocean floor under 2 metres of water blind and desperately staving off gasping panic, my inhalations coming in ragged and fast while i struggle for calm. i get the pat on the head and i repeat the procedure in reverse, alternating between grabbing my nose tight and using it to exhale and clear the mask.
5 minutes later i have to do it again. half an hour later i have to do it again under 6 metres of water. i got through and i passed, somehow managing the highest score in the group for the exam. i copped flack from Mike for the rest of the day and i think Mohammed might have been going easy on me but i didn't care. the last of the practical skills over, a practice dive through the reef near the Lighthouse and the rest was a foregone conclusion. i ate my lunch while i flew through the exam and you couldn't have wiped the grin off my face with metho. walking out at the end of the day with out last practical dive done, kit washed and stowed, temporary certificates laminated and stowed in our wallets, we walked off down the market street with a massive feeling of achievement. it's such a simple thing that anyone can do it, but we weren't caring. we're both already thinking about where we can go diving now that we've unlocked access to most of the world's recreational dives. Greece or Spain in the summer is tempting, but in the back on my mind is the little island in Fiji i sat on for 3 days a year or so ago where the water was warm, the beers were cold and Rhianna sung "Umbrella" every hour on the hour. there was a little PADI dive shop i never got to try at the time and i feel like i missed out on something there. Louise keeps using the word "we" when discussing future dives. we made good buddies down under the water (PADI uses a buddy-system for safety. i'll watch your back and you keep the sharks off mine) and i'll happily partner up with her again... i'm just not assuming anything about the future at the moment.
still, it's something i'm remarkably glad i've done. after 3 days of suiting up and getting out there the movements and procedures have second-nature. a few more dives and i reckon i might start getting as comfortable as i am on a bike. now i just need to see if i can learn to fly a plane...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment