This blog is about my experience of getting scuba diving certified.
I remember the first time I looked into this whole other world. It was snorkeling on Catalina Island, every time my brother and I saw a fish we would scream at the top of our lungs and tug at our dad’s shoulder to get his attention. And of course it was a blur of sound through our snorkels, literally every single fish we saw we would scream at the top of our lungs. We had never seen anything remotely like what we were experiencing. A huge kelp forest was right in front of us, Graiboldi were popping out everywhere. We were having a great time but then my brother lost one of his fins, my dad looked everywhere and we were about to give up and head back but then on my dad’s last desperate attempt he found my brother’s fin and we were able to continue the snorkeling trip. Our last snorkel spot was a spot where people were feeding fish. It's really for tourists who were in a submarine, the submarine drivers put food in the water so the tourists can see the fish through the windows. So fish were swirling all around me. I was amazed and was in awe of this amazing underwater world. One year later I was lucky enough to try scuba diving for the first time in one of the best places in the world to scuba dive, Fiji!!! I thought Catalina was amazing, but Catalina is an ant to a human compared to Fiji. At the resort I first had to complete a lesson in the resort pool. Then, on the way to my first ever open water dive they stopped the boat and guess what, we saw a whale! I got suited up and we jumped in. Right away I was blown away with the mountains of coral that I was swimming by. There was this one incredible coral where my dive buddy let me touch a coral and it changed colors. We also saw giant clams and massive schools of colorful fish. Also I loved the feeling of weightlessness, gravity wasn't pulling you down. It was by far one of the best experiences of my life. And since then I haven’t been able to go scuba diving but I was itching to experience the amazingness of being able to breathe underwater again. Then my friend Max went scuba diving in Greece and his mom got him on a course to go scuba diving she asked if my brother and I wanted to do it and we said yes. Just know that you have to be 10 years and older to get scuba diving certified. You do not have to wait till your a grownup to get certified.
The process of getting scuba diving certified is split into three main sections, the first section is the online course, after that comes the pool section, and finally the ocean section. We started studying online, the online course was split into five sections. In each section you would learn about basic skills you need if you want to become a scuba diver. Once you completed a section you would take a test, if you got 75% or higher you could continue. I studied hard and took the test for the first section and got higher than 75%. It got very boring at times staring at a screen. After a couple months studying I had completed every section except the last. I took the test for section 5 but got 66%. I retook the test and than got a very good score. The first section of getting scuba diving certified completed! A couple of weeks later we drove to the diving shop. The diving shop that we would be getting certified with was in2deepdiving. Their shop is located in Santa Monica. Here's a link to their website, https://www.in2deepdiving.com We would be practicing skills that we had learned on our devices in the pool! We arrived at the shop and got a lecture on how to set up our kits.
Once we set them our scuba kits up we took them to the pool!
We then had to swim ten laps back and forth. I didn't have much trouble because I'm a good swimmer but it did get very tiring.
After swimming the ten laps, we got on our scuba gear and started practicing skills. Here are some examples of the skills we practiced: mask clearing, no mask breathing, alternate source breathing, controlled emergency ascent neutral buoyancy. We also did a lot of activities under water, there was one where my instructor turned off my air so I could know what it feels like to run out of air. It was freaky for a couple of seconds but then my air returned and I gulped the air. I hadn’t been scuba diving in so long and I missed it so much, it was incredible! I will never forget Eli, Max and I doing shock-as and okay signals at the bottom of the pool having a great time. After a long tiring day I had done it, I had finished the pool section! On December 1, 2019 I woke up my dad and my brother Eli and I headed to Catalina Island on a ferry. I was so excited to finally go scuba diving in an ocean. We got to the island, then a shuttle took our gear to our dive spot. After a short five minute walk we were there. I noticed that some divers were in dry suits which is a sign that the water is freezing cold, divers tipcally where dry suits in arctic oceans. The other divers and I who were getting scuba diving certified got briefed about the spot and what we might see which included: garibaldi, sea urchins, a ship wreck, and a 300 pound sea bass. We suited up, the air tank on my back was so heavy my dad had to help me walk. Then I headed in...
I looked underwater and saw an amazing underwater world. Giant pieces of kelp were all around me, garibaldi were everywhere. The water was so freezing cold I had to take my head out immediately. Once all the divers got in we started to descend. After we reached 35 feet in depth I began to practice diver skills like mask clearing and CESA neutral buoyancy. The scariest part of the dive happened when I was practicing mask clearing. I was trying to clear my mask and had trouble clearing the water out. Then water got in my nose. I had the sensation when you feel like your about to sneeze but you can't. I couldn't see anything which is absolutely terrifying when you're thirty-five feet below water, I couldn’t breathe for a for a split second and I thought I might die. This is not how I had remembered scuba diving, to be stressful and scary. I started to breathe quickly but then I reminded myself to calm down. I started to take a couple slow deep breaths. I was eventually able to clear my mask and after I did that I felt a lot better. After we ascended we did some surface skills and then I finally got out of the ocean. I was so glad to be out of the 58 degree ocean. I was shivering non stop, my legs were purple. I quickly got on a sweatshirt dried off and then an hour later we suited up again. The second dive there was a very strong current that was blowing kelp sideways. I had to swim with all my might just to keep up with my instructors. I practiced skills including buddy breathing whereI had to take out my regulator and allow my buddy to give me his emergency regulator. It was super freaky having to hold my breath for a couple of seconds but I stayed calm and completed the skill. After 15 more minute of practice skills we acended toward the surface. I was so thrilled to be out of the cold water. I got on dry and warm clothes and we headed to a restaurant to celebrate. I learned that my brother and my friend Max had to ascend much earlier because the current was too much. They were unable to complete all the skills so they did not get certified. I however was a certified Junior PADI scuba diver. There are many scuba certifications you can get. Dry suit certified, nirtox certified excetra. I wanted to become Open Water Certified, all I needed to do were two more dives. Eli and I did not want to have to do more dives in freezing cold Catalina, luckily we had a family trip planned to the British Virgin Islands a few weeks later. In the BVI my dad and I did one fun dive so Eli could catch up with me. It was Eli's first dive in tropical waters and after the dive he said, "I can't believe I was actually in a coral reef!" He was hooked. The next day was the day Eli and I were going to get open water certified. The first dive was spectacular: coral, lobster, fish galore. It went perfectly as we completed the skills we needed to. On our second dive of the day and the last one till we were certified, Eli and I had been hoping to see a shark or a turtle. The dive went smoothly, I got to practice mask clearing which gave me the big scare in Catalina. We were about midway through the dive when I looked behind my shoulders and saw a huge grey shark. I couldn't believe it! I was screaming in my regulator with joy! I swam over to Eli poked him and pointed to the shark. It was absolutely unbelievable. Unfortunately my SD card in my GoPro ran out of space after four minutes into the dive, but that shark will always be in my memory. The rest of the dive went by amazingly, eventually the dive ended and we were Open Water Certified!
Here's a link for an organization that you can get certified with, https://www.padi.com
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