i'm a certified open water scuba diver

my diving course started with two days in the pool and theory with only three other guys. the feeling of floating in the water and of being able to breeze under water was quite impressive for me. the written test on tuesday arvo wasn't really difficult and so i passed it easily. actually we got a book with about 200 pages and our dive instructor recommened us to read it for the test. but as i've already mentioned, i had to ref some games monday night and afterwards i answered some mails and when i came into my room at bedtime, the book lying on my bed rang a bell *ups* i should have read it today. therefore i started to read the first two pages to decide three minutes later, that i was too tired for that and didn't really want to learn anyway. fortunately i could remember most of the questions from the dvd that was shown us in the theory lessons *lucky* on wednesday we left to the reef and we had our first dive in the sea with its saltwater. before that, andrea (our dive instructor) warned us of the 'textile cone shell' 'cause it attractes divers with it's good-lookin' colourful shell and punishs human beings , in case of touching it, with dead after only 30 seconds... that was quite reassuring =) but australia is not without reason the country with the most poisonous animals! with this previous knowledge we dived down to 18 metres- that was pretty cool- and unlike to my suspicions my ears didn't cause any probs *puh* that was quite a big relief for me 'cause in the past, for instance in the plane, my ears have made big troubles. on wednesday we only were allowed to have two dives, so we went snorkelling two other times that afternoon.

that was the first time i saw a big green turtle and i even touched it. seems like they really have a fabolous life, just floating in the water, eating and doin' nothing *envy* despite their seize they're really gorgeous with their big wide eyes OO after that we were brought to ocean quest, the liveboard which we were supposed to spend the next two nights on. next there were 5 dives on the schedule, two others for the certification and the next three ones just for fun. above the water, the weather was quite rough concerning the wind and waves but as soon as you enter your head into the water, nobody cares about that and moreover you are in a complete different world. these heaps of different colours and shapes are really really impressive. 'cause of this landscape , the feeling of being on another planet is created. i can really say, that i love it underwater: it's so serene, calm and with no interference by man, which is the way life should be.

scuba diving is nicer than snorkelling 'cause you are not only an easy observer but more a part of this world. heaps of fishes swim above, next to and beneath you and you are really among these corals and animals. besides they aren't scared of you, on the contrary many fishes swim to'ds (another word i haven't understood the first time because i've only heard "tods" = towards) you and are quite friendly. so for instance, the big maoori wrasse swam straigt towards me, looked at me, surrounded me...that was a little bit scarry at the beginning for they can reach a seize of 229 cm.

but they can't do more than bite...except they are poisonous, but the chance to meet one of these animals in australia is not really high *huestel* divin' at the reef you can see little tiny fish of course but you will meet big fish for sure and then you aren't talking about cute fischchen, fischlein, fischis oder suesse nemos, but about FISCHE...like the big wally for instance. quiet impressive to see fish with such a big seize *wow* for me these already were whales =)

the really big clams are so nice to look at as well, actually everything is worth to stop and watch! they have such great colours and pattern

everybody can imagine that it was really really exciting and impressive to swim next to a shark. unlike the general assumption that you try to move away in case of meeting a shark, every diver tries to get as close as possible. unfortunately the reef sharks are quite shy...lattest fact seems a little bit ironic, doesn't it?

thursday night we had our night dive...i tell you what, that was fucking scarry. especially because i watched the ocean at night the day before and saw heaps and heaps of fish in the lit area around the boat...and not only small and cute ones, no, again these really big fish and of course sharks as well. so imagine the situation, you're standing at the edge of the boot, everything dark and now you should jump directly to the animals that are able to kill you? but we all did it *brave* what a weird situation swimming in the black, rough and endless ocean. underwater it was quiet but really really dark. you could only see the light of the torches, everybody had one by the way. so we followed our dive instructor through the water...*bibber* and we didn't only stay around the boat, no, we dived through the reef as usual, just without light....what hardly makes a difference, does it ;) with the time you got used to the situation in nowhere with the possibility to get lost that quickly that nobody would even notice that and your breath went quite normal again. i was really excited using my torch to explore the reef and the fishes. so one time i lighted a certain area and then suddenly i recognized a shark next to me....because with the torch you don't see all the stuff in the distance gradually, everything came into your field of vision really suddenly.

another pretty nice fact is, that you do not always swim above the reef but also between big mountains, along a 25 metres high steep face or under a kind of reef-roof (if that is no stylistic device *smile*) - wow!

furthermore it is such a strange feeling to look around you in 18 metres deepth knowing that you aren't able to ascent really fast and only seeing millions of cubic metres water around you.

although it is such good fun to dive, there are many dangers as well of course, for instance the decompression-illness, that easily can cause death if you don't take it seriously with the coming up with only 18 metres/hour, what is really slowly. moreover you should make security stops, where you stay in a special deepth so that your body can cope with the extreme changes of the pressure. the most important rule is "never stop breathing" because blocking your respiratory tracts can lead to an unhealthy extension or in the worst case to an explosion of your lungs! to get used to that feeling of keeping breathing, we had to make an emergency ascent from a deepth of nine metres. we had to swim up to the surface not stopping and saying 'ahh' and breathing out so that you could always see bubbles in front of your mouth. although i can dive pretty long, that was quite hard....*keuch* just because of the fact that our body is not really made for staying underwater longer than one minute *surprise* you have to notice other rules. there are three big tables with which you have to work out how long you are allowed to stay in which deepth for how long with how many security stops and how long you have to rest until you can go back into the water again. that's the reason for the logbook, every diver has to have. in one dive one group was too deep and exceeded the allowed limit and consequently they weren't allowed to dive again at this day. unfortunately one of them made his advanced course....that was it, no certification!

to get our certification we had to do many tasks under water for instance, floating without any movement (sounds easy but it is definitely not, because you have to find the right adjustement of your "tarrierweste" with the weights around your waist. after our obligation dives we were certificated and allowed to go for a dive without any instructor. so did we of course and initally it was a little bit frightening because you can get lost underwater that fast you would never assume , not forgetting the strong current. your orientation in the water is very bad, especially as a beginner, because everything looks similar and even to stay in a special deepth is really a big challenge, because with one look on your 'computer' you are 2 metres deeper than before. the reason is the stearing of the head, as all sport-LK ler know ;),'cause all movements of your body are steared by the posture of your head.

it's really a pity, that very big areas of the reef are totally destroyed and just grey and dead as a consequence of strong storms, the global warming and chemicals in the water.

ach, diving is just so relaxing, kind of meditation because floating and doing a soft fint-kick all 3 seconds, you only hear your breath and this quiet crackle of the water and its current- nice! when we tried to identificate the fish we have seen, everybody used a 'nemo- language' so for instance:

"have you seen nemo?"
"look over there, that's gil, isn't it?"
"actually, these bermudas killed nemo's mum and ate his brothers and sisters"
"really? ts, that's disgusting, i don't like these fishes" =)


nemo really went all over the world


can you see the two stonefish on this picture? have a closer look!

in brief, it was just an amazing experience and to say it in typical australian words: it was aaaawesome =) this huge variety of colours, shapes, patterns, corals and animals is really really impressive and i would recommend it to everybody to dive at the great barrier reef!

by the way, these pictures were produced by the fotograph of ocean quest who accompagnied our cours during some dives.