Diving again!

Today I was diving again. Of course you can argue whether sitting on the sand bottom with your scuba gear on with you head 40 cm's from the surface in 2 hours is diving, but nevertheless :-). I had a great experience today. I am assisting an instructor in teaching divers to dive for the very first time in their life. This starts with theory and then afterwards going to the sea to go through a number of skills at very shallow water. In case the beginners panic, he/she can simply stand up and get above water. Other dive centres use a swimming pool, but since Big Blue does not have a pool, it is done at around 1.5 meter depth on a beach where you simply sit on your knees and perform the skills; like re-finding your mouthpiece/regulator (the thing you breathe from), taking off your mask, putting it back on and clearing it from water again. It was such a great experience to see all the mistakes and problems that any person gets when first time in scuba gear and become under water. You suddenly remember all these mistakes that you did yourself :-). We ended up doing a five minutes 'real' dive at around 2 meters depth.

The very best thing is not sitting at the bottom for two hours, but the best thing is to see the faces of the becoming-divers faces afterwards. They were so proud of them self, they LOVED it, and they had a GREAT time. And to be honest; they have not seen anything yet. And they have been through the worst parts of becomning a diver today. The group consisted of 6 people which did not know each other (almost) on beforehand. After todays dive, in the restaurant, they suddenly started talking to each other, and slowly becoming friends. Diving is a social sport; despite the fact that you can basically not communicate at all while performing the sport. But the many - and different - challenges that everyone experience the first times diving seem to built a bond between people; fast. Diving is a sport (like many other sports) where people from any country and with any educational background end up feeling like a very strong group.

Great day!