Pretty uneventful trip - except for a nasty gash across my palm caused by an embarassing accident.
Encountered an inch-long baby squid at night, a huge sleeping humphead, a small lionfish, a few puffers, a full-sized barracuda, tiny little shrimps, lots of clownfish and the usual others.
But what makes this trip note-worthy is not so much what I saw, but what I felt. After 40 dives under my belt, I realise now I am truly comfortable diving. I used to feel a little apprehensive putting on the restrictive mask, that uncomfortable regulator, shuffling around with a tank dragging me down, and the plunge from boat to deep blue nothingness. Even when diving, I would feel a little claustrophobic coz of all the equipment.
Not anymore. On this trip I giant-strided in without hesitation every time, and underwater my body felt no discomfort at all. Only thing that bothered me was the fogging up of my mask and the pounding migraines in my head when I couldn't equalise. otherwise I was totally at home wrapped in a BCD, engulfed by sea, with fishes swimming all around.
Of course the headaches bothered me quite a bit, and the temptation to shoot up to the surface and normalise myself was always there. But somehow as the water slows everything down, I am more calm, more relaxed and able to slowly think things thru. I CANNOT shoot up. i MUST stay below and remain in control. So i ascend up slowly, up to a level where it doesn't hurt, and stay there. I don't get to see things up close as I usually like, but I still get to enjoy being underwater, diving.
I hope these migraines are only due to my blocked nose rendering me unable to equalise properly. Besides that, I am now truly, 100% comfortable diving. Yes, maybe 40+ dives is quite a long way to get here, but look at it this way - it's an entirely different world to get used to.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
