Under the Sea

October 14, 2017

I grew up near a lake, and my grandparents owned a pontoon boat, so my summers were spent mostly in the water. I learned how to swim at a very young age and fell in love with snorkeling. I loved how peaceful and fascinating it was to swim with the fish and see under the water. As great as snorkeling was, I always wanted to try scuba diving, but until recently, I had never had the chance. I was that kid at the ocean with my pink and purple wetsuit dreaming about scuba diving. When we first moved to SVG and I found out that Trinity had a dive club, I was very excited, until I realized that we couldn't afford to go diving. You can imagine my excitement when I saw that Indigo Dive along with Trinity's dive club was offering a FREE discovery dive in the hotel pool, to allow students to get a chance to try out the equipment and learn more about diving. Luke and I eagerly signed up. Indigo Dive did a wonderful job, providing equipment and teaching us about the equipment and the hand signals used while diving before we even jumped into the pool. I was excited until we got into the pool and I took my first breath. I was fully expecting it to feel almost exactly the same as snorkeling. It did not, and I suddenly began thinking that if I had an issue breathing, I couldn't necessarily pop my head up out of the water and tread water until I fixed it, but after wanting to try scuba diving for so long, I wasn't about to let a little nervousness stop me. We knelt on the floor of the pool while the instructor showed us how to fill our masks with water, tilt our heads back, apply pressure to the top of the mask, and breathe out through our noses to clear the mask of water. After she demonstrated it, she motioned for me to try it. Thankfully, I was able to do it without any issues. We swam a few laps around the pool before we tried the next skill. We had to remove the regulator from our mouths and breathe out some air before putting the regulator back in and breathing out to clear the water out of it. Suddenly, I felt very nervous wondering what would happen if I did it wrong and couldn't get any air or breathed in water. Much to my relief, it was easier than I had envisioned it being, and I was able to do it successfully. For the remaining time, we swam around the pool, and of course, we had to pose for a few pictures.

practicing the skills

We use the "ok" sign to let each other know that everything is fine.

We had such a good time that we decided to splurge and go on a discovery dive in the ocean. Unfortunately, we could not afford the certification, but on a discovery dive, we could dive down to 30 or 40 feet and still see quite a bit. It was completely worth it! One afternoon, we met up with Indigo Dive, who provided all of our equipment, including wetsuits and coffee and snacks for after the dive. They took us out on their boat to Indian Bay, which happens to be one of my favorite places to snorkel here. We had the option of putting our equipment on in the water or putting it on while still on the boat and flipping over the side. Of course, we chose to go over the side, and we felt so professional.

I went first, so I was able to watch Luke go over the side.

We practiced the two skills we had previously learned in the pool before swimming around. Words cannot describe how amazing it was to swim with so many fish and see so much of God's amazing creation. We took a video of the whole experience, so I was able to get some screenshots of the video. Jo, one of the owners of Indigo Dive, dove with us and did a great job of showing us things we may not have found on our own. We were able to see lobsters, a moray eel, a rockfish, a sea snake, and more! We had a fantastic time, and I'm so grateful for the opportunity to experience diving. Some dreams do come true.