Some friends of ours gave Ryan and me the brilliant and unique gift of becoming scuba certified for a wedding gift. A huge thanks goes to: Ryan Hauser, Carissa Monterroso, Aaron DeWitt, Stosh Eichenauer, Tim Schainker, Prasanth Ravipati, Josh Mosdale, Amanda Davis, Ariel Crespo, Zach Fallon, Bobby Wang, and Jeff Silpe! Thank you so much! It was amazing, and I can’t wait to go on many more dives!
So, this past weekend Ryan and I used our wedding gift and became scuba certified! Hooray! It was a long and tiring weekend, but it was well worth it in the end.
The first day of the process, we basically learned how to take apart all of our equipment and we had to learn what to do in cases of emergencies- in and out of the water. So, this wasn’t that much fun because we had to do things like take off our goggles under water, put them back on, and clear them. We had to learn what it felt like to run out of air and share our buddy’s air underwater, etc. Even though those things were a little scary and not as fun as exploring, I am glad that we did them so that we can now know what to do without freaking out.
The second day was fun right from the beginning. We went to Creole Rock twice off of the coast of Grand Case, Saint Martin (the French side). Here are some pictures to give you an idea of where we were:
Creole Rock, Grand Case
We went over some more skills, but our group got to explore since we got all of our training done the day before. So, here are the details:
Location: Grand Case, St. Martin
Dive Site: Creole Rock
Weather Condition: Sunny and Windy
Water Condition: Choppy
Depth: 30 ft.
Visibility: 35 ft.
Bottom Time: 45 minutes
We saw some of the most amazing things down there! We saw eagle rays, sting rays, a baby moray eel, Pederson cleaning shrimp, bandit coral shrimp, and many beautiful fish. Here are some pictures:
That is me in the front with the yellow on my sleeves, and Ryan is in the back with his tall self! Our instructor is the guy on the right.
Here we are practicing some skills.
It was weird taking pictures because you can't smile or you will flood your mask.. so you have to try to smize (smile with your eyes) ha ha
Here I am with Jamie, a friend and another spouse here. But.. we should have gotten in trouble for this picture because the thumbs-up sign signals that you need to go up to the water's surface. I was really bad about doing it, and our instructor joked that each time I did it, I would have to buy him a beer. I got up to 5 beers on the first day.. Woops!
Here is Ryan practicing his buoyancy skills
Here I am doing it now. Check out how flat Ryan's head looks due to the bubble lens on the camera!
Then for our second dive of the day, we went to Turtle Reef in Grand Case which was equally amazing! Here are the diving details:
Location: Grand Case, St. Martin
Dive Site: Turtle Reef
Weather Condition: Sunny and Windy
Water Condition: Choppy
Depth: 26 ft.
Visibility: 25 ft.
Bottom Time: 45 minutes
We saw 2 hawksbill sea turtles and 1 green sea turtle! They were so beautiful looking, however I thought that they looked a little grumpy! The second hawksbill turtle that we saw was huge- like the size of our kitchen table, and he didn’t look very excited to see us.. but maybe he was just old.
Here is a blowfish!
Our instructor with an arrowhead crab
We went back to Creole Rock for the second time that day and saw a barracuda, a sea cucumber, a trumpet fish, and tons of brightly colored fish. It is amazing how all of those different kinds of fish get along together so well living in the same environment. It is also crazy how they aren’t that afraid of us as we were swimming in their space. It was like I was another fish! Here are some pictures:
After Creole Rock, we went back to Turtle Reef to practice using a compass and we saw 2 green sea turtles, 1 hawksbill turtle, a humongous southern sting ray, and an arrowhead crab.. plus tons of beautiful fish.
Here is the barracuda! He was pretty big too.
Ryan showing off his skills
Ryan is pretty good about smizing
Here we are checking our compass.
Some sort of wreckage with some fish inside
The humongous sting ray.
Here I am doing the forbidden sign again
Peace
Sea turtle!
He is swimming!
After such an amazing morning, I was wondering how anything could top that for the afternoon’s agenda. I was pretty mistaken because I think each dive was just as fun as the last.. no matter what we saw. It is just crazy to think about going underwater that deep and seeing things that not many other people get to see or experience. At first, I thought that it would be scary and overwhelming but really, it is the opposite. It is very calming and relaxing, and I could swim for hours under there.. if I couldn’t run out of air that is.
It was so much fun.. but I am still tired today from all of that hard work yesterday! Our instructor told us that a typical dive burns about 600 calories, and we did 4 dives! Wow! Maybe I should become a scuba instructor…That's all for now!
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