My History of SCUBA

Well I can't believe I have four more days until I arrive in Palau! Lets start off by filling you in a bit.

I love the water and have dreamed of becoming a SCUBA diver ever since I can remember. I was given the opportunity through my job as I work at a retail store where we help our customers create their own part of the ocean in their own homes. My boss and his wife are both avid divers and constantly hearing about their trips and experiences, it pushed me over that edge. I was ready to finally dive into diving!

I am newly Advanced Open Water certified as of May 18, 2008. I got my Open Water Certification August 11, 2005. From the first time I took a breath under water I didn't want to go back to regular breathing. You could not take a smile off my face the entire time I was training. I took a crash course through a local dive shop and felt very comfortable and taken care of. We did two weekend days of classroom work and then two weekend days of pool classes. The pool was amazing and taking that first breath of air under water was just amazing. I will admit it was a bit nerve-raking but, wow at the same time. I decided to take my Open Water course in the quarry. You will hear a lot of divers complain about diving in a quarry but it was an amazing experience for me. I love the water, any water. I love to fish and swim with the fishes so swimming in a quarry with Blue Gills and Bass was just amazing. It was a lot clearer than the Dive Instructors expected and the fish were all over the place. The quarry is a common dive spot for training and just for those who want to get their feet wet without being able to take a trip somewhere so the fish are not very scared of you. I have many ear piercings and the Blue Gill kept trying to nip at them, it was just amazing. So that is a quick history about my Open Water Certification.

A few months after my certification, well actually 6 months, my boss surprised me with a work bonus. He took me and another well deserving co-worker to Nassau, Bahamas! I was able to bring my girlfriend Carey along for the vacation even though she is not a diver. Below is a blog that I sent to family and friends about the trip:

"Introduction: Here is an introduction of the individuals who I went on the trip with and hung out on the trip with.

Tom White - Boss and owner of the store I work at, The Marine Scene. He is married to Tina and they are both great people. We have staff parties at their house all the time, and Tom takes the staff out for dinner and drinks every now and then. He paid for my Scuba Certification classes while I paid for my gear and other necessities, he paid for the trip to Nassau, Bahamas and all that was included like food and drinks. I have enjoyed working with and for him.

Scott Sturm – Immediate boss and good friend. He is a certified Scuba Diver yet spent his time reading on the beach.

Carey North – My best friend! She came on the trip for a cheaper cost because she is not a diver so she hung out with Scott during the time Tom and I were on our dives.

Jack Gennaro – Works at Adventure Scuba Company. He helped with the scuba sessions when I was certified and help lead the trip to Nassau, Bahamas.

Larry Hammons – Dive Instructor and lead of the trip.

Nassau Beach Hotel was where Tom, Scott, Carey and I stayed. We were originally going to be at Orange Tree Inn yet it was overbooked so we were offered to stay at a much nicer hotel on Cable Beach.

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Had slept the night at my boss Toms house with Carey since the airport is about 10 minutes away as opposed to about an hour or more in morning rush hour. We boarded our plane about 6:50am and had a layover in Charlotte for about an hour and a half. We finally arrived at Nassau, Bahamas Airport and went through all security, got our checked baggage and took a taxi to our hotel at about 1:30; Nassau Beach Hotel along Cable Beach. It’s a decent hotel, lots of accommodations such as resturants, lounges, bars, pools, ocean front, Duty Free shopping and a casino next door. We checked in but were not allowed in our rooms until 3pm so we went to a restaurant right on the beach out of our hotel called Oceanfront Grill. We all ended up having their Beach Burger (just a regular burger) and Kalik, the Beer of the Bahamas. It had been decided that since there were four of us and we were here for four nights that each of us would pick a restaurant to eat at. We drew numbers and Carey picked lucky number one! She chose a place in Arawak Cay. We waited around and chatted and had a few more beers until about 3pm so we could check in, get our rooms, change and get to the beach. We all then laid out for a few hours until the sun started going down then changed, got a taxi to Arawak Cay (aka. Fish Fry) and went to eat at The Big # 10. They had great food; I had shrimp and lobster combo with coleslaw, macaroni and rice and of course more Kalik! After eating we taxi’d back to the hotel and Tom went to bed, Scott, Carey and I decided to check out the Casino. The majority of it was slots so we walked around a couple times then just sat at some slots for a bit. It was frustrating because the new Bahamian Quarter did not work in any of their slots so we kept thinking the machine was broken, we just needed to change out our quarters (some of the machines we sat at were actually broken we just couldn’t figure it out). We got bored and frustrated with the slots so we decided to leave. Got back to the rooms around 10:30pm, went to sleep for a busy day in the morning.

Friday, February 24 (dives 1,2)

Woke up early and got together my dive equipment: full 3mm wetsuit, hood, gloves, booties, fins, mask, snorkel, BCD, regulator, camera and dive bag. I met Tom in the hotel lobby to wait for our bus to take us to Stuart Cove’s Aqua Adventures for our first two dives. The bus picked us up at 8:15am and it took about 30 min. to get to Stuart Cove. We checked in and filled out more liability forms and then got on our boat Tursiops. We met our crew, Tohru our Captain and Shark feeder, our Dive Instructor Emmy and our Photographer Charlie. Everyone was great and very helpful. We had 14 divers on our boat including Tom and myself yet not including the Stuart Cove’s crew. We had a late start because some of the newer divers had forgotten the most important item for diving…their regulators! So we had to wait for them to go rent some which took a while. We finally were off on our way out to sea and started hooking up our tanks, BC’s and regulators. Then sat out on the bow of the boat and soaked in some sun as we were off to our first two dive sites, Pumpkin Patch and Goulding Cay. We got our wetsuits on Larry, a dive instructor from the dive shop I was certified at in Chantilly called Adventure Scuba Company, took a third of the divers who needed to take their final lessons and open water certification dive before they were allowed to dive on their own. He went over with them what they would be doing in the water before they got in. Emmy, our dive instructor, took the rest of us aside and informed us of some sites we would be seeing and areas to swim around. We went over safety signals then Charlie, our photographer let us know where he would be around for some good pictures. We got in the water and started decending. Tom, my boss, was my dive partner and since he has been on hundreds of dives, I felt very comfortable on my first dive. It took a few minutes for my ears to equalize and once they felt ok, we kept decending down the reef wall. Our average depth was about 42 ft and the temperature at its coolest was 75 degrees. Our max depth was a whopping 102 feet!!! I was a little scared when he showed me his dive watch that told us our depth and I motioned to ascend a bit. It honestly did not look as though we were that far down because the water was so clear and the reef wall was at a downward slope. It was quite amazing to see all the fish in their natural environment and seemed very calm. We could get right up on them and they didn’t seem too scared. It was so amazing! After being under for about 42 min we ascended and got back on the boat. Man I felt like I was carrying about 50 extra pounds on me trying to get back on the boat. You forget how weightless you are under water and with all the equipment you have on when you come out of the water, gravity hits and you feel very heavy. We swapped our gear onto another tank for the next dive and relaxed while we went to the next site. It was nice to relax and sit out in the sun on the front of the boat and see the amazingly crystal clear blue water! It looked as though you could stand up to your waist yet the depth was about 40 feet!

We arrived at our second dive site which was a beautiful sandy bottom encircled with lots of live corals and large schools of fish. They nickname it the Bond site because that is where a lot of filming for James Bond films took place; it is actually Goulding Cay. Our average depth was about 17 ft. Tom and I got in and circled around a couple times looking at all the amazing corals and fish and invertebraes. It was of course a lot shallower, our max depth was about 24 ft. and just oh so beautiful! We saw lots of Parrotfish, Wrasse, Royal Grammas, Black Capped Basslets, Chromis, Sea Fans, Sponges, Tunicates and so much more! There were a few other boats in the area and other divers as well so we had to make sure we remembered which boat and group was ours. We swam under one boat and Tom motioned to look up and as I did he sneaked up on someone with their tows in the water and grabbed it. I wanted to bust out laughing but of course being underwater that was not possible. We stayed down for about 40 min and then got back on the boat to head back to Stuart Cove’s dock. We got back to the dock, rinsed off our gear and hung it all up in the “locker room” to dry for the next days dives. We got back on our bus to go back to the hotel. It was nice to leave our stuff there and not lug in around each day

We arrived at the hotel about 2:30pm and got lunch and drinks at the Oceanfront Grill. I had a Turkey sandwich and some Kalik. Scott and Carey were out somewhere on the town so Tom and I just sat around and chatted, soaked in some sun and more beer, (yes, we did quite a bit of drinking, the best is yet to come!). Scott and Carey showed up around 4pm or so and we stayed at the Grill for another couple of hours before we went back to our rooms and changed to go out. I decided to take a power nap after all that diving and drinking while Tom, Scott and Carey went to the hotel restaurant called Café Johnny Canoe; Toms night to pick dinner. I met them down there at about 8pm after napping for about 45 min. We met up with a few other divers from our boat, Jack (who helped certify me and works at Adventure Scuba Co. in Chantilly), his sister Julie and their dad John. We all had a great time, ended up drinking quite a bit (hi mom J), and eating some dinner. The restaurant has a Native Bahamian Parade they perform every Friday night called Junkanoo and a live band after the parade called Herbie and Da Band (aka Otis). It was a really fun night and we all had a great time…became a little loud but still decent. I think Tom had a little bit too much fun because he was the cause of us being asked to leave after too many harmless yet funny antics later in the night. So we paid our quite large bill and headed back to our rooms where we had a “wonderful” nights rest.

Saturday, February 25 (dives 3,4,5,6)

I had slept quite well and woke up to the noise of the storm door outside our room (we are on the 4^th floor right outside the walkway to the beach). I got up and got ready to met Tom for breakfast (egg and cheese crousante) at a little deli in our hotel. We waited outside the front lobby for our bus to Stuart Cove’s for more diving. The bus arrived at about 8:10am and we got to Stuart Cove’s at about 8:50am. We grabbed all our gear and got ready on the boat for a full days worth of diving. The wind had picked up a bit and the water wasn’t as calm as yesterday so it was a little difficult walking on the boat with all the heavy gear on but I managed it. We finally got in the water and decended to our depth. Both dives were wreck dives at wrecks called The Davy Tucker and Bond Wrecks. It was neat to swim in and around sunken vessels/ships and see all the life that has inhabited it; corals, fish, crabs, snails, shrimp etc. We stayed at our first wreck site, The Davy Tucker, for about 40 min. Our average depth was 44 ft. and our max depth was about 85 ft. The water temperature was about 75 degrees. We then surfaced for a bit and headed out to our next site. We suddenly stopped and were told to look out the right side of the boat…there was a huge beautiful black Manta Ray! The first one to be seen in a long time in that area. It stayed around our boat for a few minutes just gliding along in the water. It was amazing and must have had about a 10 ft. wingspand! What a site! I really wish I could have gotten a picture of it.

We finally arrived at our next dive site called the Bond Wrecks. Tom decided not to dive this time because he wasn’t feeling great and was getting cold wearing his shorty (a wetsuit which is cut off at the knees and elbows). I buddied up with Jack since he was already in a trio with his dad and sister and you need at least two to dive safely. It was getting a little chillier for me as well. Water temperature was still about 75 degrees, our average depth was about 35 ft. and our max depth was about 40 ft. We swam around for about 30 min. then headed back to the boat. When I came up in the water and was helped back on the boat I had what is called “bloody mask”. It is when you try to equalize the pressure in your sinuses and a couple blood vessels pop and drain out your nose. I didn’t notice it at all until I was helped back on the boat and took my mask off. It was a very small amount of blood and was not an issue with future diving, though I was still a little questionable. We headed back to Stuart Cove’s to take a good long break and have our tanks swapped out for full ones.

Once we got back to the dock we set our suits on the bow of the boat to try and dry them off a bit before we were to head back out to do our last two dives of the day: the Shark Wall dive and the Shark Arena (feed) dive!!! We had about an hour or so before we had to be back on the boat so we got some lunch; ham or turkey sandwiches (I had a turkey), and shopped at the gift store on the dock. I got a t-shirt and ball cap and then looked at pictures of other divers shark expierences. We sat out in the sun and chatted, hydrated and got ready to do more diving! I was getting so excited and anxious about swimming around with sharks! I was not sure how I would feel once I got in the water with them but I knew it was a once in a lifetime experience and something I have wanted to do for a long time so there was no way I was backing out out because of fear or being nervous!

We got back on the boat around 1:15pm and got our suits on and ready to head out. Tom ended up breaking his rule about never renting a wetsuit and got a full 3 ml suit for the next dives since he was cold in his shorty. The first of the two shark dives was the Shark Wall. We had a videographer, Sally, with us on the dives. Tohru, our boat captain was our dive instructor on these dives since he is very experienced with the sharks and does the shark feeding. We got our instructions to not wave our hands around too much and stick with our dive instructor Tohru. We were told the sharks would be swimming around us and wouldn’t get too close, about four or so feet would be the closest…not too close huh?! The sharks are Caribbean Reef sharks about four to eight feet long, not aggressive and are pretty well behaved. They are used to divers and a good 40 or so hang around the area waiting to be fed. Sometimes a Tiger or Bull shark would join them but only once in a while. We finally got in the water and when I jumped in, the first thing I did was look down and just saw a bunch of sharks right under me! Got a little nervous so took a few deep breaths, waited for Tom and then started decending. Our average depth was about 35 ft. and our max depth was about 50 ft and the water temperature was a nice 77 degrees. We stayed down for about 40 min and saw another wreck and lots of sharks. I got lots of amazing picures and we of course had Sally and Charlie taking photos and videos of all of us with the sharks. It was so amazing! We were finally heading back to the boat and I got to see another group of divers in the beginning of their shark feed dive and all I could see was a large circle of sharks in one spot. I thought to myself, “So this is what I am getting myself into”. I got a few pictures of the group of sharks and then got back on the boat. We stayed surfaced in the same spot until the other group was done and gave time for the sharks to digest some of their meal and we went over our next set of instructions: do not wave your arms under water, sit still on the bottom of the ocean, stay calm and enjoy the experience. We were told the sharks would be a lot closer and might even touch you! We all got in and decended to the Shark Arena which had stones as markers of where to sit. Our max depth was 38 ft and the water temperature was 77 degrees. There was a huge grouper waiting at the bottom for scraps, it must have been about three feet long! Tohru would wait until we were all situated at the bottom and then come down with the bait box and all the sharks would just come out of nowhere. He brought the bait box right up to each pair or group of divers and Sally and Charlie would focus on them and all the sharks around them. Tom and I were at the other end of the semi-circle so we got to see it all before it was our turn. Tohru and the bait box arrived at our spot, and we were just engulfed with sharks. A few grazed past my sides and ones belly grazed the top of my head. It was so amazing and scary at the same time! Their eyes would just lock onto you as they swam past you. The feed continued for a good 20 min. and when Tohru was done, he surfaced back to the boat with the bait box. We were motioned to stay until the sharks realized there was no more food and swam off to do their own thing. Then we were motioned to kneel into the circle and comb the sandbed with our fingers to look for sharks teeth. I found two teeth which was very cool. Since they use that same spot for the feedings there are I am sure hundreds of teeth but I still only found two. We stayed searching for about another 10 min then surfaced and got back on the boat. What an adventure!

We broke down all our gear, packed it in our dive bags and got back to the dock, rinsed our gear and hung it back up in the “locker room”. We went into the “film room” on the dock to see the pictures and video of our dive. Charlie and Sally did a wonderful job filming under water…I would love that job, both my interests wrapped up in one, photography and ocean life! We all got back on our bus and went back to the hotel. Once at the hotel, about 4pm, we went to our rooms to shower and change for dinner. Scott was out on the beach somewhere and Carey had just woken up…lazy! I took a power nap then showered and changed. It was my turn to choose a restaurant to eat so I chose a placed called the Poop Deck. It ended up being fancier than we were expecting but they had great food. Tom, Carey and I all got the Lobster Macaroni which was excellent and filling, Scott being a meat-n-potatoes guy got a steak (I think). We all had Kalik as well. When we were done we decided to check out the casino next door and went upstairs to the Piano lounge and had a few drinks and chatted. It was pretty quiet there so we decided to go back to Café Johnny Canoe’s to listen to the band again and hope to not get kicked out! We stayed there for a few drinks then decided to check out he clubs in the hotel. Carey and Tom walked into Da Island Club and when I heard the cover was $15 I walked out (not realizing it came with two drink tickets). Scott and I ventured downstairs to the LivingRoom Club with a $5 cover and danced a bit and had a good time.

After the fun we went back up to the rooms to wait around for Carey and Tom so Scott and I sat out on the balcony and just chatted for a while when we heard Carey and Tom come out the downstairs door towards the beach. I hollered down to them and Scott and I met up with them for a stroll on the beach and dip in the water at about 3am! Tom and I talked and agreed that we would not go on the final dive on Sunday so we could all spend some time as a group and enjoying the weather before leaving and then we finally decided to go to bed!

Sunday, February 26

I woke up kinda early because of the storm door right outside our rooms that leads out to the beach which everyone uses. You start hearing it at about 7am and it is a constant door-slamming sound every few minutes…in and out and in and out and in and out, over and over again. I decided to finally get out of bed and go to the beach. Tom was going to head over to Stuart Cove’s to pick up our diving gear and get the DVD/CD combo of our dives. Carey went with him and Scott was already down at the beach. I got my bathing suit on, some sunscreen and a book and met up with Scott. We had lunch at the Oceanfront Grill, I had another Turkey sandwich and water. We were almost wearing our lunch because the wind had really picked up. Tom and Carey got back just as we were moving from our table to lounge on the beach chairs in the sun. They sat down and got lunch and met us on the beach afterwards. We laid out for about 3 hours or so and then went back to the rooms to change and get ready to go out. It was Scotts turn to pick a restaurant for dinner and he chose a place called ______________. It was a quiet little place right across from Arawak Cay where we ate at he Big # 10 the first night. I had a combo of conch fritters, shrimp and fish and instead of Kalik, I had a good American Miller Light. We stayed for a bit then got a taxi back to our hotel and back to Café Johnny Canoe’s for more entertainment and drinks. We didn’t make it a late night so we went back to our rooms, hung out for a bit then went to bed…we wanted to make sure we spent our last day doing as much as possible.

Monday, February 27, 2006

We woke up around 7am as usual because of that annoying storm door. It was our morning wake up call, right on schedule. It was not very sunny out, the wind picked up quite a bit and was a little chillier. We got a call from Jack asking to hang out since his dad and sister took earlier flights home and he was by himself. We waited around the hotel for him, packed up our stuff and when he arrived, we went down to the Oceanfront Grill for some early lunch. It was chilly and very windy but still a good time. We decided to head out to town to do some quick site seeing and shopping. Jacks needed to get back to his hotel to get his stuff for his flight at 1pm so we parted and Tom, Scott, Carey and I went back to our rooms to grab our luggage to keep in the hotel lobby’s luggage room since we had to check out at noon. We then got a taxi into town walked for a bit and stopped at some shops. At about 3 we stopped at a restaurant and got a few drinks before heading back to the hotel to get our luggage and taxi to the airport. Our flight was at 5pm and there are three security checkpoints at the airport so we wanted to make sure to get there with enough time for any potential issues, which we didn’t have. We arrived at the airport and got our tickets and went through the checkpoints and onto our gate. There was a lounging area so we got some drinks and hung out for the next hour or so while waiting to board our plane. This was going to be a non-stop flight all the way to Dullus Airport in VA. The flight was quite crowded so there was the offer to have some people to get bumped to first class. Tom kept letting them know he wanted it and when it came time to board two of our tickets were bumped. Tom let Scott and I take those which was very nice so we sat very comfortably up in first class. We got free drinks, warm nuts and a private movie which I slept through most of. Scott had these sound-proof ear phones which he let me use which were awesome! It kept out all the background noise and allowed only close people to be heard clearly. I need to get a pair of those for sleeping, they are awesome! The flight landed about 8pm and we waited for our baggage and got a taxi back to Toms house. When we got outside it was snowing! Not much but still we went from nice 80 degree beach weather to cold, snowy VA weather. We got to Tom and Tina’s house after about 15 min. She was still awake so we chatted with her for a bit then Carey and I packed up my car and drove home. I dropped Carey off at her house and went home, chatted with Gary and Mom for a bit about the trip, showed the video of the Shark Dives and went to bed! I had to work in the morning and it was late and I had a full day so of course I was tierd. It was nice to be at home yet I still wanted to wake up with the beach right out my window and the weather nice and warm.

Well it was a great vacation and I finally got to do some actual Scuba Diving and swam with the sharks. I was very thankful that Tom offered the certification classes and then a trip on top of that! He is a great boss and a good friend. I do work my butt off and have been rewarded greatly for it…can’t wait until the next trip! Thanks Tom! "

So now that you know all about my Bahamas trip, its time to start what this whole Blog was about in the first place...my trip to Palau! Four more days till I step off the extremely long plane rides onto the Island of Palau!