I'm back from SCUBA dive training in Exmouth with my brother Paul at the Exmouth Dive Centre. This involved classroom work and pool dives for two days, a day's break, then four open-water dives across two days in Lighthouse Bay on the Ningaloo reef. It was absolutely awesome, not least because of our two lovely instructors - and the fact that Paul and I were the only two people in the course group!
During the various open water dives I saw innumerable interesting tropical fish. I was followed around by a confused-looking Remora. I watched sea snakes swimming around and poking into little holes in the rock. There were hordes of green sea turtles swimming around, surfacing to breathe, or sometimes just sleeping nestled in the rock. White tipped reef sharks were snoozing on the bottom or zooming around - I love the power with which they swim. Octopi were hiding in crevices in the rock, as was a cute little moray eel. I even saw a Wobigong shark (totally awesome - almost ray shaped, but all camouflaged and uneven and knobbly) nestled in a big crack in the rock.
The dive instructor and her assistant who we were diving with surfaced after every dive and said things to the effect of "wow, that's the best dive I've ever had at this site". Paul and I just seemed to be good luck charms for attracting awesome things.
The dive instructor Paul and I were studying with was just fantastic. Very capable and experienced, good communicator, confident, clear. Also great fun and good humoured - and not in any sort of forced way. The dive master who was along to observe as part of her own training was also great, so between them we had a brilliant course. We powered through the classwork and had no trouble with the pool dives, so there was plenty of room for run and silliness.
Diving is so free and comfortable and easy that it's hard to really explain. It's the closest thing I can imagine to microgravity. Once you get the hang of your buoyancy control device and of using your breathing to tune your buoyancy, the freedom to move in all dimensions and not even care about orientation is amazing. Hanging head-down to peer under a ledge just seems natural, as does swimming up-side-down watching the bubbles rise while a turtle swims overhead on its way up for air.
Diving would be fun even if there wasn't awesome stuff to see.
It's not effortless, though. There's a fair bit of work involved just in moving around; you don't realise it at the time but when you surface to change tanks or to return for the day you realise you're well and truly tired, and utterly ravenous. There's also a
lot to learn to dive properly and safely, though once you understand it and get the hang of it it's not a big deal. You do need to be confident in and under the water, since you'll be taking your mask off under water and putting it back on, dropping your regulator then grabbing it and clearing it to breathe from it again, etc.
So .... now I'm a qualified Open Water Diver. I'm also hooked, and am likely to be doing a lot more of it. I want to do a night dive SO badly, and I'm itching to learn a bit about underwater photography (and to get a decent housing for my camera).
I can't recommend the Exmouth Dive Centre enough, by the way. Great instructors, great boat operators, good facilities, good quality gear that's clearly well maintained, etc. They do nice little touches like "squeeze" the tanks, too - let them cool down after initial filling, then top them up so you get an extra 10% or so of air for your dive. They're well organized and generally excellent. Plus, as a place to learn to dive, Exmouth is just incredible.