Essential equipment

This past November, while on vacation, I completed my PADI Open Water SCUBA certification. I plan to go away again this spring, and will be diving on that vacation as well. I am very excited! SCUBA is an amazing experience! It’s both relaxing and exhilarating at the same time! On my last dives I came into close proximity with many wondrous underwater creatures. There were many of the common fish and coral that you see. And of course, there were Barracuda! These are the one fish I do NOT want to see!!! They scare the "ba-geebers" out of me!! And one that we came into close proximity with was actually swimming in a very “jerky” motion, which usually indicates that they are ready to strike out for the kill!! We moved away as quickly as we could, without looking too much like flailing fish! I also saw a shark. These don’t seem to bother me as much as barracuda. This one was a small (approx. 4 ft.) nurse shark. I also saw a giant crab, which probably measured around 3 feet in diameter. But the best thing I saw was the sea turtle!! He was as big as I am. Yes, I know, I am not that big, but in terms of the size of a turtle, I’d have to say that must be rather large! He was swimming along, and we came up next to him, and swam in the same direction as he was for a little bit. Then he turned towards us right in front of me, and ended up swimming in the opposite direction, DIRECTLY BELOW ME!!!! I could have reached out and touched him. But I figured that it would be better to just look and keep all my fingers!! But it was so amazing to experience that!!


Anyway, the only thing I’d have to say that was a bit of a negative about the diving …. my fins! You see, I have a VERY small foot! Yes, I still can fit into children’s shoes! At times this is beneficial, as I will buy children’s sneakers, which are a lot less expensive. But when it comes to diving, this is a huge disadvantage. You see, children’s fins have a much shorter “fin”. So in order to keep up with the rest of the group or my dive buddy, I’d have to work twice as hard as those with adult fins! Diving is supposed to be relaxing, not a strenuous cardio workout!!


So yesterday, after a nice brunch in the village (for those who are not New Yorkers, this means Greenwich Village, an area of NYC located at the lower west side of Manhattan) my brunch date and I went to a nearby dive shop. There I purchased my new fins, boots, a mask and a matching snorkel!! (see photo above for what I purchased) I decided to be a little bit different and went with the baby pink mask and snorkel!! At least it will be a little easier to spot which one is mine on the dive boat! That is all I purchased, because dive gear can get expensive, so for now, I just bought what I thought was going to make my next dive experience better, and I can rent the rest of the items when I get to the dive site. But eventually I will buy everything that I need. And yes, I will be asking Sarah (and my friend Adrienne) for her advice!!





So now I just have to wait another couple of months to use these items! That’s going to be the hardest part!!

[this particular blog entry originally written for another blog site on January 7, 2008]