Scuba Day 1

We got picked up at our hostel at 8:25 in the morning.  There was a slight mixup with the pickup: we were waiting outside and the van from Pro Dive came.  The driver, who turned out to be our instructor also, asked if we were going diving, and we said yes but not with Pro Dive.  I booked through a different company called "The Scuba Center," and they neglected to tell me they were just a booking agent and that I was actually going on the Pro Dive course and boat.  That's interesting, because Pro Dive told us they were sold out.  Anyways, we got it sorted out and hopped in the van and drove the short distance to the learning center.

After we filled out all the registration forms and signed our precious lives away, the the first half of the day was classroom learning.  Basically we would watch a section of video, then our instructor would review it and add things, and then we would take a little quiz.  It was surprisingly interesting, probably because we were so excited to actually try it all in the water.  We learned a bunch of procedures, and all the underwater hand signals we would need to communicate without talking.  Almost everything was intuitive and straightforward, but you have to learn it because there is very little margin of error when you're essentially breathing from a big bottle 18 meters below the surface (the maximum depth for our PADI open water certification).  There's a lot of stress on not coming up too fast to avoid lung over-expansion or decompression sickness.

Our instructor's name was Jack.  He's a really cool guy; only 26 years old, so we could really relate to him.  He's only been diving for three years, but he really knows his stuff.  He called me and Ben "the Boston boys."  Our group had a running joke that Ben and I were a gay couple because we bicker like we're married, and gay marriage is legal in Massachusetts.  It was all in good fun, of course.

In the classroom there were nine of us, but our group in the pool was only four because the other five would be on a different dive boat with another company.  Jack told us it was rare for him to have such a small group, and that meant we might get to do some extra little things.  The other two people were David, a 48-year-old self-proclaimed bucket lister from Sydney, and Ivo, a twenty-something Dutch guy.  They were both very nice people, and we formed a tight group by the end of the trip.

After lunch (a disappointing salad was all I could eat), it was pool time!  Before we got in, we learned how to set up the equipment.  We would end up repeating this set up and check procedure numerous times before we were certified.  For the non-scuba savvy, here's how it goes:

1. Strap the tank firmly to the BCD (buoyancy compensation device: basically a vest that can be filled with air or emptied to achieve neutral buoyancy underwater, and to serve as a life jacket on the surface; it can be filled manually or with air from the tank)
2. Attach the first stage to the tank (the first stage is basically a splitter valve that reduces the tank pressure to much more usable values for breathing; it just screws lightly on the tank, and pressure does the rest to hold it together)
3. The first stage has four hoses coming from it: two are "second stage" regulators (a.k.a. the thing you breathe from), one for you and one for a buddy if he runs out of air, one attaches to the BCD just like an air compressor fitting, and one has a pressure gauge on it to tell how much air you have left.  In the ocean, the gauge would be supplemented by a dive computer and a compass.
4. After routing the hoses to their appropriate spot, the equipment is ready and you can turn on the air.  Before you put it on, you have to strap on a weight belt (3 kg for me) that makes it easier to descend and become neutral down there (better to be heavy because you can always add air to your BCD).
5. You put on the whole gizmo like a backpack, with a buddy's help.  After cinching everything up, you do a buddy check to make sure your buddy has put his weight belt on with a right handed release, so it can be easily removed in an emergency, and to make sure his regulators and BCD are functioning properly.  The acronym to remember the check is BWRAF (BCD, weights, releases, air, final checks), which I remembered with the lovely politically-correct phrase "Bangkok women really are fellas."

BCDs, what a beautiful sight

Not relevant; just a fun shot

Finally, we put on masks, snorkels, and fins.  Strapped up like underwater astronauts, we were ready to get in the pool.  Jack had us inflate our BCDs fully and then fall in backwards from a step to prove that they really would make us float.  The gear is heavy and uncomfortable on land, but it's actually surprisingly comfortable in the water.  For the next few hours, we practiced a bunch of skills: mask clearing, to purge water if the mask leaks; removing and replacing the regulator, achieving neutral buoyancy; and the most fun, out-of-air situations, where you breathe from your buddy's second regulator.  There were a bunch more exercises that I can't remember off hand; it was a really busy day in the pool.  By the end of the day we took our first trip down the to bottom of the pool.  It was only 5 meters, but you still got the feeling of being under high pressure and you have to equalize your ears so they don't hurt (essentially the reverse of "popping" your ears, you just pinch your nose and blow gently against it).  We practiced everything a second time under there.

Scuba diving is REALLY FUN.  (As if I needed another expensive hobby.)  There's something really cool about breathing under the water.  And, as we would see soon on the reef, there is an entirely new world under the ocean that most people will never get to experience.  A big part of it is being really calm, because that way you conserve air and can stay under longer.

After class Ben and I walked around Cairns a bit and went for a swim in the big pool by the beach.  I think it's because it was low tide, but the beach was really far out and there was gunk all over, so everyone just swam in the shallow pool instead.  There was some duo playing bad folk music over the PA to complete the vacation feel.

Tonight is the second seder.  Ben and I are going to the Chabadniks' private seder at their hotel, which should be an interesting experience.  Details to come...