Red Sea

I spent the last two days out on the water doing my SCUBA training! So many emotions during the experience - fear, excitement, exhilaration, disappointment, pride, amazement. You name it, and I probably felt it. At times, I debated quitting and giving up, wondered if I was just too old - but just kept telling myself if other people can do it, so can I and just kept getting back in the water!!!

It’s such an unnatural thing to do - head underwater and breathe, where everything in your body says this probably isn’t the best idea. The training and skills portions were intense, and I certainly didn’t master any of them on the first try. Some I had to do over and over again until I got it right. But each time I went down, I got better and better and more confident. The hard part is the training really isn’t that enjoyable - you don’t see much aquatic life. He just took me directly to a sandy bottom and there I sat for 50-60 min doing really hard crap. Then the last 10 min going back to the boat I might see some fish. It got pretty discouraging on the second day out.

Yesterday tho was much better. I only did a few skills - such as I had to take off all my equipment under water and sit without it off for 60 sec under control, and then put it all back on. Harder to do than it sounds. Then we swam around for 30-40 min adventuring! So cool! Then my last dive was just that, an actual full fledged dive. I got to go with three other divers, Jordan included, and we went everywhere! Made all the work over the three days totally worth it!!

So now I’m an Open Water Certified diver! I don’t know if I’ve ever been more proud of myself, to be honest. I can dive anywhere in the world, but only up to 18m deep. So we have a few more countries on the agenda these last two months, a few of which look like amazing diving spots so now I can join Jordan on some underwater adventures before we finish up. Can’t wait!!Read more