So I went diving today….

So I went diving today, the water felt great. I had 9 companions with me, they were all remarkably chill which was nice.

How did it feel to be back in the water?

Amazing!!! I always think for me it is an escape and a very peaceful moment when I am underwater. After almost 2 months of cooking, cleaning, juggling kids, attempting homeschooling and trying to work on the side it was sooooo peaceful. Like really peaceful. I had those 30 minutes (I need to work on other peoples air consumption ; ) ) with noone actually asking anything of me. We saw some shark and octopus and amusingly found myself saying “Hi” through the regulator.

I have been making the most of this quarantine and lockdown for sure. Loving the time with my kids, not constantly obviously. When I tell my daughter to “take a deep breath” I find myself doing the same on many occasions. But I love them and thinking of constant ways to keep life entertaining is a challenge.

What am I learning in lockdown?

A 4 year old has a very limited attention span for homeschooling, unless it is “frozen, mermaid or unicorn themed”. Ocean themes are also fun and you can guess I am biased towards those. I am looking for more fun science experiments that we can do along the ocean theme that are safe enough for pre school age. Thank God for pinterest.

So, back to the water today…

I was scuba diving with a group of local law enforcement guys, Yes, think, burley, guns and all. Doing an assessment as I am looking towards training them in the future. There is always something empowering when you are a women teaching a group of men, especially when it is a stereo typical “macho” type group. I will say, they were all absolute gents and took my feedback onboard. One fo the key elements to life is being humble. That you can learn and open to ideas. I look forward to scuba diving with them again in the future.

We have some definite goals to reach though and working on buoyancy and breathing is first up. As many of you know, the key to a good diver and dive is buoyancy skills. They can so often be overlooked when they need to be a good standard before you can attempt any other scuba skill in the water. Think photography and surveying here people.

Doing a backward roll entry off of a high sided non-diving boat was certainly a ‘splash” back into the water. Quick remembering, breathe from this bit, deflate from this bit. I am kidding! Honestly, after how ever many dives I have done over the years it is such a natural thing to be in scuba gear underwater, it is almost unnatural to be on the land sometimes. The scuba is the peaceful time, juts you and the sound of your bubbles.

And again tomorrow

So tomorrow is another day back into the water. We are going to check up on the coral nurseries that we have planted in our two sites. I hope after two months of no visitors we will be stunned with some amazing growth. FIngers crossed. Working with the non-profit on the restoration program gives scuba diving a whole new meaningful purpose. I am actually giving back to the ocean and that is so important. Teaching is giving to people and passing the message, the coral restoration is doing the repair work to the ocean. Love it. Here’s to some more diving tomorrow!