Breathing Under Water

3/9/10
The poster outside the dive shop read, “… our biggest problem is not coaxing first time divers into the water, rather, it’s trying to get them out of it!” After completing both my dives in the Red Sea my biggest problem was trying to figure out how I was going to get back into the water as soon as possible. Waking up for my dive I went to the store to grab some water and a muffin and headed to the dive shop. There I was given my equipment and fitted for a wetsuit, jumped in a truck and was off to the dive spot. Once there I suited up and was heading further north on the Red Sea. Walking straight out from the beach we reached a shelf where I demonstrated the necessary skills to begin the dive, and we were off. Dropping off the edge of the shelf I was immediately treated to a plethora of colorful fish and brilliant corals. Dropping down to about 10 meters we rounded the corner and headed out to the less trafficked and more colorful reef. Here we descended another couple of meters as we pushed forward against the strong current. The sand on the bottom was brilliantly white; a beautiful contrast against the florescent colors of the reef wall to my left. After continuing along the reef wall for about fifteen minutes we turned and drifted back to the point with the current pushing us. It was so amazing just floating there, effortlessly as this beautiful marine display passed me by. Once we reached the point we began kicking again and headed back to where we had entered the water. Upon reaching the beach again, I took off my gear and could not wait till I could get back in the water again. The truck picked us up, brought us back to the dive shop, and I had one hour and a half to kill before heading out for dive number two. I headed back to my room and rested for a bit, just laying on top of my bed, almost dreaming of being back under water. Snapping out of my daydream, I grabbed some lunch at a local restaurant where I enjoyed a delicious roasted chicken, soup, salad, rice, and veggies and before heading back to the dive shop. Reaching the dive shop at one, we again hopped into the truck drove, this time to the south end of the beach, to a place called the island, which was supposed to be one of the best dive spots in the area. I shortly found out why. Here, I again put my gear on and made the short walk through the shallow water above the reef before jumping off the ledge and into the first pool. The dive at the island was much different from the first, where we just swan along the reef wall. Here, we jumped into a pool, had to pass over a saddle to a second pool, repeat for a third pool, before following the reef out to the underwater island, where we would circle the island, then continue along the outer reef wall, before reaching a tunnel that we would swim through, before breaking through to the surface from a crack in the tunnel. Absolutely amazing. I’ll begin with the first pool. Jumping in, I settled my gear, put my fins on, adjusted my mask and dropped down to our initial depth of 8 meters. Only in the pool for five minutes and I had already seen more fish and corals than I had in my first dive. Crossing the saddle to the second pool we found large schools of fish ranging in size and color, and even larger corals. We then crossed the saddle to the third pool, dropping down to 12 meters and were immediately surrounded on both sides by coral walls that reached almost the entire 30 feet to the surface. Absolutely incredible.





Here in this pool not only was the variety of corals amazing but they were large enough to rival those I had found on the Great Barrier Reef, one in particular, “the great brain”, that appeared to be the size of a small house, was massive and seem to glow florescent green. Making or way through this pool we headed out to the island. Once we reached the island, we dropped down a few more meters, and finding a bit of current again we enjoyed just floating across the front side of the island.


As we rounded the corner to begin circling the island, Omar, my instructor, pointed out a blue spotted stingray that was hiding out underneath a rock formation and coral just below us. One of the most beautiful animals I have yet to see on a dive. Continuing on around the island we passed many schools of fish, but none as large as the school of barracuda that literally surrounded us in an almost swarm like fashion.



I cannot explain the feeling of having hundreds of fish, swimming together, almost in formation, surrounding me on every side. Again, beyond words. After we finished our navigation of the island itself we continued f along the outer reef wall till we reached a small tunnel that we would have to swim through to reach the surface again.




Approaching the tunnel was breathtaking as I could see the rays of the sun piercing the blue water through cracks in the reef above us. After the three or four meter swim through the tunnel I found the largest crack in the surface which was where we were to reach the surface and climb out.


On the edge of the rocks, with wide eyes and an even wider smile, I sat for a few long minutes trying to truly take in this amazing and life changing experience. It was in this moment, sitting with my feet in the water, dangling over a reef in the red sea, that I knew diving was something I would want to do for the rest of my life. After dropping our gear we climbed back into the truck and headed to the dive shop one last time. The whole ride I kept saying, out loud, things like wow, that was so amazing, incredible, I can’t believe I just experienced that, and so on and so forth. That was definitely a moment and experience that will be with me for the rest of my life; there truly are very few feelings in the world like breathing under water.