“Saw the whole thing, dude. First you were all like “whoa”, and we were like “whoa”, and you were like “whoa…””

August 18th, 2019-

Then again, I was like whoa. Jittery with a smile that could not leave my face, and the grin still remains as I type in my spinning desk chair, today was amazing. Lets start with a recap of the week. School, some more school, and not many plans with my friends. It was quite hard this week to find motivation to study, which made it seem longer than it should’ve been. I find myself more motivated when I have some adventure to look forward to as a reward. But this week, I had nothing. Nothing until my diving on Sunday. But this adventure was not of the average, no, I was so ecstatic to get back in the water, the most excited I have been for any adventure I’ve had yet. Saying this, my motivation increased greatly for studying the night before and the morning of. Waking up early, around 6:30am, I hopped out of bed, studied with a cup of tea until 8:00, made a nice breakfast, and got ready for the dive. I was ready for the day. Lets go!

After arriving at the nearest bus station, I strolled along the shoreline for a couple miles, arriving at the Warf diving center in a light Sunday morning sun. The Warf dock atmosphere was full of life as people settled for morning brunch, soft live music played, and locals prepared their boats for a perfect day of sailing. Yes, it was a perfect day. The sun was shinning bright, the breeze was light, and the air was warm. Setting up my gear for the dive, I realized my previous diving friends were not on the boat today. A tad bummed that I couldn’t finish my last certification dives with my diving buddies, the crew and I suited up and headed toward the site without them. Or so I thought. Taking roll-call before leaving the harbor, the instructors realized they left a young diver on shore. As we pulled up to the dock, I made eye contact with my Irish friend Jenna, the dork who missed the boat, and we both broke out laughing. Jenna is a my diving buddy who always finds ridiculous ways to bring humor into my life. Such as almost walking right off the dock after exiting the boat, and not even noticing. Man I was glad to see her. Finally we were off to the dive site, Southwest side of Mudjimba island.

While we set up the anchors the waves around us rose higher than the previous dive. Intimidating at first, I took a giant stride into the crests, letting the swells overtake me as I slowly descended into the water. Today, our first dive goal was to complete our final certification tests. Only under for about 23 minutes, we practiced navigation, taking of our masks and putting them back on, perfecting buoyancy, and swam around the coral. That was it for required tasks! Getting those out of the way was great, but the best part was meeting my first sea turtle. The meeting of Squirt. And if you know finding Nemo as well as I do, you know Squirt was the little turtle dude. This rad little guy chilled on the side as we checked off our tasks, it was so cool! After surfacing, we marked our dive data, ate some soup, and prepared for dive number two.

Dive number two is when it gets real. No tests. No lead rope down. No instructor checking your numbers. This dive is a classic open water exploring dive, as the instructor planned to take us to her favorite spot around the island. Making our way down to the sandy bottom, we swam clockwise around Mudjimba island. As we swam farther more coral filled the ocean floor and the ocean life began to show itself. We spotted another turtle blending into the coral, schools of fish off in the distance, and star fish scattered below. Then out of the blue (ha, get it?) these strange creature started gliding towards us. I was unsure of what I was seeing, wishing I could rub my eyes to get a second look. But as they came closer I realized these alien like creatures were a group of squid. In awe of their beautiful flowing movements I gazed in excitement, gliding along a dozen more as they disappeared into the blue. Whoa. Following our instructor, I found myself hovering above a edge covered in more extravagant colors of coral that lead into the dark blue below. I couldn’t help but think that it was the perfect time for a shark to come up. But no shark came, or showed itself this time. After glancing up the coral wall ahead, the sight was like one I’ve never seen before. The sharks were missing out.

“Saw the whole thing, dude. First you were all like “whoa”, and we were like “whoa”, and you were like “whoa…”” This quote from Finding Nemo couldn’t be more true. Overlooking the scene, I was surrounded by huge schools of fish. Hundreds of silvery fish with yellow tips covered the wall, flowing with the tide, swinging back and forth with the current. There were so many, you could barely see the coral on the wall behind them. As their silver scales glistened in the ocean light I spotted another turtle chilling between some red coral inside the curtain of fish. It was huge! the biggest one I’ve ever seen! With each glide of a fin, it felt more and more like I was joining Nemo on first day of school. The colors of the reef, and the different schools of fish I was surrounded by so many new sights. An excitement that only continued to grow.

Advancing our swim we rose to the top of the edge finding a group of turtles ahead. Yes! More turtles! Some swam high, creating a silhouette from the bright surface above. Others dove down towards the coral, flowing along with the current in the same harmonious movement as the silver fish below. Being buoyant myself I found the rhythm of the ocean moving my body in the same way. Then one of the turtles dived deeper, finding its way close to me. Swimming over to the beautiful creature, together we swayed to the rhythm of the ocean. What an experience. With the turtle being so welcoming and chill, I decided to name him Crush. The chill dude from the deep blue. I’ll never forget ya.

Making our way back from the boat we passed more schools of fish, turtles, and coral of all colors of the rainbow. I think we saw at least 12 turtles today? I honestly lost count. It was quite the swim, feeling myself becoming tired, I checked my computer for the stats. Psi start 200+ end 100, with 43 minutes bottom time. We were down there forever! The rest of my diving group reached 70psi, so we had to surface and snorkel back to the boat, which wasn’t too far away. Gathering on the boat we chatted about all of the amazing things we saw on the dive. Which makes me think about the experience itself. Diving is the ability to fly through water in another world, unable to talk to any other, allowing the experience to be yours to keep, and your perspective/thoughts of your surroundings to cherish as your own. It is truly like nothing else.

Arriving back at the Warf Jenna and I finally received our diving certificates! Yes!!! This little piece of paper marks the start of many adventures to come, including the upcoming Great Barrier Reef trip. I’m pumped. After Jenna and I expressed our joy of the experience together, we hugged and said our goodbyes, as she flies home to Ireland tomorrow. It was great meeting her and so many other amazing divers, as we formed strong connections through the love of the activity. I’m going to miss these guys.

After changing into some nicer clothes I met a couple of my friends at a restaurant along the dock. Still fresh in my mind, I excitedly told them all about the dives as we shared some drinks with our meals at The Rice Boi. Again, the gentle Sunday light rested on the Warf as we spent hours talking and enjoying the simple afternoon. All together, this wrapped up to be a great day.