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Indonesia 1997
Resort Course
Preparing the equipment
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As I said, I have since heard a lot of negative things about these courses, but I have to say that this particular course was excellent.
The day began with a theory lesson. I know that a lot of people will laugh and say that the theory you manage to pick up here is a joke, but I was astonished by how much I could still remember during my CMAS* course. Sure, I could no longer remember the names of the various laws, but I still knew how pressure increases etc. The whole thing lasted about 2½ hours,
... and into the water
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after which my head was spinning somewhat. But then I was immediately able to cool down a bit. We took the gear, went to the boat and sailed the 300m to the harbour to do the "pool" training. I don't think I have to tell anyone how absolutely amazing it is when you breathe under water for the first time - although I instinctively held my breath as I slowly sank below the surface of the water. My euphoria was slightly dampened when I succeeded in being stung on the hand by the only jellyfish for miles around (in fact the only one that I saw all week). Ouch, that really hurt! Here, too, the training was so good that a year later I was still able to do things like clear out the mask and retrieving the regulator.
The first Dive
In the afternoon it was time - my first ever dive! My instructor and I went to the boat with the other divers and sailed towards Gili Terawangan.
Mind your head!
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I was a bit nervous and wondered how it would go. My instructor told me that she would control my buoyancy so that I'd be able to concentrate on the beauty of the underwater world. There was then a briefing with the other divers about the sequence of events/what was going to happen and what there was to see. After that we put on our equipment and went into the water. Of course I was completely overwhelmed at first.
I did it - a fantastic first impression of the UW world
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My instructor took my inflator and we slowly sank to the 10m limit. The first animal that I saw was one of the highpoints - an enormous turtle. Altogether we saw 7 turtles (or maybe the same one 7 times in different places!), more than the other two groups. I felt safe the whole time and trusted that I was in good hands. The dive was over far too quickly, of course, and I was sad to have to go back to the boat with a fairly empty bottle after 40 minutes. It was a fantastic experience, and I'd like to thank Reefseekers once again for a great day.
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