thirtytwo

Day 1: June 25, 2005

Im riding with boyet and his family (baby and cj) to the resort. We met at around 730am infront of robinson’s pala pala…we got a little lost somewhere between bauan and anilao…but we eventually found the correct way and arrived at our destination, “outrigger resort, anilao, batangas” at around 10am.

..after checking in, our scuba teacher, allan, asked us to relax a little before our first dive.





Dive 1:
At 11am that same morning, I had a taste of my first "open water" scuba experience and oh boy was it great! Allan said we'll start with a "fun dive", no skills, no worries, just relax and have fun.

the “outrigger house reef” is near the shore, so we entered the water by walking from the shallow portion until we reach around 40ft depth. since putting on my wet suit takes so much energy, i was really tired when I reached the water. I had to stop and rest for awhile…our dive master, mike was worried, he thought I was running out of air…I told him "nope im just tired" (using a sign language not found in any scuba manual...but luckily he understood)…he reached for my arm and towed me underwater...so i wont get left behind by the group. I saw the reef, fishes of different sizes and colors,... it was quite an experience.

We surfaced before 12noon. Im carrying 16lbs of weights on my waist (excluding bcd and reg), that's why im just too tired to swim back to the shore....then too late i found out that my BCD is not working...so I had to ask our FDM, Ed to manually inflate it to gain bouyancy. Mike again towed me the shore. When I reached the shore I did the unexpected and threw up all over …I see my breakfast slowly being washed away from the shore.

Im scared to eat lunch, but mike said I had to try, because we still have another dive in the afternoon and I need all the energy I can get. “loss of apetite” is alien for someone who loves food as much as I do…but on that day…I just forced the food down my throat. After lunch the rest of the gang (rexy, ed, boyet, and Benjie) went back to our rooms to rest until our next dive.






Dive 2:
At 330 pm we rode a boat to our next dive destination “dive and trek”. When we reached the site… gosh my head was spinning like crazy…talk about being “sea sick”… before that I didn’t know sea sickeness actually exist. Argh…mike was asking are you ok? I just mumbled 2 words…”im dizzy”…and all hell broke loose… allan said…"everybody put your gear we have to get leah in the water"…I vaguely remember putting on my gear, weights, bcd, mask, snorkel, fins…then they asked me to sit at the side of the boat…then they said “do a back roll”…back roll??? “stop…wait..how do I do a back roll??”...they said “just simply roll back out of the boat”…”what???…could you repeat that”….ha ha ha..maybe its because im so dizzy so I just followed the instruction ..normally I woudn’t be this amenable… So backroll it is..The minute I hit the water..i sunk around a foot, then I surfaced back...hmm…backroll wasn’t so bad after all… then I saw allan’s face in front of me signaling we should all go down…I positioned myself and slowly sank. Once I reached the bottom…all dizziness disappeared… the real thing is more beautiful than any picture…we saw giant clams, stone fish, corals, sea cucumber…and all sorts of fishes, big, small, blue, orange, yellow…etc..etc..…wow its breathtaking.

Since this is a check out dive, we’re expected to do water skills, cramp removal, pin pivot, partial mask clearing, full mask clearing (I hate this…at first I told my teacher no….ha ha ha..im such a bad student…I told him im not being disrespectful…im just scared to do it…har har har…imagine us having an argument at the bottom of the ocean…exactly the same one we had at the bottom of the pool), throwing your regulator out of your mouth, finding it and putting it back.

We swam underwater for awhile, then after 30 minutes we had to go up coz were all low on air. Once I hit the surface from below..my dizziness came back in full force…I went up …actually, I think I crawled to the boat…upon reaching it, I saw someone throwing up, …..i kneeled and threw up beside him… the only sound that you’ll hear is the lapping of the waves and alternate gwarks and argkhs coming from me and benjie…ha ha ha… Now I know why diving is good for someone who’s trying to loose weight…

We went back to the resort around 6pm….we had dinner and coffee, while the advanced divers went out to go night diving(were not allowed yet coz were not yet certified)..…when they returned after 2 hours, we had a chat about tomorrow activity, while watching terminator 3 on tv . we retired at around 1130 pm.








Day 2: June 26, 2005

Dive 3:
Our third dive is scheduled at 8am, but we actually started at 8:30am. Actually, I was up at 6am because I wanted to eat breakfast 2 hours before the actual dive….i was hoping my stomach would at least be able to digest the food before we dive. Too bad breakfast wasn’t served until 7am…..im worried sick that history would repeat itself, and I would throw up again, but mike, pulled a few strings to get me bonamine so I wont feel dizzy…guaranteed "hilo free" …har har..

Dive destination: "twin rocks"… we reached the dive site at around 900am…..allan said we have to do skills again...…first skill: putting of gear (bcd, weights) while in the water… I was the first to get off the boat (mind you…it took a lot of convincing from allan, boyet and mike before i actually jumped..they repeatedly reassured me that I won’t sink, and drown myself to death). Putting my gear on water is a strenuous activity...almost comparable to wrestling ha ha ha…with mike and dick assisting me left and right…i still had a hard time…I screamed, kicked and drank gallons of sea water in the process, but in the end I was able to do it. This dive is much deeper than the previous 2, I think we reached 50-60 ft depth. I saw a sunken barge, and scary looking fishes. We fed the fish with bread, and they were so hungry some even bit our fingers, thinking it’s still part of the bread. It was quite scary…I was thinking, what if they eat me too…har har har…. After that, allan asked us to do the other skills, like…..mask removal underwater, and controlled emergency swimming ascent, CESA…We surfaced after 30 minutes….and headed off to a nearby island, to practice our compass skills.



Dive 4:
This is our last dive for the weekend, destination: “cathedral”.

Our dive started at around 11am…we did a back roll (again), but this time, I was able to do it with ease…..I think.. Depth is 60 ft. At one point, I thought there was something wrong with my finning skills, because ive been kicking and kicking, but still I continue to remain stationary…they said it was because we were caught by an underwater current…so.. that marks my first "current encounter"... it was scary and tiring. We did some compass reading skills and hovering underwater…..which I sucked at btw, that’s why I have to take extra make up classes to perfect my skills. Im trying to protest.. so I told my teacher…"my compass skills sucked coz im using a compass im not familiar with"…he just laughed and said…no you still have to take the make up class…ha ha ha you cant say I didn’t try. I always want to live up to my reputation as the ”pasaway” student all the way through.

We surfaced before twelve and headed back to the resort….i was feeling a little dizzy but I didn’t throw up…I slept under someone’s fin on the way back to the resort. We cleaned ourselves and our gears (allan said we have to do it this time, its part of the training).

Lunch was a fun filled affair, allan gave our temporary license, (yahoo!) we filled up our diver’s log book and had it stamped and signed by our dive masters. We exchange funny stories about our experiences underwater, and when and where do we plan to dive next. We’re thinking of going to Puerto gallera by end of july or early august. I was so tired...i couldn’t eat…I swallowed a few mouth fulls, just for the sake of eating.

We left the resort at around 330pm…then boyet took me home. I reached the house at 6pm….i just had time to hang my wet stuff, then I dozed off…the next thing I know it was 6 in the morning…june 27….time to go back to reality…. rise and shine and go to work.

Argh..i ache all over….any movement is painful…even swallowing is painful, I still have no appetite… I miss diving…I’m already looking forward to my next diving adventure.