Scuba diving in Manly, Sydney

I have always felt that I did not want to try scuba diving.

When I thought of scuba diving, it conjured thoughts of being trapped underwater without air.

And just in general, I have a healthy fear and respect for the ocean. There are sharks, spiky poisonous things, and slimy weeds.

But in the past few years I have been snorkelling more and more, and really love it. So I started to be curious about scuba.

I decided I should try it. How could I know I didn’t like it unless I tried?

So I signed up for an open water beginner’s course.

Over 2 days of training, you learn skills like taking off and putting on your mask and respirator while underwater, reaching a certain depth, and staying underwater for a certain time.

When I first got underwater, my heart was racing and I was breathing quickly. It did feel incredible, but frightening.

It is definitely an unnatural, otherworldly experience to breathe underwater.

Eventually you do become used to it. At one point I even forgot that I can’t normally breath underwater. When I was bobbing along the surface and not wearing the respirator, I forgot to hold my breath and started spluttering.

But I was never able to relax enough to really enjoy it.

Other people felt that they had a meditative experience with a feeling of weightlessness.

I found it very exhausting, both mentally and physically.

The weights and gear were just so heavy and uncomfortable. I was always concerned about what creatures I might step on. I didn’t understand very well how to control my buoyancy, so sometimes I was bumping in to things. When the water was murky it was hard to follow my group. I had nausea and acid reflux. At night after diving I felt like I needed to vomit. This is a side effect of the changed pressure on your organs. (Some people actually do vomit underwater through their respirator).

It was a stressful experience for me. I often wanted to stop, but I told myself ‘You need to try, just try’.

When it was time to demonstrate our skills in the ocean, I felt anxious, but I pushed through and was able to complete everything.

On the final dive of the course I got down to 10m, which was the deepest I had been. I felt a pressure on my face, some water was leaking in to my mask, and I kept having to clear the water out. I felt a growing sense of panic inside me, and decided I’d had enough.

I’m really proud that I was able to pass all of the skills. My main challenge was overcoming exhaustion, fear, and stress to spend more time underwater at depth.

I completed a lot more than I ever thought I could. And I’m proud that I could push myself to confront a fear.

Although I can’t really say that I enjoyed scuba diving, I’m happy that I’ve tried it. And this was only my first experience.

Maybe in the future I will be more confident to try it again. I appreciated learning how to check that the gear is safe to use, so if I would like to scuba dive overseas I can feel more reassured. There are many incredible dive sites around the world.

But snorkelling is my first preference!