Discover Scuba Diving

Yesterday I did DSD (Discover Scuba Diving) for the first time in my life. I have been living in Bali for 2.5 years, but never thought about going to dive before. Considering that Bali is one of the most exotic place to dive, my friends and I decided to take this opportunity. We went to Tulamben, Bali after a full day of office meeting in Amlapura, Bali.

The only one thing that disappoints us is that we arrived at the diving center very late, about 4 pm. But we decided not to waste our opportunity to make our first dive. Before starting to dive in the open ocean, we are urged to sign a commitment letter, agreeing that this sport is risky. After that, we are obligated to do a training in a pool next to the beach with full diving equipment on our body. This training is in fact a must for us, because it is not easy to train our body to always breathe using our mouth underwater. Besides, there are some technical things to learn, like mask clearing, buoyancy control, swimming techniques, equalizing, and most importantly : how to stay calm underwater.

After 30 minutes in the pool, we dare ourselves to start diving in the open water. I was very confident that I could do this well because I have an average swimming skill, but the fact is that diving is not like swimming at all. Our brain could not function very well underwater, especially when we are still a newbie like me. Thanks to an instructor who guides me through the darkness of the evening ocean. The coral reefs and fishes are very beautiful, but sadly it was too late already, so that our vision was very limited. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this experience very much. I had no trouble underwater but the buoyancy control. Buoyancy control is how we control our depth using a special tool to deflate and inflate our gas holder. I tended to go down deeper every time I tried to swim straight forward. This is minor problem, so overall I enjoyed this dive very much. I will definitely try this experience again sometime in the future.