Bitten by the Scuba Bug

Now let's start crossing off those items in my bucket list, shall we?

#bucketlist - Scuba Diving

The Classes

Between March and May, I enrolled myself for a Scuba License certification. It's been something I've wanted to do for years but never really had the time (or money) to do so.

And since Kreatif Club (a recreational club in Astro) was having a promotion, I took the first oppurtunity!

The certification takes you through theory classes, practical classes in the pool, and also exams in Pulau Tioman. You'll need to pass the theory exams with a score of 75%,  have satisfactory skills in the pool sessions (judged by the instructors), then only you can proceed for the certification in Tioman. Our dive center was called Marine Monkees.

Theory Classes : Acing the exams, yo.

Pool Classes : Waiting for my turn

Pool Classes : Practicing with the regulator

Scuba Diving is not something to be taken lightly. You're dealing with consumption of oxygen which is not from the usual air you breathe in. Although the 28% oxygen and 72% nitrogen in the tank resembles the air you breathe, the source of oxygen has to be taken into account. One of the ways to check your air source is to get a whiff of the air before inhaling it through your regulator.

The tanks were DAMN heavy especially in my current fitness condition (I used to be more fit before :P). The secret is to make sure your body is bent in the correct angle to handle the heavy weight - it took time to get used to, but I managed :)

The awesome equipment - feelin' coool

Summarizing up the classes - well, basically, before you proceed to the pool classes, you would have already had a good grasp on the theories of decompression limits and its effects, equalising techniques for when you descend in the water, how to use the RDP (Recreational Dive Planner) and so on. It was actually quite a fun theory session to be honest. 

RDP table to calculate nitrogen levels in the body - all of this is computerised though nowadays.

The pool sessions went smoothly as well - disregarding the part where I almost drowned lah. "How did you almost drown Sarah" you ask? Well if you MUST know, here's the story.

There is a technic that they teach you for in the case of when your inflator loses air source. So then you'd have to manually blow air into it to stay afloat. So during this technic, I was kind of having trouble staying afloat (I can swim, but not really float well, ohwell), and almost drowned until my saviour came to save my life. :P. But yeah, I'm just overdramatizing things here, the technic isnt too hard just as long as you don't panic. I managed to do it again with no problem afterwards (although it was kind of nice being saved by some handsome, muscular dude). 

The Certification - Tioman

End of May was the time to travel to Salang Bay, Tioman for our certification. A total of 30 of Astro employees (consisting of Open Water, Leisure, and Advanced) took part. 

My team consisted of 8 people - we called ourselves - TEAM AWESOME::

Before putting on the awfully tight wetsuit erk

Our instructor making a face for the camer (>.<)

Team Awesome's first shore dive!

Our first shore dive was great! We did the usual mask clearing techniques, alternate from snorkel to regulator techniques, removal of weights and just swam about 10m below for practice. The BEST part during this first shore dive was when a HUGE school of fish came swimming around the area we were practicing at. It was like a rainbow of beautiful shiny fish shimmering in the water just a couple meters away - astonishing! At that moment, at that very moment, I knew I wanted to do more of this. :)

Team Awesome - after 'graduation' ceremony

The whole Astro Kreatif Club team!

More photos here

The best part was the night dive - we got to see glow in the dark shrimps and played with jelly fish, and saw some boxfish and interesting creatures during the night. The feeling of swimming 20m underwater in pitch darkness with only a small source of light - is just thrilling!

All in all, it was an enjoyable 3 day getaway meeting new people and being motivated for a common cause. Our team still keep in touch after the event and plan to go diving again someday. Can't wait!

I'd do this again. Anytime. :)