Scuba diving in the keys - Day 1

If you, like me, have always been fascinated by the ocean, the swaying swells, the fathomless depths, the other worldly aquatic life, the soundless tranquility, the serene feeling of weightlessness. If you, like me, crave adventure, want to mock death and go where very few men have gone before then it's high time you experienced scuba. Its quite simply one of the most life changing and exciting experiences you will ever have in life. The feeling when you first discover that you can breathe under 30 feet of water is , in my opinion, akin to setting foot on another planet.

So, there I was, in the keys to get my open water scuba certification. There were about 20 of us on that trip, mostly open water cert. students like me, a couple of advanced open water guys,a master diver and a dive master in training. We were diving with conch republic divers off the coast of tavernier, FL which is on US 1 about 40 miles from Florida city. It was december- near freezing cold in georgia, but a pleasant 72 F in the keys. Weather was a major player in planning dives and even 4 foot seas could ruin/delay or abort dives. So all of us were kinda praying for sunny, clear skies for the duration of our trip.

The first day we were diving 2 single cylinder certification dives. The mercury was a breezy 74 F with water temps around 71 F. We had 3 foot swells but nothing that was going to get people sea sick or ruin our dive. We had all our equipment setup at the dock, and pretty much were just deciding how much weights we needed on the 45 minute ride to davy crocker reef. The ride out was pleasant enough with the sun beaming down on us and yet the mid morning air was a tad chilly. Once we wiggled into our wetsuits though it was warm enough. We reached the spot finally and the captain gave us a safety update and the lowdown of what to expect down under. Soon, we started getting into the water with feet first stride entries. I stepped off the boat into a swaying, blue swell, the cool water refreshing me. I cleared my mask one last time, checked my air, signaled to my buddy and started descending.

It was one of the most vivid memories of my life - that first descent. The water was a gorgeous turquoise and the visibility was amazing - almost 35 feet down to the sea floor. I could see the other divers already at the bottom, clutches of bubbles emanating from their regulators glinting in the sunlight filtering down, tinted in a mesmerizing bluish gold. I had a little bit of difficulty equalizing my ears to the pressure at first, but got it under control soon and touched down on the sandy bottom - 26 feet under water and ..elated!!. It was an intoxicating feeling - floating weightless, drifting alongside shoals of fish and coral, and actually breathing under water.The steady hiss of the regulator, the glug-glug of the bubbles and the occasional clank of some diver tapping his cylinder with his dive knife, were the only sounds in this silent, beautiful world. On the dive we ended up monitoring our air, checking our depth gauges and performing basic certification maneuvers. We also experimented constantly with our buoyancy and fin movements to achieve good mobility while conserving less air. That pretty much wrapped the dive and we ascended slowly without problems and got back on the boat. The captain then took us to the next dive site called the Davis Reef. We switched out our cylinders for new ones and checked our gear again - it was tough doing it on a rocking boat with wetsuits on. We were back in the water soon and heading to the bottom. This reef was much more colorful, and filled with multi-colored coral and a plethora of different fish species. We encountered a couple of brain corals whose mesmerizing, maze like patterns on a spherical surface left us spellbound. This dive required us to perform some more certification skills, like buddy tow, and emergency ascents. The fleeting feelings of fear and discomfort that was present on my first dive all but vanished on this one and I thoroughly enjoyed the 45 min dive.  



Davis Reef, Tavernier, Florida