I Am Officially Scuba Diving Certified

So I’ve been up to a whole lot of things in just the last three weeks.
I feel so busy and tired lately that I don’t really want to be blogging!
But I sorta feel bad so I’ll do a little update on what I’ve been up to lately.

Btw, Happy Easter (He has risen!) & Happy Prankster Day!

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As I am writing this right now, it is April Fools day. I’ve already fallen for way too many tricks. One of the best ones was Lara’s blog post (read it here), which totally got me!

Also, today I ended up taking the day off of work because I’m sick!! wp-monalisa icon
I think I’ve been just going out too much and my immune system has gotten weak, so I caught a cold~

 

wp-monalisa icon Scuba Diving Certification wp-monalisa icon

If you guys follow me on instagram @xlicious, you probably saw that for two weeks in March, I’ve been scuba diving to get certified!

And now, I’ve done it! やった~! I’m so happy that I’m officially open water scuba diving certified! wp-monalisa icon

Here’s a shot of my PADI dive card that I just received today. This is the card that I show in order to rent dive equipment or to go diving in general.

Below is a shot of my gear (booties, gloves, mask, snorkel, and fins). I am totally in love with the fins!! I still have a lot of stuff that I need to buy (wet suit, BCD, regulator/octopus, dive computer), but I’ll get all that soon enough. Gotta save up for that first, since it will probably all cost an additional 2K+!!

It took two full weekends to get certified and it was well worth it. We were a class of 6, the guy kneeling in front was our instructor. Both Saturday’s were spent working on our skills inside of a confined pool. On the first Sunday, we took a ferry to Catalina and dived at Casino Point. The second Sunday, we took a dive boat out to Emerald Bay at Catalina.

In addition, we had to read through a textbook and watch some DVDs, complete quizzes, and take a final examination.

Overall, I think its pretty easy to get certified as long as you have the money for it (at least $500) and can swim decently for the pool swimming tests.

I’d like to share a little bit with you about my experience getting certified. So a little background about me… I love fish and always have. I have had several different fishtanks since I was in college until now, ranging from fresh water to salt water. Also I am a very determined person who likes to feel accomplished.

I went into this whole scuba diving escapade with the mind set that I will get certified no matter what. Even if in the end, I hate scuba diving, I would see it through.

So on my first scuba dive in open water.. my first one ever… I absolutely hated it. Actually, I was so frightened out of my mind while I was underwater, that I thought I might actually die. I think it just happened to be a bad combination of a lot of things, such as it being my first time, I had a bit of trouble with my buoyancy control (later I found out there was something wrong with my BCD), and that there were so many other divers who were not a part of our group (everyone looks the same underwater).

During our first dive, along with all of the above noted horrible combinations… I got caught in kelp!! The dive site that we were at had tons and tons of kelp everywhere and I got wrapped up in kelp about 35 feet underwater and I had no idea how to get out of it. While I was struggling to get out, I looked around and I couldn’t see anyone. At that moment I really wanted to freak out and I wanted so badly to be out of the water. I truly thought the worse for myself, but told myself to calm down and figure things out. In the end I was completely fine and eventually found my class and we completed our first dive together.

That moment when we surfaced, I was filled with relief and told myself that scuba diving was not for me and that I was done with it. I talked to my boyfriend about my thoughts and he kinda felt the same way as me. But we both decided that we would go in a second time to see how we like it again. It was great the second time, so I guess I just had a rough first experience dive.

I am so proud of myself for facing my fears and getting back into the water to do a second dive.. and of course, eventually getting certified!

One thing I noticed is that I am not the only one who loves fish in my family. I have an older sister and brother who both scuba dive as well! My sister was sweet enough to send me this lovely gift after she found out that I had gotten certified. How sweet of her, thank you!

This is a dive log, which is used to record each of your dives. It’s kind of like a journal that documents in detail all of the dives, but is also important because resorts and dive shops will ask to look at your dive log to determine how experienced you are at diving. Think of it as a resume.

I love diving so much now. I can’t wait until my trip to Hawaii when I get to go diving again, but in tropical waters! I am also considering buying a GoPro for my trip so I can take videos and photos underwater. If anyone has any experiences with GoPros or any other related products, please let me know!

Now on a different note… Does anyone play Terraria? I started playing this game recently and it is kinda dangerous because it’s very easy to get sucked in for hours and hours without realizing it!

Below is a screen shot of the game that I pulled off of google images. But basically your in this world and you can build anything however you like it. You mine for different types of minerals that allow you to build different things and you can sorta level up. Also, I found out that this game actually has PvP!

Lastly, WHO WATCHED GOT THIS PAST SUNDAY?! Lol yayyy!! I feel like I’ve been waiting forever for season 3! I’m so happy that it’s back. Gah, but I think I will die waiting between each episode.


Ok, I think I’ve written enough for this post now. I’ll see you guys again soon with a post on WonderCon 2013!! I was gonna originally bundle these posts together, but I realized that I have way too many photos from WonderCon. See you all again soon!

xoxo Sarah

 

14 Replies to “I Am Officially Scuba Diving Certified”

  1. thats so great! happy for you to get certified! Scuba diving is one thing on my wishlish to do one day 🙂

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    1. u should give it a try for sure! even if you don’t get certified, do one of the discovery dives at least! it really is a whole other world down there 😀

  2. Oh congratulations sweetie!
    Really cool …
    I hope you have a better health soon.

    xoxo

    http://www.sakuranko.com

    1. thanks! i’m feeling a lot better today 🙂

  3. Congrats on getting certified, Sarah! I remember snorkeling in Catalina and getting tangled up in kelp as well, so I know exactly how you feel. I was pretty traumatized for a while and didn’t snorkel again for a while. Kudos for overcoming it and completing your training though 😀

    1. aww thanks tiff! haha catalina has so much kelp! so crazy~ you sound like you have snorkeled quite a bit!

  4. Ohhh I want to experience this too! Yay!

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    1. and you can!!! do it 😀

  5. Oh my gosh, I would be too scared to go diving! But it’s great that you didn’t give up, even though your first time was a little scary ^-^

    Xo CeeCee

    1. i’ve always been both afraid of the ocean and in love with it. but i can see how it is scary >.< eekk i have these CRAZYYYY dreams (borderline nightmares) about whales. LOL. anyways thanks for commenting! 😀

  6. I’ve always wanted to get certified for scuba diving. Just seems useful when all the places I want to vacation at have some body of water that would make scuba diving a fun activity.

    1. yes i now scuba everywhere i go on vacation! woohoo

  7. excellent – scuba diving is the best. and that is the cutest log book – where on earth did your sister find it?!

    1. i have no idea where she found it!! but it is cute, right?! ughh but the only thing is it’s a bit larger than I would like. i dont really like carrying it because of the size, and considering that I have to lug around so much equipment already as it is… seems more like a burden until i get a good bag to put all of my dive gear in! for now i’m using my crappy padi log book.

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