{"id":526,"date":"2016-05-11T07:34:40","date_gmt":"2016-05-10T19:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/travellingk.com\/?p=526"},"modified":"2017-12-29T19:28:58","modified_gmt":"2017-12-29T19:28:58","slug":"learning-to-dive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/travellingk.com\/learning-to-dive\/","title":{"rendered":"Diving wasn’t as scary as I’d been told"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Learning how to dive was my new years resolution. After postponing for a month, then getting the first\u00a0day wrong, I managed to start the PADI Open Water Dive Course<\/a>. It was\u00a01.5 hours north of Auckland, based at Goat Island Marine Reserve<\/a>\u00a0with plenty of fish in the sea. While learning, I saw eagle rays, giant snappers, crayfish and other fish which will remain\u00a0nameless until I learn their names.<\/p>\n

My fears before diving<\/h5>\n

I worried about\u00a0what would happen if water got\u00a0into the mouthpiece while underwater. Would it be like snorkelling where you had to blow water out and sometimes inhaled water instead. I learned that\u00a0it’s all surprisingly easy. It’s a\u00a0clever design where the water can exit at the bottom and the pressure of the air means there’s no room for water to get in the way.<\/p>\n

I’d worried\u00a0about not being able to equalise. This is not being able to adjust the pressure in your ears to the same pressure under the water. If you don’t\u00a0equalise, your\u00a0ears start to really hurt and it can\u00a0cause ear\u00a0damage. \u00a0But it’s just like what you do when flying\u00a0to ‘pop’ your ears. Again, it was surprisingly easy to do.<\/p>\n

I’m not particularly\u00a0sporty and I kept thinking I should have been fitter before starting. But I managed with my measly muscles.\u00a0I did learn that I have no arm strength at all, after lifting the air cylinders.\u00a0Getting out of the water at one stage,\u00a0I had to crawl out because of the waves, and found I couldn’t actually stand with the weight belt on – definitely not my glamorous moment.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t