As people may have guessed by my profile picture, I'm a qualified Scuba diver. I've got a bit of experience, although I don't dive as much as I would like and probably won't be diving for a month or two until Summer takes hold. But despite only managing to get a handful of dives in each year, I absolutely love it and constantly recommend it to the multitudes of people who are losing will to live (on land).
The problem with living on land is that there are people here. And people suck hairy man ass. That's not even me being emo, I think everyone must agree that life on solid ground can get too much at times and the best way to escape that and to enjoy true freedom is to get your feet off the ground. Sometimes that means getting them wet but incidentally, I'm told the same freedom is experienced by people who are qualified pilots.
I can't fly (yet) so I can only share my thoughts on the wetter option.
When you put your head under water, you can hear nothing and everything at once. The jabber of people is drowned out and replaced by the sounds of ocean life. Sound travels much further under water than it does on land and as a result, you hear noises you would never experience on the surface. Whilst diving in the Red Sea I heard dolphins squeaking and clicking. Whilst in South Africa I heard whales moaning. Whilst in the Maldives I heard triggerfish and parrotfish gnawing at the coral. It's a truly awesome audio experience...
... one that is slightly overrated by The Little Mermaid:
Too right Sebastian, I don't know why that ginger fish woman wants to come up here either...
But even without singing crustaceans you find yourself truly immersed and as a result, free. This freedom is enhanced by the fact that you are essentially weightless. I always say to people that being underwater is as close to being in space that any normal person can get and I stand by that. Indeed, NASA must feel there is something to that statement as all of their astronauts are trained underwater.
But beyond the weightlessness there is more. You not only feel like a spaceman, but you feel like a spaceman on another world. No, I've not just popped a shitload of pills either; it's a genuine stone-cold fact that we have explored a tiny percentage of the ocean and when you swim around a reef you can't help but feel a little bit alien.
Pictured: Weightlessness
An alien world... with fish.
Unsurprisingly, one of the most common things people say when I suggest they dive is "but what about sharks?". Obviously, if we are talking about diving inland I assume they're retarded but when talking about the open ocean I would just say this: If you see a shark you should consider yourself one of the luckiest people on the planet. Viewing a shark is (in my opinion) seeing evolutionary perfection in motion. Sharks have remained largely unchanged for the past 350 million years and they are truly awesome animals. When they get close, you experience a very primal fear but strangely enough, all you want to do is get close to them.
I've swam with white tip, black tip and grey reef sharks in the Maldives, Hammerheads in the Red Sea and the awesome Great White in South Africa (I was in a cage, unfortunately). Each time, I just wanted to keep watching them for as long as possible and at no point did I seriously believe these animals wanted to harm me. Even the Great Whites struck me simply as curious leviathans that glided past for quick glances and I would've done anything to get out of that cage and swim with them (apparently I couldn't for insurance purposes... damned health and safety).
So, in short, sharks are exactly why you should want to dive.
A Hammerhead
The awesome Great White
To finish my soppy, shameless promotion of the hobby I love, I will finish by describing other moments that have stuck with me:
Turning around to see a 'flock' of eagle rays gliding by.
Being 'blown' around by a current and looking above to see a grey reef shark hanging perfectly still in the turbid waters, looking at me and clearly thinking: 'stupid human'.
Jumping from the back of a boat with negative buoyancy and dropping like a paratrooper into a current, then being carried around a scenic reef.
Waking a turtle from its slumber on a night dive.
Watching my movement light up the phytoplankton in the water on that same night dive (there is nothing equal to diving in bioluminescence!).
Discovering that lobsters have green 'eyes' that glow in the dark.
Watching Lionfish stalking in the darkness, using my torchlight as a guide to hunt... then feeling guilty because I would shine my torch on something, only to watch it get eaten.
Curious dolphins.
Wrasse cleaning their fins on the bubbles of other scuba divers.
Diving wrecks (see picture below). If a wreck were on land it would be a reconstruction, a museum that you could only look at. Underwater, a wreck is a place you can explore (leaving nothing but bubbles of course).
Seeing Tuna in something other than a tin... and realising that they are truly awesome fish.
Far better than a museum...
I really believe that everyone should try diving once. Even when you don't get to dive as much as you would hope (like me) then you find that remembering the freedom of diving is enough to get you through those difficult days.
Don't worry if you can't swim either, because its far better to sink than float.
... and yes, all the pictures included on this blog are my own.
Posts
