scuba scuba scuba

I spent today diving off a boat in two places around Rottnest island off the coast of Perth. I am now a qualified open water scuba diver (woo!).

Diving is freakin' AWESOME. I saw a whole ton of reef fish, brightly coloured nudibranches, countless soft and hard corals, some shoals of schooling herring and once a big ray flapping off in the distance. The visibility was amazing, our first dive was 18 metres and you could see all the way to the bottom from the surface. It's like entering another world down there, all you can hear are your own bubbles and some faint background sea noise as you float serenely past all the reef wildlife. Some larger damselfish and some small schooling shoals were attracted to us and swam with us for the duration of the first dive. They come close enough for you to reach out and touch them as they swim with you. I guess it gives them security from predators when they hang around divers because the divers are so big nothing is gonna bother them really.

I get a free dive on wednesday because I did the course and it's a night dive - all the shop staff go and a whole bunch of other guys, it's kind of a diving club. I can't wait to dive at night, that's gonna be amazing. I think I want to do the advanced scuba course so I can do deep dives (up to 40 metres) and wreck dives. There are a few wrecks on the Bell Park wreck trail in Rockingham, I know there is a downed plane wreck there too so I'd love to go and explore that. There is an advanced scuba course on the 30th of December so I'll have to wait til then, I look forward to it though.

I can't really describe what it's like to be a tourist in the underwater world, you have to do it for yourself to understand it. It's like going into space or something, it really is a penetration into a totally alien world with it's own unique sounds and feel. This is something I have dreamed of for such a long time, I hope I get a lot of opportunities to do it again.