I write this for everyone out there who really wants to enjoy diving and never tried it before.
Diving is one of the most adventurous sports. It’s the best way to get in touch with the underwater life. As a beginner, I am so excited about diving. My first time diving experience was on 2012, where I dive in 3 areas in Bali such as Nusa Dua, Lovina and Les Village. I enjoyed it very much until on the 6th dive my I ran out of the air after back from 20m depth. I wasn’t a certified diver on that day; I have no idea what should I do. The only thing I know was not to be panicked and continued to ascend to the surface. I left the group and ascended slowly and my dive master followed me, he confused why did I ascend.
As I reach the surface, the dive master asked why I left the group, I told him I couldn’t breath and when I checked my pressure gauge the remaining air was low. He seemed sceptic and quickly grabbed my pressure gauge and said sorry, the remaining air was low because they forgot to fill my tank!!!!
At that point I realized I could easily die down there, and that’s not because my dive master didn’t refill my tank but that’s because I had no knowledge about Diving. As I told to my friends who also certified diver they told me that I broke the rules of diving. A non certified diver like me was not allowed to dive more than 18m. They told me about the risk and many more. But I don’t know why I still just don’t care about it, until once day when I went back to Flores my aunty offered me to dive in the Komodo National Park. I accepted it with super happy face and when she asked me to show her my license I said I didn’t have it. Because I didn’t have my diving license I was not allowed to dive because it dangerous! My aunty then suggested me to take Open Water Course, where I could learn to dive properly.
2 weeks ago, I finally got my dive license as an open water diver. Under the supervised of SSI instructor, I learnt so many things I didn’t know before about diving. I'm happy that i took the course and get to know everything an open water diver should know.
Have you ever heard about lung over-expansion, decompression sickness or nitogen narcosis? If you haven’t, don’t you dare to take recreational diving before you got your open water license! We easily put ourselves in the very high risk situation. Let’s be wise by following every step and learning everything that could support the fun of Diving. By taking open water course you will learn skills and get the knowledge of diving. You will be tested at the end of the course. It showed that only if you understand, skillfull and meet the standard of an open water diver then you will be allowed to dive.
I write this not to scare you to dive but just to open our eyes to be more responsible to yourself and the underwater life, since when we dive we are not in our normal environment and we need to adpat with new environment. Beside that, we just guest who want to discover the beauty of underwater life!
Diving is full of fun only if we know how to use the SCUBA, understand the skills & hand sign codes and follow the rules! :) Always remember that just because you can swim doest mean you can do the SCUBA dive properly!
Please consult to the nearest dive center to take the Open Water Course.