From 4ft In Swimming Pool To 100ft Under The Ocean

As a kid, I hated being in water and swimming was horrific. When my mother enrolled me in swimming classes I was 4 years old. I was terrified of water and I hated every single minute of class. I was afraid of any depth where my leg couldn’t touch the floor of the pool and when the group would go swimming at the deeper ends, I would throw plenty of tantrums, come up with a million excuses and somehow manage to stay in the shallow region of the pool. My mother used to drive me to practice and at that point of time, I couldn’t see how swimming would turn out to be of great importance in my life a couple of years down the line. At that moment I was sad, angry, frustrated and annoyed as I was being forced into something I had absolutely no interest and liking. I was angry at my mother as she would make me go every single day and wouldn’t pay heed to my tantrums and annoyance.

Can I skip class?

A few years later, I started getting more comfortable in the water, however, I was still afraid of the deep end and made the middle of the pool as my security line. When I was 13 years old, I had a life changing experience. My family decided to go on a vacation to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the central activities of the islands are Scuba Diving, snorkeling and various other water activities. The idea of Scuba Diving seemed quite appealing to us and we decided to give it a shot. At first, it was quite scary and intimidating but since my dad was an avid swimmer, the fear factor reduced significantly. He is my buddy in all my dives. Once I got in the water, I was absolutely mesmerized by the marine life. The view was absolutely breathtaking and exemplary. The variety of life underwater is unparalleled. The corals and various species of fish were something out of this world. While I was underwater, I completely forgot about my fears and I was deeply involved looking at the diverse marine life. I was blown away by the beautiful sights that everything else seemed secondary.When I got out, I knew that this was something that I want to pursue. My parents were extremely supportive and interested in the idea of diving and hence after our first fun dive, we had a discussion with our instructor. We learnt about the various levels and courses. These courses were offered by PADI (The Professional Association of Diving Instructors), the leading scuba diver training organization in the world. We decided to become certified divers and decided to take the 'Open Water' course, a course which allows one to dive anywhere in the world without an instructor. The divers are allowed to dive up to a height of 18m(60ft). The criteria to be eligible for this course were that a candidate should be over the age of 10 years and should know swimming, but not just swimming!

My challenges began here. Floating continuously in water for 15 minutes and swimming for 200m straight was not something easy for someone who had never crossed 5ft! To become a certified Scuba diver, I had no choice but to overcome my fear of depth. I practised swimming almost every day by joining a professional swimming coaching and this time it was my decision!! I had to travel almost 20kms and to beat the horrible traffic in Bangalore, I was out early in the morning, before my family and neighbors were up and was ready to jump into the teeth chattering water. Over time, fear of depth became trivial to me and I fell in love with water. I started jumping into the deep ends of the pool with ease and joy. Now I find it inconsequential and boring to swim anywhere my legs can touch the bottom. I successfully completed my Open Water course. Scuba diving gave me the motive and reason to overcome my fears and as a result of which I was able to enjoy many recreational events such as swimming with dolphins, sharks and many more marine creatures and the experience was absolutely breathtaking.

A few months after my Open Water Course, I decided to pursue my scuba diving venture by advancing to the next course, the Advanced 'Open Water' which allowed me to dive up to a depth of 100ft, and, in this course, I specialized in “Search and Recovery”. All of this may sound like fun and games, but I would like to warn you that there is a lot at stake! A diver can be affected by various problems like decompression sickness, nitrogen narcosis, ear drum rupture and various other life threating problems. The pressure at 100ft under water is enormous, its roughly thrice the pressure on the land.

Dive with Sharks in Dubai

I wish and intent to complete Rescue Diver/Nitrox training soon. I am in the process of completing the pre-requisites for those courses (20logged diving. I am currently at 12).

For those who are interested in Scuba diving, looking for details such as who can do it, how, where it can be done (near to Bangalore),please get in touch with me.

DID YOU KNOW?
If you break an egg under the water, the high pressure will keep the the yoke intact.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJxdN4XHtyc