With a splash, David and I jumped into our open water dive training last week.
The plethora of dive companies in Grenada entice American students with rock-bottom rates and promises of underwater adventure. We took the bait.
You are now reading the blog of an open water certified scuba diver. The process took four half-days of work plus a little reading on our own.
Those few hours underwater on the final day made all the work seem worth it. Schools of bright yellow striped Sergeant Major fish swan around our boat as we peered into the crystal blue water.
Underwater the view was even better. We dove through canyons of coral with the fish while small underwater neon kelp waved at us with the current.
The water was so clear on the last day that it seemed as if you could see forever. The boat ride out to the dive spot was pretty nice too.
Our final dive was a beautiful experience and a great segue into David’s fourth term of medical school. The next day, he started classes.
For those interested in certifying, here’s the nitty gritty of what we did:
- Certified through Devotion 2 Ocean (D2O) at the Rex Resort.
- The process took four half-days (9 a.m. to 1 p.m.) of learning time.
- In preparation, we had to read 179 pages and complete quizzes in the back of the book.
- The first day was classroom instruction testing our knowledge of what we had read on our own.
- The second day was in the resort pool using tanks, regulators and breathing underwater for the first time.
- The third day was in the shallow part of the ocean diving down about 7 meters and practicing all the stuff you did in the pool all over again.
- The fourth day was a boat ride to a dive spot where you practiced a few buoyancy skills and swam around at about 20 meters max.
