Hi everyone and thank you again for the additional warm welcomes! So.....I FINALLY got my dives in....60' dive in Riviera Beach through Jim Abernethy's Scuba Adventures, paired up with Marc who was my guide on both dives. At first, like all newcomers, I got very nervous when the captain yelled "Dive dive dive!" and everyone lined up and started jumping in. With that said, I must have sucked down have my air tank at the surface LOL. But as soon as I started to go down, I started to see what all of you are already accustomed to: the ABSOLUTE beauty and tranquility of this other world. I was completely mesmerized and was checking out everything in site, like a little kid in a candy store. I forgot all about the fact that I was sinking 60' down, thinking to myself "OMG this is really happening and I'm breathing and I'm alive!" (In more ways than one). Marc stayed with me the entire time on our first dive. I kept going over in my head the skills I learned, tried to slow down my breathing (from fear to over-excitement) but my first dive only last 26 minutes from surface to surface. I came back on the boat ESTATIC and did not want to come back up!! I was tempted to grab my 2nd tank and dive right back in again!
The 2nd dive I was much calmer and lasted 42 of an allowed 45 minutes....I pictured myself in one of the most beautiful salt water aquariums I have ever seen, but now multiply the size of it by infinity, remove the aquarium walls and now I am a guest in this world. I saw lion fish, a bat fish, and so many others I can sadly only name from Watching Nemo (LOL - I did pick up a book that describes the various sea life in the Carribbeans and Florida)....didn't see any shark, manta rays, turtles or dolphins, but was completely in a trance with everything else I saw. The water was a very nice 77 degrees, only needed a 3mm wetsuit and everything else worked perfectly. The 2nd dive, Marc saw I was comfortable enough to swim on my own. He went a LITTLE ahead but kept looking back every so often to make sure I was okay. ONLY issue I had was my 3 minute stop at 15', need to work on that a little more but buoyancy was spot on: I was gliding 1 foot off the bottom, maneuvering up to avoid taller coral then manuevering back down. I was reaching out to schools of fish and following them, some of them even appeared to look at me saying "what's up?" LOL like I said I was a little kid in a candy store, still excited while I am writing this novel.
I am very much looking forward to continuing diving. I apologize for the long thread, but want to assure anyone interested in scuba diving or that has any doubts/fears like I did: you are in good hands and the skills you learn will self-apply and you will be in another world, surrounded by serenity and just absolute magnificance.
THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU that provided me some great advice, both on and off this forum. I have signed up for a Grand Cayman trip with my scuba shop in April and am counting the days until I'm in the water again!
Eric
