May 30, 2012
May 27, 2012
Diving We Will Go, Dive Day No. 2
Day two of our PADI Advanced Open Water (AOW) certification was another 2-tank dive day. Mia and I left Kewalo Basin Boat Harbor at 7:30am with Drew again and a new friend, Jessica Cowell, and headed out to our first dive site, The Sea Tiger. The Sea Tiger is a shipwreck about 10 minutes away from Kewalo Harbor. This particular dive was to fulfill the deep dive for our certification. After the dive the day before, I think I got out all of my reservations about deep diving. I woke up prepared and eager for the dive, a nice change from the butterfly-freaked-out feeling I had the previous day. After putting together our gear and (struggling) into our wetsuits, we were off.
Drew briefed us right before the dive, telling us that our depth goal for the dive would be about 100 feet, along with a no descent line descent and ascent. That freaked me out a little, thinking about the trouble I had with my descent the other day with the descent line and at about 10 feet shallower. Nonetheless, I got in and went for it. The descent was easier than I expected. Going down I paid more attention to just getting down there when suddenly, the wreck appeared in all of its grandness. The Sea Tiger is HUGE. Much, much bigger than the YO-257 for sure.
Right away we began touring the wreck, an awesome experience in itself. There were literally hundreds of fish all around. Massive schools of fish bigger than I've ever seen, rivaled only by the footage I've seen on the Discovery Channel. After we reached about 100 feet, Drew administered a Nitrogen Narcosis test, holding up fingers and having us show him how many more fingers we would need to make what he showed equal to ten. Thankfully, we both passed with flying colors.
This dive was a big accomplishment for both Mia and I because we both felt that it was the most relaxed we had ever been on a dive. I didn't worry about a single thing during the dive, not even my buoyancy. The dive felt completely effortless, something I never thought I'd feel with the amount of dives I have under my belt. Our dive depth total was 102 feet with a bottom time of 29 minutes.
Jessica, who is an amazing photographer, got some shots of our dive day and graciously shared them with Mia and I.
Drew briefed us right before the dive, telling us that our depth goal for the dive would be about 100 feet, along with a no descent line descent and ascent. That freaked me out a little, thinking about the trouble I had with my descent the other day with the descent line and at about 10 feet shallower. Nonetheless, I got in and went for it. The descent was easier than I expected. Going down I paid more attention to just getting down there when suddenly, the wreck appeared in all of its grandness. The Sea Tiger is HUGE. Much, much bigger than the YO-257 for sure.
Right away we began touring the wreck, an awesome experience in itself. There were literally hundreds of fish all around. Massive schools of fish bigger than I've ever seen, rivaled only by the footage I've seen on the Discovery Channel. After we reached about 100 feet, Drew administered a Nitrogen Narcosis test, holding up fingers and having us show him how many more fingers we would need to make what he showed equal to ten. Thankfully, we both passed with flying colors.
This dive was a big accomplishment for both Mia and I because we both felt that it was the most relaxed we had ever been on a dive. I didn't worry about a single thing during the dive, not even my buoyancy. The dive felt completely effortless, something I never thought I'd feel with the amount of dives I have under my belt. Our dive depth total was 102 feet with a bottom time of 29 minutes.
Jessica, who is an amazing photographer, got some shots of our dive day and graciously shared them with Mia and I.
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| My stride entry |
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| The Sea Tiger wreck |
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| Mia above the wreck. Such an epic picture! |
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| A turtle just chillin' on the wreck |
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| Drew (left), Mia (middle), and I (right) on our mandatory 3-min safety stop during our ascent |
All photos courtesy of Jessica Cowell
Our second dive was at Horseshoe Reef, a reef we've all dived before. The only difference was that this dive would be the dive to fulfill the navigation portion of our certification. We practiced with the compass on the boat first then when we got in the water, Drew had both Mia and I navigate using kick cycles and the compass. With the compass, we had to navigate from a point and make a square, 10 kick cycles each way. It was a lot harder than I thought but I passed! After our navigation test portion, we all just cruised around the reefs. Jessica took some amazing shots of the sea life when we were down there. A really big thank you to Jessica who shared her pictures with me! I hope to dive with you again!
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| Me, waiting as Mia took her navigation test |
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| An awesome little Fried Egg nudibranch. These guys are so cool!! |
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| I love sea turtles, they're just so chill. |
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| This guy was just swimming as we were cruising by. |
All photos courtesy of Jessica Cowell
May 23, 2012
Diving We Will Go, Dive Day No. 1
Scuba diving has hands down been one of the best things I've ever done in my life. There really is nothing like it. I've been open water certified since I was twelve as part of a summer adventure class I was very fortunate to take one year at St. Andrew's Priory Summer School. During that summer course, I got to go wind surfing, kayaking, banana boat and bumper tube riding, and parasailing. But the definite highlight was being able to get scuba certified. After that summer I didn't ever get the chance to go diving, one, because I was too young to go without an adult, and two, because none of my family members or friends were certified. My love for diving sparked again when the year after I graduated, my friend Mia got certified.
It's been a little over a week since Mia and I began our course for PADI Advanced Open Water (AOW) certification and I am so stoked to say that we are certified! We chose to go through our favorite dive shop for the certification, Kaimana Divers. Of all the dives we done with Kaimana Divers we've always dived with Drew, one of the dive leaders and instructors at Kaimana, so it was very fitting that he ran the our certification course and dives.
I've never been nervous when it came to being near or in the water, not even when I was the awkward twelve year old going scuba diving for the first time. But gearing up to get my AOW certification sent me on a mind trip. I read the chapters Drew assigned to us and I literally freaked out. I guess it didn't help that I read it all the night before the first dive. There's summer break for you, huh? On all of the dives I've ever done, the maximum depth of the dives had always been around 40 feet, the limit on my dive license. Reading and knowing that I'd be diving up to (well literally down to) 100 feet, I psyched myself out.
The day of our first dive my stomach was nothing but knots. I've never experienced that kind of reaction to a dive and to be honest, it scared me. The first dive site was a shipwreck called the YO-257 and it was at a depth of a little over 90 feet. I had half a mind to call it a day and stay on the boat. But all of that agitation and fear left as soon as I hit the water. The descent down was a little rough. I usually take a little longer on my descents because my ears like to equalize on their own terms. That usual delay plus a little anxiousness had me filling up on oxygen at a higher intake, filling my lungs and making it harder to go down. But once I got down to the descent depth, it was a whole other experience.
The YO-257 is a old shipwreck that the government sunk and bought out by Atlantis Submarine to use as the site for their sub tours. It was so strange seeing this wreck down in the water, definitely different from what you see on television. It wasn't eerie like I expected it to be, but rather very calm. Wrecks serve as an artificial reef that coral attach to and form around. For someone who has only ever dove at reefs, this was definitely a nice change. Our depth for the dive was 90 feet with a bottom time of 34 minutes, pretty good for our first deep wreck.
After the YO-257, we went to another site for the second dive. We ended up at Turtle Canyon, a site we've dove before. This dive was more of a relax and cruise dive after the course dive we did at YO. The water was a little murky with the currents so visibility wasn't what we were used to. Despite that it was a very chill dive. There were massive turtles everywhere we went. We went to an easy depth of 36 feet for a bottom time of 53 minutes.
For me, diving is also about the people you get to meet. I love meeting new people and there are always other people on the dives with you, some local and some visiting from all over the world. On this dive we met Michelle from California visiting with her husband (he doesn't dive) and Oliver from France. Oliver was so fun to talk to because he's traveled so much. He told us he got to dive in Egypt! Definitely going on my to-do list. Dive Day No. 1 was definitely a success!
It's been a little over a week since Mia and I began our course for PADI Advanced Open Water (AOW) certification and I am so stoked to say that we are certified! We chose to go through our favorite dive shop for the certification, Kaimana Divers. Of all the dives we done with Kaimana Divers we've always dived with Drew, one of the dive leaders and instructors at Kaimana, so it was very fitting that he ran the our certification course and dives.
I've never been nervous when it came to being near or in the water, not even when I was the awkward twelve year old going scuba diving for the first time. But gearing up to get my AOW certification sent me on a mind trip. I read the chapters Drew assigned to us and I literally freaked out. I guess it didn't help that I read it all the night before the first dive. There's summer break for you, huh? On all of the dives I've ever done, the maximum depth of the dives had always been around 40 feet, the limit on my dive license. Reading and knowing that I'd be diving up to (well literally down to) 100 feet, I psyched myself out.
The day of our first dive my stomach was nothing but knots. I've never experienced that kind of reaction to a dive and to be honest, it scared me. The first dive site was a shipwreck called the YO-257 and it was at a depth of a little over 90 feet. I had half a mind to call it a day and stay on the boat. But all of that agitation and fear left as soon as I hit the water. The descent down was a little rough. I usually take a little longer on my descents because my ears like to equalize on their own terms. That usual delay plus a little anxiousness had me filling up on oxygen at a higher intake, filling my lungs and making it harder to go down. But once I got down to the descent depth, it was a whole other experience.
The YO-257 is a old shipwreck that the government sunk and bought out by Atlantis Submarine to use as the site for their sub tours. It was so strange seeing this wreck down in the water, definitely different from what you see on television. It wasn't eerie like I expected it to be, but rather very calm. Wrecks serve as an artificial reef that coral attach to and form around. For someone who has only ever dove at reefs, this was definitely a nice change. Our depth for the dive was 90 feet with a bottom time of 34 minutes, pretty good for our first deep wreck.
After the YO-257, we went to another site for the second dive. We ended up at Turtle Canyon, a site we've dove before. This dive was more of a relax and cruise dive after the course dive we did at YO. The water was a little murky with the currents so visibility wasn't what we were used to. Despite that it was a very chill dive. There were massive turtles everywhere we went. We went to an easy depth of 36 feet for a bottom time of 53 minutes.
For me, diving is also about the people you get to meet. I love meeting new people and there are always other people on the dives with you, some local and some visiting from all over the world. On this dive we met Michelle from California visiting with her husband (he doesn't dive) and Oliver from France. Oliver was so fun to talk to because he's traveled so much. He told us he got to dive in Egypt! Definitely going on my to-do list. Dive Day No. 1 was definitely a success!
May 20, 2012
Up to date
Kiyana here, with an update.
I'll be the first to admit that I get extremely lazy when it comes to blogging. As much as I love writing, the allure of just posting a bunch of pictures and calling it a day definitely hooks me and I give in. But no more! A professor this past semester told me that the key to writing is to really get into the habit of jotting down a paragraph or two daily, no matter how lazy you feel. Obviously after ending this past semester and two weeks into my summer, my laziness has gotten the best of me. But too much has happened in the first two weeks of summer to stay quiet and not share! Here's hoping your summer kick off has been as great as mine (though if I may brag seeing as it is my blog, it probably hasn't!).
I'll be the first to admit that I get extremely lazy when it comes to blogging. As much as I love writing, the allure of just posting a bunch of pictures and calling it a day definitely hooks me and I give in. But no more! A professor this past semester told me that the key to writing is to really get into the habit of jotting down a paragraph or two daily, no matter how lazy you feel. Obviously after ending this past semester and two weeks into my summer, my laziness has gotten the best of me. But too much has happened in the first two weeks of summer to stay quiet and not share! Here's hoping your summer kick off has been as great as mine (though if I may brag seeing as it is my blog, it probably hasn't!).
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