This summer, I’ve spent 3 weeks in Brasil for the World Youth Day. After the “main” World Youth Day programm in Rio de Janeiro, I’ve spent a week in Buzios, where I got the chance to dive in the ocean. This was to be my first ocean dive!
After a bit of googling I found a diving center that seemed quite nice. So a friend of mine went and started looking at the given adress. Of course (it
BRASIL (Photo credit: gi varga.)
wouldn’t be Brasil…) when we arrived at the adress, there was nothing. But on the way there we had passed several other diving centers, so of course we checked them all out:
Most of the people in the centers didn’t talk english at all, others only very little, so it was much easier for me to use my tiny little bit of portuguese that I had learned the 2 weeks before. Besides, I could use my hands. Like you would under water. Of course.
Before talking to them, I had a slight preferation for the SSI-Center. But as I talked to the guy there, I felt he had no clue. He didn’t actually know where we were going to dive, he couldn’t tell me how much time (about) we were going to spend underwater, nor could he tell me the size of the tank.
So the actually most attracting center was the PADI-one. The guy in there (Pablo) seemed really trustworthy (even though his english was very poor). And as I was also looking for a try-dive for my friends, it all seemed perfect.
Buzios
I came back the next day with a brasilian friend of mine who then helped translating everything. So we fixed everything up.
By then, I unfortunately knew I was going to be the only member of our group to go diving. The others either had a little cold or used to get seasick, which, of course, isn’t very helpful if you plan to spend half a day on a diving boat.
So on friday it was finally time for my first ocean dive!I got up early in the morning, because we were supposed to meet at 8 by the diving center. Even after almost 3 weeks in Brasil, I was very “austrian” and arrived there at quarter to 8. Of course, there was nobody else. 10 to 8: nobody. 5 to 8: nobody. 8: nobody. Finally, at about 10 past 8 Pablo arrived and opened the shop. I got in, signed some papers and then we got in the car. I was a little confused, because he had told me there were going to be some other people too, but I figured out we were going to pick them up.
I soon had to realise that the two others didn’t speak english, german, french ot italian either- and those are all the languages I speak. Anyways. I decided to stick to underwater-language 🙂
They were: a guy, let’s just call him the brasil-guy, and his girlfriend, who was a real appearance: tiny (but not all of her body parts were tiny, there was a big exeption), and about 2cm of make up in her face. (we were about to go diving, true?)
On our way we went to pick up an oxygen analyser as I was going to dive with Nitrox.
Pablo gave the analyser to me: I had never seen such an easy-to-use analyser.
not our boat, but our day 🙂
then we finally arrived at the boat: it was such a nice day! 🙂
I was actually allowed to carry one bag (but only together with that other guy, and it wasn’t heavy at all!)
and we got on the boat, where we were allowed to do: nothing.
I must admit: that’s a thing I’m not used to. Usually, I do it all, I do it myself, and finally: I know it’s done and I know it’s done properly. Well than, after a view minutes I was given a diving suit (and pablo took exactly the right size) and so I thought this would mean I could start getting ready. So that’s what I did.
After trying on the neopren suit, I started looking for the rest of my gear. First, I checked my jacket, tank and instruments. Instantly, Pablo came and wanted to check my EAN mixture. I told him I wanted to check it myself, which seemed very weird to him.
The rest of the equipment was… well… not that up to date either, but I figured out it was ok, except for I could hear some air coming out somewhere by the first stage. So “we” changed that. In this case, “we” of course meant Pablo did it while I watched him. It was so weird!
Next, I was given fins.
You might actually call those things fins. you might also call it plastic-crap.
Unfortunately, only those fins fitted me.
It was terrible, it was so hard to keep a trim, especially with the waves coming in, they were so tiny and so soft.
I was so glad I had at least brought my own mask. That was acutally a point where all the others starred at me and laughed: “professional, eh?”
I quite like this short sequenze, because it shows how little I was allowed to do myself:
Sitting there with my gear on and my mask in my hand, I saw a guy coming up to me with a anti-fog-spray.
I prefer spitting in my mask – so i quickly did that, before he had any chance to spray it. he just laughed at me. The very moment I wanted to get up to clear my mask, he took it, and went to clear it for me…
Then we finally got into the water, I loved it!
Visibility wasn’t that good that day (as Pablo said), but I didn’t even notice, as I am used to much less visibility.
There were so many fish, colourful fish, different fish, interesting fish, i had never seen so many beautiful fish.
Soon, the first turtle came by.
Of course, I had seen some turtles the days before, when I went snorkeling every day. But this was so different (of course)! 🙂
our dive was about 50 minutes, we actually had to get back up because Pablo was low on air. His comment: “you not open your tank, you no breath”
so then it was the other 2 guys turn. The basil-guy did quite well, he liked it and he actually dived, whereas his girlfriend was very fun to watch. she never really got underwater, I could always see her tank, but I think she didn’t realise it, for when I asked her how she had liked it, she said it was so much fun. Unfortunately we couldn’t talk much more, for she didn’t speak underwater-language fluently 😉
After that, we got to a different spot and it was my turn again. (in between the dives, I had been able to change my tank all by MYSELF, haha, what a good feeling)
Not much to say, but I want to show you some more pictures. I know, they are not very good quality, but they were taken with Pablos camera, which wasn’t very high quality. But anyways. It’s pictures 😉
I especially like the middle one: I think you can see about everything:
visibility: mediocre
equipment: ….
me: stunned by everything
my trim: well, it actually doesn’t look as bad as it felt…
I loved that one the way back the brasil-guy and his girlfriend fell asleep, whereas Pablo and I tried to talk a little more.
When we went to a gas station, we were asked if we wanted some coffee which was offered to us by the gas station. I really liked this. Man, one should offer this everywhere. The coffee was tiny (as it always was in brasil) but it was gooooooood! 🙂
But I also started wondering why people tend to be so tired after diving.
It can’t really have to do with the pressure, for the girlfriend wasn’t really under water, it might be the hormons with the excitement and so on, but maybe one of you knows? I’d love to hear more!
divemone 