Scuba Stevellie

I have always had an unreasonable dream of skydiving in scuba gear right into the ocean. Skydiving
into scubadiving. Although unlikely, I am one step closer to making my dream a reality.

I have a few friends in Korea who dive. It didn't take much for them to convince me that I need to get certified ASAP. Diving in Korea isn't much compared to other places, as far as I've heard. However, by traveling to other countries in Asia you can dive in the most unreal environments, for cheap. Malaysia,  the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand.  As if there wasn't enough of the world for me to explore already, I am going to have a whole underwater paradise full of opportunities open up to me.

Immediately after getting home from Japan I spent two days completing my confined water dives, one day in Ulsan and one day in Busan. I had the most amazing little Korean instructor. She was patient and encouraging and perfect. 

A few of the girls in the group that I was in had a hard time getting down to the bottom when we started on our first descent, which left me chilling at the bottom of the pool taking everything in.

Breathing underwater for the first time was a surreal experience. I was a bit overwhelmed at first, not gonna lie. After getting more comfortable breathing out of the regulator, it started feeling much more natural. I sat on the bottom of the pool for what felt like forever, just thinking about how many awesome underwater adventures I have in store for me.

When it cane time to clear my mask however, my confidence was drowned. Pun intended. Looking back, it seems silly how nervous I was. The first few times I tried, I failed miserably. I couldn't grasp the concept of not breathing in through my nose. My mind was messing with me. That first day I was unable to complete the task and felt a bit discouraged. I was happy to be able to have a night to sleep on my new experiences, watch YouTube videos demonstrating how simple it was, and wake up feeling refreshed and determined.

The second day was a piece of cake. I easily took my mask off my head and swam around, with no problems and no water up my nose. We practiced a few more skills - taking off our gear underwater and neutralizing our buoyancy. After I got over the mask hurdle, it all seemed easy.

I was a bit nervous for the open-water dives, but as soon as my flippered feet touched down on the bottom and the sand settled - I was in paradise. There wasn't much to see off the coast of Busan; starfish and urchins were plentiful. I swam through a few schools of fish and hung out on on the bottom while everyone did all they needed for their certification. At one point, I was hovering as still as possible waiting for little fishies to swim up and check me out. I could have stayed there and watched them for hours.

It's getting a bit too cold to dive, so unfortunately I don't think I will be doing much of it the remainder of the year - but that gives me time to save up and buy some of my own equipment.