So on Tuesday 12th Feb, I embarked on my Padi Open Water Scuba Diving Licence with a company called Pro Dive in Cairns. The course consists of 5 days training, 2 days classroom and practical pool training (also a medical) and 3 days on the Pro Dive boat on the Great Barrier Reef.

Over the first 2 days we did exercises that included mask removal, regulator recovery, putting the scuba equipment together and generally having fun. We were lucky in our group because everyone seemed to get on well, which mean't we picked up the training quickly. At the end on the 2nd day we took a 50 question multiple choice test with a pass mark of 38. I scored 44 and everyone in the class passed!. Phew!!.

The next day about 30 divers set out for the reef on the Pro Dive II boat. The boat was comfortable and the food (provided by Lucy) was amazing. In fact we had too much food (better that than not enough!). It took us about 2hrs to get out to the reef and was a little choppy!. I wasn't sea sick but felt a little dizzy (nothing new there then). On day 1 on the boat we did 2 training dives, which consisted of practical exercises that we had already performed in the pool. In the evening eneryone was so tired it was an early night. Day 2 consisted of a mammoth 4 dives including 1 night dive!!. After the first 2 dives we had qualified as certified divers. The 3rd dive was our first pleasure dive and the fourth was the dreaded night dive. There is something a little unnerving about decending 18 metres into darkness with only a flash light and your buddy for company. My buddy was a Danish guy called Jan. More about him in the next blog. The 3rd day on the boat gave us the opportunity to ungrade our Open Water status to Adventure Diver. The benefits of this was the ability to be able to dive to a maximum depth of 30 metres. Around about the 30 metre depth some divers can suffer from narocsis. This is where the increased nitrogen in the body, effects how the brain works, resulting in a feeling giddyness. Sure enough I was the only one in the group to experience this and everyone had a good laugh at my expense because I couldn't do any of the tasks correctly!. I actually couldn't stop laughing at that depth!.

So overall the 5 days were amazing. Met some really nice people from the Uk, Canada, Austria and Germany. The colours of the reef were amazing and I actually saw a 2.5 metre White tipped Reef shark!. I now plan to travel and dive for the rest of my stay in Oz. I really want to shark cage dive in Adelaide with the Great Whites!!.