Scuba Diving in the Mediterranean Sea
Photo credit: xenia from morguefile.com
The wind howled in my ears and my hair flew across my face as I stood at the bow of the blue and yellow scuba diving boat. I was about to do something I had never dreamed of doing before. I was going scuba diving. I was so freaked out about going and at the same time so exited. I wanted to go diving and at the same time didn’t. I love the ocean. I just really don’t love what lives in the ocean. Don’t get me wrong, I would go to the beach every day if I could. I would always go swimming every chance I get. I just won’t go diving 15 meters under water. Today though, was an exception. I very big exception.
After 30 minutes of cruising over the short choppy waves we reached “Guppy.” Guppy is what my friend Harrison, my friend that lives in Tabarka, calls the rock where he goes scuba diving. The reason for the strange name Guppy is because from a distance it looks like the rock is being chased by a crocodile. Guppy is a large rock in the water beside a mountain side. The bottom half of it is brown and the top is white, covered in bird poop. We anchored the boat a few meters from the rock and split into 3 groups: Beginner, Intermediate, and Expert. First we dropped the experts off in deeper water and returned to out spot near the rock. After the expert group was finish then the Intermediate would go and then me. Each group had about a 20 minute dive so that was about 45 minutes of waiting on the boat.
Time slowly went by as I sat on the boat. Harrison and I got pretty bored and when we thought nothing could get worst, it did. Some of the passengers on the boat started getting sick and puking. The only way to escape pure boredom was to jump into the water and snorkel while waiting. I slipped on my wetsuit, put on some flippers and goggles and jumped into the water. The water lapped on the sides of the boat and pulled me towards it. It was a struggle to get away, but with the help of my trusty flippers, it was easier that I thought it would be. The ocean water was incredibly cold for the summer, but at the same time it was very refreshing.
I spent the next half hour swimming lazily in the water until I realized something strange. The water beneath me looked incredibly blue. A pulled my goggles over my head and put my head in the water. It was like looking at a new planted almost. I had seen pictures of under water, but nothing like this. The water beneath me sparkled with seagrass and fishes. The water looked so peaceful and calm. All the creatures swam around busily, some fast and some slow. Some fish were tinier than my knuckles and some were as big as my arm. Some were blue, red, green, white, clear, grey, or even black. As I stared in the water I felt like I could lie there for hours. I felt so calm and peaceful. The next the I knew it was my turn to dive.
My diving vest was blown up with air and thrown into the water to where I could reach it. The vest was bright pink, but it was better than nothing. I slipped my vest on, secured my flippers and my goggles and put the mouth peace in my mouth. It took a few minutes to get used to the cold oxygen in the tank, but soon I got the hang of breathing. It was my first time to dive so I had to do a buddy swim. If you guessed that a buddy swing is where you swim with a buddy, then you’re right. Slowly my guide held down a button on my vest that let out the air from my vest lowering me down into the depths of the sea. I was still freaked out of my mind, but i t was just too amazing to be scared. The colorful fish nipped at my feet as I swam lower and lower. The further down I went the colder it got until I found myself shivering. Shivering? What? It’s the middle of the summer. The water soaked into my skin and my head began vibrating violently. It didn’t hurt and first, but after a while it got so cold I was shaking like a madman! The lower I depended the less and less fish there were. I looked up and to my amazement, I was more than 10 meters below the surface. The fish above me swam in schools of 10 and 100s. The life was so abundant under water that I almost opened my mouth in shock.My guide and I began swimming around Guppy when suddenly all the fish vanished.
I was confused for a second, then I was terrified. So many thing happened at the same time, that I couldn’t breath. Then I realized it, I couldn’t breath. Not because I was shocked, but because I was out of oxygen. Horror struck me as I began frantically swimming for the surface. My vest seemed to weigh me down as I tried and tried to swim up. There was no more oxygen in my tank and my goggles were starting to fog up. I couldn’t die now! I’m too young! My guide looked at me with a terrifying calmness on his face. He reached for my mouth piece and pulled it out. Is he crazy or something! Then he reached onto his vest and pulled out a second mouth piece and placed it in my mouth. Water was flowing into my mouth and as the second mouth piece entered my mouth, he pushed a button and the water drained from my mouth. I was still shivering and was still terrified, but at least I wasn’t dead. It took a few second to calm down, but when I was, I looked around I didn’t see any more fish, or any more sea urchins, but instead, sharks…
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