Swimming in pea soup

For our ten year wedding anniversary (Now five years ago) we qualified as advanced divers and bought ourselves some really nice gear. We both share a passion for the sea, but like a lot of other passions this was left forgotten at the bottom of the cupboard for the last three and a bit years.

Yesterday, we took ourselves of to a local dive training centre to see if we could still rig up and descent/ascent without blowing out eardrums.

It was fun - It took us at least 30 minutes to rig our gear, this used to take about 4 - 5 minutes. Another 10 to figure out our dive tables and then P could not remember how to tighten his fins to his feet. Our first attempt at diving took about 9 minutes, we stayed about 5 metres from the side (not intentionally) and then P popped - ascended without intend.

Breakfast and a bit of a conference later we got ready again - took us about 6 minutes to rig and plan our dive. I was 500g lighter so did not drop like a stone ( which I did the first time) we actually dived for 30 min, even if it felt surreal swimming in pea soup - there was NO viz and we had to hold hands at all times cause your buddy just disappeared if we were about a meter apart. We kept a constant 15 m depth, but at our five meter safety stop I could not dump my air fast enough and popped - that was the 500g lighter and the air I used out of my cylinder.

Hopefully we are more ready now for our diving holiday this weekend!! Yeah for four days of north coast fun in the sun!