Inside My bucket List- No. 1

# 1. Scuba Dive : Done


Charo, a resident in our department asked me one morning if I wanted to scuba dive in APO island and I said YES! To scuba dive is #1 in my bucket list and I have been aching to fulfill it.

I never got to learn how to swim. In college I excused myself from swimming class by choosing to learn how to folk dance! But diving is not swimming, I rationalized to myself... the major difference being that when you swim, you have to know the skills to stay afloat but when you dive, you just follow what normally happens when someone who does not know how to swim tries diving in deep waters...you sink!

I purposely volunteered to be the "partner" of the head master diver. "With great power comes great responsibility", Spiderman was told. It was just appropriate that the head master takes on the biggest responsibility...and that was me!

Signing the Waiver

We were taught the basic hand signals but I got confused with the hand signal of thumbs up, which in diving means to go back to the surface but in my stubborn mind meant OK... and this created a lot confusion and inconvenience for my head master diver!

More than once he made the OK signal ( that is, creating an O with your thumb and pointing finger) to ask me without talking if I am ok ... and more than once I replied with a thumbs up and WOOO... back to the surface he'll drag me like a submarine resurfacing. I did protest, asking him why he brought me up helplessly when I was enjoying the underwater view! Our dive master patiently reminded ME, his moronic ward, that a thumbs up meant something was wrong!

The Group

We were also taught how to breath underwater with our mouthpieces. My master dive master instructed me to check on my mask and see if it fits well by observing if water can get into it. My mask seemed to fit perfectly and he led me to try diving in shallow waters.

It was my first time to see the beautiful corrals and the multicolored fish of APO but twice or thrice water got into my mask interrupting my bonding with nature! MY master dive master checked and adjusted my mask, twice or thrice and each time found nothing wrong with it. On my last complaint, and this time I was really on the verge of protesting to have my mask replaced, the master diver finally concluded...there is nothing wrong with my mask!

"YOU ARE JUST SMILING TOO MUCH", he said.

And yes, I was so happy watching the fish that my smile was probably so big, a tunnel was created between my nostril and cheek allowing water to get in...twice or thrice.

I have never felt peace like what I felt underwater! All I could hear was the bubbling sound of my breath! At one point, I was standing on the ocean floor watching the variety of fish swimming by, oblivious to us!

The day after our dive, somebody asked me how it felt underwater. I said, " Peaceful and it made me hungry." "Why hungry?" she asked. "How could I not be:, I replied, "With all the fish swimming by, i cant help think.."tinola" "sinugba" "bakhaw"....