October 14 Scuba day!

Oct 14

Today was an adventure of a lifetime. In the morning Tori and I went to the beach to relax before we embarked on our huge adventure; an experience which a few of us on the abroad have been planning for the past two weeks. After Elissa and I informed the abroad about the joys and wonders of scuba diving, many became interested in doing a “Discover Scuba Dive”. Fortunately Meredith found a 5 star Padi certified dive shop within 2 minutes walking distance from our hotel in Santorini. When we got to the island we talked with the instructors and they gave us a group discount for two dives. After much anticipation, today was the day that every single one of us would experience something for the first time.

Twelve of us: 3 certified and 9 DSD arrived at the shop at 1 to get sizes and pile into two vehicles. We were driven to a harbor where we all (plus 3 instructors and equipment) piled into a small rib. From there we boated twenty minutes to our dive site. They put the certified: Dan, Elissa, and I into the water first where we followed our instructor Omar while Yanis and the Captain took care of the other 9 students. During our dive we saw some fish, but the coolest part was when Omar caught an octopus and let us touch it. I have a video of the whole thing and it inked about 5 times! Feeling this octopus suction reminded me of catching one this summer while night fishing and not being able to get it off of my hand or my line. Seeing one underwater was a totally different experience. After swimming around we eventually ran into the rest of our group of 9 divers, which looked like an army of people emerging from the sea. After about 30-45 minutes we all piled back into the boat. Before getting in I looked at the amount of air I had left and I had only used about 70 psi. Apparently I use my oxygen really well.  Once in the boat were given fresh water and a chocolate croissant. It was a perfect snack before we geared up and headed out for our second dive.

Elissa was given a tank with only 150 psi whereas mine had 200. Knowing that I do not use that much air, we switched everything while in the water. We are very proud of this. :p For this dive they gave the certified torches (flashlights). At this point I knew more of my life dreams were coming true. I was about to dive into a cave! In my excitement we descended and swam into a cave. This one was awesome and opened into another area. We swam out and entered into the greatest experience yet. We swam for a few minutes into darkness with just our little flashlights. On our way in we found a shrimp, and then we hit a dead end. I looked at the instructor and he told me to swim up. I kept on swimming until all of the sudden I floated to the surface. We had scuba dove into a cave and were now on the surface breathing fresh air! I was overwhelmed with excitement as the current pulled us back and forth inside of this air pocket. We descended again and eventually met up with our group and we all went through a trench type “cave”. By this time everyone had either experienced a first whether it be the first time scuba diving or the first time cave diving. While waiting to go up we took many funny videos of Elissa and I doing underwater acrobatics and dancing. Eventually all of the smiling faces hopped back into the boat; many of these faces have told me they want to now get certified. I was so happy that everyone enjoyed scuba diving as much as I do. We drove back to the harbor and back to the shop where we were told the best place for dinner. It was hidden back behind a church, and the food was so good. We went back to the hotel and I went out to get coffee with Yanis who is one of the dive masters and who had joined me for runs in the morning. He took me to the place where all of the locals go. I really enjoyed getting to know parts of the island from a local. What a great way to end the day!