SCUBA

Nah Trang is an odd city in the middle of Vietnam. I’d found my way there to do a SCUBA certification course, something I was pretty excited about. I’d dived only once before, in the Virgin Islands on vacation with my family. For the life of me, I can't remember how much I actually learned about SCUBA in the Virgin Islands. I member our instructor telling us about "blood, bones, and air" but he kept it super general. And I don't remember much about entering and exiting the water. When I think back to those two dives my family did, I remember floating among the beautiful and fascinating coral and the strange sound of breathing in and out of the regulator. 

In Nah Trang, I learned a bit more than that. And actually made it through the course. This writer is now a certified beginner diver, certified to dive up to 18 meters. 

I've learned a lot about the more technical things. How to set up the BCD and regulator, about how to know how deep you can go for how long, how long to wait for the next dive. Now I know what to do if I run out of air, and my buddy can't be reached. I've learned about temperature changes in water, and different health risks related to diving (did you know that there is something called nitrogen narcosis that hits you when you get to a depth of 30 meters. You start to act all irrational and silly. Basically, you're high--which freaks some people out, but others love it). During the first dive, floating around in the ocean at 8 meters deep, I understood why people do this for a living. It's so beautiful down there. And it's so peaceful. All you need to do is simply float along and keep breathing and everything will be alright. 

In Nah Trang, the water is so very blue. It's bright like a crystal and unbelievably clear, Putting my head in the water, I can see the coral very easily. It's not too deep where I'd been diving. The first few moments of descent were still a little scary for me. It was so tempting to hold my breath as I began to go down and water crept up to my ears and eyes and over my head. But with the regulator in my mouth, all I had to do is breathe and relax. Being in the water is really cool, even though I'm not very adept at directing myself and controlling my movements yet.

Sound travels fast in the water, so everything sounds strange.

But I love how it sounds. First, there is the ever-present sound of my regulator, the sound of my breath wheezing in and bubbling out. Then there is the crackling. The water is a live with cracks and pops, perhaps the feeding and breathing of marine life all around me. And last is the far off sound of waver, the great deep movement of water, crashing and tumbling way above.