March 08, 2020
Today we splashed into completing two more of the four dives required to become SCUBA certified. These dives are not only important as our first few dives, but they also are dives where we practiced and became comfortable for crucial skills we will use for the rest of our SCUBA diving careers. Despite practicing these skills previously at Underwater Connections in Colorado Springs in August, where we took our first SCUBA lessons, I was still nervous for one particular skill. This skill required that a diver must completely remove one’s mask underwater and be able to put their mask pack on and clear it of water. Personally, I had no trouble completing this in the pool at Underwater Connection, but salt water felt like a completely different feat. When practicing the day before, but with only filling the mask with water instead of completely taking the mask off, for a quick moment I forgot about the regulator, the source of air, in my mouth and solely focused on keeping salt water out of my eyes. Despite my initial nervousness towards this skill, with the comfort from not only my classmate but also my diving instructors I, and the rest of our group, was able to successfully perform this skill. On top of this skill, we practiced sharing air with our buddy, levitating in the water, towing another diver, compass work both at the surface and underwater, and how to fill out our dive logs.
While eating dinner, we listened in on a presentation about Bonaires Reef Renewal project. It’s a very interesting process, that other organizations are also doing throughout the Carribean, in which parts of coral are taken from coral reefs and grown in nurseries. These nurseries provide the perfect environment that coral love so that they may grow quickly and be returned back into the coral reefs of Bonaire in several months. This process blows my mind that non-profit organizations such as this are able to work and help protect the future of coral reefs. Issues such as disease, bleaching, loss of sea urchins, and hurricanes are the leading causes of the decline in size of coral reefs. But, throughout this presentation I was wondering how can I help? The first step to helping such an important project as this is by spreading the word, something that you readers could also do. When in the ocean be mindful, wear coral reef safe sunscreen! A step further would be adopting a coral or donating. Our diving experience so far would not be the same without the beautiful coral to observe.
