Open Water Diving Course

I have always wanted to learn to dive. It seems like such an amazing way to experience the marine environment, and having a father and grandfather who dives didn’t help. Before coming to New Zealand, I started looking at getting a diver’s certificate, but that came to nothing amid everything else that needed to be solved before I left. So when I discovered that there was a diving club here at the Uni, and that they offered a special deal on a dive course, that was that. I signed up to the club, and RSVPd to the course, which would run from Thursday the 10th to Sunday the 13th.

Then I noticed that I had an online exam in one of my classes on the Friday afternoon, which threw all the plans up in the air. I reached out to the dive club, and through that found out that they basically had nothing to do with the course except having a discount. When that was finally made clear, which took too much time as the communication was very slow, I reached out to the Goat Island diving centre directly and they were so helpful. I got the link to the discount through them, and they assured me that the pool day on Friday should end at about the time when my exam started so that should be fine. But by the time all of this was cleared up, and I finally signed up, there was less than two weeks until the start of the course. Which is why this blog has been trailing a bit, I have just been so busy with studies daytime and then diving studies at night.

The one final hurdle (before starting the course 😅), was to figure out how I would get to the diving centre, as it is outside the quite limited reach of Auckland’s public transport. After a few emails going back and forth with Goat Island, I managed to get them to ask one of the other people in the course if they could give me a ride. And so a week before the course started, I got a call from Terry-Sue, and she offered to give me a ride from Auckland CBD out to the centre on Thursday. However, she was staying at a camping up there for the duration of the course, and so now I also needed to figure out that. At first, I believed I needed to camp in a tent and scrambled for a couple of days to get my hands on one, before finding out that the deal Goat Island had with the camping was for a little cabin/room. With everything finally solved on Tuesday, just two days before the course started, we can finally get to the actual diving.

I was picked up by Terry-Sue at about 11 on Thursday, and an hour and a half later we were out in Leigh at Goat Island Diving & Snorkelling, ready to learn how to dive. There we met our instructor Makayla, her assistant Amber, and the two other attendants Mya and Issy (both at the uni). I think that the youngest two were our instructors 😅 but they did an excellent job. The first day was spent first familiarizing ourselves with the equipment and trying out wetsuits, diving masks, and Buoyancy Compensators (BCs), getting weights and assembling it all together with the dive tank. Then down to Matheson’s Bay to get a feel for how it was to breath with it underwater and start on some very basic skills. Now looking back, we really were floundering cubs that first dive, but it was a really cool taste just being down 2 meters and breathing there. And we saw a snapper. Then back to the centre and I managed to get a ride the short way to my camping with Issy, who were going back to Auckland.

Whangateua Holiday Park was a lovely little camping ground, and having a little room (though full of empty beds) would turn out to be a lifesaver after the physically and mentally quite exhausting experience of full days of diving and new experiences. But on the first night I just quickly made dinner, which was quite a spartan affair as I had to bring everything with me out there without refrigeration. Then watched the beautiful sun set, and a bit later the quite magnificent night sky (though the full moon stole quite a bit of the show). Which is where all the pretty pictures so far are from.

Up bright and early at 5:40 next morning as I was getting picked up an hour later for the pool day which was back in Auckland. The day started off with us doing a swimming test, and then it was on with the gear and working on skills. Everything from buoyancy control, removing and replacing the breathing regulator and mask underwater, learning to always always continue breathing even when you did not have your regulator in, and finally emergency ascents. It was a very fully specked day, and we probably spent at least 5 hours in the water. When I got out of the water, it was then straight up to the car to sit my digital exam, part of which I did on the drive back. But it actually went quite well, I had enough time to go through all my answers and only lost my connection once. Unfortunatly in that whole mess I had forgotten to ask Issy if she could give me a ride the following morning.

So the next morning I once again got up bright and not quite so early as my only real option to get to the dive centre was walking, or trying to hitchhike. And as I have never hitchhiked before, I didn’t want to have to rely on that working out and therefore planned my morning to have time to walk the 5.5 km. But it actually worked out quite well, as I had only walked for 15 minutes when Amber (one of the instructors) drove past and picked me up. This day (Saturday) we went through how to do air sharing underwater, IE when you have your diving buddy breath out of your backup regulator. It was a bit scary but went well, but I’m really happy we practiced it for quite a while on land. Our second dive that day was mostly focused on just practicing buoyancy and just exploring. All in all a very fun day, though the weather was starting to pick up with a noticeable swell under the water.

The final day, I did get picked up from the camping, which was nice. As the weather was getting quite windy by now we went straight to the water, which was not as planned the Goat Island marine reserve but the more protected Matheson Bay where we had been on our previous dives. When we got into the water, the circumstances were quite severe: just 1.5 meter visibility and a strong swell moving us up to a meter back and forth. Still was a really fun dive and by now I had really got the hang of using my breathing not primarily to, well, breath, but rather to control my buoyancy and position in the water column. However, we could not do the last skills we needed to do, and when we got up we were told that the last dive wouldn’t be possible that day due to conditions not being the calm once required to showcase skills in an open water course.

So that final day was wrapped up with finishing learning how to plan a dive, i.e. how long you can be at depth before nitrogen saturation in your body starts becoming a problem. And then booked in a time on Thursday in two weeks (24th) to finish up the course. Luckily I could go the same day as Mya and Issy so will be able to ride with them out.

And while it’s unfortunate to not be able to finish it up it has been an absolutely amazing experience, and now we should get to see the really beautiful diving reserve.