Jalpari Dive Resorts
We all think that scuba diving must be very difficult thing
to do. I was fascinated by scuba diving since the time I saw James Bond’s “Thunder
ball” movie. My dream came true recently. When I visited Cozumel along with my
wife Shobha and son Akhilesh Iyer.
It was a very reasonable amount of $75 per person for a two
hour instruction and diving package which is more or less the usual amount
charged by most of the diving shops in and around Cozumel.
We talked with Pepe’s dive shop situated on the ground floor
of the coral Princess dive resort and golf hotel on Cozumel this is somewhat
nearer to the barracuda point on the Northwest point of the island.
After signing some disclaimer forms which were more of a
formality,(“the instructor telling us to leave the areas where we have a
problem just blank”) we put on our wet suits and then the theory part off the
instruction started which more or less lasted about 15 minutes mainly
explaining about the regulator and how the compressed air cylinder is connected
to the regulator and how to fill the buoyancy jacket and use the weight belt
and use the difference between the two in order to either sink deeper are to
float on the surface.
The aluminum cylinder although not extremely heavy is about
30 to 40 pounds in weight I think and also there is a weight belt which once
again is I think measured according to the size of the person.
We slowly entered the swimming pool and started practicing
breathing underwater using the regulator and also how to clear our facemasks if
some water enters inside the mask.
We also practiced taking out the regulator from the mouth
and reinserting and also using a buddy regulator for emergency breathing.
All the time I was thinking that during this instruction I
may not even be able to get out of the swimming pool because I was having this
psychological feeling that I would still have to come up onto the surface
before I can breathe all the while I was breathing underwater using the
compressed air.
After about 15 minutes of doing this the instructor wanted
us to walk down to the seashore and jump into the sea. My son had ability no problem
doing this but I was quite hesitant and also when I jumped I jumped wrong and
fell on my stomach and was quite disoriented.
The instructor was very good and helped me a lot because we
were jumping from the shore there was a strong current and waves pushing us
towards the shore and he had to literally drag me into the deeper water so that
we could see and enjoy the sea creatures.
Once the early jitters went away it was an amazing sight watching
the colorful fish swimming by and looking at some manta ray sliding along the
bottom of the seafloor.
We must’ve spent about 25 to 30 minutes underwater but it felt
like it was less than 10 minutes and I was really hooked.
I think we Indians are missing out on many of the wonders of
the sea mainly because of our conservative attitudes and some stupid
bureaucracies.
I am seriously planning on starting a scuba diving
instruction facility somewhere on the East Coast of India if this is feasible.
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