The Padi videos start with the phrase “flying underwater”…Never a more truthful word spoken. The feeling of Neutral Buoyancy whilst diving is second to none. The main thing that got me addicted to scuba diving. I always mention to my students that it wasn’t necessarily the marine life (although awesome) that got me hooked on diving, but the actual feeling of weightless-ness underwater…Neutral buoyancy…
How do you describe the feeling you ask??? Almost impossible unless you try diving for yourself…Some people say it’s like flying underwater, others say it’s as close as they will get to the feeling of being in space. All very accurate! If you are someone who is intrigued about the underwater world and want to imagine what this feeling is like….Refer to the film Finding Nemo…Not only are the creators of the genius film spot on with their analogy of the underwater world, but they also have a fantastic example of Neutral Buoyancy and posture underwater. The clip where Nemo is searching for his father and find himself in the big E.A.C (east Australian current) along with the “bale” of Turtles. One of my favourite scenes in the film. The turtles swimming so carefree and cool turn to Nemo and say “YEAH DUDE”!!! I always aim to make all my students so relaxed, comfortable, and carefree underwater. Back to the main point, turtles have a unique way of showing the bliss of this magical Neutral Buoyancy underwater and if you guys are lucky enough to see one whilst diving I guarantee after reading this you will immediately think (or say through your regulator) YEAAAAAHHHH DUUUDDDEEE!?!?!?! If you are as big a fan as me you me you may go on to say… “42 Wallabay Way, Sydney!” (I’m a bit of a Nemo geek)
[singlepic id=312 w=320 h=240 float=right]When I travelled Australasia in 2008, I was lucky enough to meet two English lads who asked me one question that would change my life forever…Very simply. Did you go diving in Koh Tao? I was travelling with two best friends from home who weren’t really interested in diving and had gone on several snorkeling trips thinking it was as close to or the same as scuba. How wrong was I as they rightly pointed out? One tip I will give to anyone travelling with friends is “have NO regrets”. I briefly parted from my two friends for a couple of weeks to complete the open water and advanced diving course and here I am 5 years on writing a blog as a diving instructor living on the paradise island of Koh Tao! My diving instructor then and the lads who advised me to dive have recently been to visit me and all I can say to these guys is a huge Thank you; Thank you for being a part of me living my dream in Thailand. Hope you are enjoying the snow back home Adam Russell and Sam Pennycook…Hahahaha! [singlepic id=309 w=320 h=240 float=left]Enough of the life story…Neutral Buoyancy, first taught with the “fin pivot” and the “hover” in the open water course can be sculpted and molded more in the Advanced Open water or Advanced Adventurer with Padi & SSI respectively. One of the dives we encourage people taking part in the 5 dive advanced course is the Buoyancy dive. With many fun games played during the dive with the help of square piping you can swim through attempting to only use your breathing control to navigate…and a man made buoyancy world including concrete octopus and sharks all used to master the art of buoyancy. The benefit you receive from the dive can then be used throughout the rest of your course to get much closer, without disturbing the intriguing coral reef is immense. Having good “trim” and buoyancy also improves your air consumption, which enables long dive times….AMAZEBALLS!In summary, diving (aside my family and friends) is my one main love and passion in life and if I was to give anyone advice in life is to go into the, “other world” the underwater world. The SSI videos in open water state that instead of our planet being named “Earth” it should really be named Planet “Oceana”, after all our planet is made up of roughly 75% water!!!!
Anyone who knows me personally will also know I have huge ears. A burden in my younger years as my friends and brother used to refer to me as “Dumbo”, and mock that I could fly with the size of ears I have….
Well, who is laughing now…I can fly, FLY UNDERWATER!!!!!
Sign up and fly with me today…
G.Mac
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