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Having grown up spending vacations in a province by the sea, I've always had fantasies of doing more water sports, not just swimming. It wasn't until recently that I was finally able to tick off an item in my major to-do list: that is, to go scuba diving!
 
I got my chance when an officemate, who was due for a trip to Coron, Palawan for her advanced open water diver course, convinced me to try the Discover Scuba course offered by Sea Dive resort in Coron. There was no catch about the introductory course, and I didn't need to take pool sessions beforehand--it was enough that I could swim. But I would later learn that it still pays to get a proper beginner course.
 
We set off at 9 AM for the "D day" (dive day). There were about 12 of us in the diving party, with only me and two younger girls, Natalie and Meg, trying the Discover Scuba. We had to wait for the advanced divers to finish their dives to two deep shipwrecks before we had our go at around four in the afternoon.
 
For our beginner dive, our dive master, Kevin Underwood, chose the Lusong Island Gunboat wreck, part of the nine ships of the Japanese in World War II that was sunk by the US forces in the waters of Coron. The Lusong Gunboat is shallow, lying at 10m (33 feet) from the surface, and is covered with soft corals and sponges. From the surface, it's already possible to take photos of the wreck with an underwater camera, but there was nothing like going down to explore it.
 
But before going down, we had to equalize our pressure first by blowing air out of our ears, since the pressure increased as we went deeper. As a rule, diving should be comfortable, so any signs of ear discomfort should be eased by equalizing first. I later found out that my ears were more sensitive than I thought, because for every foot deeper, I had to blow through my ears, so I kept on bobbing up and down. It sure took quite a while to go deeper!
 
Also, breathing through a diving regulator and air tank wasn't easy, because at some point, breathing through the mouth dries up the throat. One golden rule in scuba diving is to never hold your breath, or else your lungs might over expand, which can be deadly. I have to emphasize it one more time: Never hold your breath!

 

'For every foot deeper, I had to blow through my ears, so I kept on bobbing up and down'

 
But after I started getting over the ear pressure and breathing panic, I started enjoying the dive and seeing the fishes close up. How many times can you say that you've swum closely with fish or came face to face with one? One thing I can say for certain, there's no experience quite like this!
 
I was lucky that my dive master was a good photographer, too. He kept on instructing me to hold on to some parts of the ship (never on the corals so as not to destroy anything), and also took photos of fishes for good measure.
 
So how was that for a first dive? Not bad, even though I didn't go all the way to 33 feet--my instructor said we had gone at least 27 feet in 43 minutes, because equalizing took too much of our time. But he did say I had to work on equalizing my air, so I guess that means I need more pool sessions before I take deeper dives. You see, it's true what they say about diving--once you start, it's impossible to just stop.