Day 334- Scuba Diving with South Florida Diving Headquarters – Underwater Exploration--Lauderdale by the Sea

My Blog inspiration book, Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Little Golden Book, reminds us to “dare to explore.” The ocean is one of  man’s last exploration frontiers. Although I have a quest for adventure, my fear of being several feet under a wall of water has kept me content as a land dweller viewing ocean life safely from behind the glass of the zoo or aquarium.  I never thought that I would have the courage to dive into the world below. Everything seemed to be in alignment for my first underwater expedition during my recent  trip to Lauderdale-by-the-Sea (Day 330) with its coral reefs and a shipwreck approachable in relatively shallow water (15 -30 feet) coupled with the friendly and reassuring staff of South Florida Diving Headquarters. 

South Florida Diving Headquarters offers a  combined dive and snorkel boat tour

Reflection

Lauderdale-by- the-Sea  is just 7 miles north of Fort Lauderdale and south of  Pompano Beach. The area boasts of coral reefs and a shipwreck, the SS Copenhagen, located about ¾ mile from its shore in 15 to 30 feet of water. This makes exploration of the ocean accessible to snorkelers. Its is also a great place for a novice diver because it's not a deep dive to reach the reef and the sunken wreckage which has become an underwater marine preserve, housing soft and hard coral, colorful sponges, tropical fish and more.  

 I recently snorkeled with South Florida Diving Headquarters (SFDH) which  offers a dive and snorkel boat tour of the reef’s nursery and the SS Copenhagen (Day 292). The divers surfaced with excited tales of close encounters with lobsters, schools of rainbow colored fish, stingrays and more. My adventurous core wanted  to join the “ocean dwellers” but my fear factor related to my seasoned age, and bouts with motion sickness and claustrophobia, kept me skimming the ocean surface with my snorkel.  

The friendly staff at SFDH assured me that with a day course, I could join the divers that I watched gliding in slow motion alternating their fins as their bubbles danced to the surface. Fast forwarding a year, I was signed up with SFDH's  Discovery Diving Course. This course trains you in a pool in the morning and guides you in the ocean in the afternoon.

Is that a "deer in the head lights" or me trying to learn it all 

The day before training, I read and re-read the course book of hand signals, equipment details and breathing instructions. I reported for my Discovery Dive harboring both excitement and a slight feeling of doom. I thought, “what the heck am I doing?” My dive master, Skyler, looked more like my student than my trainer. As we methodically reviewed the course book,  I was impressed  with her knowledge and attention to details but mostly,  I appreciated her calming demeanor.   

Spent the morning learning in the pool then afternoon diving

We spent the morning  in a pool reviewing how to breathe air through the regulator, communicate with hand signals, check my air gauge, equalize my ear pressure, defog my mask, and to use my air vest to sink and rise. The most important instruction was to NEVER HOLD YOUR BREATH.  There seemed to be so much to remember. Skyler kept my panic button at bay with her repeated words of encouragement, “you can do it and you're going to love it.”

On land your air tank feels like an elephant on your back. In the water it keeps you from sinking so you need to use weights and make constant adjustment to the air in your vest to sink or rise. As we descended it was Skyler’s voice resonating in my head, “breathe in slowly for the count of 6 and out  for 7. Equalize your ears every few feet.”  Under the ocean, she was my shadow periodically signaling, “Are you ok?” and  helping me adjust my buoyancy and checking my air gauge.  Somehow it all came together and before I realized it, I was near the ocean floor.

I had entered the universe of the ocean and I was encircled by the tropical marine life. Feeling  small in this vast world, I glided over waving coral lace fans, past blue, yellow and silver fish  and moved over  the algae and coral inhabited outline of the wreckage.  Periodically a new fish would dart past and Skyler directed my attention to the head of a lobster peaking out from the coral.  I kept my gaze forward in amazement frozen with one arm stretched like superman flying in the air.

There was a peace in the rhythmic sounds of the bubbles and Darth Vader sounding  breaths from the regulator. It was hypnotic and  I began to relax but always counting slowly as I breathed. Like the sponges around me, I soaked up my first encounter of this underwater world.

Diving over the shipwreck of the SS Copenhagen now a marine preserve

As I climbed back onto the boat everyone celebrated my first dive. They were right, “I could do and I loved it.”  Thanks to South Florida Diving Headquarters I am now ready to join the team of “ocean dwellers” and continue on a journey to be a certified diver so that I can  dive into more underwater expeditions.  

My dive master repeatedly reassured me that I could do it 

Spiritual Reflection

So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. (Genesis 1:21)

Other Sources

https://www.southfloridadiving.com/

https://www.southfloridadiving.com/discover-diving/

https://www.nps.gov/articles/sscopenhagen.htm