Lessons in the Water

Growing up in Charleston, SC I would safely argue that I spent at least 50% of my childhood in the water. We were fortunate enough to live relatively close to the beach and to have a swimming pool in our backyard. I remember my summer schedule as such:

7am- Morning swim
9am- Read
10am- Run errands with dad
11am- lunch
12:30pm- afternoon swim
3pm- Clean up room
5pm- Dinner
6:30pm- Evening swim

Those of you who know my dad will understand that even during the summer vacation time, my brother and I had daily schedules that we were expected to follow. But my point in this is to show how much time we spent in the water. My brother and I took swim lessons, went through several certifications, and learned to be very good swimmers. Later on in life I learned to water ski and subsequently spent even more time in the water.

I think I subconsciously chose Cape Town because it is located on the water. Contrary to what some of my friends think, Cape Town is only located on the Atlantic Ocean, but the water here is much clearer than back home. The two things that are unfortunate about the Cape Town waters are that the water is VERY cold, but more importantly highly inhabited by great white sharks. At first I was just comforted by the notion of being near water, but then my curiosity took hold. I first experienced the cold, shark infested waters when I went surfing (or attempted to surf) with one of my roommates Frederik. We took the train to Muizenberg which is about a 25 minute ride and rented equipment at the beach. The wet suit and surf board rental equaled out to be $8, so it was a good price to try to learn. The minute I entered the water my body went into shock from the temperature. I was actually so focused on trying to control my shivering that I didn’t even think about sharks. Surfing was incredibly hard and I definitely need lessons and a lot of practice. So after experiencing how cold the waters here are I didn’t think I would enter them again for quite some time. But not true…

I was going to class a few weeks ago and passed a flyer on a bulletin board advertising diving. I picked it up and held onto it for a few days. The flyer listed the contact details of a local organization that taught people how to dive and showed multiple pictures of people having fun while diving. So after talking to another roommate of mine, Gabi, we decided to give it a go. The course that they teach at the organization is a PADI certification course. Basically PADI will certify you in diving for life, but a few refresher courses might need to be taken from time to time. Gabi and I went to an info session and watched a video that depicted the fun and enjoyment of diving. We were both psyched and couldn’t wait to try it, but first came the studying. The manual and diving tables were given to us and so we began our studying. Everything seemed incredibly clear in theory, but then it came time for the reality of diving.

The first session of diving was done in a swimming pool. I was incredibly excited about getting in the pool since I considered myself to be an excellent swimmer (plus I’m a Pisces, so even my astrological sign tells me that I should be in water). Upon entering the frigid water of the pool, my body completely froze. Then I was told to go for it—breathe underwater. It was the strangest feeling, not as comfortable as I had imagined. The day progressed slowly because some students (like me) were a little panicked about the fact that you’re under alot water and are totally reliant upon your oxygen source. But as the session went on I became more comfortable—that is until my oxygen source decided to blow up. It was a panic situation for me, one that the instructor claims has only happened once before in over 2,000 dives. I guess you can say that I learned by experience early on.

The second session took place in the ocean. I went with one instructor and one other student. We went to Long Beach in Simon’s Town which is about a 30 minute drive from Cape Town. We suited up on the beach—wet suit, booties, fins, cylinders, bcd’s, masks, and weight belts. Walking with all of this equipment on plus fins is incredibly difficult, but I’m sure entertaining for others to watch. Eventually we waded into the cold ocean and began our dive. I again wasn’t concerned about the great whites because my instructor assured me that they don’t like divers because of the cylinders we carry. If great whites are to attack, it’s generally swimmers and surfers (comforting right?). The dive was great—I felt much more relaxed and saw many sea creatures- octopi, starfish, fish, and jellyfish. After exploring we swam back to the beach, or at least attempted to. I noticed that on the way back I wasn’t moving much. The current was incredibly strong (as thus cut the rest of our session short because it was too dangerous), but also I apparently had lost a fin. I’m not really sure how or when it happened because the water was so cold and I had booties that I never noticed. But we made it back to the shore safely and took all of our gear apart. On the drive back my instructor decided to tell me that a few days ago a group was diving in the same spot we were today and swam into a great white. The group remained calm and the shark swam away. I’m so glad he told me this AFTER our dive.

I’m leaving this Friday, September 3rd to go to Mozambique with my roommate Gabi to finish my required dives there and also to vacation (it’s a work hard, play hard attitude here). I’m so excited because the water temperature will be at least 20 degrees warmer. People say that if you can learn to dive in Cape Town that you can dive anywhere. I hope they’re right!

So this Pisces has once again found water and is happy :).