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  • Tag: scuba diving

    • diving yo-257: hawaii

      Posted at 8:00 am by jasminedesirees, on June 4, 2015

      On the morning of my sister’s grad (and the first day I wasn’t working from Oahu) we decided to go diving. Oahu isn’t really know for its diving, but there are a few cool places to go, and one of them is the YO-257, a shipwreck straight out from Waikiki Beach about a mile (? I think? I’m really terrible at judging distances).

      scuba diving hawaii

      I went with my sister and brother, who are both certified, even though he had only gotten fully certified the day before. I was really nervous, because even though I’ve been diving so many times before, this was going to be the first time since the incident in Coron, and it was also a wreck dive.

      scuba diving hawaii

      scuba diving hawaii

      Also, it was very deep, more than 100FT, so no easing back in with some nice shallow reef dives. Go big or go home. Or, go big or have a panic attack and die. It’s definitely one or the other.

      The day didn’t start out so well, my dad was sick so he didn’t come with us, and then we got to the boat, and our captain was sick. Like puking off the side of the boat. He said he had food poisoning, but it looked a little bit more like JD poisoning.

      scuba diving hawaii

      scuba diving hawaii

      scuba diving hawaii

      We got out to the dive site, and there were two other boats there already. The current was really strong that day, so in order to dive the wreck we needed to anchor to one of the ropes, and follow a lead down to the boat. Since there were already two boats there, we ended up having to sit for almost an hour before we could go in.

      During this time, it started storming. The waves were pretty big, and it was absolutely pouring. We had to sit in the boat with our goggles on to keep the rain out of our eyes. It was pretty funny, but as our captain said “anything that could have possibly gone wrong went wrong today”.

      scuba diving hawaii

      scuba diving hawaii

      Eventually we got in, and started heading down to the wreck. We saw a turtle right away, so I tried to take that as a good sign, even though I was still pretty nervous. We weren’t going in the wreck, just around it, so I was feeling OK about things, but our guide kept stopping our group (5 in total) to take pictures. I’m fine underwater, but I have to keep moving, if I sit still too long I start to feel claustrophobic and panicky.

      And since I was closest to him, he would stop me first, put me where he wanted the group, and then round everyone else for the pictures while I sat there. I have never had that happen on a dive before, usually you take your own camera to take pictures of what you see, and maybe you get someone to take one or two pictures of you, if there is something really cool you want a picture with.

      scuba diving hawaii

      scuba diving hawaii

      The pictures we got were pretty cool, but still I didn’t like stopping so much. The other thing that wasn’t helping was that there is a commercial submarine that leaves from the Honolulu Harbour that takes big groups of people underwater to look at the wrecks. Our guide told us to watch out for it, and told us the driver would hit us and wouldn’t care, but we didn’t realize how close it would get.

      scuba diving hawaii

      scuba diving hawaii

      We were swimming along right on the bottom, and all of a sudden our guide started gesturing and making loud noises towards my brother. We turned around to look, and the submarine was less than 10 feet away, headed straight for him, so we had to hang out on the bottom until it passed. It was an electric submarine so it made the most horrifying, ominous whirring noise, which isn’t helpful when you are already feeling unsettled.

      scuba diving hawaii

      scuba diving hawaii

      Anyways, the wreck itself was pretty cool, there were actually two different ships down there, and we all came out unscathed. I think I would have been scared of any dive just because of what had happened on my last dive, so I’m glad I got it out of the way. Get back on the horse, or something like that.

      We ended up skipping our second dive because we had to wait so long to go in for our first one that we would have missed grad if we’d done another, which was kind of the whole reason we were there, so that probably would have been frowned upon by our parents.

      scuba diving hawaii

      Posted in Hawaii, USA | 0 Comments | Tagged Hawaii, scuba, scuba diving, travel, yo-257
    • scuba diving: coron shipwrecks

      Posted at 8:33 am by jasminedesirees, on May 11, 2015

      This post is part love affair, part horror story, but that’s ok because it has a happy ending. While we were in the Philippines we decided to make the trip to Coron because we’d heard over and over again how amazing the diving is there, because there are several sunken ships to dive, a remnant of the Japanese fleet from WWII. We’d done one shipwreck dive in Bali, and loved it so much, that we were completely stoked to do it again.

      coron busuaga

      If you’ve been to the Philippines, you probably know already that things tend to work a little differently here than in other places. I’ve been diving quite a bit, in many different countries, and the safety standards are usually pretty much the same but after arriving in Coron, we realized that most of the shipwreck dives are supposed to be for advanced divers only.

      coron busuaga

      We thought we wouldn’t be able to dive them, but after visiting 4 different dive shops, all of them told us basically the same thing, that even though most of the wrecks were over 30M deep, and we’re technically only certified to dive to 18M, and we aren’t certified for wreck diving, that it wasn’t a problem, and that in the Philippines “we don’t have to follow the rules”.

      coron busuaga

      Now, let me stop and say that obviously, in the end it was my choice to go. Nobody forced me, and even thought I felt kind of uncomfortable, I wanted to try it so I went anyway.

      We were supposed to dive 3 wrecks, the Tangat, the Olympia, and the East Tangat. The Tangat was the first wreck, and it was also the deepest. Everything went smoothly for the first half of the dive, the wreck was amazing, and there was so much to see.

      coron busuaga

      I have to admit at this point that I am a bit claustrophobic, but it’s never been a problem for me before when I was diving. As long as I can keep moving in any direction at a constant pace, I never feel too boxed in (for me, as true as in life as it is in diving).

      This dive was different than any I’d done before because the water was very murky, and because we were down so far, and also so deep inside the ship, it was pretty dark, and we need to bring a flashlight with us to see anything.

      coron busuaga

      We were inside the ship, and our guide was moving very slowly, basically stopped, to play with some clams and other little fishes on the bottom of the deck we were swimming on. I started looking around, and saw our bubbles coming out of our mouths, up to the opening of the deck above, and when it hit the opening, there was an effect like a shimmering mirror, and it looked really neat.

      coron busuaga

      But as soon as I saw it, my stomach flipped, and I started feeling like a heavy weight was on my chest. I could feel myself starting to panic, but I tried to keep calm and kept breathing as normally as I could. Right then, our guide indicated to us that we were going to be going down another opening into the deck below, and I knew I shouldn’t do it, and indicated that I needed to surface.

      coron busuaga

      We were down at least 35M, and at that depth you have to take your time to go up, and take decompression stops so your body can get rid of the excess nitrogen from breathing compressed air under the pressure of that much water. Our guide was totally great about it, and started getting us out of the ship and back up slowly to the surface. I felt better as soon as we were out of the wreck, even though we were still down pretty deep, but thought I better go up anyway.

      coron busuaga

      I went up and hung out on the boat for a bit, while the rest of the group (there were only 3 of us) went back down and finished the dive. After lunch and a surface interval, it was time to do the second dive. I wasn’t sure if I should do it, but I talked to the guide, and we made an alternate plan for if I was feeling uncomfortable going into the wreck.

      We started descending to the Olympia, and I was feeling good about it, but the visibility was really bad, and as soon as we got to the entrance to the first deck of the ship, I started feeling claustrophobic again, and had to come up almost immediately. The second time was actually worse than the first time, we were down about 30M, and I really started to panic.

      coron busuaga

      I couldn’t breathe, I was hyperventilating and crying into my mask. I had to force myself to stay where I was and keep breathing normally, even though a big part of me just wanted to go up as fast as possible. The 3 minute safety stop was probably the longest 3 minutes of my life. Needless to say, I skipped the third dive.

      In a way I’m kind of glad it happened, just because I always wondered how I would react in an emergency situation as a diver, and I think I handled it pretty well. If I hadn’t been able to keep calm and force myself to follow the procedure, it could have been really bad. It also gave me a brand new respect for people who suffer from anxiety and panic attacks, because that was definitely not fun.

      coron busuaga

      So the moral of that story is, I’m probably never going to be a wreck diver, and enclosed spaces and I will never be friends. But if you are in Coron, and you are certified, definitely make it a point to dive some of the wrecks, because I was down there long enough to see how amazing they were.

      Posted in Philippines, travel | 5 Comments | Tagged coron, philippines, scuba diving, shipwreck, travel, wreck diving, wwII
    • nusa lembongan

      Posted at 12:34 pm by jasminedesirees, on December 1, 2014

      The island of Nusa Lembongan is about a 45 minute boat ride from Bali. We only went there for the day, and spent the whole time on the moped looking at all of the amazing beaches, including Dream Beach, and also took a trip over to Nusa Ceningan, a neighbouring island that is accessible by a slightly terrifying bridge.

      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan

      We took a boat there from Sanur, and got a magnificent deal because of our amazing haggling skills (or maybe they just wanted to fill up the boat) but we paid 600,000 rupiah total, round trip for both of us, when they were trying to charge us 500,000 rupiah each initially.

      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan

      Neither of the islands are very big, one day is lots of time to cruise around to all of them, there are some mangroves up in the northern part, and lots of beaches in the south. Nusa Lembongan is by far the more developed of the two islands. Nusa Ceningan was gorgeous, but pretty rustic, and the time driving those roads on a moped is not something I’ll soon forget.

      I even took a 20 minute GoPro video of the experience because was pretty sure we were going to end up driving into the ocean, and I wanted there to be evidence to help find our bodies.

      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan

      There are a lot of seaweed farmers on both islands, so you see large tarps with piles of seaweed drying in the sun on the side of the road. On the far side of Nusa Ceningan there is a little cove with a beautiful hotel called Secret Beach. We stopped in there for a swim in their pool and an iced coffee, and had the whole place to ourselves.

      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan

      Nusa Lembongan had lots of hotels and dive shops. We didn’t end up diving there the first time we went, but we went back about a month later in search of the Mola Mola. We didn’t see one, but we did a dive at Manta Bay, which was a bit murky and we didn’t see much, and also at a spot called the Mangroves, which was fantastic.

      The diving itself wasn’t that great because the current was pushing you so fast that you could barely see anything, but it was so much fun, like a 35 minute underwater rollercoaster ride, that I pestered our dive guide to see if we could do it again.

      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan

      I’m glad we got to go back and spend a few days there, because I was devastated when it was time to leave after our first visit. If you have time when you’re in Bali, definitely make the trip over to Nusa Lembongan.

      There are a ton of hotels and little homestays, we just showed up and found somewhere to stay there, since lots of the smaller, cheaper places don’t have an online presence.

      nusa lembongan
      nusa lembongan7
      nusa lembongan

      Posted in beach, Indonesia, travel | 5 Comments | Tagged beach, Indonesia, island, nusa ceningan, nusa lembongan, scuba diving
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