Open Water Diving 101

#np It’s a yes or no, no maybe -Katy Perry "Dark Horse"

Finally, the moment that I've been waiting for has finally arrived! Getting my freakin' diving license! 

Wooohoooo~ another matter on my bucketlist checked !!

Being the very nice awesome person I am, I will not deprive you guys of information and thus will share some of my adventure. This post itself will cover all 3 days I used to get my diving license. All dives are done in Pulau Sapi and we went with Diverse Borneo, which is under PADI.

Fact: downside of diving, I have post-earthquake-shaky-illusion due to staying on the boat for far too long. Big waves, rocking boat, you get the idea :/ 
(I still feel it now...) 

Day 1: Theory Day

Wei Na & Janet, my partners-in-crime for extreme sports and adventures. They're pretty much up for anything

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1 word, BORING. No offense, may be I'm just not the kind of person you should trap in a room, play me a "what-should-you-know" VCD and leave me for 4 hours, from 9am to 1.15pm-ish (?). I tried so hard staying up! And I did, until section 4, where i pretty much doze off and didnt wake up until someone came to check on us. I know im a horrible student.

Oh, those papers on the table (left) are the Knowledge Review. MCQs, you get the answers from the vids, needless to say, my section 4 is pretty blank.

So yes, day 1 is just theory and watching a VCR that takes around 4-5 hours, and then you're done.

Day 2: skills-learning
The day started with meeting up at Jesselton Point, Diverse Borneo's store room where they put all their tanks and diving equipment. But cause I arrived soooo early, thanks to my friends who are morning people, we had lots of time to spare so we end up taking tons of pictures.

And then we met up with our respective instructors and are put into teams of 3 to 4. Janet end up in another team though :( 

So after suiting up and getting our equipment (picture 2&3), off we went to the boat and out to the sea.

Our briefing was conducted on the boat and then we put the skills into practice near shore. We'll be under water when kneeling but if we stand up, we'd be out of water. Learnt stuff like, hand signals, how to remove your mask and get rid of water when you're underwater, what happens when you're second stage regulator has problems and what to do when you're out of gas, yada3.... 

Since we've got like 10+ skills to learnt all in all, we did a few before and more after lunch. 

Fact: The most important thing in diving is to never hold your breath and breathe continuously.
Another I learn is NEVER PANIC, just relax :)

Panoramic view of the island

First lemme clarify, this is the other side of  Pulau Gaya, the settlements are at the front of the island. The food is awesome! It's really good! Or may be cause I was starving like crazy, devoured it all before  I even thought of taking a picture of it. 

After lunch we marked our Knowledge Review (the set of questions we had to do during theory class). 

Day 3: A few more skills and FUN DIVING

Our last briefing was learning how to use the compass and controlled emergency swimming ascent (CESA- what to do when your buddy is too far away and you're almost out of air) 

Fact: As students we usually start with 200 psi/bar.

So after all our lessons, training and fun dives
*drum rolls* 
GRADUATION, but first...
A quiz and then final exam. We took our quiz after lunch (same place as yesterday) and finals at Jesselton Point. 

Fantastic news: We pass with what I considerably a high score (I dont expect much anyway) :D so yay! Graduated! 

Mission accomplished: diving license obtained!