PADI Krause

Having decided to take the first day of my PADI diving course Tuesday morning I had to spend the whole afternoon and evening reading the first section of the manual then watching the DVD which he had lent me. It took 3 hours to watch both DVD’s; nightmare! Anyway it was worth it; I really enjoyed today and am looking forward to going for my second days training on Thursday. I should be a genuine PADI by the end of the week so get that Guinness ready George. Claire and I got there early and picked a little private terrace right next to the diving school. I think Claire was a bit worried that I might get a nice little girlie as my “buddy”. Quite allot of time is taken choosing equipment demonstrating how to connect it all together then letting me do it but it’s not too long before I had to put it all on. As I am quite large, I had to carry quite allot of weights so I could sink right down to the bottom. I think they gave me 10 or 20kg which were really heavy to wear as a belt; then you have to wear your BCD (Buoyancy Control Device) which is like a sleeveless waistcoat with a great big tank on the back and pipes everywhere. I felt a bit like Predator except bigger and much heavier. I could hardly walk with it all on, and when I stepped on the plywood decking, I thought I was going through it by the way it gave under the strain.

Finally into the water and all that weight disappears somehow and I’m back to my normal weightless self. The BCD has a “pump up” and “let out” valve (can’t remember their real names already) where if you press one, air from the cylinder goes into your waistcoat and brings you to the surface and the other lets it out so you go down to the bottom. This takes a while to get the hang of and I was up and down like a yoyo to start with but my buddy came and pressed the let out valve and left me on the bottom. We swam out and down to about 10m depth and I was really surprised at the wild life down there, you could see so clearly. Even my hands looked clearer and different down there somehow; they didn’t look like mine and I kept looking for the other person behind me.

Huge shoals of fish swim so close to you but no matter how fast you try you can’t touch them. I saw a really long eel about 4ft long and centipede things on the bottom that looked like something from swimming with dinosaurs. I would love to go down there for an hour on my own to see what I can find. It’s a real shame I couldn’t take photos down there so I could share it with you. I used to belong to a snorkelling club in my teens so it’s not that unfamiliar but it’s so much more fun because you can stay down much longer and go far deeper.

The £5 for a sun bed for the day is a real bargain really as you get a taxi to and from the place, you can use the sea trampoline which is much harder than a real trampoline and there is a floating platform you can swim out to and sunbathe on. You even get a go on a pedalo and a canoe but we didn’t have time this time, maybe Thursday. You also get an umbrella and a little table so can’t be bad for the money, especially if you live in the town 30 minutes walk away.

One last picture of me in my crash helmet that I should have put in yesterdays blog. Tomorrow we are off on a bike trip to a place I can’t remember its name but its the deepest canyon in Turkey so tune in for the next episode.