Scuba Diving: Our Journey of Getting a PADI Certification – Part 2

On the last post, Hayley and I were on the way to get qualified for open water scuba diving. As part of the training course, we had some theory lessons and some practical lessons in a swimming pool

Of course putting what we had learnt into the real environment was also important. To get qualified we had to do 4 dives. As crazy as it sounds we chose to do all 4 dives in one day, most people would split them into two days. However, we are a group of over-achievers. Hayley and I really want to get them done so we can go scuba diving on the upcoming holiday in the Philippines. (Hint hint, more blog post soon if I have time to sit down and write all these adventures. )

Open Water Sessions

We boarded a specialist dive boat from Sai Kung and they took us all the way to Sharp Island. It took us about 10 minutes to get there, as opposed to over an hour on a kayak. Hayley and I have been to Sharp Island for a few times and every time it surprised us as we were able to see different things each time we went. Certainly this time too. I did not imagine what we would be able to see.

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The crew were getting ready for our first dive.
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Hayley jumping into the water at the back of the boat like penguins
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Phil the penguin took up the rear…
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The group descended into the depth using an anchor as a guidance

 

More James Bond and Bond Girl Action Shots…

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Any self-respected adrenaline junkies should know how to do a back roll.from a boat
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Seriously, I was wearing a tail-suit and a bow tie underneath so I can come up at the end and strip off all the scuba gear and still be looking impeccable.

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Phil was taking some videos. I’ll show you next time

 

Find Nemo and His Friends

We were very surprised by the amount and the variety of wild life and corals in the sea of Hong Kong. That was something that we were not expecting.

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There was a lot of plankton near the surface. They almost look like jelly fish, but completely harmless and certainly do not sting. We had never seen anything like that. It looked awesome.
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Weird looking creature. Not quite sure what that was… Any thoughts?
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This school of coral fish looked amazing, but where was Nemo?
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Some kind of clam attached to the coral
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This must be one hungry Chinese crab. He was eating a sea cucumber. (We tried them at Chinese New Year and they were disgusting!)
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Yay, we found Nemo!!!
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Hello Nemo
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More Nemos!

Getting Certified

After four intensive open water dives and 2 hours in the pool on the previous day. We were now certified.

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Happy divers. I swear our group of friends are becoming crazier with all those adventure trips we are thinking to do. Bring it on!
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Been there, done that, and picture taken with our certificates. Thank you Alex for teaching us. We had a fun day out and more to come. 🙂

Finally, thank you for Alex for taking pictures for us and allow us to post them on this blog and on facebook.

Are you learning or have you been learning scuba diving? Did you enjoy it? Or maybe you are thinking to learn how to scuba dive? Comment below.

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