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Our boat is positioned at the mouth of the canal, ready to blast through the surf. The dive master tells us to hold on. I am a bit nervous. The waves seem to be pretty huge and our boat is a bit small. Are we really going to jump the waves? Or are we going to crash right through them? There is no more time to ask questions though. I grasp firmly onto the closest bar I can find. I stick my head out over the side of the boat, much like a dog does when driving down the highway in a car. As the boat picks up speed ready to hit the waves, the surf splashes my face and I think to myself, "Wow, this is kind of neat!"
Neat it was-scuba diving off the Gold Coast of Australia. This was my first dive since getting my PADI scuba open water certification. I had foolishly passed up amazing opportunities to dive in Hawaii, Brazil, South Africa, and Venezuela. I decided that I would wise up here in Australia.
My two dive buddies and I surveyed the bottom of a reef not too far from the coast. I needed desperately to get off the boat because I started to feel sick rolling around on the waves. Once at the bottom, I felt like I was swimming in one of the salt water aquariums I spent so much time gazing at when mom and dad would take me to the pet store when I was just a lad.
The colors of the fish were so vivid. Vibrant blues and yellows against the grey of the coral are quite pleasing to the eye. Out of nowhere I came across a reef shark. It was just there and I blew a whole bunch of bubbles, as I was quite startled to see the thing.
Soon, I started to get really cold; this was after about 40 minutes down under (excuse the pun.) As a trio, we rose to the surface and waited for the other nine divers and the dive master, who took us to a little inlet where he made us tea. We had noon tea with little cookies out on the ocean.
Whales are all over the coast. We had spotted whales breeching left and right at the start of our dive trip. Still, what made my dive experience was going under water and hearing the call of the whales. I am sure you have heard those CDs where whales are singing. The real life experience really blew my mind. They were quite chatty, the whales. I just sat there, trying not to breathe and listening to their song.
Call me a born again hippy, but it was kind of inspiring to hear the whales.
Before I knew it we had to head back inland. As we approached the beach, we were instructed to hold on, and gliding on a small bit of water, we hydroplaned into the canal.
People on the beach watched with amazement as the boat careened on less than a foot of water and splashed into the canal. They missed the real show though, that happened under the water.
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