My cheeks are rosy, my shoulders bronzed and my skin has that tight, sun-dried, sandy feeling that you only get from beach exposure. Yes, I've finally found the sunshine. Happily, in Egypt.Although interestingly enough, I spent most of the morning underneath the water. Having wanted to scuba dive for years but lacking both the funds and locale, Boyfriend and I signed up for an intro dive with Big Blue Dahab. We figured the Red Sea was as good a place as any to don wetsuit and fins and start breathing underwater. And while the concept isn't such a tough one, the reality was more of a challenge.
Squeezing into the micro sized wetsuit was the first hurdle. Thankfully I'm well practiced in jumping-like-a-moron-to-fit-into-skinny-jeans; Boyfriend struggled more so, initially putting his on inside-out-and-backwards.
And it wasn't like we'd not sat through 45-minutes worth of instruction - about equalizing water pressure on our eardrums, clearing water from our goggles while submerged, learning the relevant hand gestures and most importantly breathing in and out through our mouthpiece - but when it came to taking the plunge (pardon the pun), a huge part of my conscious mind started to panic. Just what the hell was I about to get myself into?
Our (amazingly patient and downright lovely) instructor, Ibrahim, waded me gently into the water - just off the shore - brought me to my knees and told me to breathe in deep: I did... and I still freaked.
As Boyfriend looked (laughed) on - clearly enjoying my plight - I mustered all my courage and told myself, "Pull yourself together and pretend this is Pilates." I did... and it worked.
But when we took to the water I had another dose of panic attack, having not quite fathomed the fact that we'd actually started our dive. Ibrahim had asked us to link arms and swim and I'd taken that to mean we'd 'practice' our swimming technique; as we began to delve deeper into the blue-black hole that was the sea I forgot my breathing, lost my serenity, threw Boyfriend off my arm and scrambled to the surface. Graciously the boys gave me another go. So down we all went to explore the wonder that is a live and vibrant coral reef.
I'd love to say that I took in every sparkling angel fish, every brilliant damsel and clownfish, all the wonderful coral clusters and the vast depths of the ocean, but I didn't. Sure I glimpsed them all - they were there in abundance - but as a first-time diver I spent the majority of the 46-minute dive breathing in, and breathing out; kicking from my hips and worrying that my ears weren't popping properly. Of course once it was over I wanted to dive again and again...
Just next time, I might meditate first.
Note: Pic thanks to Big Blue Dahab
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