Monday...

I'm a certified Scuba Diver!
returned my Pulau Dayang last nite with Changsheng and Zhiwei.....but i was too tired to blog...
Quite abit has happened over the last weekend and todae....a little recap now...

On Friday nite...

8 of us met at Lavender Mrt's carpark....
3 of us with Jansen who is our Dive Instructor, our Divemaster, and 3 other leisure divers...

We had a good time chatting and cracking lame jokes in the car as Jansen drove us 3 in his car all the way to Mersing...the entire journey taking abt 3+hrs.....
The car journey was not bad, we ran over a python though....oops....accidentally...
and reached the Mersing Jetty at abt 4.15am after a short supper at the coffeeshop nearby...

The boat ride from Mersing to Pulau Dayang was horrendous though....
Poor ventilation and choppy sea conditions contributed to the sea sickness which was evident amongst all who were on board the boat....

Aniwaiz...lemme go straight into the dives....otherwise tis post will drag till a few pages long....
After a hearty breakfast....we boarded the boat which took us to our first divesite.....

Dive #1
All 3 of us didn't do too well on our first dive.....we had problems equalizing the pressures in our ears....I took quite awhile to descend to the bottom, which was onli 5m deep as it was our first dive....
Still, it was twice the depth of the swimming pool and i felt a little nervous as a matter of fact...

As i didn't look where i was descending and my weight belt was unbalanced....i couldn't stand straight when my fins first touched the bottom...and as a result, i had 2 cuts on my calves by the giant boulders...
Well, we hit 6m eventually and surfaced....During the debrief, Jansen wanted us to improve on our mistakes on the subsequent dives....

Dive #2
Tis time, all 3 of us did very well.....almost flawless except for a little imperfection in our peak buoyancy and hovering techniques....Jansen was very satisfied....
We descended to a depth of abt 9 or 10m tis time round....
He was so pleased with our dive dat he allowed us to bring our underwater camera on the next dive and the next dive was supposed to be more of a leisure dive for us rather den training....

Dive #3
Dive 3 took place at abt 5+.....the last dive on saturday.....the last dive before dinner....
Setting off in the boat, the sky was overcast with dark clouds hovering above our heads.....the winds were howling and before we reached the third divesite, torrential rain was pouring oredi....

With more than 10 ppl on board the small boat, it was quite chaotic as divemasters and instructors were shouting to all their students to rig up fast and jump into the water....
Jansen signalled to us 3 to hurry up.....
We didn't even hav time to check our equipment properly....
I had tis feeling my oxygen tank wasn't attached properly....or dat my BCD was not properly secured.....i had a bad feeling abt this particular dive....

for the 3rd dive, we were going to go down to a depth of abt 15m....the deepest so far....
Tis time round, i was the first one to reach the seabed.....i was the quickest to equalize tis time round.....
Actually i felt quite comfortable during the descent to my own surprise....but cos the sky was overcast, the sea looked reali dark and ominous....and i felt a little apprehension as i descended....
CS and ZW had no problems equalizing too and they joined me a few seconds later....

The entire dive was smooth, we went down to abt 15m as planned......everythg went reali well....
at least.....UNTIL the ascent....
ZW was my dive buddy for all the dives and CS was partnered with Jansen....
During this particular ascent, all 3 of us were kinda confused.....CS signalled to me asking me whether we r going to hover or going to ascend....i told him Jansen signalled to hover....
but as i was trying to reorientate myself, my depth and my own sense of direction.....i momentarily lost control of my buoyancy......i inflated my BCD too fast and before i could realise it....i was oredi ascending....
I LOST control...

In a bid to re-establish my depth at 5m for hovering, i deflated my BCD.....but tis time round, i had problems equalizing.....the pressure on my ears felt reali heavy....it was bordering on painful....
Kicking to slow down my descend, it didn't help much....i was going up and down like a lost soul with my right hand constantly pinching my nose and trying to equalize....my efforts were in vain....
I signalled to Jansen dat my ears weren't clearing.....reali painful....

Somehow, after some struggling, i managed to ease off the pain....i rejoined the grp and we surfaced together....
here comes the horrifying part....

Feeling some mucus in my nose, i sneezed it out....
to my utmost HORROR, wat i saw in hand right hand wasn't mucus....it was dark red BLOOD.....and it was thick and quite concentrated.....
the first word dat immediately and instantly came to my shell-shocked mind was.... F***.....
it's not Fish, neither is it Fins....it's sth closer to the famous label FCUK....

Next, i felt a salty taste in my mouth.....tinkin dat it's seawater as i usually get abit in my mouth after each dive, i spat it out.....wat i saw next didn't help to calm my nerves any bit....
it was again, thick, dark red BLOOD......i was sneezing out blood and puking out blood!!!
again, the same word echoed in my mind again and again and again.....F***, WTF***, all variations of it...

i was disappointed....cos when u r bleeding frm ur nose....sth is wrong.....
either ur eardrums r injured or the arteries in ur nasal passage hav ruptured.....but these are still considered less serious to lung puncture.....
i checked my ears for blood and was greatly relieved to find none....

we went up to the boat and returned to the island where we had dinner.....a subdued me was quiet for most of the time.....until after the shower where 3 of us had a nice chat while lying down in bed....

i felt better and was praying dat i wouldn't wake up with a fever....a fever would mean dat i've got an infection...

Dive #4
I was a little unsure of my physical status to dive....but Jansen assured me dat i'll most likely be able to dive....
and so i tried....
I was reali relieved when i was able to still equalize and descended....
Although it took significantly longer due to the injury, i was still able to do so....

tis time, we reached the deepest depth to date at 18m....
3 of us had a good dive and everythg was like the second dive....smooth, nice....
we resurfaced......

i checked for blood again.....and tis time....i saw a little blood in my mask....
I blew my nose as it felt runny....and i saw blood again.....WTF.....
but fortunately, it wasn't as thick and as much as the dae before....
Still, the taste of blood in my life reali SUX......

Jansen told me to be more careful on my 5th dive...

Dive #5
I decided to be more cautious tis time round and not force myself to complete tis dive....the last thing i wanted before i embark on my NOC trip was to injure myself seriously....
The memories of the blood were fresh as the salty taste of it still lingered in my mouth...

I tried to equalize as I descended.....at first it was alright....
but as i hit the seabed.....the pain on my eardrums returned again.....i didn't even wan to try further as i knew bleeding has resumed yet AGAIN....
Jansen signalled to me the thumbs up sign, which in diving means to ascend....
and so i did....

when i resurfaced, i was right....there was blood again....for the 3RD time....

Perhaps there was some miscommunication between Jansen and me cos apparently, he didn't noe dat i had resurfaced.....According to my 2bros, he was frantically doing headcounts in the water and was shocked to find 1 man missing.....
he resurfaced and was relieved to see me safe and sound floating and swimming on the surface....
he asked me to convert to snorkeling mode instd and i did so....following them from the surface and managed to see some fish too....

When they eventually all resurfaced, Jansen was reali nice....he swam up to me and said...
"Bro, don feel bad.....ur diving is no problem at all, juz dat u got some problems equalizing....when u go back to SG, better go see a doc to check and see wat the problem is...."...
reali nice of him cos i was reali feeling pretty sucky dat i didn't manage to complete the last dive....

when we returned to the boat....i was in for another shock....
i saw Jansen puking....at first i thot it's cos of his seasickness.....but he was puking ALOT of BLOOD......
CS confirmed it.....
i felt a little worried cos if he got injured looking for me.....den well, it's reali my fault....

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those were my 5 dives.....
we had a good time chatting and joking on the open deck of the boat which took us back to Mersing Jetty....Jansen's a nice guy to hang out with.....
we had dinner, a Ramli burger....and later at nite....had durians....

i decided to treat all of them to the durians for everyone's help in taking care of 3 of us and esp to Jansen, whom i feel bad cos he probably puked blood cos of me...

aniwaiz....the careless mistake on my part during the ascend on dive #3 caused me the injury....
Diving can be a very safe sport....provided u stick to the rules....

i'll be more careful the next time....
Overall, i enjoyed myself tremendously with my 2 bros....we had a reali great time, a new experience....and some unforgettable memories on our virgin dive trip....

more later....soccer match has started....

Great Barrier Reef Dive Trip is the plan for our

Graduation Trip in 2yrs time!!!