My parents were both divers, and many of their friends were too. I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to dive deep and see all kinds of fish. I was once allowed to breathe using the octopus (spare regulator) while mummy was diving off a boat. It was the most liberating and exciting thing I had ever experienced, and I couldn’t wait to be certified.
For my thirteenth birthday I was gifted the junior open water certification course. I was so excited and couldn’t wait to get my feet wet! Once I had done my in-class I could finally get in the water. I felt I didn’t need the shallow water practice, and longed to finally get on the dive boat and go to a dive site.
If you dove with Dive Bequia in the 90’s you probably remember the one cassette tape they had on board the dive boat. They seemed to only have the one tape, which included “Don’t Turn Around” by Ace of Base, and “Sweat by Inner Circle.” To this day, those songs bring back happy memories of Randy driving the dive boat and being sprayed with sea water.
The first site that we visited while learning to dive was Devil’s Table. I have visited many dive sites around Bequia and it is still my favourite. It has everything you need, colourful fish, soft corals, lots of light, and the occasional seahorse. Because it was a shallow dive you could stay longer, take your time and really enjoy the dive. As I became more experienced we did deeper dives, though I have to admit the deeper we went the less I enjoyed it; the dives were shorter and darker, and there was generally less to see.
On one such deep dive I was kneeling on the ocean floor. I had a problem with masks in that they were usually too big and did not seal properly, either fogging up the mask or letting water in. I was constantly clearing my mask, which can be quite annoying and affect the quality of your dive. I had written in my dive log book that my mask leaked a lot, and as my dive instructor read my logs she knew it irked me. She offered to swap masks with me, and reached over and took my mask off for me. The snorkel got caught in my regulator and yanked it out of my mouth. So there I was at 90 feet with no mask and no regulator! I was later praised for my calmness, but I don’t think I really had time to react. I just knelt on the sea bed and waited for her to put my regulator back in and give me a mask. It was less trust and more comfort being under water.
None of my friends on Bequia dove. This is the one area that I did not share with my peers. I hope this has changed and that more locals get the opportunity to see the beauty of the country under the water. My sister was my dive buddy, or an instructor, and the occasional tourist. There were a few occasions when a special dive excursion took place, and mummy let us skip school to go on the dive. We did not skip school lightly; in fact we hardly ever missed a day. We were rarely ill, and only missed school if the sea was so rough the ferry couldn’t dock. My mother felt that scuba was an educational experience, and I must admit I tried my hardest with the dive tables, the science behind it, and the biology under the sea. So in a way she was right. She always wrote in our notes from home “Vanessa and Rachel were absent with my knowledge and consent”, which drove my form mistress crazy because it never said WHY we were absent. I would grin and say I went scuba diving and she would roll her eyes and declare that it was dangerous! But I never felt safer and more at home than I did under the sea. When I moved to Canada my university offered an open water certification course, and I decided to take it. It quickly became clear that I was an experienced diver and they moved me into the advanced class. In order to complete the course I had to do some dives, and went to Tobermory with the dive company. There I discovered that fresh water diving was a whole different experience. Despite it being summer, the lake was cold, and even though I wore a wetsuit the cold still got in. The shallow dives were not enjoyable as there wasn’t much to see, so I looked forward to the deep dive where we would explore a wreck. I needed to complete 1 deep dive for the class, and the wreck was about 90 feet. I hit a thermocline at one point and the difference was amazing to experience. It was cold! By the time I had made my descent my fingers were numb with cold. I signaled to the instructor that I had lost feeling in my hands and did not feel safe operating my equipment. So I ascended and never did see the wreck, but technically I had done a deep dive and got my certification. That was my last fresh water experience, and it felt so good when I went home at Christmas with my new certification to get in the water at Devil’s Table and do a proper dive!