Scuba Diving the Great Barrier Reef

For the past week, I was on the northeast coast of Australia along the Great Barrier Reef, in the city of Cairns. Most of this time was dedicated to getting my PADI Open Water Scuba Diving Certification. I spent the first two days of my mid-semester break in class, not to learn about engineering, but scuba diving. Leading up to those two days were probably the most excited I have ever been to go to class. There were about 10 people in the class and we went over the basic theory and skills of scuba diving. It was surprisingly fun... at least the time we spent in the pool.  It was strange to breathe underwater for the first time, but I got used to it after a little while.

After the two days of class, two other UW students and I went on a three day liveaboard dive trip on the Great Barrier Reef. Our first four dives were training dives to practice some skills and gain confidence in the open water of the ocean. After that, we had six more dives, including a night dive and a deep dive. They were absolutely amazing. It is such a unique experience to feel weightless underwater and to be able to explore the reef freely. The reef itself is gorgeous, with tons of aquatic wildlife. I saw a shark (it was small and harmless), turtles, a stingray, big clams, and hundreds of different fish.

The night dive was a lot of fun, it kind of felt like being a Navy Seal at times. We started the dive when it was pitch black out, and all we had to see with was a flashlight. After jumping in the water, we swam up along the side of the boat and it felt like something out of a James Bond movie. When we dove down, we would be followed by these big fish that have learned to hunt off of diver's flashlights. If you focused your light on a small fish, the hunter would swim out from underneath you and devour it. Or you could have fun tricking the fish by moving your light away at the last second.

Another special dive we did was the "deep dive". We went down to 75 feet underwater, and having done the dive, I am now certified to go down as far as 98 feet. Our instructor brought down some eggs to show us the effects of all the pressure at that depth. When you crack an egg, the yolk stays intact due to the pressure and you can bat it around underwater like a ball. Unfortunately, some fish have either caught on to this or can smell the eggs. One big fish followed us down during the whole dive and swept in to eat the eggs before we could even see the yolk.

So after ten dives on the Great Barrier Reef and over four hours underwater in the ocean, I am certified to scuba dive on my own up to 30 meters. I already can't wait to go again, and perhaps dive a shipwreck somewhere.

 The two reefs we dove. My favorite site was "Caves" on Norman Reef.