Two Beers and a Pretzel

I cruised thru the PADI book work.  The first pool dive was cake.  I was sick (Montezuma) for the confined dive, so they took me to the 1st open water with everyone else the next day.  Getting in with 3 ft waves was OK, but as soon as I started breathing underwater without touching bottom, I half lost the mouthpiece and inhaled some water.  That dive ended.  I thought it was a chance error.  It turns out that I just freak out when breathing underwater even though I grew up swimming in lake Huron every summer and have no trouble in pools.

Later today, I tried the confined dive, and freaked at 5 ft under… started remembering a near drowning incident I had as a kid.  Game over.

So, I’ve learned that there are things I’m subconsciously afraid of that I had to fins out by doing / because I thought I would be OK prior to trying… and SCUBA is one of those things.  Bummer, I’m probably going to have to stick to snorkeling and skin diving.  I will get credit for the coursework and the pool dive, so I may try again later in Australia.

It’s a really strange feeling realizing that you have an irrational fear of an activity that you can watch other people perform.  The really odd part is not realising the fear, but feeling helpless to change it consiously.

The other odd thing nagging me is the lack of photographic time, since that’s an activity I know I enjoy.  I’ll have most of the morning to make up lost time before my PADI test at 2 PM.

So…  I’ll finish the last test tomorrow afternoon, then off to the mainland and try to catch a bus to the Copan Ruins by Sunday.  Then I’ll get into photography again.

I’m going to go watch my buddy Lee attempt the Burrito Buster at a place called Cannibal’s.  It’s 3 burritos, each bigger than the last.  If you eat them all, it’s free.  No one ever gets it free.

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Edited postscript:

Monster props to the team at Coconut Tree Divers.  Special thanks to Marco, Rags, Kirk and Will.  I shall return – in the dry season!!!

Seriously, if anyone is looking to get dive certified, these guys are top notch.  Vigilant air quality inspections, great instructors who will take you out to party even if you drop out, the best captains, the most divemaster’s in training (gotta love a training facility), fun and laid back atmosphere, and a killer location.  They have a true passion for diving, and it shows.

The Dive Shop

At my going away happy hour I talked with a guy from work who has had many past lives. Big 5 accounting consultant, SCUBA instructor in the Caribbean for a year on a live-aboard, and finally, managing the help desk for the GAP. We were talking about SCUBA, and I got a ton of advice from him….

Apparently I want to go to Honduras because you can just walk off the beach to do your certification dive, as it gets deep quick, and there are patch reefs everywhere.

Upon doing a little research, I found a guy on Roatan who built his own DSV submarine (totally unlicensed and uninspected) that he uses to take tourists down to 2000 ft deep!!! Holy Cow… I wouldn’t build my own car – much less something that could instantly crush me to death if anything goes wrong.

So I’ve decided… I don’t want to ride in it that deep, but I absolutely have to talk to this guy…


From his recent website update, he’s in a skirmish with the local Mayor, and I guess he’s being physically blocked from taking the sub out to sea. That removes temptation!!

So it’s a week in Honduras (starting Nov 17th) to get my Scuba certification and see a few Mayan Pyramids. Then a bus thru Nicaragua spend 2 weeks in Costa Rica.