The Scuba Certification Saga...

Jenni, Adriana, and I (Chris) started on the process of getting scuba certified before we left home.  We did all the study work via a CDROM based CBT (computer based training), and we did the "pool work" at a pool in Mesa.  We bought 3 sets of masks, snorkles, fins and hauled all the stuff with us to down under. (OK, picture this...  Dinky motor home, with two snow boards and a bag of scuba gear consuming precious space)
The problem was...  a couple of things.  1) It's the dead of winter down there, and they pass around colds just like us.  And 2)  we went to New Zealand first for two weeks... plenty of time to catch a cold and make sure everyone else in the family's got it too.
So by the third week, Adriana was done with her cold, but had some sort of an alergic rash all over her body, I was winding down from my cold but still suffering with a  lot of congestion (typical for me), and Jenni was about to get slammed.
 

Getting ready to dive from the QuickSilver pontoon

From the left, counter clockwise, Adriana preping her mask (umm...), Jenni with a big grin, because... the other three guys are Zach, Chris, and their father.  See Jenni's "boy".
 
 

The Scuba Certification Saga, continued...

The four open water dives for scuba certification take two days.  Jenni and I went the first day.  Adriana was still having problems with her rash.  For Jenni and I, all went well, except a lot of our basic skills were forgotten since it had been almost a month since the pool training!  Jenni tried and tried for five minutes to get the water cleared from her mask.

We contracted with Great Diving Adventures, who runs their diving operation off of Fitzroy Island, about 45 minutes by shuttle boat out of Cairns.  On they Island, they run a resort which was sold out, so we shuttled back to the main land for the overnight.  Nathan R was our dive master.  A very amiable Kiwi (New Zealander) probably about 30.  Long hair, laid back, and a patient instructor. Nathan lives a couple of beach towns north of where we were staying, so he also was our tranportation into Cairns and home again.  His second pashion in life, aparently, is road racing!

Day one of cerification involved two dives to about 35ft, just off the shore of the Island, in an area they call the "playground".  The dives involed repeating the same skills we did in the pool... managing bouyancy, mask flood and clear, switching back and forth between regulars, buddy rescue drills, and the controlled-mad-dash-to-the-surface-because-you've-run-out-of-air drill.  Day 1 of the cerfication training was done.  Good fun, no rush, no stress.

That night, Jenni got the cold... knocked her on her butt... couldn't breathe well, congested, certainly in no shape to dive.  Bummer.  She still has 1 day of cerfication diving to do.
But, Adriana now felt well enough to give it a shot.  No option for her to start the formal cerfication work, but most of these firms offer a "resort dive" for about $90A.  I went off to finish up my two remaining cert dives, while Adriana went off with a different instructor for the day.  They spent a couple hours talking about the basics of scuba gear and playing in the 8-foot deap salt-water pool at the resort; demonstrating that they wont freak out under water.
So Adriana's ready for her dive and I've wrapped up my two remaining cert dives, so off we go.  Nathan, Adriana, I.  She did great and had a good time.  She tried to point out a puffer fish to me that was right in front of us, but I couldn't see it.  We played with the anenomie, the giant clam, the giant fan coral, ...

The next day, the whole family took a day trip to the outter barrier reef (these pictures are from there).  About 50km out into the ocean to a pontoon they have moored to the reef.  Let's put this in perspective...  Their catamaran boat has four passenger levels, holds ~150 people, and they serve a massive buffet lunch on board.  The pontoon platform is a covered double decker, with picnic tables, a scuba diving platform, and a partially submerged snorkling platform.  They have a large roped off area for snorkling over the reef.  Erik really got into the snorkling (he was really disapointed that he was too young/small to do scuba).  The water was warm enough for Erik and I to swim around out there for a couple of hours.  And they have this tame giant wrasse...
This wrasse is a regular out at QuickSilver's pontoon.  He hang around the snorklers and divers waiting patiently for hand outs, which he wastes no time with.  I expect he weighs about 200 pounds.  You can pet him, pull on him, and swim with him (actually he follows the divers around)...  You kinda feel like you're in a petting zoo!

More Cool underwater pix...