My First Experience with the Sea!!!

399 Words2 Pages
I remember my first dive. It was in John Pennekamp State Park in the Florida Keys, and I had signed up for the Open Water Scuba Diver course on a whim, not expecting a life-changing experience. Never before had I considered scuba diving, and never after would I imagine life without it. My first dive was not even over a reef. I now recognize that this first experience was in a murky lagoon full of brackish water and scant aquatic life. But that day, it was heaven. Not knowing what to expect, I was a bit nervous before the dive. However, the moment I dropped beneath the surface my fear melted away. I was breathing underwater! How cool is that! Breathing was easy and I felt no pressure on my body from the water above. The combination of these effects made scuba diving feel more like flying than swimming. I was hooked. As soon as I relaxed and got over this initial thrill, I started to look around. Fish flew past me. They hovered next to my mask, curious about the strange, bug-eyed, bubbling beast disrupting their peaceful afternoon. Below, algae and seaweed bloomed as if some extraterrestrial landscaper had gone a bit crazy with his designs. Lobsters stood in the mouths of their holes, waving their antennae in anger or salutation-- I wasn't sure which. In only a few minutes, twenty feet below the surface, I found myself in a completely new world. Scuba Diving Stories: • The Boxfish Grabbers • Dirty • Are You Addicted to Scuba Diving? What did I do? I got out of the water and called my parents. My dad patiently listened as I blabbed on and on about my experience, the verbal equivalent of Old Faithful for about forty minutes until he reasonably asked, "Natalie, are you calling from Florida? On a New York cell phone?" He was in California. I bombarded him with my experiences for about another twenty minutes before hanging up.

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