Speaking with Charlotte about her first time scuba diving

Second in the serious of blog posts which we will be doing speaking with people about their first time scuba diving.  Today we hear from Charlotte who learnt out in Fiji.

Charlotte, First learnt to dive on Yasawa Islands, Fiji in 2007 aged 25;

"In April 2007 I went on holiday to Fiji to meet some friends who had spent a year travelling.  We travelled up and down the Yasawa Islands, stopping at various Backpacker resorts on the way.

We stayed at a beautiful place called Manta Ray Resort.  One night I got asked by one of the dive reps if I'd every dived.  I hadn't and didn't fancy it because of the thought of sharks.  However I found myself signed up for the first dive the next morning!

Beautiful sunshine it was NOT! I went to the dive hut in the pouring rain hoping it would be cancelled…. No such luck!

As I'd not dived before the lady instructor said she would hold my hand the whole time to keep an eye on me, my buoyancy and my depth.  She sorted out all my gear as I had no clue and showed me what was what.

We waded out from the beach in front of the resort, had a couple of tests with the regs and then went under!  To say I was amazed is an understatement! It was beautiful! As the colours and tons of tropical fish, it was such a fantastic experience!

The instructor swam me around pointing out all sorts of weird and wonderful sea creatures.  At one point we stopped in front of what looked to me to be a dead lump of coral.  The instructor started wiggling her fingers in front on a hole in the coral no bigger than a 50 pence piece and all of a sudden an Octopus emerged, one tentacle at a time and then swam off!  It was fascinating!

Before I knew it my 40 minute dive was over and we'd swam back up to the beach.  I didn't see any sharks (phew!) Although I think I was secretly hoping I would!  I had fallen in love with diving after 1 dive and had discovered a whole new world that I wanted to see more of!"

Lieve's Diving Journey

Lieve, Dahab Rep

I started diving during a holiday in Egypt and I was hooked from my very first dive. There was a whole new world out there to discover! My plan was to stay for some time in Dahab and do my PADI Open Water course before heading to Cairo. However, loving the underwater world and the diving so much, I cancelled my ticket to Cairo and signed up for the PADI Advanced Open Water course. For some weeks I enjoyed getting to know people sharing the same passion for diving, visiting nice dive sites with the most colorful reefs, learning how to become a better diver, watching fish and trying to remember their names.

Once back in Belgium, I immediately checked when I could plan my next trip to get some more dives in my logbook. After holidays of diving in Dahab, Sharm El Sheikh, El Quesir and Jordan, I felt ready to start the PADI Rescue Diver course. I found a counter job in a dive center in Dahab, which I could combine with the PADI Rescue Diver course. This training showed me so many new aspects of diving, that I got curious to learn more about it. The PADI Divemaster training was the logical next step and, to me, the most fun and interesting course of all the diving courses I had taken so far. It makes you a different and more confident diver. You learn more about the organisation and planning of dives, about dive equipment, you learn how to demonstrate all the skills you practiced during the PADI Open Water course, you get familiar with how to guide dives and so much more.

Now working as a PADI Divemaster feels very rewarding. I enjoy every dive and can’t imagine to work in an office again, far away from the sea and this incredible feeling of freedom you have under water. When I am in Belgium, I truly miss the Red Sea and the diving.

For sure, an adventure and experience I can recommend to all of you!

Diving Dahab, Red Sea, Egypt