My first experience with scuba diving was in the Bahama’s with my sister in law. We both did the resort certification class so that we could experience diving without becoming fully certified.

The class was a one hour course teaching us just the basics of diving, like breathing and buoyancy. Immediately after the class we got on the dive boat and headed to the dive site. There was one other person that joined us.

When we got to the dive site, we put our gear on and into the water we went. On our descent, I had trouble clearing my ears, something that is very important when diving.

I ended up swimming in a spiral while descending. This was the only way my ears would clear. My sister in law had other troubles and decided not to continue. I felt guilty that she couldn’t dive.

We went down to about 6 meters which is twenty feet. The water was a little cloudy but you could see a lot. I was enjoying this new adventure so much. We saw a few small fish, nothing too exciting.

I had no trouble with my buoyancy or breathing once we got to our depth. I followed the dive master and took pictures with the camera I purchased. The camera was a disposable 110mm Kodak underwater camera. As you can see the pictures came out pretty clear.

Right at the end of the dive the dive master showed us a type of starfish that I had never seen before. I now know it was a Comet Star.

At this point I was hooked! After about 25 minutes we finished our dive by heading to the surface.

The closer we got to the surface we could tell it was raining, which was the weirdest feeling because we had no idea until that moment.

We got out of the water and headed back to land. The rain was coming down hard and with the speed of the boat it hurt, so we had to huddle in a corner of the boat until we pulled up to the dock.

I couldn’t stop talking to my sister in law about the amazing experience I had just had and told her she should try again, she never did.

This was the beginning of my scuba diving adventures as well as the beginning of my underwater photography journey.