08 Jan 2018 – Under Pressure

One of the most exhilarating aspects of this course is that I will also be a fully certified Open Water diver by the time that it is over. I had completed my pool training before coming to Fiji, and I had received a referral to complete my open water training here. For a few years now, I have had some ear trouble caused by TMJ, a muscular issue in the jaw. This caused trouble mostly in my left ear, but occasionally I could feel discomfort in my right ear as well. Since I was only trained in a six-foot pool, I had a lot of fears about my training in open water. I was nervous that my ears might be too sensitive and that I would not be able to equalize them properly, especially since I had no need to equalize them in the six feet I was trained in.

When it came time to do my first open water dives, I stressed to myself that the number one key is to relax and breathe — this is what our dive master, Mike, stressed to us as well. As we made our decent, I continuously held my nose while gently blowing out of it, which is the proper procedure for equalizing. By the time we had completely descended, my ears felt completely fine! We continued our dive from there, and as we descended even more, I had to equalize even more. That’s when I heard the sound of proper equalization—something that sounds like a deflating balloon coming from your ears. After that is when I felt completely at ease. As we continued my first open water dive, we came across the massive cabbage coral that I had only seen from above before I could join the rest of the class in diving, which made me really happy. To my surprise, our first dive went all the way down to 11.8m, or approximately 35ft. Finding out that I successfully dove down to nearly six times my pool training with minimal ear issues made me feel like I had achieved something great!

A large cabbage coral.


– Greg

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