When you age every year and you start pondering about “ what can you possibly do before turning 30” and one fine day suddenly that one thing which popped into my mind was to explore the underwater world. So, last year when I visited Goa with my friends, without giving it any second thought we decided to go scuba diving in Goa.
Goa is a paradise for the young and scuba diving is one of the best water activities one can truly enjoy. Now jumping into our scuba schedule, we booked our entire schedule at Explore Water Sports, Goa, and got various information regarding the packages as well as the training process on how to go about from not knowing how to swim to imagining myself deep-diving underneath the sea.
Cut to the next morning we wake up early in the morning and headed to our training center. Once we reach there we got a feeling something exciting is waiting for us. Apart from me and my friends, there were so many other naïve and amateur enthusiastic divers willing to learn and looking forward to the training process.
Also read: Goa Itineraries
As we all left our rooms on empty stomachs, we were starving. We were all instructed to gather around the swimming pool and put on our wet suits and the water gears. We were all divided into groups and each group was told to practice body balance and slow breathing (holding your nose and inhale-exhale through the mouth) once you are in the water. Each group was given 40 to 45 minutes to practice in the pool. This whole exercise was fun hoping I would feel the same when I will be actually implementing it in a real undersea scenario.
After heavy or light training whatever one might call it, we were served breakfast as it was included in our package. As we were all starving to death we jumped into our meal easing our hunger. Following our meal break, we were all supposed to leave for Grand Island within an hour. Grand Island in South Goa is the safest place to scuba dive because of its shallow and clear waters. Because of the beautiful beach, Grand Island is the perfect place to scuba dive and meet aquatic creatures.
Next, we were standing in a queue at the boat station where several boats were waiting for us to lead us to the scuba destination. On the other hand, two-three carriers were being stuffed with heavy oxygen cylinders and all necessary equipment for each of the members who will participate in the activity. Boarding the boat one by one, we all occupied respective places from where we can enjoy the possible panoramic beauty of nature.
Reaching Ilha Grande or Grand Island by boat is a breathtaking experience. Gorgeous skies, never-ending bluish-green water, sand, beaches, tall palm trees, seagulls flying will imprint in your mind, and if you are lucky enough you will witness many dolphins on the way to your destination. You can also carry your bag of snacks, you can keep munching while enjoying your trip. As far as safety is concerned the whole tour is well-supervised by experts who assure safety and fun at the same time.
After spending exhilarating moments in the midst of the ocean and enjoying alluring views we reached our destination where our experts anchored the boats. We all geared up with the equipment’s carrying oxygen cylinders scuba tanks on our back, body weights around our waist, slipping our feet into the fins, wearing diving masks and snorkels. Alas, we all set for diving. Now suddenly all kinds of mixed feelings popping with adrenaline rush coursing through my veins. There’s a saying “If it’s not risky, what’s the fun”.
Standing by the brim of the boat voluntarily waiting for someone to push me to the ocean. Done and dusted. The next moment I saw myself floating underneath the water with my instructor. Along with my instructor, we went underwater to satisfy my curiosity and as I sunk myself and went down it was a completely different world out there. There were complete peace and silence, the only sound I could hear is the sound of my heartbeat and the sound of my breath.
Life Underwater is a serene, slow-motion world, almost unreal. It is a world one doesn’t see every day. Nearly 20 meters down in the depths of the Arabian Sea, the life I saw, existing and moving, was magical. Life underwater, as I explored during my scuba diving experience, was more beautiful than I imagined. Many fish – both tiny and moderate in size, zigzagging their way around you, makes the entire scuba experience, even more, surreal and breath-taking. As we were moving downwards, probably now we were nearly 30 meters down, we saw some aquatic creatures were crawling across the seafloor, eating algae off of coral reefs.
Also read: Kasol – Himachal ka Soul!
But it’s not all so vanilla inside that world. You will come across many hurdles as you dive down. The first foremost is breathing through the mouth which is not a common reflex so we tend to forget most of the time. The ear also hurts due to water pressure as we go down. When you feel pain in the ears we were told to equalize our ears by pressing the nose using forefinger and thumb.
As time was passing by, after a while my instructor showed me the sign of going up which means it’s time to wrap up and be out of the water. So we all swam back to the surface of the water and boarded our boat. I put on my earphones and listening to songs came back to our land.
About Neeharika
Hi! I am Neeharika Bhowmick. I am a passionate traveler and a blogger. Love to explore and share my new experiences as it makes me realize that the world is so beautiful and there is so much to admire and treasure.
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