Scuba Steve!

I have made it to the top of Queensland and the largest living thing on Earth: The Great Barrier Reef. On every trip you hit a pinnacle. It mimics most things in life and follows a bell curve. You start low and you hit the top sometime in the middle and work your way down from there. Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef was the top of my bell curve. Not to say that anything that comes after is "less" an experience than what I had in Cairns. Certain experiences embody the reason you travel in the first place.

When I got to Cairns I immediately started preparing for my live aboard dive trip of three days with a company called Prodive. I had heard of them because my friends back home Aaron & Claire had recently taken a trip around the world and had dived with them. (check out their blog by clicking here-Oh when oh when will Aaron finish that blog?).

But lets get something straight first. I wouldn't call it a dive trip. I would call it Scuba Boot Camp. With 11 dives-4 in the first day, 4 the second day and three the third day (before 11:30am) it was more about stamina then diving. But needless to say. I made it through all 11 dives, including my first two night dives. (Even though my nitrogen levels were in the "V" range for those who actually know what that means). The interesting thing about Prodive is that they very much respect the fact that you are a certified diver and strongly encourage you to dive with out a dive master. To my knowledge this is unheard of anywhere else. And dive without a dive master I did. Nervous at first because I hadn't dived in several years I decided to at the same time continue my certification process and get my PADI advanced certification. That way for 5 of my dives I would have a dive master with me and for very little extra I got my next level of certification. I am now able to deep dive to 30 meters (90 feet). But it wasn't the class that got me confident. It was the fact that for most of my dives I was on my own relying on the skills I had learned long ago. And for the first time in my life I felt like a real diver. I was even able to navigate underwater without any problems-Aaron and Claire?

Lets back up for a second. You are never alone underwater. That's because you have a dive partner that is there through thick and thin. For me it came in the form of a fellow American. Yes I said fellow American. For the first time there is actually 3 other Americans on this trip. His name was Christian. He is currently serving in Iraq, -correction he is doing cool shit in Iraq by actually flying Blackhawk helicopters. He was on leave for two weeks and the army was going to fly him anywhere he wished. So naturally he said "Australia man"! There were many great people on this boat and a good number of them I still keep in touch with. I guess doing something you love for three days aboard a boat in one of the most beautiful and unique environments tends to bring people together. There was Deanna and Don from Colorado, Mathias and Claire from Germany, Simone from Holland, Bhavna (who snorkeled), Tim and Justina from Britain. That's just to name a few.(there were 24 of us) .We all shared a unique experience on the open water and we will always have that in common.

I could talk about it for days but time is always of the essence. So here are some of the best moments that stick out in my mind. My night dives. The ocean is an incredible moonscape at night. And regardless of moonshine or night you can see everything. (in fact on our first night dive we turned or torches off and navigated by moonlight.) Right before our second night dive our captain actually feed the sharks off the back of our boat. They were swarming as we jumped in. That same dive we encountered the largest sea turtle I have ever seen. (it was longer than I was). It swam with us in the dark for a while getting with in a few inches of my hands reach before it disappeared into the darkness to live the rest of its life. It was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. Another was our first dive on the second day which was our advance course deep dive. We swam through giant split coral surrounded by thousands of glass fish that swarmed in around us. That same dive I was able to capture on film a Lionfish which no other dive teams spotted. (pictured at the very top of this posting). Also under the advice of Aaron and Claire I had rented an underwater camera from a shop in Cairns and was the envy of the boat during the trip. I was able to shoot off the pictures and video you see here plus many more.

Prodive helped to make it such a unique experience as well. Before every dive our dive instructor Triston would verbally take us through each dive and draw neat little pictures on his dry erase board to explain the route and what to see. Not to mention that we ate like kings in between dives. And they were goofy too. There wasn't a day when a food fight would erupt on board or an egg fight would ensue with a neighboring Prodive vessel. (actually we only saw one other vessel the entire time and that was the last day). One day we actually lost our skipper Mark. He had set out to do some snorkeling on his own and for nearly 45 minutes the crew had no idea where he was. Even the dolphins showed up to play in our wake as we motored the 30 nautical miles back to Cairns on our last day.

The Great Barrier Reef is a wondrous place and we had it all to ourselves. I have never seen coral pods so big. On my last dive I poked my head through a cave that came out into the middle of huge coral pod. When I popped my head up there was nothing but a sea of corals. One solid living thing in all directions and I realised (through the Darth Vador breathing which is the only thing you hear when you dive) that I was just a visitor in this other world. A world we need to protect and educate people about. Aaron had told me before I left that diving the Great Barrier Reef was one of the greatest things that he had done in his life and I can't help put agree with him. It's a right of passage for all divers and for all that want to explore the world.

And as far as Aaron and Claire are concerned. I owe you a big steak dinner for turning me onto this gem. Your advice is always solid in my book.