Scuba Certified!

Thanks to our time in Redang, Tasha, Tracy, and Doug were able to get our scuba certification. It was wonderful being able to do the training right on the edge of a great place for aquatic life. Doing our practice dives from a boat or on the shore nearby with some amazing coral and beautiful fish was a great experience.



In fact, we only had to do one dive in the swimming pool, even the practice dives were right off shore, with a small coral reef and getting to see fish swim by as we practiced our dives and learned the new techniques.

We had a fabulous guide, Cheng, who was very patient with all of our silliness. And we were able to watch the videos, do the course work, and take the tests while grandparents spent most of the days with the kids.



Our schedule was generally to do course work and maybe a morning training session from about 10 - 12:30 before a lunch break. We would then also meet from 2:30 - 4 followed by a "tea break" and then a 5 - 6:30 session. The final days, when we had three dives real dives (at nearby islands), our schedules were slightly different.

Some hilarious memories include Tracy practicing taking off her weight belt and having the weights throw her all around the water as she struggled to put it back on (tip: hold the weights close to your body!), and Tasha's air tank falling down while Cheng and Doug were walking on the beach, paying now attention -- and only noticed that Tasha was struggling once we were in the water (hey, we thought the girls were right behind us!).

Our first two "real" dives were wonderful, and our third dive had very poor visibility and a strong current -- giving us quite a different experience! What a great experience!