Maldives Round 2

For my spring break, which oddly enough starts way earlier than other schools, I went to the Maldives (again) with my family. Our main objective this time was to dive our hearts out!

Like seriously, last time we went my mom was just interested in snorkeling. I was doing the Discover Scuba Diving like crazy. Asked her if she wanted to do it with me or not, and she kept saying that she's too old to do it. Then she went back by herself and decided to try out the Discover. Loved it. And got the advance even before me! Fancy that!

When I went back this time I was still just a regular Open Water Diver. I thought I would just dive a couple times and relax on the tropical island of paradise. Oh, but, nooo. I was talked into getting my advance diver during my time there (in less than a week!).

Man, was it tiring. And fun!!!

I did the mandatory navigation and deep dive. Not to mention the fact that they used the metric system there, not the imperial like in the US. I learned everything with the imperial so that kind of confused me for a little bit. But you get used to it. In the Maldives, they also use bar instead of psi to measure the amount of gas left in a tank, so I had to relearn that also.

Definitely learned a lot more about my the functions in my dive comp. Especially because we were also diving with Nitrox the whole time.

Back on subject, other than the navigation and deep dive, I did Nitrox, wreck, and night! They were sooo much fun. The wreck was at an old Korean fishing boat with lots of coral growth on it already. The night was incredibly intimidating and exciting. I saw many lion fish then.

But nothing can beat the Manta dives, which was my Nitrox dive. Oh, it was just awesome! I rented an underwater camera for the Manta dive so I actually have pictures of them. This one ray came up real close to me it was actually kind of scary. Such a beautiful and majestic creature. :)

Swooshing by.

Safety stop photo op. :)

Playing among the bubbles.

Look at all those people in awe!

Coming over the reef.

Om nom nom. :3

Mmm, let me show you ma belly!

Okay, a little close there buddy.

Seriously within a few feet.

So freakishly close I swear I could have touched him.
That's my bubble, by the way.

Bye bye, old friend!

So yes, now I am an Advanced Open Water Diver. The dive center there were cheering me to become a rescue diver after this. Still thinking about it, hehehe. :)