Oh my word there were a couple of moments there. I panicked on the first
dive because I thought I was gonna die. Just a few years ago when our son Luke
completed his open water scuba diving course I remember Aannsha saying
"There's no way you'll ever get me on the bottom of the ocean and taking my mask off".
Well that was a few years ago and just recently Aannsha completed her open
water scuba diving course. I was one of the assistant divers on that course and
I can tell you I've never seen so much fear on someone's face. But she did it.
When Baz said "I think you need to scuba dive, then we can both swim underwater
and get some good shots" my stomach instantly knotted with fear. I actually
do enjoy swimming underwater in a pool, but put me in the ocean with the waves
and I begin to hyperventilate. But I knew I'd have to face my fears because one of
the reasons for traveling on a yacht is to make scuba diving videos and I need
to be Baz's his dive buddy. Enter Ian Johnson of The Diving Company
my amazingly patient scuba instructor who together with his assistants Barry
and Gordon was able to take me from panicking novice to certified open water
diver. A long-buried childhood trauma surfaced the minute I got into the pool.
When I was six my father took me to a local indoor pool for swimming
lessons. The crusty old teacher strapped some polystyrene floats
to me and literally threw me into the deep end and told me to swim to the side.
Swallowing water and panicking I screamed at my dad "help me". After what
seemed like an eternity, but was really only a minute or two, my father said
"Tha's enough, bring her in". The instructor unceremoniously plucked me
out of the water with his upturned walking stick. My father never took me
there again. Back to the present and once again I felt like I was the six-year-old
girl drowning. I'm gonna go over! Which way? Forwards and then I'll drown! Drowning is not part of the program.
However thanks to Ian's calm instruction I managed to stay focused
and began learning the scuba skills.
With the pool training sessions complete it was time to put on my big girl pants
and continue my training in the open ocean. I knew this was going to be a
physical, mental and emotional challenge and I brought all of my 25 plus years of
meditation and relaxation training with me, but I still had three full-blown
panic attacks. I'm sure my meditation training helped me to stay present with
myself long enough to remember why I was learning scuba diving in the first place.
OK so how is it going today? It's going fine. Are you going to cope with those big waves out there?
I'm just nervous. It's a tsunami. Oh go away. It's not wasabi. For safety reasons Barry didn't
take his camera along on any of our four training sessions in the ocean, but
here's some footage of me enjoying diving off Shelly Beach and Kings Beach
boat ramp in Queensland Australia. as a newly certified open water diver.
So how was that? It took ages to get my buoyancy. Yeah I noticed, you were trying to focus on too many things.
First thing is get your buoyancy right, then focus on everything else. Yeah.
Learning to scuba dive in the ocean was the hardest thing I have ever had to do
and as you'll see next there's a huge amount of relief on my harrowed face as
Barry filmed me in the car park after Ian told me that I passed the dive course.
Then it hit me... I'd done it! I'd overcome my fear and triumphed.
But I couldn't have done it without the help of three amazing guys.
Instructor Ian and assistants Baz and Gordon, who patiently supported me while
I overcame my hurdles. A big heartfelt thank you guys.
So? I did it. First dive I thought I was gonna die and the last one where I had to ascend and then fill up the BCD without,
yeah, that was, I had to do that twice and I didn't want to and it took me a while to do
the second one. Right are we ready for a wreck dive on the Brisbane now? Gimme
a week. (laughter) Oh I have to certify her now! (laughter)