Great Barrier Grief

[Tsung]

Most of you know I'm currently backpacking around OZ, and last weekend I started a SCUBA diving course, 2 days pool + classroom work then 3 days + 3 nights on the great barrier reef.
After 2 days of successfully completing the theory + basic scuba skills (100% on the tests :D), I hopped onto the boat 7pm sunday evening to the Great Barrier Reef.
Unfortantly this is where the problems started, 1hr into the journey, despite taking "travel calm" tablets, I was seasick :(. From that point on, I felt green, and I wasn't well, anyways the boat moored up at 10pm in a bay b4 going onto the reef. I went to bed, slept, woke up and then straight up on deck and sick again :( . I couldn't keep any food down, I certaintly wasn't well enough for scuba diving, and in the end I spoke to the skipper and he arranged for me to hitch a lift back to shore on another boat. Sadly, I'm going to miss out on the Great Barrier Reef, as I suffer from severe seasickness :(.
Anyways I've learnt a lesson from this, which I wish to pass onto anyone else thinking of Scuba Diving. Before you spend any money on a course, get yourself out on a boat in the sea and see if you can stomach it. Btw, the journey to the bay was a bit rough, and a few other passengers wern't well. The next day it was calm, and I was the only person still suffering.

[Say_Ten]

You don't have to boat dive to Scuba Dive. However you will miss out on some dives it all depends just what you wan't to do with your diving ;p

BTW, if you keep your material you may be able to complete the course elsewhere. Talk to you instructor about completing the course at another dive centre that doesn't use boat dives for the completion. That can even include this country, although you'll be in for a shock with the water temperature ;p

[Deadmanwalking]

Drysuit powar!!

If you don't kill your self in it first.

[the_moog]

Originally posted by Deadmanwalking
Drysuit powar!!

If you don't kill your self in it first.
and, if you've just moved from wetsuits, remember not to warm yourself up the usual way :)

[BugAlugs]

hey, i look great in a wetsuit :D

[Elbonio]

that is if Websters decided, on a whim, to change the definition of the word "great" to mean "like a rubber bag stuffed with frozen turkey's" then yes, you do.

[Zakalwe]

Originally posted by BugAlugs
hey, i look great in a wetsuit :D

Yes, Jay, but you know you can't wear them anymore. The diplomatic fallout from that incident with the Canadians, the Flemish and that Japanese whaling boat was just too severe...

[Miez]

Originally posted by Deadmanwalking
Drysuit powar!!

If you don't kill your self in it first.

Drysuits are over rated, wetsuits are where its at. Unless you're going deep diving i guess. Still, in OZ i imagine the water is fairly warm, it always looks it. The other alternative is steamers, stupidly thick wetsuits. But drysuits suck, are horrible and they collect all your sweat anyway.

It's fun watching the "newbies" come in and run their blue hands under very hot water, then they roll around the changing rooms in agony for the next half hour.

[Say_Ten]

I did my open water in a Dry suit...

[Miez]

Originally posted by Say_Ten
I did my open water in a Dry suit...

Open water? Sorry im not really a diver. My post was made from my sailing experience. However i still maintain that drysuits are horrid. I guess in freezing water they are necessary, but i imagine in OZ and such you could to it in a thick wetsuit. I wear a wetsuit all year round for the sailing as i hate drysuits so much. Even when i did wear one, i still got very cold, especially feet! I guess its slighly different for diving though.

[Deadmanwalking]

Well as he mentioned finishing the course in England.......

Added to the fact that sailing really is for poofs, so they would much prefer a skin tight wetsuit to drysuit :p:

I had to make one of my specialties in Drysuit diving as i was doing my Divemaster training in Aberdeen of all places. During December.

But yes in Australia you prob wouldn't even need a wetsuit depending on time of year and conditions. I did my advanced open water in Egypt in a t-shirt and swimmers.

[Baz]

Originally posted by BugAlugs
hey, i look great in a wetsuit :D

just paint a giant "J" on his chest and he becomes....


JAYMAN

sorry to hear that kev :(
hope you dont let it spoil your trip and get on with doing other cool aussie things....

[Tsung]

Thats life I guess, infact, since getting back I suspect it was a combination of factors that made me ill, not just the constant rocking of the boat. For a start the sea-sickness tablets were natural ones, natural ginger, they tasted horrid, and thinking about it I was nearly always sick a few minutes after taking them... Also I have a bit of a copper coloured top at the moment, a sunburnt head is not nice, I suspect I managed to do this whilst in the pool on Sunday.
It wont spoil my trip, I'll recover and then carry on to Cairns, fly to Alice, hopefully drive to Melbourne and then bus back to Sydney. It's one big adventure :D

[Mouse_On_Mars]

doh, that's a shame. :(