Scuba Diving with Jellyfish - Essay Example

Van, Demetrius Scuba Diving with Jellyfish! I remember when I went scuba diving for the first time. It was the summer of 2008 and I was barely a teenager at the time. My Dad, his two friends Derrick and Jerome, and I went on a scuba diving trip to Shaw’s Cove: Laguna Beach State Marine Reserve. Along with us was a group of scuba divers from the local town. I will never forget it was July 26th, a beautiful day. The temperature was at about 90 degrees and it was very sunny. I was on a big nice scuba diving boat along with eight other divers on the trip and the captain and co-captain. The boat was headed to an island about two hours away called "Jelly Island"; it was called that because of all the Jellyfish that inhabit it. When we arrived at the island the captain stopped and anchored the boat. I immediately jumped in the water and started snorkeling while all the other divers were still on the boat putting on their scuba equipment. After being in the water for about two minutes wearing only my swim trunks, I started feeling this stinging sensation all over my body. After about another minute or so the stinging got so bad that I had to get out of the water and back on the boat. I mean the stinging felt like I was being burned or something the pain was excruciating. When I got on the boat, I found that I had welts on every inch of my body that wasnt covered by my swim trunks. I had been stung numerous times by a Jellyfish. I was blessed to still be alive said the captain of the boat, Poseidon. He was a Mexican man who claimed he was king of the ocean. Personally I thought the guy was a little wacky. However, he poured this liquid substance all over my body, and immediately made all the stinging go away. I immediately asked what the liquid was, soon after he implied, it was a secret liquid he made back home. I thought it was vinegar from the way it smelt, nonetheless, I was just happy for the stinging to be gone. Poseidon said the jelly fish had to have been one of the smaller species of Jellyfishes because if not I would have been dead. I immediately knew then that if I got back in the water I would have to wear a wetsuit and all the protective gear I could find. A little while later, after I recovered from the jellyfish stings, I put on my wetsuit, weight vest, regulator, tank, fins, and mask, all the equipment essential for scuba diving. I was pretty nervous about going down, so the instructor, a man named Michael Walters went over all the steps, equalizing, breathing, and reassured me everything was going to be okay and to just relax. Finally, after lots of reassuring and encouragement I jumped in the water. I knew that many people would have been scared to ever go back into the water, but that was the risk taker in me that wasn’t scared to go back into the water, plus I wasn’t going alone this time. So the instructor went down with me. We took it slow and gradually started going down. I was breathing pretty fast at first from being nervous, but I gradually started to relax. We kept going further and further down until we reached the bottom. I remember him saying we were at least 42 feet below the surface. On the way down I saw groups of angelfish and many other fish that I couldnt identify. When I got to the bottom I saw two moray eels that were really scary looking. I kept my distance from them, for I could see that the whole roof and bottom of the inside of their mouths were covered with razor sharp teeth. I mean they teeth were the size of baby teeth but they were so sharp like a razor or a knife. I saw a crab that was humongous; it was about 2 by 2 feet big. I saw plenty of jellyfish that I now didnt care for because of the earlier encounter that I had with one that shook me up pretty good. I also saw a manta ray that was amazing. It was beautiful how it just glided through the water so gracefully. I wanted to grab onto it and go for a ride like you see on TV, but I was a little too scared to do that just yet. It was the coolest visual experience of my life, seeing a whole different world of sea creatures that not everyone gets to see like I did. On the way back up towards the surface I saw a sea lion that was about the size of my Dad. It seemed like it just appeared out of nowhere and popped up right in my face. It scared the daylights out of me. It was curious about what I was, for it was swimming circles around me, looking me up and down, and just staring at me in the face. Im sure that I looked like an alien to it with all of my scuba equipment on. I was so scared that I began to panic but the instructor begged me to relax if we were going to make it back to the boat in one piece. The sea lion looked so composed and nice but I surely wasn’t trying to find out how nice it was. Its body looked smooth like a baby and it was huge like a German shepherd but bigger. I was highly over the thought of scuba diving being fun, my life became in danger to many times. I felt like Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon 4 I couldn’t escape danger it just kept finding its way near me no matter what. Shortly after, I swam up to the surface after being down for about 45 minutes. It was the most interesting and scariest 45 minutes of my life. I was so happy and excited when I got back on the boat. I told everyone of my experience. It was the coolest and most dangerous experience of my life. I went two more times on that trip and there will be many more in the future. It made me feel very brave, for scuba diving takes a lot of guts and not everyone can do it. It is a very dangerous and risky sport. You can die anytime by making just one of the many possible mistakes. I am very proud of myself for doing this. I think that by doing it, it revealed a lot about my character that I am a risk taker, brave, and curious to see and experience new things. The adventure doesn’t stop there though. I plan to do many more breath taking activities before I hang up my shoes one day. The way I see it we only live once, why not live it on the adventurous side? By going to scuba diving on that day alongside my father and his friends, I learnt the basic lesson that living life to the fullest often presents a number of risks. I encountered numerous risks all of which I encountered given the fact that I promised to have fun. I therefore always concentrated on having fun and overlooking the risks. Living life to the fullest requires one to make decisions (Bennett 131). Every decision presents a number of both benefits and consequences. As I accompanied my father and his friend on that day, I had made the decision to have fun and enjoy myself. I knew the process would present a number of challenges and risks but overcoming both would make me a better and stronger person. I took a dive into the water without the guidance or approval of every member of the crew. Such was a simple action that I did innocently thinking I would enjoy the swim in the shallow shores. Unfortunately, that too presented a number of risks. The young jellyfish stung my skin thereby causing me immense pain. Such was a vivid example of the risk I had to overcome in order to have fun. From the short stunt, I learnt of the extent I was about to pose myself to. The swim was enjoyable and the fun immense but i had to take the risk of enduring the bites from the young jellyfish. The case offered me a unique yet functional preamble of the amount of risk I was about to take by diving into the deep waters. The dive into the deep waters was exciting. I knew the amount of risk that I was exposing myself to but opted to concentrate on the benefits of the swim. Such is the case when living life to the fullest. Making risky decisions enhances the fun in most of such cases. I living my life to the fullest, I always ask myself a number of questions including how I am likely to learn from an experience and how not to blame others in case the risks materialize. I was there with my father and therefore knew he would try and protect me. In fact, he did by hiring the instructor for me. Despite such, I took responsibility of my actions and did not complain to anyone when I came out of the water with a bleeding and itching body after the swim in the jellyfish infested waters of the island. Living life to the fullest is important since it offers people an opportunity to learn and to have fun thus grow (Quezada 81). However, such fun filled and exhilarating experiences as scuba diving often present a number of challenges. I spent almost an hour underwater in a scary and equally exiting ecosystem. I enjoyed a beautiful view of the underwater ecosystem but the risk of drowning, being bitten by the scary animals and accidents were always rife in my mind even as I swam along my instructor. As explained earlier, I always concentrate on the benefits of an experience. As such, I overlooked the fears and concentrated on having fun and enjoying the day. I did enjoy the day and at the end of the unique expedition I had learnt a number of concepts abut deep-water diving and underwater ecosystems (Graver 76). Works cited Bennett, Arnold. How to Live on 24 Hours a Day: A Guide to Living Life to the Fullest Extent. New York: Wildside Press LLC, 2010. Print. Graver, Dennis. Scuba Diving. Champaign, Ill: Human Kintics, 2010. Print. Quezada, Adolfo. Compassionate Awareness: Living Life to the Fullest. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2008. Print. Read More