Getting Certified to Dive

Today I got certified to dive. It took 6 days. It started with me and my dad reading the dive book, then going to the classroom. Next we watched a few videos and answered questions. Then we had to take a test. We both passed it. After we passed the final test, we were ready for the pool dive. We had to wait for two days since the pool was not available for us on weekends. On Monday we finally got to go to the pool. We practiced taking the regulator out of our mouths then pressing the purg button. We also practiced taking off our BC in the water at 20 feet. My dive instructer also turned off my air at 20 feet. I had to keep exhaling to the surface . Then we were ready for the open water dives. My first open water dive was interesting. We went in the panga with our dive instructer Gabriel. He is also they owner of the dive shop. We went out in the bay at La Paz and we dove to 40 feet and our bottom time, also known as BT, was 30 minutes . we practiced every thing that we did in the pool except for him turing off our air and talking off our BC . Then red tide came and we were diving in red tide. That was gross. We came up to the surface . Then we moved but there was still a lot of red tide . When we were decending, my dad nearly landed on a huge sea urchent. This one had white spikes and a brown inside. We saw lots of cool huge fish. After that we came back to the surface then went back to the boat. My final dive to become certified was cool. We went in a panga to a sea lion colony. When we decended the first thing we saw was a wall of millions of tiny flashy fish. Then after they past we went to 48 feet and more. There were huge puffer fish 3 feet long and tons of coral, sea cucumbers, lots of different kids of fish, and star fish. Then we came up for one hour so the nitrogen could dissolve in the tissue of our body. Then we dove again and swam right under sea lions. It was so cool! After that we headed back to the boat. I had now completed everything I needed to do to be a certified diver. The next day, just for fun, me and my dad went on a dive trip to a ship wreck. I dove to 60 feet. It was so cool. I love to dive and plan to do a lot more in the Sea of Cortez and when we go to Bali this summer.