Diving in the Grand Cayman

I got certified to dive about 4 years ago and I haven’t been diving since. Shh, don’t tell anyone because I totally lied when filled out the paperwork to go diving in Grand Cayman. I mean, I guess I survived and everything turned out great so we don’t have to be too secretive.

Anyway, my dad wanted me to get certified and went through the course with me. You know my sister, you know I was definitely my dad’s best chance at getting a new scuba buddy. When it came time for my certification dive, we drove down to Jupiter, Florida at the butt crack of dawn and hopped on a boat and drove off to the middle of the ocean with about a million foot waves. I’m exaggerating obviously but it was really rough.

So, it was a drift dive, you’re probably wondering where Grand Cayman comes into play but I’m getting there, be patient. So, it was a drift dive, which means they plop you down into the water and then you float with the current and they pick you up wherever you pop up.

We went down 70ft. It was cool, we saw a goliath grouper, and I' basically had a panic attack 70 ft below the surface and was convicted that was my last day on Earth.

You have to two dives to get certified and I was about to pitch a fit before they made me get back in the water but if I didn’t I wasn’t going to get certified so I sucked it up and jumped in. I did better the second time around, I made the scuba instructor hold my hand the whole time. It would have been a better story if he was a hot guy and we lived happily ever after but it was a tatted up girl who was like 7 years younger than me.

We came back up and remember how I told you it was super rough, well the boat didn’t get there at the same time as we did so we had to wait, bobbing around in the massive waves. Have you ever been seasick in the water? I hadn’t until that day. It was super fun.

When we booked this trip my dad told me we were going diving in Grand Cayman. I tried to sound excited but my head was literally screaming “GET OUT OF IT, FEIGN AN EAR INFECTION ANYTHING!” I thought at least if I have to go through with it I had a great time here and to die scuba diving might be peaceful who knows.

The day came and my dad was super excited, I couldn’t back out now, I was in too deep (scuba pun get it?). I could barely eat breakfast I was so nervous, my hands were shaking, I was sweating, I was talking really fast.

We had the nicest dive instructors who saw right through me, one of the dive instructors was this tiny little Spanish girl who told me I was going to be just fine! I definitely did not believe her but I appreciated her sentiment.

I weigh a lot more than I look. I’m not saying that to get pity, its just a fact, and the more you weigh the more weight you have to put on your to pull you down, like the million pound metal tank on your back isn’t enough. So they handed me my weight belt which definitely did not have enough weight on it but I didn’t say anything. Little advice, no one cares how much you weigh, just get more weight if you need it.

They sat me on the edge of the boat and the dive instructor asked if I was ready, I nodded and she practically pushed me in. My dad was already under. I had a mini panic attack, I wasn’t even three feet under and I was about to abort and get back on the boat. But, I didn’t, I took lots of deep breaths and looked down at the colorful reef below, there was no sound except my own breathing from my regulator that sounds a lot like Darth Vader.

The weight thing comes into play here, we sunk down to the bottom and swam over to the wall. I spent most of my time fighting to get to the same depth as my dad but I didn’t panic!

We did two dives. The next one was an epic wreck dive. They had sunk an old navy sub down 50 ft, in the last hurricane, the winds and waves and created a strong enough current to push the boat onto its side.

We swam all through the wreck, in the doors, through the hallways, kitchen and mess hall, we got to sit int he captains chair and everything. It was AMAZING! I lasted so much longer on my second dive, I was so good with my air and was able to circle the boat and stay down an extra 5 minutes with my dad.

I cannot wait to start planning a dive trip to Grand Cayman and explore more reefs and get more experienced at diving. I’m so glad I gave it another chance and if you’ve never gone diving I definitely recommend it…just don’t do a drift dive as your first dive on a rough day.