Guam Day 35: A Fin in the Water

3/19/2022 - Saturday was another one of those dream days here on Guam, Joan and I started our in the water diving class and certification. We are awaiting photos from both Saturday and Sunday under the water, and will post them as they are sent. As you can see from photo 1, we preped the night before to ensure all our gear was set out and ready. Part of the course was to purchase your own set of snorkel gear, this includes a set of fins, a mask, and a snorkel. Being out in the sun all day we both also ensured we wore as much covering as possible to prevent sun burn, so a long sleeve dive shirt, leggings for Joan, along with swim suits. Everything loaded in the car, including pb+j lunch sandwiches for our break, we headed out at 6:30am to make it to Piti in time for our 7:30am start time. 

I should give a shout out to our instructor, Kaelyn's dive business, if you are ever in Guam check out MDA and Love Buggy Diving for certification. Interesting business, each of the dive instructors run their own business and then are contracted to the dive shop, MDA in this case. Kaelyn was great, very patient and focused on making each person the best diver possible in the two day session.  

Day 1 of the class we started from a location close to the dive shop called Fish Eye. This site actually has an underwater viewing museum built into the shore, you walk out to the building via boardwalk and can see the divers, fish, and sharks doing their thing. Our day started with equipment training, learning all about how to setup a dive tank, put on a buoyancy control device (BCD, like a blow up vest), check the gauges and put on the gear. Once equipped, we walked into the water from the shore and started class in about 5 ft of water. This first part of the experience stands out in my mind, you start to walk into the water and you go from carrying this heavy tank and equipment to becoming basically weight less. Pretty cool feeling! The prior book reading and quizzes prepared us for some of the skills learning that we started to practice, basics of controlling buoyancy with your BCD, using the breathing regulator to get used to breathing underwater, clearing your mask from water that got in, clearing your ears from the pressure and emergency drills. 

I was really happy that we started in 5ft of water as breathing underwater was really anxiety provoking, its not natural to tell your brain to breathe through the regulator while you are under water. Also, clearing the mask was my most difficult part of the day, you have to breathe in through the regulator and then tilt your head up, lift the bottom of the google and blow through your nose. This took me all weekend to master. Joan was an absolute champ, she was able to do all the skills and remained my super calm partner underwater. 

After a break for lunch we completed our second dive around fish eye, this was my favorite part of the day, we dove around the museum and could look in seeing the humans looking back at us waving. In addition we saw schools of tropical fish that were incredibly colorful, a few small sharks too. We dove down 30 ft the first day, by 2:30pm we were exhausted. The second walk back to shore was a difficult one but once there we packed up the car and heading back home. A successful day!

Getting home, we realized how much gear we had to unload and clean up. This part of coming back from the beach is always hard anyways as you are tired and usually burned from the day. Today was tougher as we were warn down from that extra gear as you swim, it does feel weight less but it carries and element of drag you still have to overcome in the water. Joan at this point was feeling some pressure in her right ear, we hurried to wash up and then rest for a while prior to dinner. 

By 6pm in the evening the fatigue was really setting in and the sun burn on our faces too, this is where picture 2 comes in. We decided it was a night to go get food, we had been eying this place called Fin about 10 mins away. From the street this place looks like any other strip mall dining experience, but as soon as you step inside you are transported to Japan. Everything was exceptional, we were graciously greeted at the front door, the design of the interior was modern, ornate and fun to look at, the wait staff was very customer focused, the food was presented wonderfully by the lead chef, and to top it off the food was delicious. Those are fresh poke nachos in image 4, and a sushi donut in image 5. I think this was my favorite meal on Guam so far, exquisite!

Posted 3/21/2022