"Why do you dive?" some people asked me, whether in my class or during the trip. The honest answer is "I just want to learn how to dive," - maybe that's all. And as to why I'm curious to learn how to dive is another matter. I love watching living beings, and get to know underwater living beings requires technological support. For me, learn to dive is basically learning to take advantage of those technological support. It's a method to facilitate my meetings with those underwater beings.
So I took a dive class: Open Water 20. That means I can do recreational diving for up to 20 meters. That does not mean I can dive into wreck, underwater installations, cave or do any night diving as those activities require additional training. I was with RAID, Rebreather Association of International Divers, a Stockholm-based diving organization which have authority to issue diving certification. I registered in December and got a discount - the training cost me IDR 3,900K in total, including 3x confined water sessions, a 2D1N trip (with 4 dives) and a pair of fins. And the best: I got a competent instructor who also happen to be PADI instructor, totally knowledgeable and willing to openly share his knowledge if you ask. I also got a small class during the confined water sessions (around 4 people max) and flexibility to learn by myself.
For the theory, basically what I did is studying multiple modules by myself, which I can access in RAID website. There are 9 modules that covers diving in general, environment, equipment, physics, physiology, rescue, management, confined water training, and open water training. Each modules consisted of around 20-30 pages, written in a nice way that made it easy to read, and contain important information for us to know before getting into the water. Ideally, you read all the modules first and do all the quizzes before you go into your confined water trainings. There are some important information for you to pay attention to, especially related to your body and the effects of the pressure, nitrogen, etc to your lungs, sinuses and other body organs during your dives. Anyway, I love the layout of the modules! They are simple and super handy -- you can read it literally anywhere (as in your tabs, cellphone, printed!) as long as you're not doing dangerous activity (i.e. reading while driving).
However I was given flexibility to be lazy in working with the theory. I did all my quizzes last minute, and I did my final exam right before my open water session! Yes, as in midnight! Even worse, a friend of mine did not do the theory as well as the exam, and still permitted to continue the open water session and the skill test. It's really up to you as long as you have enough information in your head from other sources, but if you don't -- I won't suggest you to do this. You might want to get as much information as possible from your manual and clarify unclear things your instructor just because you paid! If you did not consult the manual and ask directly, there's always possibility that the answers you got are merely practical, but you'll never learn how it should be ideally. One example is when I asked about diving with cold / flu / cough, and everyone (both instructor and more experienced student) answered it's alright. What I got in the modul is quite different:
Okay dude, this is Indonesia. That's enough to remember: our level of danger is totally out of the common sense. So, maybe assuming them to bother is a logical fallacy in itself?
The confined water sessions are fun themselves. It took place in Senayan Pool, which is nor bad neither good, errr... not really fine, too. There are some skills you should study during the confined water training. My instructor particularly put emphasis in buoyancy - as it is the basic of all, and it requires much practice to master your buoyancy. Some blogs warned me to demand the session covers all important skills: cleaning and putting on your mask, no air & alternate air source operations, putting in and putting off your equipment underwater, and it should include CESA. In some of the courses, not all skills are taught. So, in picking your course, you should ask in advance and demand the lesson yourself. Always remember: those might be important, and you have a right to know.
The open water session were a 2D1N trip to Sepa Island of DKI Jakarta's Thousand Islands. It consisted of four dives: first dive was to test the skills (Day 1) and the rest were for fun. Nothing much to tell in here, maybe will write a separate article about that. We were taken to this resort island, get to know other divers in our group (which totalling to 9 people), had a nice chat, nice meals, and nice dives.
And that's what particularly unfulfilling for me: the (social) environment that surrounding dive trips. The dive itself were fulfilling: you see underwater creatures, looking at their behavior, wandering around alien environment, getting excited when you see some stuffs of interest, going here and there with your buoyancy (like in outer space!), and ocassionally get your heart pinched when you're passing by bleached corals.
I'm a bit disappointed that I wasn't tired and fully spoiled. I hate it. It's not the type of travel I like. I like getting tired after a full day walk, I love getting my skin burned and all my muscles sore, even swelling! I love being out of breath and testing my physical limit. But in diving, I don't even have to swim. I buoyed. I was supported by equipment. I was in a nicely organized trip. I slept in a really nice room, I did not have to bother cooking, I can take coffee break right after every dive, I can shower anytime I like. It's just... I don't like it.
The other thing that annoy me is how diving is a very exclusive recreation. It excludes less financially viable people (which sometimes are the most exciting to talk to!) from the trip, automatically by the price itself. I did not say I don't meet interesting people: I did, but as a wholly different experience - they're all middle class and beyond, and I already encounter middle class almost everyday. I heard my frieds talking about buying stuffs almost in every catch up (while no one really have a plan on what to do with their old stuff, which often still in good conditions!), and that's also the convo I almost always heard during the dive trip. Of course I learned many perspectives, and many interesting reasons why they dive, as well as many interesting dive plans that they prepared. I like many of them, I made new friends and I heard their stories. But, do you know what I'm talking about?
It might sound completely abnormal to y'all, but my most precious conversation were actually with bus drivers, kenek, captains of boats, fishermen, farmers, local children, porters, all those chaotic webs of local people and their fights, people who worked any job while travel, or less financially viable people who worked multiple jobs so hard to spare their money for the backpacker trips. And in dive trips, where you're placed in an island solely built for recreational purposes, no hipster cafe to meet hipster travelers, no library, you don't hear those sounds. Instead, you hear the sounds, stories from your class. It's beautiful, but just... less exciting. I don't know, maybe now I sound like objectifying people to add sugar and spices in my trip.
The other thing is about the conversation that I missed so bad after the Lewis & Clark days. I thought divers might have it: the excitement for marine environment. I know Portland are weird and maybe I should not expect conversations about ecology, behavior of the animals down there, the local people around these islands, some dirty little secret of the developers, hypotheses of where the grey water and black water and all the trashes go, etc. Goddamn crazy hipster environmentalists, here is Indonesia and I should get rid of my thoughts about it. But really, in mountains of this land, at least in my peers, I have some nice conversation about how much the porters actually made, health concern they raised, how to make the waste management, bringing people back to nature, mental trainings, and so many other things. In backpacking I've got so much knowledge from the other travelers who really keen to understand the socio-political context of the places they visited, talk about encounters to local people, raising issues about people's economy and sanitation, etc.
So that's the beginning note about the dive! It was exciting in a way (the fact of learning itself is sooo exciting!) and not really exciting in another way. Anyway, I still LOVE it! :))
