Travel to Thailand and Scuba Dive

“As we slowly and quietly descended, my pre-dive jitters melted away and my breathing relaxed. A whole world opened up before me. Schools of fish darted before my eyes, a turtle swam in the distance, a sea snake slithered above the sand and huge boulders formed mini underwater canyons to swim through. In the distance, my dive master pointed out a reef shark darting in and out of view. This dive was proving to be one of the best of my life.”

“Getting in the ocean honestly scared me. I had visions of getting the bends and never being able to walk again. Sitting on the boat to our dive destinations would make my stomach churn. All I could think of was the possibility of running out of oxygen! That didn’t happen, of course, and our dives were actually easy-going and super fun. Floating in the middle of the ocean was probably the closest I was going to get to the sensation of flying - it was incredible.”

“Second dive, I fucked it up and got frustrated. Visibility was far worse..I'm a very tall guy (6'6) but with thin legs and my lung capacity doesn't make it easier. I had a very hard time keeping level and got frustrated and angry with myself which is pretty damned far from being calm and relaxed which you need to dive. Half way through the dive I was convinced that th intructor was holding me the entire time, and at some point I got dejected and "gave up trying" and said to myself that the instructor can do the work since i clearly couldn't figure it out...instructor then showed me that I had a totally been diving my myself for 1-2 minutes.... and people say you should never give up.”