Treasure Hunting and Scuba Diving

K and I went on MDA's 21st Annual Treasure Hunt this past Saturday. MDA (Micronesian Divers Association) is the main dive shop on the island, and throughout this area of the Pacific. The dive site we hunted in is called Seabee Junkyard and is about 30 ft. underwater. After construction of the breakwater around the harbor, this area became the dumping ground for the leftover machinery. Bulldozers, cranes, and other large items that were more trouble to dispose of in other ways besides dumping them in the ocean have found their final resting place here, making lots of places to hide treasure.

K got to do the real thing and dive in and around all the junk, but since I wasn't certified yet (but am now!), I went along for the ride to do some snorkeling and check the whole dive boat process out firsthand. It was very cool to see all this equipment from a distance and to watch all the divers below me. The visibility was great. I followed K for awhile, though she had no idea I was above her. After awhile I spent most of my time in the shallows watching fish and trying out a cheap-o underwater camera. I'll be investing in a good digital one soon.

This video will give you some small sense of what the dive boat was like. About 20-25 people were on board, including both my dive instructor and Kerriann's. Everyone in the dive community has been really welcoming and accommodating, and our transition into being enthusiasts is going swimmingly (ha!).

It was hard to see K get in the water through all the people as I tried to not be the annoying chick with the camera. However, you can sort of see her bunny-hop water entry here:

Now let me tell you, the biggest thing I struggled with during my diving class was this thing called the "giant stride." This is the way you're supposed to enter the water with all your gear on from a boat. It should look like the dude to the right (except that this image is reflected since your left hand goes on your mask while your right hand goes on your weight belt quick release).


I spent a good solid five minutes (maybe more) last week being petrified of the 6-8 ft drop when I had to giant stride into this pool-like area where we did all our confined water dive stuff.


I felt so clumsy with all my gear on, and used sooooo much of my air in my tank finding the nerve to step in. I have never been so scared that I literally could not move before. It only took me about 1 min on the second day though, and hopefully in general I won't ever have to do it from that height on any real dives in the future. Seeing what it's like on a boat makes me feel much better. Bunny-hop. Sheesh.

The area I took my class in is called Gab Gab Beach, and is on the Naval Base. I can't go back there unless I make friends with someone else in the military. Lt. Tim, one of my classmates, got us onto the base every day for class. This is Tim and Melissa as we waited for our instructor for our final two dives to get certified.


Our open water dives started out here off the beach. We saw tons of fish on the reef, including a school of tiny silver fish "running" away from a hunting barracuda. They were jumping out of the water all around us as a unit after we surfaced. It was the coolest thing ever. Highlights of our last dive included an anemone about the size of a car tire with clown fish hanging out inside, as well as a 2 ft puffer fish way off in the distance. I hope to start posting my own photos of fish soon, rather than just lifting other people's pictures from the internet trying to show you what I've seen. I'm itching for an underwater camera.


Okay, so I got sidetracked. There's so much to talk about. Back to the treasure hunt.

When you think scuba diving and treasure hunt in the same thought, you might envision finding chests of doubloons on a sunken Spanish galleon. Our treasure hunt was a bit different. Think Easter egg hunt under water. The task was to find golf balls and plastic eggs, limit one each per person. Golf balls were in abundance at all depths (I got my own with just a snorkel), but eggs were few and far between. Only a handful of people on our boat found any, and K was not one of them. They could be redeemed for cool prizes at the buffet dinner and raffle that night. The raffle prizes were big - dive trips on Guam, some to nearby islands, plane tickets, and fancy diving gear. Some of you may be familiar with my good luck during raffles (and no, I didn't take the pilates classes before the coupon expired).

For buying $10 worth of tickets I won a wetsuit - that's too small for me. We'll see if I can get some money for it on Craigslist or Ebay. I can't understand why they would just give this bad-ass wetsuit away! I mean, is this shark repellent or what? This is no small image on the pocket area of the suit, let me assure you that we mean business, dagger and skull blazing on the chest of this bad boy.

The speaker of honor for the evening dinner was Stan Waterman, a 90 year old diver, photographer, and 5 time Emmy-winning film maker. He showed us three of his short films, including footage of divers swimming in schools of dozens, maybe even hundreds of hammerhead sharks. I'm not sure I'm ready for that much excitement yet, at least not until I get a wetsuit that fits.