breathing underwater

OMGZZZZ livaboard! what an amazing weekend. holy crap.

so on friday i had to get up and review my scuba skills with tom, since i was getting the rest of my cert through referal. he seemed pretty impressed by my knowlage - i remembered most everything, even dive tables. so that was cool. i'd picked up my gear on thursday, and mike packed most of my stuff into his ginormous bag so i was free to fill my bag with junk :) julie was kind enough to drop us off at the boat at 8pm and we got on to meet the crew and get settled in for the trip. emily and i shared this tiny little room:and then the night began... o man. keep in mind that i havent been on a boat for like 3 years or something? and i'd never slept on a boat. we cruised most of the night at 8 nots, and most everyone on the boat got sick. poor emily had nothing left in her stomach, and i only avoided getting sick by laying down and sleeping out on the lower deck by all the scuba gear. i eventually got blankets because it was COLD. but i reckon i got more sleep than most that night. we woke up the next morning, and this is what we saw.
so blue!! after a light brekky (=breakfast) we went out for our first dive at keeper reef (on the great barrier reef, obviously) it was a nice reef, but aparently just recovering from a massive crown-of-thorns outbreak - they're a pest that kill off the corals. anyway there were 8 of us doing out open waters, led by this lovely lady, alanaand my buddy was this tall and lankey kid named sean who had hair a bit like scott's :P here he is with dawn. i guess he's a free diver and plays underwater hockey - the kid doesn't breathe! and he could make bubble rings when he got bored on the bottom :) anyway we did 2 dives at keeper before cruising again out to wheeler reef. i took the opportunity to nap on the way there - i think most everyone did. o and of course the chicas decided to sunbathe
this spot had been spared by the crown-of-thorns and was pristene!! we got through most of our open water skills by the end of the 3rd dive of the day, and o it was awesome. here's some pictures of us getting ready - i haven't gotten any underwater ones from people yet so that will be a later post :Pso after the last dive of the day we had a lovely fish curry dinner and watched madagascar, as well as some looney tunes and a movie called the power of one... a little depressing, i was too tired to stay up for it. the advanced divers went out for a night dive while the rest of us chilled inside. one of the best parts about the evening was my chance to shower - nasty salt hair is not my friend! and the showers weren't just in the bathroom, they were the bathroom - the shower head was possitioned right above the toilet! but hey it works :P i got in my PJs and everyone laughed at me, it was great. also there was this cool needle-nose fish hanging around the boat light. he was cool. i slept beautifully that night, i was dead tired and went to bed before i even began to feel sea-sick. we got up for a dawn-dive at like 6am, it was our last cert dive!! here's me just out of the water, fully open waters certified :)
and then we had a fun dive before lunch - it was nice to go down and not have to worry about flooding my mask or throwing away my regulator or anything :) i've got my temporary card now, but i think i'll have my advanced diving cert before my official one comes in the mail :P oh well!

there were so many cool thins underwater - i saw 5 white-tipped reef sharks, 2 giant clams, several kinds of parrot fish, angel fish, and butterfly fish, a cuttle fish, a little bull ray, and so much more!!! i'm hooked if you couldn't tell. i can't wait till our next livaboad. here's all the cool people i was out with!
and now i'm back on dry land. BOOOO! the world still seems to be rocking back and forth haha. i'm sore and bruised and scabbed and bitten and scratched and just generally phisically exhausted and i can't wait to dive back in.

on a strange not, it appears that my belly button got sunburnt. wierd.