Besides a 4WD (see my 4WD-page), another thing I promised myself when migrating was to get a (PADI) diving certificate. I had done a 'resort'-dive on the Great Barrier Reef, during my holiday in East-Australia (1992) and loved it.

Diving gives you the remarkable sensation of floating and being in another world. All you hear is the noise of your regulator, which is not exactly quiet, but certainly does not remind you of city-life. Movements are restricted (because of the equipment) and slow (because of the water-resistance). And if you're lucky (like on the Great Barrier Reef) you'll see amazing fish and coral.

Unfortunately diving in Dutch waters is not only very cold but also visibility is almost none and marine wildlife non-existent. So when my first pay came in Australia, I started looking for a suitable course. Basically there is a choice of a full-time daycourse, a full-time weekendcourse or an evening/weekend course. Because of my work and Lisa, I thought the latter would suit me the best. After the silly season we did our course in January '98.

Perth Diving Academy

PDA was first established in 1978 primarily to teach scuba diving. This fun and exciting activity proved to be one of the worlds fastest growing sports and the shop developed rapidly into Australia's largest dive store. The emphasis at PDA has always been towards quality of instruction and service and in order to achieve these goals the company has built the most modern and complete training facilities in Australia. Both stores incorporate indoor heated pools and classrooms as well as large retail shop areas to cater for every need.

Two fully surveyed 16 metre charter vessels take divers to Rottnest Island as well as local dive sites The Fremantle store even has its own jetty immediately adjacent to the training facility.

The result of 19 years of development is Australia's most advanced diver training establishments offering a complete range of courses from entry level to instructor as well as dive travel and retail sales.

The course

The evening/weekend-course is the most popular option and allows you to spread your dive course over three weeks. An introductory session is held usually on a pre-arranged Friday evening and six evenings are chosen over two weeks. Three full days are also selected on weekends to complete the course and carry out the five ocean dives. A typical format for the course would be three evenings the first and second weeks, usually covering approximately 90 minutes of theory and 90 minutes of pool work. On the weekend following the evening sessions one day would be allocated for a shore dive and theory revision. The following weekend is used for the four boat dives at Rottnest Island. Rottnest has the finest diving available in Perth and two dives are conducted on Saturday and again on Sunday.

My experiences

In November '97 I went for my medical. That was surprisingly quick and easy despite that people had warned me about the toughness of the medical (and me with my hayfever). The doctor did some checks and simply said 'have fun diving, I'm sure you will' !

We started our course in January '98 (after the Christmas-hustle). I say we cause Lisa did this course as a refresher (as she had already done a PADI-course 5 years before in Queensland).

Lisa has had some problems with her mask and her hair, but over the weekend she cut her fringe. Also once out of the pool and into the open water things went a lot smoother. The first time was a ‘shore-dive’ of the PDA-location in Fremantle. This is in Rous Head harbour and they have sunken a wreck of a barge, giving you some entertainment underwater.

The shore-dive is meant to get you used to real depths (up to 7 metres) and cold, salty water. Also in the harbour visibility leaves much to be desired. Again we had to go through the whole range of exercises to prove our confidence under water. In the end we had clocked up more than 35 minutes.

Finally, the last weekend of January, we went for our real dives. PDA runs a charter service of Fremantle and Hillary’s Marina (South and North of Perth). In the morning you can do an early, single dive and after that the boats (see above on this page) go to Rottnest. This is a trip of about an hour. On Saturday we had beautiful weather, but Sunday was (initially) more windy and overcast, providing a rough ride.

On the boat

The boat gives you space for 2 cylinders (for two dives) in racks with storage space below (wet) and above (dry). Once geared up, divided in teams (with a dive master) and assigned buddies we went in. Rottnest provides beautiful divespots and especially on the Saturday the visibility was great and currents slow. We dove to 14.5 metres and stayed under for almost 40 minutes.

Back on board

After the first dive, the boat heads for Rottnest, where you can have lunch for an hour or so. Then it is back on the boat for a second dive. The second dive is always less deep/difficult, but this means you can stay on longer. The same procedure of two dives was repeated on the Sunday and then we got our certificate.

In March '98 we did another one of these days (2 dives), but this time on our own. Almost literally as there were only 3 other divers on board. The first dive we trained our compass swimming and the second we just swam around in nooks and crannies. We saw amazing fish (including stingrays and a small carpet shark) and had an all around good time. My new depth record is 18 metres and I've clocked up 4 hours under water now.

I am as enchanted with diving as I was before my course. Being underwater is a strange experience. It's not real quiet as your regulator and breathing make noise, but you are secluded from other sounds. Also you only can look straight ahead through your mask, giving you tunnelvision. This combined with the sensation of floating ('moon-walking' or rather moon-swimming) makes you unaware of your surroundings. An intense yet relaxing experience.

The summer of 1999 went by without any diving (for one as our expenses were stretched with buying a new house) and 2000 looked to be the same (too much wedding preparations). But suddenly I got a chance to join a Xmas boat trip of a supplier. The boat trip was with PDA and followed very much the format as described above, but with only one dive (on the other hand with food and drinks on board). At least I got to dive again (all in the boss’ time :-). I hooked up with two experienced divers from Busselton who went cray-hunting. We only caught a small one but for a while they hunted a monster-one which in the end zoomed straight by me (I didn’t know they could swim that fast). Also we saw a decent stingray (about 1 meter across).

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