Off to the Keys... for PADI!

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The Dream...

Four and I came up with Save Coral in the middle of a North Carolina winter after getting our ASA Sailing Certification. We knew we wanted to sail the world but had not yet figured out what would we actually dooooo, out there. Four was taking inventory of all he's done in his life and was still interested in, in order to maybe uncover a hidden skill or passion besides, ocean! He ventured down an internet rabbit hole that started with coral sculptures, and he ended up watching a video by Dr. Austin Kerby-Bowden about coral reef restoration. The video shows the gathering of heartier heat resistant corals from healthy beds that survive bleaching events and moving them into a nursery to protect and cultivate them, then eventually transplanting them on structure in the water on dead reef debris fields. The results were astounding, and that was all Four needed to know what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He was a farmer turned captain, and now he would transform into a coral reef restoration farmer.

Love of the ocean was there, but one thing was still missing... the ability to do all these activities, underwater! Shocking, I know! So our very first goal after creating Save Coral was to get scuba certified!

This task was daunting for a few reasons, while Four and I are very familiar with the challenges that travel and life on water present, working underwater safely for long periods of time, whether it would be boat maintenance or coral reef restoration is literally a whole different world.

Polls show that 46% of Americans are afraid of deep water in pools, and 64% are afraid of deep open waters. Thalassophobia is the more intense and irrational fear of water you cannot see the bottom of, and it affects up to 9% of people. While neither Four nor I suffer from thalassophobia, we would have definitely counted ourselves among those with a "healthy concern" for the fathomless depths. However, despite our anxieties, we knew this was the next step towards living on a boat and making Save Coral a reality. So when we arrived in Florida, we set out to find our PADI school.

Sail Fish Scuba in Key Largo... here we come!

Four found a wonderful school for our first of, what I am sure will be many, PADI certifications. We had to wait for an opening in my schedule, but finally the day came 4 weeks later. We packed up the RV and traveled 5.5 hours from Ruskin to Key Largo, got into town around 2pm. We dropped the RV, hooked up the A/C, grabbed the dogs and headed for lunch. We have found after 2 years on the road it's better to unwind from the drive before dealing with leveling "Stitch" our Cougar Half-ton fifth wheel. Saves a lot of fights, trust us! We grabbed pizza and then decided to head to the shop to introduce ourselves.

Four already had the basic gear required, fins, mask, and snorkel, from his years of being a tour guide on the water, but I sadly, did not. The building blended in with the plethora of diver shops and dive retailers in the area, I truly didn't understand I was in the dive capital of American, silly me! But I was thankful for this, thinking well at least we would have our pick of options, but Sail Fish Scuba proved to be all we needed.

We were greeted by E, a younger adult who's wet hair and clothes gave us a clue that she was one of the dive instructors, and as it turned out would be ours as well. E had gotten her first certification at 15 and was now a dive master with nearly 500 dives to her log. She instantly made us feel comfortable and that we were in good hands. She showed me options for the gear I needed, which didn't need to be high end, and I was thrilled with my new purchases. The shop was quiet so we really got to know E and tell her our story and why we were pursuing our PADI Open Water certification. She was excited for us and after talking with us (well mostly Four) for about an hour we felt like we were family. This is truly where we were meant to be.

Next day we met at a special pool facility that is locally owned by a nice gentleman and his sweet beagle. Apparently all the dive schools in the area use it for their confined water dives and skills test but in the afternoon we would be at the Jules Lagoon, in open water. Four and I learned about our gear, putting it together and breaking it down a million times (ok more like 5 times) and then passed our swim test with flying colors. We worked on a few of our skills and mainly just got used to breathing with a regulator, but before we knew it, it was lunch time, which meant time for real water.

Jules Lagoon

Open Water Diving

Jules' Lagoon, also known as Marine Lab, is a very unique place that has its own mission to "promote the responsible and sustainable use of marine resources through education, research, and collaboration."

This protected lagoon has many interesting underwater features to explore for snorkelers and divers a like, including a underwater lodge that we got to swim by and say hello through the large porthole window, and they are also used as an open water setting for dive schools. Normally, we would have been diving off a boat out near the reefs, but the weather proved uncooperative; oh well! This lagoon served its purpose and more. The water was not clear and if you had any fears to confront about diving in murky water, this was the perfect place to overcome them. There is a dive platform about 5 meters down and it's there that Four and I were challenged in crazy new ways, learning troubleshooting and survival skills for the next day and a half, pushing our limits and really understanding what it means to live on the water and work underneath it. Time was limited, so we were not able to take any more pictures but.... we did it!

PADI Open Water Certified(able)!

We are still in the process on juggling all the different elements involved in this adventure of starting Save Coral. There are more sailing and PADI certifications we would love to pursue, but for now this was a major accomplishment for us. We overcame our anxieties and got busy doing. We still need 30 more dives before we can partner with other organizations and volunteer with them to learn what we need to do to venture out on our own as Save Coral.

However, for now, this was a wonderful moment in time for us and showed us that we can do this. We just keep swimming forward, and do the most important thing a scuba diver needs to do every moment... breathe.

Until next time, see you on (or under) the reef!