Monday, May 22, 2006
Diving Jeju
For those of you who don't know my Dad is visiting us here in Korea for 2 weeks. We decided to plan some special Dad and Daughter time this trip and set up 2 days of diving with a local dive shop. It was a GREAT day under the water. Dad and I have been diving together since I was 15, but after I got married, we haven't had a chance to dive together...can you believe it has been TEN years since I last went under? I got back into the swing of things today and am going to try to get Clark certified this summer.
Our day started at 9 am when we met at the dive shop, Big Blue 33. We got all our gear, packed our bags, and loaded up the van. We were on the boat and heading out by 10 am. On the boat ride we saw about 4 or 5 dolphins swimming around and watched them for a while. Then, we saw a haenya (Korean diving lady) working as well. It was an exciting ride out. We went out to a small island not far off the coast of Sogwipo. For those who know the area, it is the small island you see when looking out from the KAL hotel. The weather was overcast with rain on and off, so it wasn't the best day to be out. The waves were pretty high too...but we didn't let it stop us. We tied up to two rocks at the entry of a cove to stable the boat.
It took a little refreshing to remember how to set up my gear, but once I was reminded, I was good to go! The water is much colder than any I have ever gone diving in. It was 17 degrees celecius or 63 degrees farenheit. We had to wear a jumper, jacket, and hood. I have never had a wet suit that thick! We had two tanks with 200 bars or 3000 psi's of air.
For entry, we did a backwards role off the boat. Dad and I went in on one side while the dive master and other diver went off the other side. We met around front and started our decent. Dad and I got down to 5 meters and noticed the dive master and his buddy weren't down yet. The other girl on the trip with us had bad ear problems and ended up staying up. After about 15 minutes of trying, she decided to stay and we headed on. Because Dad and I used so much of our tanks waiting, we didn't go too far from the boat for the first dive, but it was a good dive to get back into the swing of things. We saw some beautiful soft coral and some neat fish.
We headed up after 30 minutes and had a 5 minute decompression stop at 5 meters. We were at 13.3 at our deepest during this dive. We got out of our gear and secured it and then tried to get warm! It was a COLD day. We ate a small lunch of kim pap (kind of like California rolls) and then enjoyed the beauty around us!
After an hour or so, we headed back in for our second dive. We headed out farther this time and saw some neat stuff. We were under for at least 45 minutes this time, maybe close to an hour. We saw a lot more soft coral, some sea aniname (sp?), a few small schools of fish, a star fish, some small shrimp, lots of beautiful jelly fish, and my favorite was a big lion fish! At our deepest we were 17.4 meters or 52 feet. It was an awesome dive! Dad even gave his new underwater camera case a try and we got some awesome pictures!
We headed out of the water, packed up our gear, changed out of the cold bathings suites and headed back in. We were back at the pier by 2:15 but it took us about 30 minutes to find a place to dock. We unloaded the boat, headed back to the dive shop, cleaned up our gear and then had a nice visit over coffee/hot tea.
It was truly a fun day of diving! Here are some pictures that we took with Dad's camera! ENJOY! I will post more after our second day of diving on Tuesday.
Our day started at 9 am when we met at the dive shop, Big Blue 33. We got all our gear, packed our bags, and loaded up the van. We were on the boat and heading out by 10 am. On the boat ride we saw about 4 or 5 dolphins swimming around and watched them for a while. Then, we saw a haenya (Korean diving lady) working as well. It was an exciting ride out. We went out to a small island not far off the coast of Sogwipo. For those who know the area, it is the small island you see when looking out from the KAL hotel. The weather was overcast with rain on and off, so it wasn't the best day to be out. The waves were pretty high too...but we didn't let it stop us. We tied up to two rocks at the entry of a cove to stable the boat.
It took a little refreshing to remember how to set up my gear, but once I was reminded, I was good to go! The water is much colder than any I have ever gone diving in. It was 17 degrees celecius or 63 degrees farenheit. We had to wear a jumper, jacket, and hood. I have never had a wet suit that thick! We had two tanks with 200 bars or 3000 psi's of air.
For entry, we did a backwards role off the boat. Dad and I went in on one side while the dive master and other diver went off the other side. We met around front and started our decent. Dad and I got down to 5 meters and noticed the dive master and his buddy weren't down yet. The other girl on the trip with us had bad ear problems and ended up staying up. After about 15 minutes of trying, she decided to stay and we headed on. Because Dad and I used so much of our tanks waiting, we didn't go too far from the boat for the first dive, but it was a good dive to get back into the swing of things. We saw some beautiful soft coral and some neat fish.
We headed up after 30 minutes and had a 5 minute decompression stop at 5 meters. We were at 13.3 at our deepest during this dive. We got out of our gear and secured it and then tried to get warm! It was a COLD day. We ate a small lunch of kim pap (kind of like California rolls) and then enjoyed the beauty around us!
After an hour or so, we headed back in for our second dive. We headed out farther this time and saw some neat stuff. We were under for at least 45 minutes this time, maybe close to an hour. We saw a lot more soft coral, some sea aniname (sp?), a few small schools of fish, a star fish, some small shrimp, lots of beautiful jelly fish, and my favorite was a big lion fish! At our deepest we were 17.4 meters or 52 feet. It was an awesome dive! Dad even gave his new underwater camera case a try and we got some awesome pictures!
We headed out of the water, packed up our gear, changed out of the cold bathings suites and headed back in. We were back at the pier by 2:15 but it took us about 30 minutes to find a place to dock. We unloaded the boat, headed back to the dive shop, cleaned up our gear and then had a nice visit over coffee/hot tea.
It was truly a fun day of diving! Here are some pictures that we took with Dad's camera! ENJOY! I will post more after our second day of diving on Tuesday.
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