3. Wear the proper diving attire. I brought my rash guard with me and that's what I planned to wear. Later on, Kim gave us shoes and diving suits. So we decided to wear them for the full diving experience. I wore mine and I felt like a real ninja! Well, it looks like a ninja suit too. Or a Power Ranger suit. Haha! Jump, on the other hand, said he won't wear the suit because Lora had problems with it on her first dive. She kept on floating because the suit is relatively new. I also notice that on me but I didn't care. I just need one chance of wearing my Power Ranger suit. We later learned that Jump had some bruise from the hard corals. JP said that it might get infected so he needs to clean it up right away. So there kids, the ninja suit is not just for fashion but also for safety. ;)

Watahhhhh!

4. Do not assault your dive master underwater. Fine, I am guilty. When Clo pulled me underwater, I panicked. My ears hurt, water was leaking inside my mask and my mouth can't grip the uber sized mouth piece. Plus the fact that there was a guy a few inches away from me who is not my husband and trying to drown me. Lols. Just kidding. It was me and my claustrophobia. I felt like I'm gonna die right there. I can't breathe properly because the mouth piece was so big, and that's the only way I can live a little longer. He pressed the inflate button and I was on the surface. This happened about five times because I got used to the air and the ear hurting part. I was able to stay five minutes in the water, and around seven or eight feet deep. 

5. Learn how to equalize. Ear equalization, in layman's term, is just pinching your nose and blowing it a little until you hear a 'poof' sound in your ear. You have to do it when underwater so your ear won't hurt so much. Like what I said on the previous number, my ear did hurt a lot. It was like someone stuck a straw inside my ear while blowing water and air. That was the my first problem. The second was my nose is so small that I can't pinch it. Everytime I try to pinch it, the nose cover part of the mask moves and let's the water in and drowns me a little. I later told this to Kim and she joked that they should get Filipino sized masks for people like me. Be reminded that you should never try to ignore the pain in your ears. If it hurts, equalize. If the equalizing doesn't work, tell your dive master. If all else fails, go to the surface and stop diving. The day after we got back to Manila, Lora told me that her ears bled and the doctor told her that she can't dive ever again. She tried to ignore the pain and forced herself to stay in the water because it was so beautiful down there. :(

6. Breathe properly. One should only breathe using the mouth piece. It is connected to the tank which has nitrogen and oxygen, same as the air we breathe here on land. This is kind of my problem. I keep forgetting that I should inhale and exhale in my mouth. What I do is I'll inhale the air from the tank, and then exhale in my mouth and my nose. Clo kept on noticing that bubble are also coming out of my mask. So my mask gets clouded and we had to go up again. After I finished diving, I felt that there's something wrong with my bite because the mouth piece was so big it won't even fit in my mouth. O_o

7. Dive an hour after eating. If you wanna puke endlessly while in the water, you can ignore this. When I was a kid, I jump to the pool just after eating and the rest was history. Let your food sink first before you dive. 

8. Enjoy the dive. This again, applies to everything that you do. Be it diving or hiking or eating something exotic, try to enjoy it. I just did it for the experience and I may not do it again. At least, I can say that I did it once in my life. You may or may not want to try scuba diving but one thing I can tell you, it was so beautiful down there that even if you hated your first dive, you would still want to try it again. Besides, you will learn to equalize your ear in the long run. 

I highly recommend Samal Watersports Center because they are very friendly and their rates are very reasonable. They only charged us Php 700.00 for the boat ride, island hopping, lunch and snorkeling gears, and Php400.00 for the diving tank. You can contact them at 09189575346 or pieterjanvererfven@gmail.com. They do island hopping and diving every Sunday. Tell them to take you to Seal Shack! They also have accommodations but I am not quite sure about the rates because we stayed in a different resort.

*This was originally posted on my food blog, http://nom-mage.misistagle.me/.