Today I began my PADI Open Water Diver course, which is the basic certification one needs to scuba dive. I’ll spare you the details of all the physics I learned today, but will share some of my thoughts on my first openwater dive this afternoon. After some confined water practice, we went a couple beaches north to Romantic Beach, where we dove to about 11 meters for 40 minutes. Mostly, we just drifted with the slight current, observing the wildlife and practicing buoyancy control. It was an awesome experience to fly through the water, without being limited to a single plane like snorkeling. I could go up, down, to either side, roll, etc. Even after just one dive I’m already regretful that I didn’t take this course earlier. How much richer would have my visits to the Maldives and Belize have been? And to a lesser extend, I’ve probably missed out on a lot in Hawaii, Costa Rica, Tahiti, and Thailand. Just more reasons to return to some of those places, I guess. Similarly, it also gives me an added incentive to go to a lot more new places. So I guess getting my PADI now is better than later. Especially since the next two months will take us to some of the best dive sites in the world.