Scuba Diving In Crete

While on vacation to Crete I decided I wanted tochance to check out the equipment and get fitted
try scuba diving, I used to do some in the Lochsfor our training dive. The training dive was before
and around the coast of Scotland when I waslunch and we just went into the bay where the
younger.diving school was. We carried our equipment
It was a beautiful place we were staying with adown the beach and waded into the water.
wide clear bay and a few fishing boats, there wasThere was about eight of us with two instructors
a small diving school just up from the beach. Ito keep an eye on us. They gathered us around
popped in to see what it would cost and seein a circle and proceeded to show us how to clear
what sort of things I would be able to do. Theour masks underwater, how to share a demand
scuba industry is regulated by different bodiesvalve and some basic swimming exercises to
depending where in the world you dive.make sure we were comfortable with the
I had trained in Britain where the British Sub Aquaequipment.
Club (BSAC) is the governing body and you haveAfter the short lesson the instructors took us for
to get certified and trained by a local BSAC club ina swim around the bay, we saw many types of
order to dive there. They keep records of allfish and a few crabs, there was some broken
your training and any dives that you do in a logpottery and urns and a sunken boat. Then we
book, if your log book is up to date you can takestopped near a small reef and the instructors
it on holiday with you and show diving schools andtook out some slices of bread so we could feed
tours your experience. The more experience youthe fish.
have the better and harder the dives you areThey took photographs of us being swarmed by
allowed to go on.hundreds of fish. You could feel them nibbling your
Well anyway the school in Crete was a PADIfingers as you fed them the bread. The fish were
affiliated diving school, PADI is the internationalso dense that you had trouble seeing anyone else.
version of the BSAC. I did not have my log bookIt was very exciting and great fun.
with me and it was a little bit out of dateAfter everyone had a shot of feeding the fish we
anyway, the last time I went diving was when Iheaded back to the dive school. We had to carry
was at University about 15 years ago.our equipment up the beach to the storage shed
I would only be allowed to go on a training dive toand clean it down with fresh water, you should do
start with and if that went ok some shallow divesthis with all equipment you use on a dive as salt
over the next few days.water can be very corrosive if not washed off
I signed up for the short day course and anothermetal tanks, demand valves and ABLJ's/buoyancy
2 dives I can't remember the price but it wasaids. We also washed the wetsuits and
pretty decent, not too expensive but not dirtaccessories we had used.
cheap.Once everything had been cleaned up we went
The training started the next morning with theoryback to the classroom and talked about the dive,
and book learning in the classroom. It was prettywe got our log books filled in if we had one and
basic stuff and I remembered most of it fromwere issued a certificate to say we could dive
when I had done my training. They just wanteddown to a certain depth. This certificate would let
to make sure we knew what we were doing andme go for other dives while I was on vacation in
that we knew what to do in an emergency.Crete.
After the work in the classroom we had a