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I have always had a fear of open water which I've wanted to conquer for years so I was super nervous when I first contacted Benthos Diving school.
l was put in touch with their amazing instructor, Pablo. We exchanged a few whatsapp's and I explained my fear. He was so friendly and understanding and made me feel at ease almost immediately.
I've never dived before so needed to do both the theory and practical open water dives all together. As i'm only in Bali for a short amount of time I was loathed to spend hours on end inside a classroom learning theory.
Pablo assured me this wouldn't be the case and told me "I prefer to teach PADI in a practical way, you'd hate me if I make you spend hours in the classroom". This cemented my decision to do my PADI Open Water with Benthos and I decided to book my course immediately.
I turned up at 8am on day 1, paid the $400 fee, which, having researched is a great price to pay for a PADI Open Water course! (NB Don't forget to bring your passport as they need this to register you!).
I discovered I was the only person doing the PADI course at that time so had a 1-2-1 instructor for the whole course also! Wow, so lucky. I imagine so many dive centres would charge extra for that!
He was so kind and really helped me to push through my fear barrier and before I knew it I was in the 3m end of the pool learning the safety features there! We did a little bit of 'classroom' theory based stuff but mainly it was 'on the job' learning.
By the end of Day 1 I felt so amazing! I really felt like i'd overcome a personal battle and had Pablo by my side cheering me on. I was given the theory book to take home with me that evening to learn about the things we'd covered (which was a lot but given the way he taught it throughout the day it didn't feel like an exhausting day of classroom learning and I felt i'd absorbed so much organically).
Day 2 was another 8am start and this was the longest day (8am-4pm). It was our first day we were going diving in open water - argh! I have to jump off a boat, into open water, my worst fear. Again, Pablo was with me every step of the way. Explaining each and every thing we'd be doing.
Our first dive was in a semi closed lagoon, "Maximum 5m deep" Pablo assured me... "you wait until you see what's down there" he said. His clear love for diving and bubbly personality is infectious and soon enough I was excited to get into the water. Me, excited to get into water, unheard of!
I pushed myself backward into the water and in seconds I was floating in the open water. Pablo by my side. After another mild freak out Pablo calmed me down and soon enough we were under water. Oh my god is all I can say. If like me you are petrified at the thought of diving then please, please push through your initial fear. You wont regret it. it's an incredible feeling. We saw lots of fish and just breathing underwater in open water is an experience in itself that I cannot explain.
What felt like minutes later we popped up. I was exhilarated. Massive smile on my face. "How long do you think we were down there?" asked Pablo... "About 20 minutes?" I replied... "Nearly an hour" he replied. An hour!!!! he was with me every step of the way, I felt so safe and couldn't believe i'd just breathed underwater for nearly an hour!
Day 3 and it was final 2 dives and exam day... nerve wracking as we were going to 18m.. by this point though my fear had almost gone. We entered from land (putting your gear on in water is a LOT harder than doing it on the boat I can tell you haha). The dive site was incredible. Apparently it's one of the Top 10 shipwreck sites in the world. We saw loads of tropical fish. Sadly no turtles this time but the wreck itself is a site to behold.
Back to the dive centre, exam and an almost perfect score (just 6 questions wrong) I can now proudly say I am now a qualified PADI Open Water Diver. All thanks to Pablo and Benthos Bali Diving.
Thank you Pablo. I'll be back to do my advanced soon enough :) - via 