SCUBA DIVING

                           

My first interest in Scuba Diving started with the National Geographic Underwater Documentaries. I applied for Cable TV membership in 2004. Thanks to this, I had the opportunity to watch the National Geographic channel. At that time, I started looking for a diving school (in my city). I found a diving school in Balikesir City Center, named IDA Diving Center. IDA is the name of Kaz Mountains during the Ancient Greek Period. These mountains are located in Western Anatolia, in the Gulf of Edremit. I applied and got my first CMAS certificate from this school.

First of all, we went to the town of Ayvalık with a private car (belonging to the instructor of the diving school). We started the journey early in the morning. The journey took approximately 2-2.5 hours. It was June and the weather was really hot. All diving equipment was in the trunk of the car. We were in a group of about 4-5 people. When we arrived at the beach where we would dive, it was 10 o'clock in the morning. We put the equipment on us. I was using a 12 liter steel tank. We swam to a point 10-20 meters deep. I trained underwater for about 30-40 minutes.

I tried the training of mask flooding and I was successful. I removed my mask underwater from my face, so water got into the mask. I took a deep breath from the regulator and applied pressure on the top of the mask with my hand. In this way, the lower part of the mask (the silicone part that came under my nose) relaxed. I breath out through my nose, which I inhaled from the regulator. The water in the mask was magically lost. In fact, marine life at diving point was not very flashy. Bottom was covered with posidonia and partly sand floor. I went down to a depth of 7 meters in my first sucuba dive. I made my first scuba dive like this. The next 5 scuba dives were at the same point.

I did all the basic training with a total of 6 successful dives. My training lasted two days in total. We stayed overnight in a Villa in Ayvalık, 15 meters from the beach.