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I was invited to go scuba diving in Australia at the Great Barrier Reef.
Its where all scuba divers want to do a dive eventually in their lives
cause its so clear and beautiful. I didn't know shit 'bout scuba I never
did any diving w/tanks b4. My brother-in-law was hosting the gig and
he was diving since he was a wee lad. Me and my brother got a few
quick lessons in his pool and a few days later we went to the reef to
do the "big dive".
I'm sixty feet down and after seeing this glorious scenery and sea life
for what seemed to me to be five minutes was actually ½ an hour.
That's how much air-time I had in the tank I was using. Breathing
became very labored and I remembered, from the lessons, about the
reserve lever behind my head. I pulled the lever and breathing became
easier but its suppose to be only five minutes of air on reserve. I make
a b-line for the surface and find myself about 300 yards from shore
with major waves crashing down on me. I spit out the mouth piece and
go on snorkel because the air in the tank is now gone. The weight of my
gear is keeping me from getting anything but my head barely above the
surface and every wave that crashes down on me slams down the snorkel
and gags me.
I now have to navigate between these little coral patches and crawl on
top of them then dive in the water again to reach the next coral patch
to make my way to shore. When I am on the coral the waves crash down
on me and rake me over the sharp coral and I am being cut through the
wetsuit and am bleeding in a hundred places. The weight of the gear is
adding to the injuries as I am being raked over the coral patches.
By the time I made it to shore I was so exhausted I could barely keep
conscious. I was bleeding from my back, knees, elbows, shoulders, ass,
hips, chin, forehead, and chest. I laid on the beach for about an hour
b4 I could reach to start getting the gear off. It was 44C (whatever
that is in Farenheight) and I could not catch my breath. If I didn't
have the wetsuit on I would have been cut to ribbons way before I
made it to shore. I never went diving again and never will. I truly
saw death about 100 yards from shore and thought "this is it".
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