Apo Reef on the Surface

I was browsing through my gallery one time when I stumbled across this picture:

I remember this picture as a reminder of how I found out: I cannot go scuba diving.

SCUBA diving is one of the items in my bucket list. or WAS. Scuba stands for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus. The gear consists mainly of the regulator (the mouthpiece connected to the oxygen), the tank and buoyancy control device.

One time a friend in the office approached me. She and her friends from former work are planning to go for a Mindoro trip and they were looking for other joiners so they can split the bill. Luckily, they have room for four (4). Me and my two other regular travel buddies decided to join in. Besides, we have not explored Mindoro Occidental yet and we might eventually so why not with a bigger group?

I will try to put in as much information regarding the travel as much as possible for some reason I can only remember bits and pieces. Our travel itinerary covers Pandan Island and Apo Reef. I am still trying to recall if we had one more island covered. It was a relaxed itinerary. We had more time enjoying the activities because we were not rushing.

Going to Mindoro Occidental, we took a local flight to San Jose. The flight did not take us more than an hour. From there, we had a van rented out to take us to Sablayan. Since we are considerably a big group of 10 plus, splitting the fare and having the van to ourselves was more convenient. The land travel to Sablayan took longer than our flight. From Sablayan we took the boat ride to Pandan Island.

We stayed in Pandan Island for our first night enjoying the island, getting to know the group, drinking our coffee in the common area. Technically it was free time where we can opt to go swimming in the beach, explore the island, etcetera. It was from here as well that we decided to grab on the package that includes diving in Apo Reef the next day.

I am trying to look for the estimated time of travel from Pandan Island to Apo Reef. I cannot seem to remember if the Sablayan to Pandan Island was the longest boat ride we've had or it was the Pandan Island to Apo Reef. Ah there, it took us almost three hours from Pandan Island. Plus the morning we travelled it was drizzling and then it rained in the middle. We all started out sleepy, and then excited, getting splashed by the waves and sprayed with the salty water. The thalassophile in us was very much thrilled. There were areas of calmer water we were amusing ourselves with the gulls flying by. I cannot remember if we really saw dolphins from afar or we were just imagining things already because of the long ride.

Arriving on the Apo Reef Natural Park, though erases all the possible exhaustion that happened during the ride. We almost had the island to ourselves.

Apo Reef is one of the known diving areas in the area of Mindoro. It is also a perfect spot for snorkeling and free diving. One of my friends then was already attending classes for scuba diving in Manila. She just skipped her checkout session that same weekend we went there for this trip that we are having. Good thing though, the dive instructor that we ended up with in this trip, was a certified instructor from the same school she was getting lessons with. She had her check out dive on this same trip as a result.

We settled down in the cottage we got for having meals and putting our stuff away.

The food was delicious. There is no restaurant that time in the island so we had even the food included with the package. We had time to do a lot of photoshoot around the island first before we got to the diving activity.

There was an orientation first before we got to the water. There was also fitting of the suits and gears - wet suits, the SCUBA, the fins, etcetera.

It was during the breathing exercise that I felt the discomfort. Supposedly, the oxygen will help you breathe. Unfortunately for me, I was still having a hard time even with the oxygen. I thought it was just the beginner's jitters.

We were doing group breathing exercise and I kept looking around if I was the only one who was not able to breath. But everyone seems to be doing perfectly fine. We were oriented with hand signals : Ok. Not Ok. Go back to the surface.

We were also taught to equalize, clear our masks suppose water gets in. How do we put our masks on if it comes off while we were under water. All these stuff.

Come the time we were going to test what we were oriented with, we were all excited. When it was my turn, I went in the water backwards. That was fine. I checked my breathing, I felt the oxygen yes but it was rather thin. I was still thinking it is beginners' jitters. When we started our descent, I started feeling my chest tightening. I cannot go down farther. We were barely 2 meters from the surface then. I did not have to equalize yet even. I was sucking in oxygen but it felt like I was not getting any. I tried to go down even more but my chest was really tightening. I was blowing air out but I was not getting much in. We switched regulators but still the same. Another friend tried my gear and she is fine. So I decided to no longer push through. My head was heavy few minutes after that. I surfaced and decided to just stick with snorkeling. The whole time they were practicing what they learned in the shallow part of the water, I was watching them and hovering over them snorkeling.

I think it has something to do with my claustrophobia. I can go under the water with goggles but the regulator, and the whole other gear is a little annoying for me. It feels constricting.

I was not able to see the beauty of the under water for myself but was able to see them through their shots.

We went back to shore laughing and discussing what happened to me. But that was all good. We enjoyed the sunset.

Next day we spent our morning exploring the island and going up to the light house.

All in all that trip was a discovery. Haha. I never attempted again. In our extended group of traveling friends there were four of us who cannot. Maybe I will go freediving instead.

© Pichi28

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