#1 First Dive

This was our very first dive! It was part of the 1-day SSI Basic Diver course we took while we were on vacation in São Miguel, Azores.

After some quick academic sessions in a café nearby, we headed out to the confined section of the bathing area at Poços de São Vicente to get our first taste of diving. We started out with some basic exercises in shallow water, just to see how our minds and bodies would react to being underwater with all the gear on. Surprisingly, it felt quite natural!

After getting comfortable with the equipment and some basic skills such as mask clearning and regulator recovery, we exited the "pool" area and ventured into the open water section. The visibility was fantastic, and the underwater scenery was breathtaking, full of colorful fish and interesting rock formations. We had to surface once or twice because of some minor equalization issues, which lead to a somewhat odd reading on the dive computer of a 6min dive with an average depth of 2.2m, while we were actually down for probably well over 20min at depths of maybe 6-7m max.

Nevertheless, it was an incredeible experience and, as far as I'm concerned, this was the moment I decided to come back here and get my Open Water certification.