Blue Season Bali Blog – Diving vs Snorkeling
“Diving? With a tank and that weird Darth Vader respiration gadget? Uncle X knows someone who went diving and never came back!”
Wow, what a pleasant reaction of my mother to the information that her daughter is planning to try a new water sport during her stay in Bali! The obligatory story about someone knowing someone who was attacked by a shark of course wasn’t long in coming…
Nevertheless, when she came here to visit me in Bali, she still didn’t want to miss on seeing some of the beautiful underwater sites of the island, and so she came up with the idea of going snorkeling: “You can see the fish from the surface, so why go deeper? And you don’t need all that equipment…” Well, actually she has got a point there – snorkeling evidently seems a lot easier, as you just have to put on a pair of fins, a mask and a snorkel and then easily float in the water. Et voila, stunning underwater experience!
Said and done – the next day, we headed off to Nusa Lembongan for some snorkeling. Since this was my first encounter with marine life (except for occasional visits at “Sea Life” centers which don’t quite count), I was totally overwhelmed by what I got to see: corals in every shades of color you can imagine, plants I had never seen before in my life and, of course, all those tiny colorful fish that passed by. What more can a land-locked girl from Germany wish for?
Prior to my trip, I imagined diving could be somewhat overwhelming, and I expected to be overtaxed with simultaneously breathing through the regulator, taking care of my dive buddy and meanwhile enjoying the underwater beauty.
But… it turned out to be just easy! Of course, I knew before that I would feel weightless due to buoyancy, but this amazing feeling really surprised me. So by the time I got used to breathing under water, I could just float along and take in the atmosphere.
And this was exactly the point when I noticed the difference between my snorkeling sensation and diving: It is nice to observe corals and fish from the surface, but literally feeling like an astronaut in outer space and having the freedom to basically swim anywhere you want really is quite something.
“Weren’t you scared at all?” was still the first thing I was asked by my mother after diving. And, to her surprise, I told her I wasn’t. This is actually true, although I have to admit I indeed was worried about losing my regulator or something, as I am prone to weird accidents…
Well, luckily I didn’t end up like Uncle X’s acquaintance, on the contrary! It was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever done and so I had to deceive my mother and tell her that this was even better than our little snorkeling trip…
I still wonder whether you can compare one to another – in principle, diving is just like snorkeling, only in deeper water and with a tank on your back. But on the other hand, it’s a completely different way of experiencing the surrounding under water. To be honest, even the simple fact that I could breathe beyond the sea will probably always feel like a little miracle to me…
