Me and Rebecca (my wife) decided during my day off to take a dive from Merimbula Wharf to Bar Beach. A 1 km dive from 9 mts to 4 to 5 mts. An easy and nice dive.

After 45 minutes we discover this HUGE Dead Bull ray....  it was quite amazing to see such a big Bull Ray like this.

 

   

Ok, so this is the story, you are doing a wreck course and you get out of the water, it is a calm day... ok? Stay with me... don't close this page, keep reading... so you are happy, the vis wasn't that great, but the sun on top of you is lovely and you can't wait to go back into the boat and talk about the dive... but then...

 

ooopssss...

 

a big wave. Not a wave like a Tsunami wave, but big.

 

Strange...

 

I mean, it is such a calm day, and the sea is quite flat.

So then after the wave, 40 meters away, you hear this sound...

and it goes like this:

 

PFUUUUUFFFUFUFUF!!!

 

and then a lot of water that looks like a garden hose

 

So you look to your left and you try to understand why the water is going higher or what is that big fish raising up ....

 

A WHALE!!!!!!

 

Yes... yes... yes! A WHALE...

 

So you go and think OMG... OMG ..., OMG.... and then the whale comes again, but then you see the little whale baby with mummy whale... and they are swimming just in front of you and you can only feel like crying or laughing...

 

Anyway, that was my dive 4 days ago.

 

Me, and whale family. Quite special. Don't you think?

   

 

I guess I'm a strange guy, I'm have the biggest lack of confidence at the time of buying gear. For me is a life or dead decision.... so, after 3 years... I bought my first camera with housing.

 

I was so happy.... (well, I'm still happy)... but then I found out how DIFFICULT is to take a good photo.

 

So last night I came back to MyDivingLife and read all the blogs with such amazing photos....

 

God, that was even more depressive.... so many fantastic photographers... compared to my lack of underwater photography talent.

 

So I guess, it is time to study more, learn more, practice more, take more photos... and off course, invest in more gadgets to get that ideal perfect diving photo.

 

   

 

Ok, I am in my complaing mood.....

 

I love diving, so much that I created this website and so many others...

and more than diving I love teaching. I'm not a great swimmer but I became a swimming teacher after becoming a diving instructor. The reason? I love to teach, te share with people...

 

but today, I had one of that days that you may wonder: who came with the idea that diving is for EVERY SINGLE PERSON.

 

So this is the story: I get 2 customers for Discover Scuba Diving - a "course" that I hate because it is 100% unsafe, with no clear theory, skills, etc...

 

anyway. the problem: (gosh, this is going to sad like if I am a b**tard, but I'm not....) the 2 female divers a HUGE. By all means HUGE. So I decide to provide them with the largest wetsuit we have in the house. A XXXLLLLLLLLXXXXLXXLXLXLX MEN size.

 

Surprise, surprise, the thing doesn't fit.

 

So thinking that the water is 15 degrees, i can go with these ladies diving naked, so I have to put them with a 1 mil rash-wetsuite that we have for surfing...

the picture is bad, they are going to freeze.... and not only that after a quick session in the pool they have so much weight in the BCD that they can't walk.

 

Why in their BCD and not in their Belt? Well... we don't have any belt long enough.

 

The whole dive was horrible.

I have done over 100 of this "resort dives" but this wins the OSCAR.

Crap. Really crap.

The oldest lady with 30 pounds of weight (yep 30) didn't go down... while the other diver in an amazing action managed to brake her 2 fins straps in less that 1 minute.

 

At the end of the day my mood coudn't be better....

 

So I wonder if sometimes is better to say people: Sorry but I don't think diving is for you????

 

Sometimes fitness should be first. But may be I'm wrong....

 

** By the way, don't you love when they tell you: yes I know to swim but the last time I swam was when I was 8 years old in the pool of my dad? - I heard that today from my 56 year old customer.

 

Anyway, tomorrow a new day.

 

   

 

Quick news from the busy MyDivingLife admin....

 

1. I love the new blogs! I spend more time reading that actually working towards improving the website.... mmm may be we should make a new contest. New suggestions ?

 

2. At the moment, I'm still working as a diving instructor but not a lot of diving at the moment, quiet season, cold water....

 

3. Thinking of buying my first tech. gear.... starting with the wings and then moving to the tanks. Scared of buying something too expensive and not ending diving enough with the new gear. (Sold all my old gear using Ebay ... great stuff!)

 

4. My amazing little boy is already 9 months and he still in love with the water. Not diving yet... but trying hard to move his legs in his fantastic mini-bath.

 

As alwasy... thanks to all of you...

to the new bloggers... welcome to MyDivingLife...

 

to the old crew: You guys make this web sooooo special....

   

My life now is a collection of :

 

Waking up, checking email, having quick coffee... changing nappies (how do you write nappies in english?) .. going to the dive center... checking emails... fixing some websites... doing courses... cleaning equipment... dealing with clients ... going back home... feeding the dog... loving my wife and my amazing little boy.... and then trying to improve some of the websites: Like MyDiving Life.

 

That's why today, I want to thank you guys for your dedication to MyDivinglife.

 

Also I want to apologize if sometimes things seem delayed ... or the changes are 2 fast.....

 

Until 1 month ago, it was only me working on this, and now thanks to the help of an "amazing new mate" (in the aussie way) from Canada, I can improve the sites to give you guys a better service.

 

So thank you again, for sharing, for giving us the first year of MyDivinglife and for more than 1700 blogs and stories posted.

 

I Believe that life is short and sometimes simply impossible to understand, that's why we dive, to go back to the start... to the peace... to the silence... and to that huge need to share how much we love dreaming underwater.

 

 

   

I met my wife in Dahab and in Dahab I learned to dive.

 

I arrived to Dahab with my heart broken after a collection of cold winters in Europe. Dahab open their arms to me, to my future, to the option of a future, the the infinite depth of the Red Sea.

I was happy in Dahab, in Dahab I learn the simple pleasures of life, I learned that the dessert brings peace and in Dahab I made some of the most honest friends I ever met.

 

Last night, my friends in Dahab, the Bedouins and all workers in Dahab were attacked by a bomb that destroyed the pefect balance of a place like no other.

 

When I left Dahab, someone told me that I could find places similars around the world, I travel to Thailand searching for another Dahab... but it was impossible. Dahab was only one, and today... it will never be the same.

 

I just hanged the phone after making a quick called to my ex dive center. Everyone is ok, the bomb was just 30 meters, in the same place where I had icecream with Rebecca, where I went with divemasters and instructors, where I had my first lunch the day that I became an open water diver.

 

Dahab is now cover in blood....  what's next?

 

 

   

Ok, last week I finished my last open water course and I started another, but the weather in NSW went crazy... waves to 6 meters in Sydney, so in the south of NSW we got a really bad weather to take brand new open water divers-students... so I had to cancel my second course. (pity).

 

Tomorrow I will start my first ever Divemaster student,  he's name is Phil (funny wise like the last open water student I had).... and tomorrow we go with his rescue course  + a few dives and then a 100 day internship where we will get his Divemaster and his Master Scuba Diver with PADI.

 

In the meantime, is quite strange, because I'm diving now as part of my job andI found that I don't have anymore a hobby.. .

 

So my new addiction is called: Buying scuba-present to Sebastian (my son - 5 month old now...)

This addiction is really easy to do thanks to the biggest EVIL website in the world....

 

Ebay. [stay away from Ebay if you want to spend fast your money]

 

Ok, so this is what I bought in the last month.

- A kangaroo teddy and koala teddy both with scuba gear. (really cute ! )

- A Iron Man with full scuba gear....

- A bath set of Finding Nemo...

and betting at the moment for a collection of 17 scuba divers from Lego. (yes you read right...17!)

 

I know he is only 5 months old, but you never know, may be instead he is the next Jean - Cousteau... who knows?

 

 

   

 

Is funny, I created this blog, this big monster, trying to escape from my boring non-diving life, and now that I have in fact a diving life, I don't blog enough.

 

Anyway, here we are.

I'm well, thanks for asking, happy with Rebecca and Sebastian living now in NSW in Merimbula. Things are good, the place is beautifull....

 

I'm working at Merimbula Divers Lodge www.merimbuladiverslodge.com.au   teaching open water courses and advanced courses in some amazing wrecks located near the coast here in the south of NSW.

 

My diving life has changed a lot.... now the trill is waiting to see the face of my new baby after I exit the water....

 

Sebastian is now 4 months and he is simply better than any dive I can ever have.

 

 

He loves the water..... and he smiles everytime I get out with my cold and wet...wet.... suit.

He looks like me and when he cries, I'm sure he cries with a clear spanish accent.

 

*    *   *

 

 

* Nice + Sad ,  moment of the day: Called to book driving lessons to try to transfer my southamerican driving license for an australian driving license. (long story.....)

The instructor of the driving school ask my wife a few questions about me. Then ask about my profession....

When he heard I work in the local dive center, he told us that his son died 3 weeks ago. He was a divemaster in Queensland and diedin Sydney of a motorbike accident.

Before hanging the phone after we made the booking for my driving lessons, he said that his son was waiting to become an instructor to teach his dad to dive.

 

For sure Gabriel will love to teach you - said Rebecca (my wife) almost crying.

 

It is amazing how some times we quickly forget how lucky we are.  isn't that right?

 

to all of you out there.....

Thanks for reading.

 

   

So, I'm now in New South Wales and I will start diving again in a few hours. Me, Rebecca and my little baby (now 3 months old) stayed here for a few days and now Rebecca is gone back to Victoria to arrange the whole "moving the house" process...

 

I'm already missing Rebecca quite a lot.... and hopefully she will be here back next week.

 

I can't wait to start teaching again, to show people why underwater the world seems like a better place.

 

More soon....

   

 

Ok, I will post more later on, but today my life changes again.  Took a job offer to work again as a OWSI in New South Wales (Australia, were we live).

 

I'm really excited, Rebecca is also really happy.....

 

Has been almost 10 months since I don't work full time as an instructor and I can't wait to have again a Diving Life.

 

 

   

 

Hi guys, I'm thinking of launching a news website and I was wondering if any of you would be interested in joining the site as a journalist, writer, etc....

 

The idea is mainly NEWS.......

 

any comment, let me know and I will be in contact with you guys soon...

 

Cheers

 

Gabriel

   

 

 

 

Well the reason why in this 2005 I haven't been diving yet, or even blogging is this little man...of 9 weeks old....

 

 

As many of you already know I have  been trying to bring new services and features to the site. We are giving 5 full paid diving screensavers (actuall there are dead cool... I have one in my PC ) and I'm giving away 10 domain names for the 10 more popular blogs in MyDivingLife at the end of March.

 

Life is is good in Australia. strange weather. One day storms... one day amazing heat and great weather. As typical Australian summer, lots of bushfires...

 

We are going for our 2nd trip with Bebecca and Sebastian to dive at the start of March. Rebecca will do her first wreck dive (not to many wrecks back in Thailand where she did her DM course)... and hopefully we can try to swap the baby while each of us jump into the water.

 

So... I hope you are ok out there, and thanks for blogging, and reading....

 

See ya.

 

 

   

 

 

Just to let you know:

 

 

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY CHRISTMAS.

 

Thanks to all of you for making this strange experiment called MyDivingLife, such a fun web to run....

Thank you for sharing, for believing in the word network, in the word blogging, in the world diving... thank you for living the day.... for having the generosity of reading, writing and understanding.

 

Happy times ahead, for you and your family and friends.

 

 

 

 

   

So the sun is great  the water looks amazing... but you just wonder if you are off diving... I guess is one of that days. I tried to freedive today. The water was 20 degrees and I realised that when you learn to dive in places like the Red Sea and S.E asia... going to the water in cold conditions is almost impossible....

 

It simply sucks... I loose interest. Someone called me a hollywood diver. They said that I'm one of that instructors that only dive in perfect conditions. Well... after this week... may be they are right. But I wonder if is that not the point?

 

Why I want to dive in crap conditions? I mean, I'm not a commercial diver or an navy diver... so why diving cold? Why diving in low visibility? Do you win extra brownie points with the diving gods when you dive in horrible water?

 

May be you do....

 

but I guess it is just not for me.

 

Anyway.... diving a wreck here in Victoria tomorrow... the name of the wreck is almost impossible to spell... but hopefully that will bring back some love into this diving world....

 

Beside that been with Rebecca and Sebastian is better than diving again in the Blue Hole in Dahab... I simply love to spend every time with them.....

 

Am I crazy? May be I am... but at this time... dry diving into my son life is the best diving I can do at the moment...

   

 

So Bebecca and I we are going diving with the guys of Merimbula Divers Lodge. A really nice bunch of people, since our last time diving with them.

This time we are not going with the dog (thank god..) but we are going with Sebastian, our new 4 weeks old baby. So... is going to be a slow driving...  .

 

I'm a bit nervous. Rebecca is going to do a small shore dive after 9 months of non diving. The last time she was diving was when she finished her Divemaster course in Thailand. A long time ago....

 

I will be doing the first day some freediving. I'm bringing my monofin and my sportsub freediving fins. Trying to see If I manage to go further than 20 Mts (my little personal record).

 

As you can see in this photo Sebastian is already trainning for his first open water dive.

 

* By the way, I just noticed that the Photo Upload system wasn't working... (Is working now... sorry for that  )

 

   

 

Well.... after the longest dive of my life... that kind of dive when you go into 9 months of slow deco.. waiting for the most fantastic surface interval. That one where you end meeting you new son.

 

So, after a lot of stress, pushing, love and waiting.... here he is: Sebastian.

 

I'm simply the happiest man in the world.

 

Me and Rebecca can't stop smiling all the time.

 

This is his photo.

 

 

Age: 6 hours.....

   

Well... in the next days, may be at any stage now.... MyDivingLife will have a new owner. As many of you know me and Bebecca ,  we are expecting a little scuba mini diver. We heard of the news when we were diving and working in Thailand, and since that day, we are back in Australia.

 

Rebecca misses the water and she is already booking trips for us to go diving with our new little buddy little boy.

 

So... sorry for not updating and launching the new services of MyDivingLife sooner... they will come in time (for sure next month...) .

 

Until then....

 

I will keep holding my breath until this BIG DEEP DIVE (the deepest dive in my life ! ) is finish and we share this happiness with you guys.

 

 

   

 

Well... it is kind of funny to see MyDivingLife growing so well, so heatlhy and with so many new divers/friends/vistors.

 

Our average visitors are in a normal day over 250 unique divers. Where all these people comes from????

 

I remember that a few months ago, (actually only 3 months ago...) I told Bebecca, that I had a silly idea of creating a diving blog system....

 

The most amazing thing is that I have been lucky to read amazing blogs, great experiences, and incredible talented people with such a huge amount of diving and human skills...

 

That's why MyDivingLife is becoming so special .

 

As for me.... as many of you know... me and Bebecca... are waiting for our baby to arrive...

 

2 more weeks to go.... and we are so excited....

 

Bebecca looks so pretty trying to walk with her huge belly...like a huge and cute russian submarine... or like a Hipopotamus Divemaster waiting to meet her future son.

 

Well.... I will post photos as soon as our baby is born....

 

To all of you out there...

 

As always thanks and sorry for the lack of writing.... 

   

 

Ok, quick report (and late) about my trip with Bebecca  to Merimbula Divers Lodge.

Nice place... 3 hours from where we live. It didn't stop rainning one single second... we decided to go as real Scuba Warriors, so we took our German Sheperd Dog with us.

 

BIG MISTAKE.  Diving + Pregnancy + rain + dog = not good to handle...

 

I went to Meribula Divers to ask about cost of dives, etc.... so I book a dive for next day. The weather was so crap that I though... "no way..." I'm not diving like this.... . But then I remember the comments of "Gabriel is only a sunny-day-diver" and hell yes! I am...! I learned to Dive in Egypt and Thailand... so that feeling of cold water doesn't work quite well with my southamerican blood. But anyway, the next day I tood a dive with the DM and a OW diver ....

 

So... murphy Law... I do the descend with the OW diver... and for the first time in my life, the girl decides to panic and do a 100% ESA - Emergency Swimming Ascend. 

I have to confess was exactly like a Text book of "how to die of overlung expansion" ... 6 meters holding breath... no mask... no reg.. screaming underwater. The DM panic a little bit and look at me with that bigs eyes saying: You are the Instructor... help me....

 

Great. My first fun dive in ages.. and now I need to use PADI relaxation techniques with the girl...

 

After talking to her, she decided to stop the dive so I went down with the DM.

 

A nice dive. Max depth 20 MT, not a lot of coral, nice little sharps and a sexy Manta we found in our way.

Time of the Dive: 50 minutes.

I was testing my old first stage from Dahab....and it behave nice. Hard to breath. No generous but like that old pillow that brings you good memories... (strange... I know...)

 

So globally a nice weekend. the highlight of my weekend: My first encounter with Kangaroos. (Remember: Not many Kangaroos where I come from).

 

Here are some photos... of me... the bloody cold water... and the 4 Kangaroos in ready-to-jump-position.

 

 

Yes mum... I'm in Australia !

 

Wet... wet... wet.... gosh I miss the Red Sea some times...