Scuba Diving With Coconut Tree Divers - Roatan, Honduras
It is all about the diving in Roatan, Honduras
Tons of dive shops, tons of dive sites.
Dive dive dive
With the second largest barrier reef at its fingertips no wonder scuba diving is all people can talk about here.
I've always been curious about scuba diving...
What it's like 10s of feet below the surface of the ocean?
What does it feel like to breathe underwater?
What's down there?
Is it hard to see?
Do fish feel love???
GOOD NEWS, I got my scuba certification here in Roatan and am happy announce I now know the answers to all my questions (okay, still working on that last one..)
...I'M INTIMIDATED
So, It's a bit intimidating traveling to a scuba centric place never having been below the water. Everywhere you go it's ALL people are talking about.
Who are you diving with?
Have you been to this dive site yet?
Have you seen a (insert weird animal name here) yet?
One cab driver even asked "So, are you here on vacation or are you here to dive?”
(This made me laugh so hard)
ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT it's time for me to get my certification.. after all, it's what I came to Roatan for. To tick one more thing off of my bucketlist
...But there are a million dive shops here...
Which do I choose for my certification course???
I mean.. if you were going to jump out of a plane you would probably want to make sure the sky diving company was legit, had adequate equipment and wasn't going to kill you, right??
Well it is the same for diving, and everyone had an opinion on where I should go.
'Look for this' 'look for that,' 'make sure they have this'
My head was spinning.
After a bit of research, I took to the streets myself to visit a handful of dive shops I’d deemed worthy. It ended up being no contest.
HOLA COCONUT TREE DIVERS!
One little meet with the owner of Coconut Tree Divers, Gaynor, was all it took to start to fall in love with this place. She is sharp, kind, and witty. She has an English accent on her that I just melt over, and has owned the shop for 15 years. It is vividly apparent the love and dedication she puts into this place.
Gaynor has created a top-notch dive shop operation yes, but around here those seem to be a dime a dozen. It's the atmosphere this place radiates when you walk in that makes it wonderful. The way this place welcomes you, and makes you feel like an immediate member of the Coconut Tree family.
This is it. I found my shop.
A few days later I showed up for day 1 of 3 to get my PADI open water scuba certification.
DAY 1
People were running around everywhere prepping the first boat, saying their good mornings, making jokes, fetching equipment and sipping coffee.
I was immediately greeted by everyone and introduced to my instructor Rudy.
Rudy has been a scuba instructor for 7 years now. Half the time he was tough and the other half he had me in stitches of absolute laughter. My class consisted of myself and another solo female traveler from Texas. Along with a dive master in training, Shane, to assist Rudy the entire time, making for one on one instruction.
The first day was a morning of instructional videos followed by an afternoon of confined water skills in their 'pool' aka the shallows of the oceans located steps from Coconut's front door.
I’d been told breathing underwater for the first time is an experience you are unlikely to forget...
They were right
Submerged underwater, you go to breathe and everything in you tells you it won't work, you cannot possibly breathe underwater.
And then..YOU DO.
And then you take a second breath ..
And it's just like wait what?!! Then you kinda look around to make sure everyone is seeing you breathe underwater, almost to confirm 'is this actually happening?'
DAY 2
Aka the first day of actual deep water diving!!
Walking into Coconut on Day 2, I was greeted by name from countless people, all wanting to know if I was excited and ready for my first dive!! Already feeling like part of the Coconut family, I was excited and ready to go.
That morning we finished up the last two PADI videos and a second set of confined water skills.
By the afternoon I was all suited up on the PotLicker boat ready to hit the open water for my first dive!
Rudy's patience with me was next to none as it took me what felt like forever to get myself to the sand patch 20 feet below. I stopped to relieve the pressure from my ears every two seconds, but before I knew it I was horizontal 20 feet below water and I couldn't believe it!
We practiced our skills: breathing from your neighbors air supply, buoyancy, emergency procedures, and my personal favorite.. removing your eye mask under water, placing it back on, and clearing it underwater.. terrifying. Luckily way easier than I imagined it would be.
Then we swam around and I saw my first turtle!! He was a majestic little critter cruising through the water.
Everything moves slower down there. You breathe slowly, hardly use your arms, and glide through the water with the slightest flip of your fins. There is a calmness under water, it is truly a different world, magnificently peaceful. It was today that I began to understand why so many people are in love with scuba diving.
With my first two dives down, we returned to the shop where everyone was itching to know how it went.
LAST DAY
We completed two more dives. The last one being a 'fun' dive, meaning no skills to be practiced, just a leisure dive.
Finally, the fun stuff!
I was partnered up with Rudy and he did a great job of pointing out all the little sea creatures he spotted. There are hand signals for each animal, however I'm completely convinced he was making up or exaggerating half of them just to make me laugh. Between that, his weird underwater dance moves and pulling my hand towards little plants that would snap shut as soon as I got inches from them.. I was hysterically laughing underwater. Good thing he made me practice clearing my mask of water SO many times.. because it kept getting completed flooded from my constant laughter.
I didn't have the proper underwater case for my GoPro but luckily one of the divemasters was kind enough to let me borrow his!
Here are some of the things we saw...
Final exam time..
Between this and 5 weeks of Spanish classes in Guatemala I've had to study more on this trip than my last 6 years combined.
Despite missing a question we went over 2 seconds before the exam (sorry Rudy).. I passed.
high fives all around
Gaynor entered my info in the system, congratulated me and boom
Everyone was asking when I would be back for my first post certification dive and I couldn't wait to get back in and work on everything Rudy had taught me. I spent the next three weeks diving with Coconut Tree Divers, and they were a huge part of making my time here in Roatan so magical.
Gaynor has quite the operation working over there, with top-notch equipment, a fun environment and a knowledgeable staff that are just waiting to share all the magic the ocean has to offer with you! If your ever in Roatan make sure you stop in to dive with these guys, have a blast, and tell them I say hello!!
Thanks Coconut, It has been a pleasure!
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