After our trip to Cozumel, Mexico I've decided to write a little story about my experiences on the trip, being an Oceanblue Diver without really being a diver, getting certified and more.

Let me begin by telling you a little bit about myself. My name is Wessel Molenkamp, I’m a 22 year old student from Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I’ve been working as an intern for Oceanblue officially a little over 2.5 months. It took me 5 months to obtain my visa, and during that time Michael and I decided that I would already start doing some work for Oceanblue such as managing the Facebook account. Since I arrived in NY I’ve been working on launching and improving the online scuba gear website we have launched a couple weeks ago (shop.oceanbluedivers.com/ ). I work on data entry and website maintenance.

Well, enough about me. Let’s talk Scuba!!

On January 18th we hopped up on the airplane from Laguardia Airport in NYC. We flew from NYC to Atlanta, Georgia. After a quick stopover we flew straight to Cancun, Mexico. It was my first time in Mexico, so to me everything was a big adventure. It was also the first time that I saw palm trees in real life, as well as white beaches and blue oceans. From Cancun airport we took a van to the hotel which was located in Playa Del Carmen. Before we left to Mexico I was already getting a cold, which was a bummer because this trip was going to be my first dive trip, and I absolutely didn’t want to become sick. The air-conditioning on the airport unfortunately only made it worse, which resulted in me being sick the first day, and missing the second day of diving due to illness. Anyways, after a very bad night we took the ferry from Playa Del Carmen to Cozumel, which took about 45 minutes. The ferry ride itself was pretty bad. There were a lot of waves, and also the blinds inside the ferry were shut so you couldn’t see the horizon from inside. That resulted in a slight form of sea sickness, but luckily nothing bad happened.

Well, as I said before, I was sick for the first day of diving, which was sad because I really couldn’t wait to get my first dive in. I stayed in the hotel while the other divers went on the boat for their first dives in Cozumel. When they came back I asked them how it was and they all responded that it was awesome! At this point I was eager to get my first dive in the day after. Everyone told me that I would have to try to dive, and I would notice straight away if I wasn’t fit for diving. Apparently when you have a cold, and you do decide to dive you experience intense headaches, so that’s the signal your body gives you when you are unfit to dive. Well, the day after I decided to go on the boat, and try to get my dive in.

We got all geared up, and I jumped in the water. Everything was new for me, so I was a little nervous but as soon as I was in the water I felt comfortable. Michael signaled me to descend slowly, which I did, and while we were descending I noticed my head hadn’t exploded yet, which made me a very happy bunny. It felt AWESOME. The feeling I got during my first dive I’ll never forget. It’s a very impressive thing, descending into a deep ocean. From the moment you leave the surface you are basically surrounded by a massive wall of blue. It is very impressive at first, but you have to get used to the feeling and kind of surrender to whatever is happening to and around you.

This first dive we dove through some sort of coral maze. It was very impressive, yet challenging because my buoyancy obviously wasn’t 100% perfect. I really tried my hardest not to bump into anything and I think I did a pretty good job. After about 25-30 minutes I signaled Michael and the dive master that I was nearly out of air so we ascended slowly. Back on the boat, I felt unbeatable. It was a great feeling, but we didn’t have a lot of time to rest because a little over an hour later we got into the water again. This time we did a drift dive, which was amazing! The currents just take you wherever they want and you just literally go with the flow. We saw a MASSIVE turtle (I think it was bigger than I am) and a lot of other awesome fish and coral.

Besides these first 2 dives (we did 3 that day) we also did a wreck dive, which must’ve been my favorite dive. First of all I like wrecks a lot, and we also went inside which was very, very cool. Floating through the hallways of the ship where people used to walk is a weird but interesting thing to do, and I absolutely loved every bit of it. Besides diving we just had a great time, ate a LOT of Mexican food(weird huh?) which was very nice, and just the entire trip was great, something I will never forget.

I would like to thank Michael Feld for organizing this trip, the other divers to make this trip a great experience and I am happy to say that I’m proud to work as an intern for Oceanblue Divers.

Wessel.
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