Susan Solo – Photographer | Traveler | Adventurer

Tag: scuba

Travel Moments That Changed Me

I recently read an article with the title, “Traveling Doesn’t Make You a Better Person.” The first time I skimmed it, I dismissed the idea because I may have misunderstood the author’s intended message. I read it as, “traveling can’t change you and doesn’t ever make you a better person.” And like the author’s reaction to a friend who made a similar comment, I was stunned and perhaps a little put-off by it. However, a proper read-through clarified what I think the author was trying to say. (The title of the article is perhaps a little misleading.) My interpretation of the overall message is that traveling doesn’t automatically make you a better person since it depends on how you travel, and traveling doesn’t make you better than someone who doesn’t travel. I wholeheartedly agree with that on both accounts.

It got me thinking about moments in my own travels so far and I was able to identify a few special experiences that did change me as a person. In general, travel makes me a better version of myself simply because traveling makes me so happy, but there have been a few moments that altered me in a very specific way. And I’m not even talking about my scars from various bug bites or injuries, or the pounds I have inevitably gained enjoying international cuisines.

England 2003

Ah, my first trip outside of North America. I suspect you’d have a hard time finding someone bitten by the travel bug who wasn’t changed by their first trip overseas. I went to visit my parents who were living in England at the time, and I was mesmerized by the entire country. I’ve always had wanderlust on some level, but this trip introduced me to what it actually feels like to see and photograph far away places. Despite coming down with a horrible cold while I was there, I remember my magical trip to England with a very full heart and my love for travel has grown exponentially since then.

Hawaii, Switzerland, and Italy 2004

Thanks to Chris’s job at the time, I had the opportunity to tag along on a couple of conferences in fantastic locations: Hawaii and Switzerland. While Chris worked during the day on these trips, I set out on my own to explore and had some independent moments that allowed me to grow as a traveler. Oahu felt easy enough to navigate and it was a good starting point for a solo adventure. I rented a car and felt perfectly comfortable driving around the island alone during the day. In Switzerland, I wandered around Lugano by myself, shopping, eating, and navigating public transportation. On an overnight trip to Gimmelwald, I ended up taking the most peaceful, solitary hike where I was dwarfed by the surrounding Alps. And since the Italy border was so close to Lugano, I even hopped over to Milan for a day on my own.

Aside from a few potentially scary moments (getting lost on a mountain, wrestling my camera away from a stranger, etc.), these independent experiences gave me confidence as a traveler. I learned about navigation and safety in ways that will stick with me in my travel tool belt forever. Chris is my dream travel partner and I’m so very thankful to share adventures with him for the rest of our lives, but I’m also glad I had the opportunity to do some solo travel, albeit brief and on a small scale.

Colorado, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania 2012

“Let’s go snowboarding while we’re in Colorado,” he said. “It’ll be fun,” he said. Never have I ever attempted to do something with such a steep learning curve. I heard from plenty of people beforehand that snowboarding is difficult to learn, but I needed to see for myself. I had been skiing once before and picked it up pretty quickly, so how much different could snowboarding be? Answer: completely different. I spent more time on my tailbone than standing up during my half-day lesson in Colorado.

It took four more tries – one trip to Snowshoe, West Virginia and three visits to Whitetail Ski Resort in Pennsylvania – before I got the hang of it. I’m a little stubborn in general (let’s call it persistent), but learning to snowboard really put my perseverance to the test. We can all use a good never-give-up lesson now and then, can’t we? I stuck with it through some really painful injuries. I didn’t give up despite how much it hurt my body and my pride. Then one day things suddenly clicked and I managed to link turns. That was a very proud moment! Now whenever I’m faced with a difficult task, I use snowboarding as the benchmark. Most things are easier to learn than snowboarding, so that helps keep it all in perspective.

Tortola and Virgin Gorda 2013

I realize it might sound a little silly when I say that snorkeling changed me, but it did! And it happened on our trip to Tortola. I had attempted snorkeling a couple of times prior to this trip, and both times I got scared and didn’t last very long in the water. This was the trip where I vowed not to chicken out and I bravely faced my life-long ocean creature fears. Our island-hopping day trip to the Baths of Virgin Gorda was the perfect place for me to realize why other people love snorkeling so much. The water was calm, and the fish were colorful and friendly, and the positive experience enabled me to spend the rest of my time in Tortola happily exploring the beautiful underwater world.

Any time you step outside of your comfort zone and face a fear it’s a life-changing moment for sure, and this one led me to my next big moment…

Belize 2015

Last but not least, my scuba diving debut in Belize earlier this year. Conquering one of my biggest fears certainly changed me and I wrote about it here. There’s nothing I was more scared to do (other than say, scuba diving at night or in a cave), so knowing that I was able to go through with it and come out perfectly unscathed makes me feel like I can face just about anything. I will always remember how I felt that day in Belize – the build-up of fear in the hours before we headed to the dive shop, the butterflies in my stomach on the dive boat, and the I-can’t-believe-I’m-doing-it feeling once I was submerged and breathing underwater among the fish.

So what about you? What moments in your travels (be it local or long distance) made a life-changing impact? It can even be something as simple as putting your face in the water wearing a mask to gaze upon tropical fish!

June 8, 2015
Discovering Scuba Diving – Part Two

Last April, Chris and I decided to try scuba diving despite my deep-seated fears of ocean creatures. We took a local scuba class in a pool so we could get the feel of the equipment before taking the plunge in Grand Cayman. I had a blast in the Discover Scuba Diving (DSD) class, and took to breathing underwater…well, like a fish! We signed up for a second class in Grand Cayman and although I was still nervous about diving amongst all the scary bits of the sea (jellyfish, eels, barracuda, sharks, etc.), I think I was ready to try. Sadly, Chris was ill on the day of our dive and we had to cancel. I’m not sure if I was disappointed or relieved. Maybe a mixture of both.

Our next dive opportunity presented itself on our recent trip to Belize, and I have to confess: I nearly chickened out. I got into my head and just spent too much time thinking about it. We were minutes away from leaving the villa to head to the dive shop when I wondered aloud, “Has anyone ever died in a beginner scuba class?” Chris Googled it, and sure enough there were quite a few accidents even in DSD classes. So…that didn’t help.

I just kept thinking about all of the things that could happen, mostly related to ocean creatures. My imagination ran wild with things biting me or stinging me, which would absolutely cause me to panic several meters under the surface. There are even certain corals that are harmful to humans, so scuba diving just seemed completely unnatural to me and I’m pretty sure it’s one of the few things I swore I’d never do. I only just recently started to enjoy snorkeling after all. But as someone who loves to stretch the boundaries of her comfort zone, I decided to face my fish fears and give diving a try. I realized I’d be disappointed and regretful if I didn’t at least get on the dive boat, so forced myself out the door and into the Scuba School Belize dive shop where we met Ruben, the most calm, patient, and kind diving instructor I could have hoped for. He instantly made me feel at ease, reassuring me that nerves are part of the experience for everyone.

After watching a short video at the shop, we spent some time on the boat getting familiar with the equipment we’d be using. The detailed overview of how everything works and even taking some of the gear apart so we could see the inner workings helped to relax me even more. We stopped at a dive site called Tuffy Canyons, and I ~~made~~ requested Chris get in the water first.

Geared up, I did a backwards roll off of the boat into the water where it took a few minutes for me to get comfortable. Since Chris and I were the only two in the class, I was able to take my time before descending. I wasn’t panicking, but I did have a little trouble getting used to the regulator this time. It performed a little differently than the one I used in the pool. Still, I willed myself to relax and trust the equipment, I let the air out of my BCD and began my descent.

The experience turned out to be much more peaceful than I expected. After correcting a few equipment issues (my regulator was actually leaking a little water so Ruben and I calmly made adjustments), I enjoyed the quiet of being underwater and relaxed into the slow movements of diving, so the time went by quickly. I think we were down for 30 minutes or so. We saw beautiful fish and coral, and even a rather large barracuda that made my heart beat a little faster. I didn’t take a ton of fish photos simply because I wanted to focus on my gear and my surroundings, but Chris did grab this photo of a cute filefish amongst some gorgeous fan corals. I think he took a video of the barracuda – I still need to go through all of the footage. But most importantly, nothing caused me to completely freak out, nothing bit me or stung me, and I surfaced after the dive without a scratch. Well, actually I did scrape my knee on some rocks, but it didn’t hurt until after I surfaced.

Now that I’m back home in one piece and reflecting on my experience, I can say that I’m incredibly proud of myself for facing this fear. And believe it or not, I enjoyed it enough that I might even go ahead with that open water certification. Maybe.

So what’s something you’re afraid of trying? Can you push your fears aside and just see if you can get a little closer to that fear? Maybe there are baby steps you can take that won’t feel too awful. Let me know if you try something new and scary!

April 15, 2015
Discovering Scuba Diving

Sometime a while ago when Chris and I were having one of our adventure/travel brainstorming discussions about what we’d like to do and where we’d like to go in the future, Chris said he’d love to try scuba* diving someday. Since we planned on visiting the Cayman Islands for a future trip, I began to research and quickly discovered The Caymans are one of the top diving destinations in the world, known for crystal clear waters and beautiful, friendly sea life. I’m typically unable to approach anything new on a casual level, so I immediately decided that if we were going to try scuba diving, we might as well (warning: upcoming pun) dive right in and get PADI certified. You can’t just go dive without some training anyway since there’s a lot involved to it! The certification course consists of three parts – classroom or online study, confined water training (typically held in a swimming pool), and open water dives. I signed up for the first two parts with a local dive shop, and planned to do our check-out open water dives in Grand Cayman since we had already planned to be there.

I have no problem with the idea of breathing underwater in the pool. That actually sounded fun, so I didn’t think the mechanics of diving would be an issue. But oh, wait…I seemed to have forgotten that I’m fairly terrified of the ocean. Jumping out of a plane? No problem – I didn’t even get the tiniest bit nervous until a few minutes into the flight. Jumping into open water filled with creepy creatures that want to attack me? Problem. I’ve been nervous for months ever since I signed up! And I have absolutely no idea where this fear stems from – I haven’t had any traumatic incidents in the water. I’m not even really worried about sharks when I’m at the beach. It’s the small creatures that freak me out for some reason. (I rue the day I watched a Discovery Channel special about irukandji.)

Slowly I began to worry more and more about my ability to handle all four of the open water dives required to become certified. So I thought maybe we should do the whole certification on the island and I booked the course with a dive shop that does all the initial training in the shallows of Seven Mile Beach. I figured that way I could gradually get used to being in the ocean. But my anxiety continued to escalate. My concern was that I wouldn’t be a safe diver considering my level of fear when it comes to jellyfish, barracuda and other stinging/biting things in the water. The one thing you can’t do while you’re diving is panic. The other thing you can’t do when you’re diving 30 meters under the surface is bolt back up for any reason – if you ascend too quickly, you risk decompression sickness (a.k.a., the bends). And I’ve been known to panic and bolt in the water! I bolted out of the water at the sight of seaweed on my very first attempt to snorkel in St. Thomas. Seaweed. The second time I tried to snorkel (years later), I panicked and made a beeline to the shore after seeing a stingray at least 10 feet below me at Cinnamon Bay in St. John.

In addition to my fears of certain ocean creatures, I’m also a really (really really) excitable person about almost everything. Especially animals. If I see a turtle while I’m diving, I’m pretty certain I’ll gasp and squeal and flail about just out of sheer joy. Gasping, squealing, and flailing are probably diving no-nos. I have no idea if I can stay calm while diving, and that’s apparently one of the key ingredients: stay calm, and breathe.

So I decided that the best thing for me to do was to first see if, in fact, I would be fine with diving in a pool. Our local dive shop offers a Discover Scuba Diving (DSD) class where you learn basic skills, equipment usage, and safety in a short classroom session, and then you practice in a pool. Chris and I signed up together (the class was probably unnecessary for him, but he was sweet to humor me) and we completed the class last weekend. Just as I expected, I had a ton of fun in the pool! Getting used to the heavy, complicated equipment was easier than I thought, and we did the basic skills with ease. We learned how to descend, adjust our buoyancy, clear a flooded mask, retrieve a lost regulator, and swim with fins. The only catch was that when our class arrived at the rec center, we found out the pool was double-booked, so the shallow end was already in use and we’d have to complete all of our training in the deep end! It definitely rattled everyone in the class, but it turned out to be easy and so fun (for most people). Chris and I were quickly comfortable at the bottom of the pool, and we hung out just breathing and practicing skills for nearly an hour.

Whether or not I can translate the skills and my comfort level to the open water is TBD, so we’re going to hold off on full certification for now since it’s a fairly big investment in time and money for something I’m not even sure I’ll enjoy! We are signed up for another DSD class in Grand Cayman, where we’ll review the skills in the pool and then go on an open water reef dive off of a boat. If I fall in love with it, I can go forward with the certification and I’ll already have some skills under my belt. If I hate it, I can at least say I tried. I’m excited and nervous, but I’m going to try to stay calm and not chicken out. I think the reef dive is about 30 minutes long, so it’s not really likely that I’ll get stung or bitten right?! Wish me luck!

*I do realize SCUBA is actually an acronym and was originally always notated in all caps, but after spending some time on dive-related message boards, it seems most divers commonly type scuba as a lowercase word.

April 10, 2014
Meet-the-Parents Photos

Do you remember the scene in the movie Meet the Parents where Greg and Pam arrive at Pam’s ex-fiance, Kevin’s, house for a pre-wedding barbeque? Greg finds all the old photos of Pam and Kevin together, doing amazing things like skydiving and snorkeling (still on display in the ex-fiance’s house – hilarious). Somehow that scene stuck with Chris and me, and every time we take a photo together doing something even slightly adventurous, we call it a “Meet-the-Parents” photo. Now that I’m explaining it, it sounds totally weird, but to us it’s silly and good fun. We’ve been collecting quite a few of these, and we’re hoping to add more to the series soon! Here we are doing things like kayaking, zip-lining, dog-sledding, hiking and snowboarding:

This year we’re planning to add a big one: scuba-diving! Truth? I’m pretty scared of trying it even though I love doing things (within reason) that put me well out of my comfort zone. I’m not interested in say, holding a spider, mind you. That’s light years outside of my comfort zone. But challenging myself to do things that are a little scary seems to broaden my horizon a bit each time. I learn about myself, about other people, and about the world, and I truly enjoy that part of it. So I’m expecting to learn quite a bit from getting PADI certified if I can get through the open water dives, which we plan to do in Grand Cayman!

I’m not actually too scared of the breathing under water part. I think that will be fun, and I’m glad we get to try it in a pool first. It’s the ocean-wide world of creatures that makes me nervous. How do I know which ones are friendly and which ones aren’t? And when I’m approached by one in the unfriendly camp, then what? What if I panic? I’m also someone who gets really (really really) excited about things. Big things, little things, plain things, amazing things. Ask Chris – we are often driving along somewhere when he hears me draw a sudden GASP that makes him worry he’s about to hit another car when nope, it’s just that I saw an interesting cloud/tree/house/random stranger. So I’m worried I won’t know how to properly “chill” while diving. But I’m willing to see how it goes, and hopefully I’ll have a Meet-the-Parents photo to post for you here!

February 5, 2014