Scuba

(Dec. 15) After graduating from our rigorous and amusing introduction to breathing underwater in a pool, and having reviewed endless reams of dive instructions and instructional videos, we are now ready for our first open water dive. We go to Maya Bay, site of “The Beach” with Leonardo DiCaprio. Fantastically beautiful, the bay is surrounded by steep, green limestone cliffs evocative of what we imagine pre-historic times to have looked like. In that moment, as we enter the bay, an appearance by a t-rex does not seem utterly out of the realm of possibility. In our longboat, it is just Lily and me, our dive master, Keira, and our boatman. These long, narrow wooden craft you’ve seen a thousand times in movies set in this part of the world.

We submerge. It is hard to keep from smiling. A whole new world reveals itself. Within minutes, we find ourselves circling a sea turtle which is attacking a huge jellyfish from beneath, essentially trying to eat him alive. The jellyfish tries to move away as quickly as nature permits, but his throbbing hulk is no match for the sea turtle. I root for the jellyfish, the underdog, hoping he will miraculously find breakaway speed, but today is not his day.

I delight in new perspectives. Unlike the “horizontal” world where you pass someone either on the left or right, here you have an additional option. Go over or under. How novel! I find myself passing over Lily and a couple of other divers, all arrayed in a vertical plane. As I look down, I feel like I have the barest appreciation for what it’s like to fly in formation with the Blue Angels. Swimming above Lily, I have the absolutely delightful experience of having her air bubbles drift up and past me. They appear as metallic, shiny inverted saucers, reflecting light as clearly as mirrors. I poke them and they break apart into fifty smaller saucers. This is, at heart, a psychedelic experience.

As part of the test for scuba certification, we are asked to jump out of the boat and swim 200 meters to shore. Forgive me, but I think of myself as Leonardo as he and his friends make the desperate swim ashore to “the beach,” just as I am doing in that moment.

Really, I do apologize for this.