Today was the day of the first dive which began early . Once we finished with the dive we went back to the monk seal hospital and then were treated to a lecture from renowned underwater photographer Joshua Lambus. My first dive was as cool as I expected. While my skills were not the best I was still able to see amazing aquatic animals such as reef triggerfish, convict tang, and a white tip reef shark. As my group glided through the reef we eventually ventured into a hundreds of years old lava tube that has been taken over by reef the views inside were incredible and there was life everywhere I turned. As we made our way through the tunnel I could feel currents pulling on me but when we made it to the end of the tunnel the current was so strong that it sucked me right out and then right back into the tunnel. This startled me but I was somewhat prepared for it since our dive masters warned us about it. Once we surfaced from our dives some of my friends began to notice their many sunburns, Luckily former I used a good amount of sunscreen and wasn’t hit too hard by the sun. Another interesting aspect of our day was learning about the black water dives from Joshua. He is an absolutely amazing photographer of pelagic life and his photos have reached National Geographic and discovery channel so as he was telling us about the black water experience we also were able to get stunning visuals of what we may see once we go under. The pictures we were shown depicted creatures I’d certainly never seen before that were very transparent and displayed incredible bioluminescence. These pictures and the lecture from Joshua has me extremely excited for what is to come in the next few days of our trip.
