When planning our big around-the-world trip, one of the activities that I really wanted to do was to become scuba certified. I love being in the water and seeing sea life, so Jon willingly agreed to go along with it. Since we knew we would be spending a couple of weeks on the island in Belize, we thought this would be the perfect time and place to get our certification.

The island of Caye Caulker is small, so there are only three dive shops that offer certification. From the recommendation of our AirBNB host, we went to Frenchie’s Dive Shop, located along Front Street toward the north of the island. As soon as we approached the dive shop, based at the end of a pier, we were greeted by friendly smiles welcoming us and offering to help give us information. We spoke with their office manager about their certification program and gave them a deposit to secure our spots for the following Monday.

Our scuba certification only took three days to complete; I think this was helped by the fact that we only had three students in our class, so we were able to move as quickly as we could all complete our skills. Besides Jon and me, there was a man in his 20’s named Umar who is spending five months traveling through Central and South America.

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Day One

We arrived at the pier Monday morning, expecting to spend the day watching videos, reading our book, and having a classroom session with our instructor, Mike. Instead, he started fitting us with the gear we would need to scuba dive; everything from our wetsuit, weight belt, mask, fins, tank, and full kit. Right off the bat, we would be learning with a hands-on approach and getting into the water!

After we had learned how to assemble and disassemble our kit, practicing three times, we loaded up the boat and took off. Along with our instructor, Mike, we also had an instructor-in-training, Sam. They alternated demonstrating skills and helping answer our questions. We motored out to Shark and Ray Alley, just a five-minute boat ride from the pier, to do our confined water session. Normally these are held in a pool, giving the students a chance to become comfortable with their equipment and practice skills underwater. Since Caye Caulker is surrounded by a reef, there is a lot of shallow open water where we could practice. The spot they chose had about five feet of water, making it easy for us to stand up to ask questions or discuss different skills we would be practicing.

In the boat, Mike and Sam helped us put on our gear for the first time. They explained each part and what it was for, showing us how to properly put it on and prepare to dive. Finally, they gave us the “OK” symbol and told us to fall backwards off the boat and into the water. Even though we knew that it was only about five feet deep, it was a very scary feeling falling backwards for the first time! I held my breathe the first time, although now I have no problems breathing as I fall into the water.

In our confined water session, we practiced a number of different skills. First, we would all stand up in the water so that Mike could describe the skill and give us a demo above water. Then, we would all sink down and kneel on the sandy bottom, where Sam would demonstrate the skill underwater for us. After that, it was our turn; he would point to each of us and we would complete the skill, receiving a fist bump underwater if we did it correctly on the first try. We quickly completed all of the skills except for one; I had trouble clearing my mask once it’s filled with water. Since I couldn’t get it after two tries, Mike said to wait on that and he would work with me later on it.

We completed everything else and then Sam took Jon and Umar on a short dive around our boat. Mike stayed behind with me to work with me on clearing my mask. I finally was able to do it successfully, although was still nervous about demonstrating the skill the next day when we were further underwater and I wouldn’t be able to stand up if I panicked.

We finished the confined water session and headed back to dock, after which we had about an hour break to get some lunch. In the afternoon, Jon and I watched about 3 hours of videos, following along in our book, that reinforced many of the things we had learned that morning in the confined water dive. By the end of the day, we were tired! We ate dinner and then went home, falling quickly into bed.

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Day Two

I had trouble sleeping and woke up early, nervous about clearing my mask underwater again. Jon tried to help by giving me some tips on what worked for him and generally cheering me on. We left the apartment early and stopped for breakfast on the way; we needed the fuel for another full day! At Frenchie’s, we assembled our gear and took off in the boat again. Day two would consist of two open water dives plus our swim test, and then quizzes and a final exam in the afternoon.

Our first open water dive was in the South Channel, in an area with a sandy bottom. After getting ready in the boat, we did another back roll to get into the water. We all lowered ourselves to the bottom, for a depth of about six feet. We spent a little bit of time on more skills, including the face mask clear which I performed successfully! We also practiced recovering our regulators, in case they come out, and clearing them so we can breathe again. Once these skills were done, we dove a bit deeper to a maximum of 15 feet to practice working on our buoyancy. We had to practice floating in the water, in the same position, using just our breath to keep us steady.

During our surface interval, the time which we need to spend on the surface and not diving, we went back to Shark and Ray Alley to complete our swim test. In order to become certified, we had to prove that we could swim 200 meters and tread water or float for 10 minutes. We could have a mask and snorkel but no fins, which was not a big deal as the current wasn’t very strong. This felt more like a fun break than a test, since while we were swimming and floating, we were able to view a number of sting rays swimming underneath us.

For our second dive, we went back to the South Channel to a slightly different spot. We descended to 30 feet and dove around the area. We had to remember to check our air supply regularly so we would know when to turn back and end the dive. Periodically Mike or Sam would turn to us and ask us how much air we had left without checking. If we were within 300 psi, then we would get a fist bump! We saw a lot of colorful fish and an eel hiding in a café. Mike picked up a sea anemone and gave it to each of us to hold. It felt like tiny suction cups holding onto my hand, but it didn’t hurt.

Once we were done with this dive, we practiced sharing air as we ascended, in case one of us ever runs out of air. Since Jon has been going through air much quicker than the rest of us, he took my secondary regulator and we shared my air as we ascended. Back to the dock and then another lunch break for me and Jon.

After lunch, it was time to complete our quizzes and take our final exam. We went through our quizzes together and then Mike went over some of the questions that we were unsure of. We took our final exam, on which you need to pass with at least 75%. I’m happy to report that we both passed! I got a 94% and Jon got a 92% – not too bad!

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Day Three

This day consisted of two more open water dives, but not as much skill practice. These dives went deeper, so that we would become more comfortable in the depths. These were also over more coral, so there was not a sandy bottom on which we could rest if we needed to. Otherwise, they were more like fun dives than work since we just dove with the instructors.

The first dive was to the Aquarium, an area just outside the barrier reef. We descended to 60 feet, our deepest yet! I had trouble on the way down, since my right ear wouldn’t pop. It took me twice as long as the others to descend, but Mike stayed with me the entire time to make sure I was ok. Finally, I got down to the bottom and we started swimming. The one main thing we practiced today was using a compass to navigate underwater and using a dive computer to help with our depths and timing. We dove through some small canyons, with coral on either side and a ton of colorful fish. On our ascent, we did a three-minute safety stop, where we had to float in place for three minutes before finishing our ascent.

For our surface interval, we went back to Shark and Ray Alley again. Since we didn’t have any skills to practice or tests to take, this was free time for us to swim around. Jon and I took out our GoPro to film the sting rays that we saw, some of which would swim directly under us!

Our second dive of the day was back to the South Channel area, to a depth of 30 feet. We saw a couple of small barracuda swimming above us and a small sole fish that looked like sand and would jump around! We dove for about 40 minutes and practiced a CESA (Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent) on our ascent. After that, we were officially certified and done with dive school!

Back at the dock, we completed some paperwork and received our log books from Frenchie’s. We got our pictures taken for our certification cards (although it would have been nice to do pictures before we spent the day diving!) and inquired about other dives the following week that would be a good fit for beginners.

Jon and I celebrated that evening with some rum punch drinks at happy hour. We were both happy to have taken the course and received our certification, but were ready for a couple of days off to relax. Diving is a lot of fun, but also a bit of work and we were tired at the end of each day! I can see how it can be an addicting hobby to do and am already looking forward to our next dive!

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Summary

We enjoyed our time scuba diving and with everyone at Frenchie’s so much that we signed up for another dive the following week. All of the underwater pictures from this post are from that dive, when we went to Tackle Box and Esmarelda, since we didn’t have the GoPro with us for most of our certification. We had a great time on that dive as well and it made us feel even more comfortable underwater!

I want to end this with a big THANK YOU to everyone at Frenchie’s, but especially Mike and Sam. We had a fantastic experience and loved our time in dive school getting certified. Everyone was so helpful and friendly and we felt very much at home there. Frenchie’s has set the bar high when it comes to dive shops, and it will be hard to compete with our first experiences with them in Caye Caulker.