Aye Skooba in zee Osheans!

And I went down 30 feet! Go me! It was pretty cool. The waves were really low though the tide was high, and we swam out to a small reef in Shaw's Cove. I had a little trouble getting my ears to clear so i could go deeper though. I also got pricked a tiny bit by one of the sea urchins on the rock I was trying to cling to before I could get deeper. After trying to cling to the rock I realized the seaweed was strong enough to hold onto though and I just hung out on that for a while until I could get deeper. After we were all down deeper, Jim, our instructor took his dive knife and tapped on one of the rocks and a bunch of big orange Garibaldi fish came up to us, looking for food. He showed us why they were so interested by cracking open a sea urchin and handing us each a piece. The fish all came up and quickly stole bits of the inside of the urchin as we were holding it. It was pretty nifty. I also saw a sea hare clinging to a piece of seaweed. I love those guys, they're slimy and fun! ;) I had a great time diving, even if I did swallow more than my fare share of saltwater. Blegh!
The gear was super heavy. I had 30 lbs on my weight belt and was given an extra 2 pound ankle weight so I would have neutral buoyancy. That's a hell of a lot of weight especially when I had to climb the steps up to the cars. Add on a tank, BC, and a soaked wetsuit and you have one Crystal loaded to the max.
On the bright side, it seems I was the only one not suffering from calf soreness after the experience. Can you say step aerobics anyone? ^_^ It's rather odd seeing as I was struggling my way up the steps, but whatever. Yay for scuba!