Happy To Be Here

Snuba? I snorted. What a ridiculously stupid name.

I must do it.

Now what is it?

Snuba, it turned out, is a blend between snorkelling and scuba diving. This uncommon activity allows the adventurer to explore the ocean (reef) at a deeper level than snorkelling, without all the fuss of scuba diving, receiving oxygen through a rubber tube and mouthpiece, connected to a source above (i.e. a raft.)

Which was how I found myself two days later six metres below the ocean surface at Port Noarlunga beach.

After a run-through of procedure, my companions and I heaved on our tight-fitting wetsuits, and marched along the jetty, across the burning summer concrete that soon turned our marching into hopping. Halfway along, it became a little too blisteringly hot for my poor feet, and I slipped on my flippers, choosing instead to waddle, like a penguin out of place, the rest of the way. Finally we reached the reef, roughly 400 metres offshore, and our adventure truly began.

My first discovery was that breathing through a mouthpiece sounds satisfyingly like Darth Vader, but feels completely unnatural and requires intense concentration. The second was peace. Six metres down, I couldn’t hear the shrieks of teenagers jetty jumping above, or children playing onshore. Communication in this place was visual not aural, relying on hand gestures - most memorably the “cowabunga” signal from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which means “I’m O.K.” But, as cheesy as it may sound, the most valuable lesson I learned? It is possible to become part of this environment. I found this, moments before the end of the time slot, amidst a school of fish. It feels wrong to call them a school, their proper name, because at the time it was a cloud. Six metres under the water, I was in a glistening, silver-scaled cloud. And the fish weren’t afraid. Their tails brushed gently against me, but they did not hurry away. For the briefest moment, time hung in the air, and I became one of them, a peer, rather than an intruder.

Snuba? Turns out, not stupid at all.