After supper, we packed our gear on the trucks to go have a little fun: a short night dive. The lake was very dark, barely lighted by a half-moon. There's absolutely nothing to see in a lake on a dark night. But we were an adventurous bunch, who liked to do different things. It was our form of entertainment. There were four of us, three dive-masters and me. I teamed up with my friend Daniel.
We suited up quietly, by the silent, empty lake. We entered the water. Everything was black except for what stood in the narrow beams of our flashlights. I could feel the cold of the water against my dry suit. The sound of our breathing seemed more ominous than in the day time. The darkness and the absence of visual references were such that it was easy to become disoriented and lose track of which way was up and which way was down. We swam down to about thirty-five feet and without needing to consult each other, for we teamed up often, Dan and I settled on our knees on the bottom…and turned our lights off.
Thirty-five feet of cold water pressing down on our heads…all the moonlight allows me to see is the vague, monstrous black shape of Dan beside me…the characteristic sound of underwater breathing: suck-in, bubbles… the cold…absolute darkness all around…
"How many people have had this experience, “ I wondered with a thrill, "this off-the-wall, pointless experience of sitting underwater, at 9 pm, in a lake, in the dark? How far is it from anything we're familiar with? Who knows where I am at this very minute?"
It's the same thrill I had when I went skydiving and I was hanging by my hands outside of the plane onto the transversal shaft of the wing, the rest of my body flapping in the wind, milliseconds before letting go…
It's all about experience. I really enjoy doing things that are out of the ordinary. Which is obviously why I'm sitting here, in front of a computer…AHEM…
Good times...
ahhh skydiving and what was the point of the swimsuit might I add... I knew you had it in you!
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