Andy diving on the way down to the reef

We were all slightly apprehensive, this is an extreme sport after all, and made our way down into the training area in the water below the platform. This was absolutely awful. We had to learn how to recover a face mask if we lost it under water, and how to blow any water out of our face masks. However, the water was so choppy that we were being buffeted about under the water with the instructor trying to get us to perform all the required tasks before we were allowed to do the dive. He kept us there that long though that we started to get a bit panicky and we all surfaced at one point. He sent us back under water and Andy and I eventually managed to get off the platform and we set off on our dive feeling very anxious!