Learning how to scuba dive Aannsha conquers her biggest fear! In this episode of Sailing A B Sea Aannsha conquers her biggest fear, the fear of drowning, by ...

Closed Captions (CC):
Oh my word there were a couple of

moments there. I panicked on the first

dive because I thought I was gonna die. Just a few years ago when our son Luke

completed his open water scuba diving

course I remember Aannsha saying

There's no way you'll ever get me on the bottom of the ocean and taking my mask off.

Well that was a few years ago and just

recently Aannsha completed her open

water scuba diving course. I was one of

the assistant divers on that course and

I can tell you I've never seen so much

fear on someone's face. But she did it.

When Baz said "I think you need to scuba

dive, then we can both swim underwater

and get some good shots" my stomach

instantly knotted with fear. I actually

do enjoy swimming underwater in a pool,

but put me in the ocean with the waves

and I begin to hyperventilate. But I knew

I'd have to face my fears because one of

the reasons for traveling on a yacht is

to make scuba diving videos and I need

to be Baz's his dive buddy.

Enter Ian Johnson of The Diving Company

my amazingly patient scuba instructor

who together with his assistants Barry

and Gordon was able to take me from

panicking novice to certified open water

diver. A long-buried childhood trauma surfaced the minute I got into the pool.

When I was six my father took me to a local indoor pool for swimming

lessons. The crusty old teacher strapped some polystyrene floats

to me and literally threw me into the

deep end and told me to swim to the side.

Swallowing water and panicking I

screamed at my dad "help me". After what

seemed like an eternity, but was really

only a minute or two, my father said

Tha's enough, bring her in. The instructor unceremoniously plucked me

out of the water with his upturned

walking stick. My father never took me

there again. Back to the present and once

again I felt like I was the six-year-old

girl drowning. I'm gonna go over! Which way? Forwards and then I'll drown! Drowning is not part of the program.

However thanks to Ian's calm

instruction I managed to stay focused

and began learning the scuba skills.

With the pool training sessions complete

it was time to put on my big girl pants

and continue my training in the open

ocean. I knew this was going to be a

physical, mental and emotional challenge

and I brought all of my 25 plus years of

meditation and relaxation training with

me, but I still had three full-blown

panic attacks. I'm sure my meditation

training helped me to stay present with

myself long enough to remember why I was learning scuba diving in the first place.

OK so how is it going today? It's going fine. Are you going to cope with those big waves out there?

I'm just nervous. It's a tsunami. Oh go away. It's not wasabi. For safety reasons Barry didn't

take his camera along on any of our four

training sessions in the ocean, but

here's some footage of me enjoying

diving off Shelly Beach and Kings Beach

boat ramp in Queensland Australia. as a

newly certified open water diver.

So how was that? It took ages to get my buoyancy. Yeah I noticed, you were trying to focus on too many things.

First thing is get your buoyancy right, then focus on everything else. Yeah.

Learning to scuba dive in the ocean was

the hardest thing I have ever had to do

and as you'll see next there's a huge

amount of relief on my harrowed face as

Barry filmed me in the car park after Ian

told me that I passed the dive course.

Then it hit me... I'd done it! I'd overcome my fear and triumphed.

But I couldn't have done it without the help of three amazing guys.

Instructor Ian and assistants Baz and

Gordon, who patiently supported me while

I overcame my hurdles. A big heartfelt

thank you guys.

So? I did it. First dive I thought I was gonna die and the last one where I had to ascend and then fill up the BCD without,

yeah, that was, I had to do that twice and I didn't want to and it took me a while to do

the second one. Right are we ready for a wreck dive on the Brisbane now? Gimme

a week. (laughter) Oh I have to certify her now! (laughter)