We had left the dive center early that morning, there was a slight chance of a southerly wind in the afternoon and we wanted to get the intro dive out of the way prior to that. In the explorer with me was a family from Minnesotta who, along with their 9 year old boy, had traveled down by car. It had taken them 3 days to get to the boarder at Tecate and another 2 days to get to us.
Their aim was to strike while the proverbial iron was hot – their son had learned to swim and had expressed an interest in diving. As they were taking the road trip down to La Paz anyway, they had decided to see if he would like to stop in Mulege and try the PADI bubblemaker™ course. They had contacted us a few months back and they were very keen to have him try in the clam confines of Bahia Concepcion.
Playa Burro is an excellent location to try SCUBA for the first time, the bottom is mostly sand and the depth goes from 1′ to 30′ over about 300 yards, so it is nice and flat. The edges of the bay on either side have a multitude of sea life, small nudibranchs, reef fish and crustaceans. However, what really makes Playa Burro so good is how warm the water is. Starting from early May the water tem never drops below 80 degrees, while mid August it is over 90 degrees. Perfect water to learn to dive in.
Tom was very clam and confortable in the water, we observed him swimming and free snorkeling for about an hour, while we ran through the course with his parents (who were both PADI divers). Finally it was time to get Tom acquainted with the equipment and let him take a few, above water, breaths from the regulator. It is always amazing to us how much more comfortable and trusting children are (they also have a better grasp of listening when things are important)! So after running through the basic rules; don’t hold your breath, don’t take the regulator out of your mouth, hold my hand and don’t touch things unless we say it is okay, we were ready for the dive.
Usually these dives last about 20 minutes with 3 of 4 surfaces to clear their mask etc. However Tom was excellent in the water, we stayed under for over 40 minutes and we can truly say we went on a full dive. The maximum depth was 5′, but he could have been at 20 for how good he was. Now a bubblemaker is just an introduction, and he will have to wait till he is 10 before he can take the PADI Junior Open Water™ course, but they had a blast and we have already planned their return dates when they will begin diving together as a family.
All in all it was a great day at Burro, and one that Tom and his family will not forget for sometime.
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