Makes me remember a day some years ago when we took the wife's family to Bais and most had never been on a boat; swim like fish in the river but that was their first time in Bais; the dolphins, sandbars and the lunch at the beach really rocked. Great memories. Personally I'm not the strongest swimmer out there but the few times I've taken a ferry it has been less than comfortable, if I can fly I will...my choice I guess. Shawn
No skills required. Just swim down and away from the person. Trust me they will not follow you. I took someone for a dive on my Octopus (spare scuba reg) down to about 1.5 meters down. They got freaked out so we came to the surface. They figured the best place to be was on top of my head. I just went back down and they swam just fine.
I'm a decent swimmer but "down" in the ocean kinda freaks me out too. When I was snorkeling in Siquijor the bottom suddenly went from "easily visible and pretty blue" deep to "holy f*cking sh*t who knows what's in that black abyss!" deep and I just had to stop looking down and swim back very quickly. Felt the same as standing on the edge of a huge cliff, my body just said, "get away from that NOW you dumb @ss!" lol (Obviously I have never, and will never, go diving.)
Nobody told me it's not good to snorkel for the first time on a rough sea. I freaked out when there's no air to suck just the goggles was better.
A diving instructor ask me, if I want join him in a cave 18 meter under the surface, no way, I was f**king scared. Then he told me, it's all about control your brain, I did it and never regret. He was a friend, I trust him, he work as a professional diver for many years. Nothing like beat your on fear
I want to try. My mother always said no you shouldn't, what will happen to your little children if you die now now that she's gone and my kids are grown, I'll think about diving lessons--gotta compare cost between PI and Okinawa.
Not much to diving when doing it with someone who knows what they are doing. Just breath, follow, enjoy and try not to suck too much air. On El Nido, my wife, who can barely swim actually put on the gear and went down about 10-15 ft with a dive master. Caveat, it's was in a cove and not open water.