I Scuba’d the Great Barrier Reef

Today started early. We got picked up at 7am and headed onto our boat, “The Reef Experience”. As soon as we got on, we were greeted by awesome hosts and picked out flippers and wet suit attire! We were advised from EVERYONE on land to wear a suit since it is jelly fish season, but in reality, our dive instructors said there was no need to.

So lucky for me, I got to wear my cute bikini instead! Yay! Makes for way better pics 🙂 So…remember how scared I was for scuba diving? Yes I think you remember. I was hesitant a few weeks ago as to whether or not I should do it and well, looks like my confidence was still shaky at the beginning…

OK I was terrified. I thought I was gonna die. It took a good 5 min for me to let go of that bar. I kept thinking that my ears would EXPLODE!!! They were not equalizing to the pressure around me. Luckily we had a great dive instructor who eased me through the painful process as he guided us deeper and deeper.

The sea ia an amazing place. It looked like Little Mermaid’s world. Everything was so blue, serene, calm and surreal. Look a GIANT CLAM!!!!

Here’s Jackelyn making like a mermaid. We rented an underwater camera, so all of these pics were taken by either me or my sis! Made the whole experience THAT much better. And totally bloggable 🙂 Haha.

Gorgeous coral. No wonder The Great Barrier Reef is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. I feel so fortunate to have been able to swim amongst it all. I don’t know if future generations will be able to do the same one day.

I had so much fun taking pics. I also took video too. Yup that’s right, we will have a youtube video up of me guiding you through the reef! Not sure when it will be up, but will do my best to create something cool next week. The goal of our dives and snorkeling sessions was to spot a sea turtle, a sting ray, or a shark. That’s right, a shark. We were told the ones around the reef don’t eat humans…

We spotted a colorful fish! Well tons of them! I am pretty sure this is a parrot fish or some type of a rainbow fish. The colors were sooooo vibrant!

And a Nemo!!!! A clown fish. That’s my hand touching the sea anemone that Nemo is feeding off of. I actually loved touching the anemone because it feel “sticky” but really it’s “tentacles” or tubes were just sucking at my skin. Geez I am losing all of my vocab from Marine Biology…my professor would not be so pleased!

PEACE!!!! Photoshoot underwater of course. And wait what is that…

A SEA TURTLE!!!!! OMG!!!!! After looking around and around and around the reef, we spotted a turtled down below feeding. And then it swam up right in front of my face. I felt so lucky to see one of the gems of the sea up close and personal. My pet turtle at home, whose name is Turtle by the way, would be proud.

Ahhh, a successful first dive. Honestly guys I was fearful at the beginning. Wasn’t even sure if I was gonna make it below 5 feet under the surface. But you know what? A knowledgeable, kind, and funny instructor led me through and helped me experience one of the most amazing sceneries in the world. Also, having other people around me who had done it or were doing it made me feel much better that I wasn’t REALLY gonna die.

So for those of you reading this blog looking for a reason to “get started” towards your new healthy/fit life – please take advantage of our Blogilates community and well, me! I am here to guide you and lead you too, much like my dive instructor today. I may not be there to hold your hand physically, but I honestly care about all of your journeys no matter your background and experience level. I want everyone to enjoy the benefits of a vibrant life full of nutritious foods and crazy energy. I love when you guys get excited about working out to POP Pilates or any of my ridic creations…haha…just makes me wanna do a better job for you each time.

Ok, well I hope you enjoyed my underwater adventure! I sure did. Well, after I let go of that metal bar. Tomorrow is DVD shoot day!!!! First ever POP Pilates full length video coming your way. Are you ready!!??? I am. I’ve got some nice color, I’ll be in Port Douglas on the beautiful sands, and my outfits are all lined up. Thanks to Lorna Jane for the fitness fashion! Wooo! Loving it all. I will be blogging about my AWESOME shopping experience at Australia’s PREMIERE activewear brand in the next coming days.

By the way, if you’re in Sydney, this Sunday is my meetup! Please come enjoy a FREE POP Pilates class at Lorna Jane Mosman, 8:30am SUNDAY Feb 12. Just call 02 9969 2170 to reserve a spot! I can’t wait to meet my Aussie POPsters!!

Also, we will be doing a LIVEEEEEE class for all the POPsters around the world. So please tune into my BlogTV channel here: http://www.blogtv.com/people/blogilates if you wanna follow along. If you have no idea what time 8:30am in Sydney is, just check out the countdown timer on my BlogTV page.

I used timezonecoverter.com and it told me this:

08:30:00 a.m. Sunday February 12, 2012 in Australia/Sydney converts to
01:30:00 p.m. Saturday February 11, 2012 in US/Pacific

OK, must go to bed early today. We’re shooting at 6am, getting picked up at 5am, so must wake up at 4am…or earlier.

Bye now! Love love love Cassey!!!!