水肺潛水：一場打開新世界大門之旅

都說潛水會使人上癮？試過之後，你就會發現，它不光是個讓人得以放鬆的水中娛樂項目，更重要的是，它教會了你如何感受呼吸，與自身獨處。

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It』s been said that diving can be addictive, yet I was unsure about it when my three friends and I began to plan our trip to learn scuba diving. What if I tried it and hated it?

據說潛水會使人上癮，但當我和三位朋友一起策劃學習水肺潛水之旅時，我對此還不確定。萬一試了以後我不喜歡呢？

But the doubt was gone after we got back from our one-week trip to Moalboal, Philippines, at the end of June.

但6月底，當我們經歷了菲律賓莫布島七日游後，這樣的疑慮都消失了。

It wasn』t a typical trip by the sea, with bikinis and afternoons at the beach. Instead, we spent our first morning sitting in a room watching tutorial videos. The rest of the days we would practice what we』d learned from the video with our instructor, first in the pool and then in the sea. Every day, we had to dress ourselves up in a tightdiving suit and a jacket with a heavy steel tank on the back.

那並不是一場典型的海濱旅行，我們沒有穿著比基尼在海灘上玩一下午。恰恰相反，我們抵達後的第一天早晨就坐在房間里學習潛水教學視頻。剩下的時間我們就和教練一起練習從視頻中學到的技能，一開始先在泳池裡訓練，後來就到海水裡實戰。每天我們都得穿上緊身潛水服和夾克，把一個沉重的氧氣鋼瓶背在背上。

This wasn』t how most people would imagine spending their vacation, but we enjoyed every minute of it. Not only did we get to enjoy beautiful views under the ocean, but we also felt less like tourists and more like professional divers as we learned more skills each day.

這並非是大多數人想像中的度假，但我們很享受這場假期中的每分每秒。我們不光欣賞了海底的美景，每天還都學到了新技能，不再有遊客的感覺，反倒更像是專業的潛水員。

Of course, we』d been in the sea before, but this was more than just snorkeling in life jackets – we were able to get away and explore underwater, swimming with turtles and other beautiful sea creatures. As US journalist James Nestor wrote in his book Deep (《深海》，2015), 「There are no mobile phones down there, no emails … no car keys to lose, no terrorist threats, no birthdays to forget … All the stress, noise, and distractions of life are left at the surface. The ocean is the last truly quiet place on Earth.」

當然，我們以前也泡在海水裡玩過，但這不僅僅是穿著救生衣浮潛——我們能夠擺脫救生衣去探索水下的世界，和海龜以及其他美麗的海洋生物一起暢遊。正如美國記者詹姆斯·內斯特在他所著的《深海》（2015）一書中所寫的那樣，「水下沒有手機，沒有郵件……沒有找不著的車鑰匙，沒有恐怖主義的威脅，沒有被遺忘的生日……所有生活中的壓力、噪音還有煩心事都留在了岸上。海洋的確是地球上最後的一片凈土。」

The experience also allowed us to get to know ourselves better. When we had to fully concentrate on our breathing – even a little bit of difference in the amount of air we breathed in or out could have changed our buoyancy– we started to realize how we』d been taking it for granted and had never truly 「felt」 ourselves breathe.

這段經歷也讓我們更好地了解自己。當我們需要完全專註於自身的呼吸時——呼氣吸氣的量有細微的不同，甚至能影響我們的浮力——便會開始注意到，先前我們都把呼吸這件事想的理所當然，卻從未真正「感受」過自己的呼吸。

Now that I』ve been back for over two months, I no longer have any doubt about the attraction of diving. In fact, my friends and I are already planning another diving trip during Spring Festival, probably to the Red Sea in Egypt. This hobby truly is addictive.

回來兩個多月後，我不再對潛水的魅力有任何懷疑。事實上，我和朋友們已經開始策劃春節的下一場潛水之旅，目的地可能是埃及的紅海。這個愛好真的會令人上癮！

本文選自《二十一世紀學生英文報·高一》684期

本文音頻由我報外籍專家Dale Fox朗讀

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