Expo Zaragoza 2008 :: News

Underwater christening for the Water Tribune

The Water Tribune decided to leave aside conferences for a few hours to submerge in a pool at the Helios Sports Centre. Together with the Aragon Underwater Activities Federation (FARAS), they invited people to come for an underwater christening: in other words, to go underwater for the first time with scuba gear. “What we achieve with this christening is that people have the sensation of diving and breathing below water”, explained the instructor Jorge Burgos, because under the water we first breathe in and then relax and let the air out, not to mention the pressure on our ears. “Many people love to dive after just having been in the pool, but you need a course before you can go out to sea”, because if there is a problem you need to learn to solve it underwater.

Following the announcement from the Water Tribune and FARAS, many people turned up and they showed themselves to be calm though this was the first time they had used scuba gear underwater. “As the instructors are here, I don’t feel afraid”, stated María José, one of the participants. The instructors accompanied everyone in their first experience, explaining how to breathe and how to communicate below the water. Equipped with neoprene suits, flippers and oxygen tanks, one by one people disappeared into the pool at Helios Sports Centre.

Members of the Water Tribune, collaborators of Expo Zaragoza 2008 and members of Helios Club participated in the activity. As Carlos Rodríguez (coordinator of the Thematic Weeks) stated, water also offers pleasurable uses and scuba-diving is a way of encountering a medium that can seem hostile to us.