Each New Day

We finished up our classroom portion of our scuba diving class last night. The kids both passed with 78% and my husband and I both passed with 88%. Whew! Now all we have left is our open water diving skills, which we will do this weekend.  Hopefully we can pass the skills that we already learned in the pool!

Tonight was our first night in the pool at our scuba diving class. We got to the indoor pool ready to take our swim test. We thought we had to swim six laps, it was only four, which was good news! The water was COLD, but we got our laps done (fairly) quickly and moved on to the tread test. We had to tread water for ten minutes. That was a little intimidating sounding, but it went by quickly. An instructor came in with us and kept time and we all chatted, so it did not seem so bad. Then it was time to get gear, suit up and get in the water.

After much waiting around, we finally got our stuff together and ready to proceed. The instructor told us to open our air and push the purge button on the breathing regulator. Mine went kind of nuts, since it was a different one for deeper dives. I kind of lost composure then. It really scared me. But we continued and I got in the pool with everyone else. It is really hard to make myself breath deep and slow, but “regular” at the same time. I had a hard time with the concept and in the end ended up losing composure again. By that time, the instructor said I was hyperventilating and was too cold and needed to get out and get into a hot shower.

The shower felt good, but I felt bad. I hated letting my husband down (he says I didn’t) and of course the kids too. Who by the way did AWESOME! I hope that next week will go better. Especially since the kids did so well and liked it so much, we are looking forward to some family dives over the next few years.

I am still not really sure what caused my loss of composure (twice!) nor how to prevent it next week. Especially considering the fact that I had already passed the basic class last summer and did a forty foot dive in the ocean!!

We did it! We actually went through our Discover Scuba Diving course! We were the only two people in our Discover Scuba Diving Class. We spent a short time filling in a medical release and watching an instructional video. Then we were suited up for instruction in the water. This took place just off the beach, about 20 feet deep. After practicing breathing, and learning to clear our mask and regulator, (and seeing an octopus who had caught a crab!) we were off for our dive, about 40 to 50 feet down to a coral reef.

We took a short boat ride through the glass-like waters. After entering the water, we followed a rope down, being sure to stabilize our ears every few feet. Then, we were off to explore the reef for about 50 minutes! It was absolutely amazing! The best description I have is it was so dream-like! I loved the weightless feeling, the slow moving kicking. I was pretty scared of losing my breathing apparatus (though I knew what to do should that happen). This dive was so wonderful and Wolfgang and Steve were awesome instructors who were so careful and patient with us. Thank you for sharing your underwater world with us!

In preparation for our upcoming cruise, my husband said he wants to scuba dive. That’s great, except we’ve never dived (or is it dove?) before! But in looking at all our options for things to do on shore, we found “discover scuba” classes. These classes are for those who have never done scuba before. It is an introductory course (you will not get certified, but it could count towards certification) in which you learn the basics of scuba and then get to do a shallow water dive (anywhere from 25 to 40 ft). We intend to try this out!