Certified Scuba Diver! Huzzah!
As of 12 hours ago I am officially an open water diver. Granted all this means is I can dive without a dive master present, using the buddy system, down to a maximum of 60ft/18.2m. But it was fun.
Dive 1 was sort of bad. There was 6 people, 2 assistants (1 stayed on the surface, her sinuses stopped her from diving) and the instructor (who it turns out, is the accountant for one of my company's competitors). We went down to a platform at about 20 ft, did some skills, then we were supposed to go on a tour of the lake. The problem is visibility was 2-4 ft because of the silty bottom and the 2nd buddy pair never followed the first, and we got stuck behind them so we couldn't leave. This happened 3 times in a row. After we surfaced for the 3rd time, we were supposed to go down one more time for a brief tour. I couldn't descend. I thought my vest had a bad valve and wasn't letting air out, but it turned out I lost a weight pouch with about 12 lbs/ 5.4kg in it. Very hard to sink without it.
Dive 2 we did the buddy check and found out I lost my weight pouch, so I had to swap BCDs with the instructor and rejigger weights. His BCD was way more comfortable and I was much more balanced. So I did fine for the next 2 dives which were basically skills tests. It was on this dive we started getting surrounded by schools of minnows down at about 25 ft. They'd come right up to you and swim through your hands while you were waiting to demonstrate your skills to the instructor.
Dive 3 was more of the same but ended with another short tour. This time we got to see some old bicycles they had put in the lake and a sunken fishing boat.
After dive 3, everyone packed up and went home but me and the instructor went back in and started doing a search & rescue search pattern (which is from a class that I'm still not qualified for, I'd need advanced open water first) and found my missing weight pouch in 15 ft of water in about 10 minutes of looking. Saved me the big ass bill for missing gear. Huzzah.
Then I went to my grandparents and had dinner with them, my aunt & uncle, and my cousin. BBQ porkchop sandwiches. Yummmm!
Sunday was dive 4 which was interesting. We basically went down, did some minor skills, then did underwater compass navigation. Basically swim out following a heading, turn around, follow the reciprocle heading, and hope you end up back at the platform with the group. Then we did some hovering excercises which are to help you learn how to control your buoyancy. While we sat there waiting for our turn, large bluegills would keep coming up and almost bump right into your mask looking you in the face if you sat real still. Then we capped it off with a short tour and got to see the sunken mini-sub they put in the lake. When we surfaced the instructor apologized for it being a short tour but he had actually run low on air. We looked at our dive computers and were suprised to see we had been down there for an hour. Time flies!
After it was all said and done, we went back to the dive shop (a little over an hour drive from the lake we went to), returned our gear, washed it, hung it to dry, and got our temporary cards. I should be getting my actual plastic certification card in about 2-4 weeks.
Now to just make sure I use it. :)
So all in all a busy weekend but a lot of fun and well worth it.
Dive 1 was sort of bad. There was 6 people, 2 assistants (1 stayed on the surface, her sinuses stopped her from diving) and the instructor (who it turns out, is the accountant for one of my company's competitors). We went down to a platform at about 20 ft, did some skills, then we were supposed to go on a tour of the lake. The problem is visibility was 2-4 ft because of the silty bottom and the 2nd buddy pair never followed the first, and we got stuck behind them so we couldn't leave. This happened 3 times in a row. After we surfaced for the 3rd time, we were supposed to go down one more time for a brief tour. I couldn't descend. I thought my vest had a bad valve and wasn't letting air out, but it turned out I lost a weight pouch with about 12 lbs/ 5.4kg in it. Very hard to sink without it.
Dive 2 we did the buddy check and found out I lost my weight pouch, so I had to swap BCDs with the instructor and rejigger weights. His BCD was way more comfortable and I was much more balanced. So I did fine for the next 2 dives which were basically skills tests. It was on this dive we started getting surrounded by schools of minnows down at about 25 ft. They'd come right up to you and swim through your hands while you were waiting to demonstrate your skills to the instructor.
Dive 3 was more of the same but ended with another short tour. This time we got to see some old bicycles they had put in the lake and a sunken fishing boat.
After dive 3, everyone packed up and went home but me and the instructor went back in and started doing a search & rescue search pattern (which is from a class that I'm still not qualified for, I'd need advanced open water first) and found my missing weight pouch in 15 ft of water in about 10 minutes of looking. Saved me the big ass bill for missing gear. Huzzah.
Then I went to my grandparents and had dinner with them, my aunt & uncle, and my cousin. BBQ porkchop sandwiches. Yummmm!
Sunday was dive 4 which was interesting. We basically went down, did some minor skills, then did underwater compass navigation. Basically swim out following a heading, turn around, follow the reciprocle heading, and hope you end up back at the platform with the group. Then we did some hovering excercises which are to help you learn how to control your buoyancy. While we sat there waiting for our turn, large bluegills would keep coming up and almost bump right into your mask looking you in the face if you sat real still. Then we capped it off with a short tour and got to see the sunken mini-sub they put in the lake. When we surfaced the instructor apologized for it being a short tour but he had actually run low on air. We looked at our dive computers and were suprised to see we had been down there for an hour. Time flies!
After it was all said and done, we went back to the dive shop (a little over an hour drive from the lake we went to), returned our gear, washed it, hung it to dry, and got our temporary cards. I should be getting my actual plastic certification card in about 2-4 weeks.
Now to just make sure I use it. :)
So all in all a busy weekend but a lot of fun and well worth it.