Conquering Phobias!
It seems that I have changed my family's outlook on being green! Sorry Kermit, it appears easier to be green nowadays... I am looking into taking several workshops through the Porter County Waste Reduction and Recycling Thingymabob. They are hosting these (and cheaply I might add) to help educate and also to jump start your knowledge thereof. For instance, next month they are doing a seminar on rain barrels. For twenty bucks you get an hour's worth of information on setup, maintenance, everything regarding the barrels... And you get a 50-gal rain barrel with spigot and linking and overflow valve! Fancy pants! So, my barrel will go to my parents, and my cousin is going to that class as well as the composting one. They are going to start composting for their swankified garden!
I successfully breathed underwater last night (and with only one moment of true panic. We started to practice skills right away for the underwater portion... First we had to take our regulators out of our mouths (the oxygen source), have a constant stream of bubbles flow from our mouths, and replace the regulator (clearing it once it is returned to your mouth). Fine and dandy. Next we had to take our regulator out, throw it to the side of us, retrieve it in a specific fashion, replace it, and clear it. Still okay. Not as big of a problem as I originally thought. Next came mask clearing... Go figure the most simple one is my issue! We were required on this third skill set to fill our mask partially with water, and clear it. When it came to my turn, I think I filled my mask too quickly and too much with the water (we were only supposed to get it close to eye level). I dumped water in so it covered my eyes, and I started to freak out - much as if I were drowning. Then I realized that the number one rule in scuba diving is to breathe continuously slowly, and deep. I was totally not breathing at all! So, I took a breathe from the regulator, talked to myself the whole time to calm myself, and cleared the mask. Next skill set we had to signal underwater how much air we had left in our tanks, and also practiced what we do in case of an emergency (our diving buddy would "run out of air" and have to use our octopus [aka, second stage] to breathe, and ascend). We ended the night with some snorkeling.
May I just say how hard it is to walk around in flippers. Scratch that - it is almost equally as hard to swim with them. I think by the end of the night, I was better. But, it took some practice!
I successfully breathed underwater last night (and with only one moment of true panic. We started to practice skills right away for the underwater portion... First we had to take our regulators out of our mouths (the oxygen source), have a constant stream of bubbles flow from our mouths, and replace the regulator (clearing it once it is returned to your mouth). Fine and dandy. Next we had to take our regulator out, throw it to the side of us, retrieve it in a specific fashion, replace it, and clear it. Still okay. Not as big of a problem as I originally thought. Next came mask clearing... Go figure the most simple one is my issue! We were required on this third skill set to fill our mask partially with water, and clear it. When it came to my turn, I think I filled my mask too quickly and too much with the water (we were only supposed to get it close to eye level). I dumped water in so it covered my eyes, and I started to freak out - much as if I were drowning. Then I realized that the number one rule in scuba diving is to breathe continuously slowly, and deep. I was totally not breathing at all! So, I took a breathe from the regulator, talked to myself the whole time to calm myself, and cleared the mask. Next skill set we had to signal underwater how much air we had left in our tanks, and also practiced what we do in case of an emergency (our diving buddy would "run out of air" and have to use our octopus [aka, second stage] to breathe, and ascend). We ended the night with some snorkeling.
May I just say how hard it is to walk around in flippers. Scratch that - it is almost equally as hard to swim with them. I think by the end of the night, I was better. But, it took some practice!