SO here we go! I finished the whole didactic and practical portions of the PADI open water diver course. I studied for a full week, watched a three hour video and met with an instructor for three days. My three day practical experience was an interesting experience. And if you know me at all, you know what I mean by interesting. If you don't know, well read on! And, oh yeah, if you know me read on anyway!!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
I was so excited for this day I could barely sleep Monday night! I accumulated about three hours and I am not really sure if any of it was REM sleep.
I arrived at 9am at the Dive-In shop. I had three hours of sleep. I was exhausted. I was not impressed with the quizzes I had to complete. They were so simple. Yet, I received two 100%'s and a 90% and an 80%. Embarrassing as they are designed from any on 12 years old on up. Yet, with my BA & ND, I still could not get it together. I am pretty sure that even though my instructor was talking to me through out my completion of the quizzes, I should have been able to get 100% on all of them. I am pretty sure at this point is when my instructor that I was dim witted; from then on, he treated me as such. For anyone who knows me, and just to review: we know I like to ask questions A lot of questions. I asked them to get confidence in what I thought was true; I asked them to confirm what I was supposed to do under water, so I would act safely with this regulator (and they were not all stupid questions, believe me). He took all these questions as another factoid of low wattage on my part. He also knows I don't drink, so he probably thinks I am some dim witted do -gooder...not like it's any business of mine what other people think of me, but still... So he would proceed with directions, only to ask after every direction, "does that make sense?". Yeah, asshole, blowing bubbles under water makes sense. Oh my god, he got on my nerves right away.....
But let's press on; he wanted to get me on a dive my very first day, which in the long run, was probably good to get my nerves jump started. So, we got to the boat and I learned how to roll backward into the water off the boat on my first day, which I have to say, did terrify me a little. But to be honest, what terrified me the most was the fact that I don't know if I totally trusted him and I think that's what frazzled me the most. I descended on a mooring line behind him and started to have those ear issues, the squeeze. Ugh, it actually started to hurt. I equalized, not soon enough, and I equalized what seemed like every foot. However, I found it to really be quite the squeeze. Every time I equalized, it felt like my ears were sneezing. So, I got down there and hung out for about 7 minutes (I found this bottom time out later) when SOMETHING happened. Oh my god, I think I hyperventilated or tried to draw more air from the reg or something. I PANICKED, which is horrible. I know I must have breathed fine on the way up, but I couldn't find the instructor (why don't I call him TA from now on, for you know, The Asshole). I started ascending, and then when I got up and up and and away....I started a runaway ascent and I can't remember if and how I was breathing, which of course, caused me to panic even more. As we ALL know, you can not be holding your breath while diving. I got up to the surface and waved the distress signal. I inflated my BCD, but probably not enough because I was struggling and wide eyed. But I didn't take the regulator out of my mouth. I did not take off my mask and I gave the appropriate signal. Another diver came to my aid and then TA surfaced and inflated my BCD a little more.
Well, we know how TA responded to this. I did not dive for the rest of the day. I was so upset with myself, that along with the motion of the waves, I felt like I was going to be sick. The tears were coming. TA absolutely could not deal with that and I know he thought I was a blubbering idiot. Needless to say, the owner of the shop was pissed that he took me diving and didn't spend the rest of the day in the pool. This is something I found out on Wednesday.
What I did find out was a spiritual experience on the way home. As we headed back, I faced the horizon with tears in my eyes and mad at my self for the major disappointment. Then I saw the beauty in it all. Because really, when I got sober, it was the hardest thing I had ever done. The first year, I was full of fear. And here I was, so upset and disgruntled with myself because I panicked for 2 minutes maximum. Yes, this could have been life threatening. But so is being spiritually bankrupt back then. Isn't anything that is truly rewarding worth working for? And who am I to think this should all come so easily? So I felt so much better. The only thing better would be to have Jeff there at that moment. I wished so badly that he was and that was part of the tears. The other part were prayers to continue. And so I did.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
So, I found out that he made a mistake. Honestly, while I was glad that I just kinda got forced to face all my nerves at once, I felt better knowing that I should have had more pool training (like in the deep end). It occurred to me that maybe it would have been nice to have a little deep end experience before venturing into the ocean at 30 feet depth after breathing with the regulator in 3 foot deep water. Something about the shallow end gave me a lot of comfort. Comfort in 30 foot deep water 2 hours later: not so much.
To start off Wednesday, I had just woken up from a nice 7-8 hour slumber (such a difference sleep makes, huh?). I took my final exam and got a 100%. There you go, this day is starting out differently and much much better. Then we go to the pool and TA starts talking to his girlfriend and grunts after saying he is with "the student". He grunts and says "not so much" in the phone. Then he looks at me (looking at him grunt in the phone) and starts all nice in the phone "but I think today will be much better". HUH?? Shut up and hang up the phone. Which he did. So we worked on more skills and I got deep end time and this time I feel much better about getting into the water. He had suggested to take a pseudophedrine in the morning (which contradicts the PADI recommendation of no medications), but it turned out just fine and my ears felt much better in the deep end. So we stopped off at Burger King and I made nice by buying his burgers. This was VERY nice of me, I thought. No ego. NOT.AT.ALL. ANYWAY, we head off to the other dive shop (Horizon Divers) and I had two pretty decent dives. I felt much better, even though TA told me I didn't have to keep equalizing once I got steady in the deepest area of our dive (which was only 30 or 35 feet). I guess this was pretty good information as he told me he saw blood in my mask (from blown little vessels in my nose). It still felt better to keep equalizing, but this was good information to have. So I dove again and got some more skills done. I had I felt like it was a much more successful dive. TA was slightly less condescending, but still murmured to everyone on the boat that I was a student and had no idea what I was doing because of yesterday. Whatever. I was really happy with the dives. I started to get my confidence back up and I knew that I was going to love doing this with Jeff and anyone else that would love to dive with me.
We were on our way to Winch hole Molasses Reef and Fire Coral Cave for Dives #1 & #2:
I saw the most amazing things under water and it was superb; the viz was not bad at all, in my opinion (but what do I know?), and I saw great colors. There was so much purple in the vegetation and a lot of orange in the coral; it was just beautiful. The fish were all different colors and I saw just huge schools of fish and a few lone nurse sharks and barracudas. I knew that I wanted to see more.
At the end of the day, I had completed some of my skills by the end of Wednesday and I am glad I got the snorkel & regulator exchange done, because being with out my regulator really freaks me out. I am just barely getting the hang of "the blowing small bubbles" (Tiny Bubbles song came to mind under water) between my air sources. I did it though, and CESA is next. CESA is the Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent, and I get to lose the regulator after taking a deep breath and blowing tiny bubbles till I get to the surface. Oh yay!
So, TA kept talking to his dive cronies and left me alone on my way back to shore. I was just thinking about the ocean, staring at the horizon, in awe of everything the ocean offers under its surface. It is really there, if you want it, but you have to want it, I realized. I was looking forward at this point to be able to tell Jeff I had a much better day at it.
TA informed me that I was all done with my pool skills and we would be going to Rainbow Dive center (Rainbow Reef I think?) Thursday to dive with them. I was glad to be finally done with the pool and with the final exam. As we were going to do the dive at 8:30am, I would be done with diving by late lunch and have my cert all done. Time to go home and tell Jeff all about it (in reality I didn't really tell him how much my instructor annoyed me.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
I woke up with horrible cramps, which was horrible timing. I just prepared myself with a pseudoephedrine for my ears (according to TA, this would be fine), but I was afraid to take the amount of ibuprofen needed to make all my cramps go away due to the fact it makes me a little drowsy. So for some insane reason, I thought it would be okay to bicycle up to the dive shop with TA. He picked me up and I suddenly wished we were going in the car (not his, of course as he does not have one, but the dive shop owner's car). I developed more cramps and hoped my adrenaline would start kicking in.
After making it to the dive shop and getting on the boat, TA was murmuring about having to take me on the boat and I was his student, blah blah blah. I guess everyone had to know I was a student; it was the safe thing to do, I know, as everyone else was certified and should know I am in training. But really, the way he did it...well, there is room for improvement in the consideration and kindness department. Let's just say that.
So at the end of dive #3, I was unable to blow small bubbles for a CESA though I could do it in the pool, but I feel that I had a good handle on it, especially because Jeff helped me out in that department, giving me good suggestions. I saw beautiful sharks and marine life. Stunning stuff. By the end of dive #4, I made a successful CESA and compass reading back to the boat. Problem was that I was so full of horrible cramps, I told TA prior to dive #4. He was grateful for the timely warning and informed me that 20 minutes is the minimum for a qualifying dive for open water scuba and that's what we did! I was pretty quiet and he was a lot nicer toward the end. We biked back and I changed my clothes in the RV and headed over to the shop for my cert paper work. How I dove twice and biked 5 miles round trip with horrible cramps escapes the logical part of my brain. I chalk that one up to adrenaline.
Back at the dive shop, he told me to work on my skills with Jeff and they let me come back the next day for my photo. I was feeling pretty excited to be done, but so worn out, that no picture would come remotely close to being pretty. I went back the next day and got my print out. YAY!!
I.AM.AN.OPEN.WATER.DIVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am so excited to dive more with Jeff and I am already looking at dive destinations for vacations. Watch out!
Post Script: I am sure there is something I left out, but right now I am too excited to care!
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