August 30 and 31, 2014
I love to snorkel! So I was certain that I would love Scuba. We have a couple of friends who are scuba certified, and are getting ready to spend 2 weeks in Hawaii. Last fall (spring for you Northern Hemisphere dwellers) a Groupon popped up and we jumped for it. I’m going to be honest, I did absolutely no research on this before we dove straight in, pun intended.
First, they send you a book and homework; we did not leave enough time for this. We started on Friday after dinner thinking that we’d be able to scan for bold print and answer the questions. WRONG! Fast forward 5 hours, we’re practically falling asleep and I finish first, because I am a speed reader. It felt like being at University again. So we decide to call it, because the instructions are very clear that we must arrive by 8:00 AM or we forfeit the class, which means we must leave by 7:00 AM to arrive in Rosebud on time. (We didn’t actually start until nearly 8:30 due to the tardiness of other participants in the class.)
Everything is going well, we pass our 800 meter swim, though I nearly have a wardrobe malfunction. We pass our torturous 10 minute water tread – we were all so close together that we couldn’t actually open our arms up as one normally would. We get into our dive gear, and suddenly I feel nervous. I was literally fine up until this point. Its just so much; it’s heavy and it presses against your body everywhere! So I calm myself, because I know I can do this. I have never experienced claustrophobia; I love the water; I can do this.
Have I mentioned that I am a nose breather?
We learn to breath in the water – I’m uncomfortable and I don’t like it, but I can do it. Then we have to do the mask skills. First you have to fill your mask half-way with water and clear it; Second you have to fill your mask fully with water and clear it; Lastly you have to remove your mask, replace it and clear it. I can fill my mask half-way with water and clear it, no problem, but then I can no longer breath. (Have I mentioned that I am a nose breather?) My instructor, Liam, is exceptionally patient with me and allows me to try several times before suggesting that we move on to the next skill and come back to this one later. For this, I am grateful.
I pass buoyancy, out of air, and all of the other pool skills on day 1, and then we come back to my mask skills. Again, I cannot do it. Perhaps I just have myself psyched out, so Liam suggests we park this skill until day 2 and move on to our first open water dive.
We load all of the scuba gear into the trunk of our car and choose to wear wet wetsuits for the drive to Rye Pier, because they were such a bitch to get into that we never want to take them off again. Once at the pier, we get suited up with all of our gear and take a giant leap in off of the pier. And I float.
Skill: check.
I’m ok until we start to descend and I start to panic, so I resurface. 3 times. The first two times, I was just freaking out a little and Liam coaxed me back down. The third time I popped up, I was actually having my first panic attack in my life. Liam had the other divers in my group resurface so that I had time to calm down. I was seriously considering quitting; I even commented on being unfair to the other divers. Liam told me not to worry about the other divers and the other divers encouraged me to continue, so I went back down. This time, Liam literally held my hand the entire time. He helped manage my buoyancy and I focused on breathing through my mouth, not my nose. I stayed down, with Liam’s help, for the first open water dive: 25 minutes. When we resurfaced, he and all of the other divers in my group were very encouraging and I was very proud!
Dive 1: check.
I had been certain that I wouldn’t be back for day 2, but after my success completing dive 1 I thought that I’d give it another shot.
Day 2 started with a very long walk down the pier at Blairgowrie Yacht Squadron; I was exhausted by the time we got to the water, but I was determined to pass SDI Open Water Scuba Certification. We started with the mask skills again; everyone had to pass them in open water.
Overnight, I had coached myself. I thought though what had gone wrong with the mask skills the day before. I realized that it came down to me being a nose breather. Once I exhaled through my nose, my next move was to attempt to inhale through my nose which is why I felt like I couldn’t breath. So, as I’ve already said, I coached myself: fill mask half-way, blow out through nose, inhale through mouth; fill mask fully, blow out through nose, inhale through mouth; remove mask, replace mask, fix hood, blow out through nose, inhale through mouth. This seemed simple, and I was certain that I could talk myself through this in the water.
Except, apparently I couldn’t. Again I freaked out and had my second panic attack.
We were a small group on day 2, because some of the participants rescheduled to another weekend, which meant that we were small enough to be one group, but we had two instructors. So Thea, the second instructor, broke off to work directly with me. She checked all of my equipment to prove to my brain that it was all safe. She walked me through the skill that I needed to pass and even decided it would be best for us to do it in water that was only up to my chest so that I could quickly resurface. Again, I successfully cleared my mask that was half full of water, but never quite made it to the next step. Thea’s weight belt wasn’t set up correctly, because someone had borrowed weights and not returned them, so she couldn’t stay on the bottom. We decided to get out of the water and try again after lunch.
While the other divers completed dive #2, I learned a ton about the other scuba options. Apparently, I didn’t have to dive straight into open water certification. I could have tried snuba, or going down attached to air on the boat or going down with gear but on a rope, etc. I also learned about some very exciting snorkeling opportunities in Phillip Bay that I am super excited to participate in this summer.
Once I understood that I would not pass open water certification with Ben, I started to mentally check out. As soon as I knew I had to come back another day on my own, I started to mentally check out.
The other divers in my group came up for lunch and I headed out with them. Over pizza and paella, they told me a horror story of a girl in the group running out of air. Rather than executing on the skill test that we’d all passed the day before, she took the regulator out of someone else’s mouth. He handled it quite well, apparently resurfacing immediately. Since she was out of air, she couldn’t inflate her BCD and started to cling on the guy who’s regulator she stole sinking both of them. He manually inflated her BCD so that she wouldn’t drown him.
Nightmare.
The first I knew that something wasn’t right was when they all came up the super-long path and Liam was carrying an extra BCD and oxygen tank. No one said anything at this point.
Anyway, over lunch they told me the horror story. I was already thinking of not going back in because I am so uncomfortable in the water with the scuba pack on, but this sealed the deal. I knew, after hearing this story, that I was not getting back into the water.
When we returned from lunch, I got out of my wet suit and went to let Thea know. She tried really hard to coax me back into the water, but I explained to her that I was really uncomfortable in the water and that I had decided that I preferred to stay at the surface as a snorkeler. I really appreciate how supportive the staff at Extreme Watersport was through my attempt to become SDI Open Water Scuba Certified. They tried really hard with me; they offered me one-on-one training, which they would usually charge extra for. Despite not passing the course, the invited mey to come back and finish when I was ready. They also gave me a ton of information on snorkeling Phillip Bay and offered to teach me to duck dive.
I will definitely be back to partake of their other water sport opportunities.
I am also very proud of Ben and the other divers that completed our SDI scuba certification course. It’s scary and awesome down there!
