UTD Rec 2 March 2010

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jastorino

Registered
Messages
15
Reaction score
4
Location
Los Angeles
# of dives
200 - 499
I had Maciej as my instructor for my Rec 1 class. 9 months after being certified to dive, he asked me if I'd like to take Rec 2 with Mark and Shawn. SURE! I want to learn more. I want to be a more confident diver. I want to be an asset on a dive team.


Dates are set. Maciej and Nick discussed with me around a month prior to our class about using doubles. I was not into the idea 'cause I felt I needed some time to get comfortable in them. A week before our first dive, Nick and I went to Laguna to "test" out doubles. I actually felt pretty comfortable. Felt somewhat stable. Learned valve drill. Nick and I discussed on the drive home that I should try to take the class in doubles. EEK! What the hell am I thinking!!! I saw Maciej the next day for our lectures and declared that I would indeed take the class in doubles.


March 14th finally arrives. I was really really nervous. I hate having to "peform" with someone judging and watching. The stress it adds to the dive is immense.


What I f'd up:
-the valve drill: i need to remember to do flow check
-the valve drill: I need to not get tunnel vision while I'm focusing on turning the valves off. My next attempt showed improvement with my awareness
-ascents (what a difference adding two pounds makes!!). Wish I could have figured this out on my own.
-not waiting for #2 when I was handling out of mask #3...upper levels would have thrown out of air to #2.
-LOL: going lights out...deploying backup and screwing it the wrong way. Happened with 2nd deployed backup too. I hope they both still work!
-"pretend" right failure...turn right post off. bubbles stop. I should have known it was right post and not manifiold, but I proceed to turn off isolator anyway! STUPID. I know better.
-not clipping off primary!!!! Maciej made sure I learned my lesson!
-communication needs to be BOLD! ( I think i have improved on this....but I still suck).


What I felt good about:
-doing the navigation drill and finding the bag!
-reeling out the line...it is way easier to do this in the water than in Nick's living room.
-not giving up on the doubles (even when I was so frustrated at times, thinking it would have been much easier for me to strap on my single tank).
-Watching the video of Maciej trying to show me my primary was unclipped (2nd time)....lol...but it was clipped. He patted me on the back for an "I'm sorry" gesture.
-feeling like I am a much better "teammate" than I was when I started this class.


It was so much fun to watch us all come together as a team! The improvements we made as a team from dive day #1 vs. dive day #2 and #3 were amazing. Thank you to my awesome teammates! You guys rock! Both of you showed a lot of improvement over the course of the class! And I had a lot of fun!!!

Maciej...thank you for pushing me, challenging me, teaching me A LOT...and being patient! You are a fantastic instructor. You know exactly what a person's weaknesses are and can address them and make it a very good and enjoyable learning experience.

And...THANK YOU so much Christian for filming our class! I love to make a mistake underwater, hear Maciej bitch me out about it on the surface and THEN...WATCH IT OVER AND OVER AGAIN , with the pause button so the mistake can be really focused on :) Seriously, though...thank you very much for taking your weekend time to film us! The video reviews really do help a great deal. It is amazing how seeing your problems makes such a huge affect on correcting the mistakes the next time out.

Now...FUN dives! No more classes for a while!
 
Jamie, glad you had fun and learned a lot in your class....but, really, you should update your dive count cause we all know you're WAY out of the 0-24 range :wink:

Now that we're both done with classes for a little bit, let's go out and do some fun dives. And if possible, let's not get rolled in the surf in our doubles again!
 
Thanks, Nicole, for the reminder to update my profile!
Yes, definitely don't want to get rolled again! I was like a turtle upside down on its shell. It was horrible. I practiced getting out up the ledge this weekend at Redondo tho, and have learned to wait and be patient for the next wave :)
 
Thanks for report Jamie.

It was fun to work with such a dedicated and hard working group of students. You guys put a tremendous effort, turned things around after beating on day 1 and came out as a solid dive team. There's nothing more rewarding for instructor to see students grow.

Maciek
 
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