So I had my first experience diving with doubles and a manifold last week, in the pool. And after dropping down, boy was I sure glad I was in the pool as opposed to open water.
The minute I dropped down, I was promptly on my back and my feet started going up. Now this was interesting. After finning around the pool for a bit, I started to get the hang of it, however. Im sure I was quite the spectacle for the open water divers in the pool, looking asll silly rolling all over the place. but I got it by the end of the session.
Not only was this a practice doubles session, it was a drills and skills session, too. The person I was diving with had a lot of fun sneaking up on me and turning off the air on one of my tanks, forcing me to take my backup regulator, turn my air back on, and change to primary again. He also had fun sneaking up on me and removing my mask. I then went for my backup mask in my pocket, and as I was reaching for it, my regulator was ripped from my mouth. Now really, the mask was the least of my worries. I found my backup regulator (bungeed conveniently around my neck), then went back to the mask. Cleared it. Then found my primary regulator. Switched to my primary reg only to find that he had turned the air off on that tank. I turned my air back on and I began practicing my frog kicks, swimming around happily while doing valve drills. At one point he thought it would be funny to purge my regulator, forcing me to turn the valve off and switching to backup. He also amused himself by removing one of my fins while I was frog kicking around. I then started doing the fancy mermaid type of kick.
Of course, some of the wonderful favours he did for me were promptly returned.
We also did a bunch of out of air drills, and watched each other's trim and kicks. I kept on switching from my primary mask to my backup mask, because I hate swimming without a mask. Not anymore! It's no big deal now. Lose a mask? Oh well, just grab my backup...out of air? oh well, just switch to the backup regulator. lose a fin? oh well, I can still swim with one. Lose mask and air at the same time? Oh well, no biggie. just get air first and then everything is a-ok.
I am honestly pretty proud of how I handled myself in these stressful situations. I didn't panic once, and I was fully expecting to. Instead, I just breathed and dealt with it, then carried on. By the end of the night, I felt like I accomplished a lot and was proud of how I did. It was a really, really good pool session. Man, I am in love with doubles. I love that there is that extra source of air if it's needed, and I love how my trim is with the doubles once I learnt how to dive with them.
We're going in the pool again tomorrow for a similar session, except we're adding reel work into the mix for further task-loading experiences. Should be fun!
The minute I dropped down, I was promptly on my back and my feet started going up. Now this was interesting. After finning around the pool for a bit, I started to get the hang of it, however. Im sure I was quite the spectacle for the open water divers in the pool, looking asll silly rolling all over the place. but I got it by the end of the session.
Not only was this a practice doubles session, it was a drills and skills session, too. The person I was diving with had a lot of fun sneaking up on me and turning off the air on one of my tanks, forcing me to take my backup regulator, turn my air back on, and change to primary again. He also had fun sneaking up on me and removing my mask. I then went for my backup mask in my pocket, and as I was reaching for it, my regulator was ripped from my mouth. Now really, the mask was the least of my worries. I found my backup regulator (bungeed conveniently around my neck), then went back to the mask. Cleared it. Then found my primary regulator. Switched to my primary reg only to find that he had turned the air off on that tank. I turned my air back on and I began practicing my frog kicks, swimming around happily while doing valve drills. At one point he thought it would be funny to purge my regulator, forcing me to turn the valve off and switching to backup. He also amused himself by removing one of my fins while I was frog kicking around. I then started doing the fancy mermaid type of kick.
Of course, some of the wonderful favours he did for me were promptly returned.
We also did a bunch of out of air drills, and watched each other's trim and kicks. I kept on switching from my primary mask to my backup mask, because I hate swimming without a mask. Not anymore! It's no big deal now. Lose a mask? Oh well, just grab my backup...out of air? oh well, just switch to the backup regulator. lose a fin? oh well, I can still swim with one. Lose mask and air at the same time? Oh well, no biggie. just get air first and then everything is a-ok.
I am honestly pretty proud of how I handled myself in these stressful situations. I didn't panic once, and I was fully expecting to. Instead, I just breathed and dealt with it, then carried on. By the end of the night, I felt like I accomplished a lot and was proud of how I did. It was a really, really good pool session. Man, I am in love with doubles. I love that there is that extra source of air if it's needed, and I love how my trim is with the doubles once I learnt how to dive with them.
We're going in the pool again tomorrow for a similar session, except we're adding reel work into the mix for further task-loading experiences. Should be fun!
