Hello from Anchorage, Alaska !!!

[Bacstar]

Woohoo...I passed with flying colors. I knew if I could just breath naturally the entire time I could pass. I can ride a bike for miles with medium effort without problems and the further I go the stronger I get. Put me in water, and I struggle...as you all mentioned...I'll keep on practicing on my swimming...may as well keep at it, since I'll probably continue my education in scuba diving as far as I can afford.

Now..I can relax and look forward to my checkout dives on the weekend of the 15th out at Smitty's Cove, Whittier. Then my trip to Cozumel

 

[NudeDiver]

I know what you mean. When I ran cross country in high school, I could run 20 miles on a hot summer day, no problem. Put me in a basketball or soccer game, with a lot of run, stop, run, stop action - and in 15 minutes, I would look like a 75 year old 3-pack a day smoker. It was just ridiculous.

When are you going to Coz?

 

[covediver]

Congrats on passing.

If you chose to swim, you might want to check out some of the Masters swim programs in the area. Swimmers in these programs are segregated by ability and all are very supportive. It offers a coached, structured workout at a predictable time. Several pools offer lap swim times. I usually do swim with fins during those times. Lots of folks do.

 

[Bacstar]

I know what you mean. When I ran cross country in high school, I could run 20 miles on a hot summer day, no problem. Put me in a basketball or soccer game, with a lot of run, stop, run, stop action - and in 15 minutes, I would look like a 75 year old 3-pack a day smoker. It was just ridiculous.

When are you going to Coz?

I'll be heading down to Cozumel this year from the 13th - 20th of December. There will be a group of us going for a friend's wedding, so there will be 3 - 4 other divers as well. A friend from ecuador will be meeting me there too. She loves diving, and she's probably the one who inspired me to finally get this done. I've always been interested, but never got around to doing it. We're also already talking about our other diving adventures for the coming year....hawaii, philippines, Turks and Caicos, etc etc etc

 

[NudeDiver]

Sweet! Alaska to Mexico in December is a good thing

I've got a friend in Thailand right now. She completed her class with Scott just before heading out to Thailand for a month or so. Got an email from her just now - she left Alaska with 6 dives, and now has 23. I dunno if she is going to get more before coming back or what.

I'm going to Whitter tomorrow - but we're going to Coz in Feb/March. Wanted to go before Alaska Air upped the mileage requirements. We got two "free" tickets for 60,000 miles and $140. I will break the 100 dive mark for sure

 

[Bacstar]

Wow...Thailand. I'm hoping to make a dive trip to the Philippines in June next year, Palawan. Still in the planning stages though. The girlfriend wants to go to Hawaii....so maybe we can do both philippines, then Hawaii on the way back or vice versa. First, I gotta win the lotto...hehehe. One thing I noticed about scuba diving, you start planning all your vacations around large bodies of water and this sport becomes a borderline obsession too, and I'm not completely certified yet.

 

[Bacstar]

Well... my checkout dives were moved to next weekend which works out great for me. My regulators weren't ready yet, so I'll be able to test out all my new equipment during the dives. I also completed my Nitrox certification last nite as well.

Scott and Karen, my Dive Alaska instructors, just got back from the GUE Conference in Florida and are doing a Survey/Mapping class of Smitty's Cove to officially kick-off Anchorage's GUE chapter(?). Hehehe. Scott's pretty excited about it, and he's looking for volunteers to assist in getting it off the ground.

 

[Bacstar]

I had a couple incidents during my checkout dives that pretty much had me go back to the doctor. Mainly, after 20-25mins at depth 20-30 ft, for no obvious reason, I had to thumb the dives due to shortness of breath or a feeling of suffocating.

After running some tests, the echocardiogram specifically, the cardiologist discovered my heart murmur was a severe case of mitral regurgitation that requires open-heart surgery. So...I'm heading down to California next week to see a surgeon and go from there. Hopefully, a repair is all that's needed so I can maybe get medical clearance to try again in 6 months to a year.

To all divers and families out there, have a safe and merry xmas and a happy new year.

Bacstar

 

[NudeDiver]

Jezuz! Good luck with that!