I did it! The Certification Card is mine! Yesterday was tiring, but great. We had less than prime conditions for diving at La Jolla- bigger waves, low vis - in fact the dive with the new OW class was called, and they did not go back out after their skin dive. Good call on behalf of the instructor, but he gave me my choice. I could call the dive or not. I watched the surf for a while and decided that I could do it. Now, before you guys go crazy on me, you have to understand that I am the most cautious of the cautious divers. I do not yet know all of my abilities, but I knew that if I could get through the surf, I could do it.
I did my first navigation totally wrong! So the instructor following pulled on my fins and turned me around! The second one, I did perfectly. I guess when you start out backwards, it goes downhill from there. I recovered though. But I completed all my skill, including mask recovery (which I HATE) and checked out fine.
I have to say that reading this board for a while helped me understand that a lot of my apprehensions are not simply mine alone. There are a lot of people out there with the same concerns and the advice on here helped quite a bit.
My advanced class starts this week - I guess once you get wet you don't go back!!!
