TennisCoach
Guest
Hey guys,
I finally got my SSI OW cert this weekend and it was awesome. The weather was perfect, and the people were great. I did my first dive at the Belchers in Miami Beach. That was a very interesting dive. There were five of us in the class and we were all ready to conquer the bottom of the sea, and do our skills like we have done many times in the pool. So we start to do the mask, and regulator clearing. Everyone was good until that point. Then she asked us to take out our system and to put it back on. ThatÃÔ where the fun started. We were all sitting in our knees when she asked the first student to do the removal and replace. He started to remove his equipment right away, and as soon as his left arm was out of the vest he started to float up. He went up so fast that his regulator came out of his mouth. Thank god this guy did not panic at all. He started to blow bubbles, kicking back down to the bottom. The instructor reached for her Octo and gave it to him. After what seem like an eternity the student was sitting down on his butt with his tank on top of his legs. After that it was all good with the tank removal/ replace.
Then we star to do the share air. I think that I was the first one or the second that did the skill. We all did it, and we got OK signals from the instructor so we all thought that we had done it correctly. When we get back to the surface, our class instructor that couldnÃÕ dive because of an injured foot ask the instructor that was with us in the water about the dive. We all started to laugh when she told him how good we were at spitting out the regulator while doing the share air skill. None of us grabbed the regulator and the inflator at the same time because we did not wanted to let go of the other person. No need to say that those mistakes were not repeated on the other 3 dives.
For those of you that remember me from the post about how scared I was about the Cudas, Sharks and Eeels, I have good news. We were in the second dive, and I was following the instructor when all of the sudden a huge Cuda comes out of nowhere and start to follow the instructor. The instructor turns around and points the Cuda to me. I was aware of it before she did. Somehow I was very relaxed and did not panic. The Cuda had kind of a baby face and was just there. This is my first encounter with a Cuda face to face and I have to say it was great and I am looking to the next one.
On Saturday we had two more dives. We did them out of Key Largo. We went to the City of Washington and MikeÃÔ Wreck. Before we go on the last Dive that was MikeÃÔ Wreck our instructor says that they feed sharks there on Friday and Sundays and that sharks may come to where you are and see if you have any food. Not a second after he said that someone in the water goes Å©ey there is a Nurse Shark down there I was already in the water and when I saw the size of that thing I could not believe it. To me it looked like a 7 400 lbs shark. I got to be on the water with two the fishes that I thought were my worst nightmare and I was calm and happy to be there. I love this sport. I want to give thanks to all the people that were part of this experience from beginning to end, all the instructors, all the students in the class and everyone that at one point of another one had something to do with my SSI cert for OW. If any of you read this drop me a line or post a comment. I am now in the search for a buddy to go diving with and if any of are interested let me know I will put the boat and the gas. All I need from you is to want to dive.
I finally got my SSI OW cert this weekend and it was awesome. The weather was perfect, and the people were great. I did my first dive at the Belchers in Miami Beach. That was a very interesting dive. There were five of us in the class and we were all ready to conquer the bottom of the sea, and do our skills like we have done many times in the pool. So we start to do the mask, and regulator clearing. Everyone was good until that point. Then she asked us to take out our system and to put it back on. ThatÃÔ where the fun started. We were all sitting in our knees when she asked the first student to do the removal and replace. He started to remove his equipment right away, and as soon as his left arm was out of the vest he started to float up. He went up so fast that his regulator came out of his mouth. Thank god this guy did not panic at all. He started to blow bubbles, kicking back down to the bottom. The instructor reached for her Octo and gave it to him. After what seem like an eternity the student was sitting down on his butt with his tank on top of his legs. After that it was all good with the tank removal/ replace.
Then we star to do the share air. I think that I was the first one or the second that did the skill. We all did it, and we got OK signals from the instructor so we all thought that we had done it correctly. When we get back to the surface, our class instructor that couldnÃÕ dive because of an injured foot ask the instructor that was with us in the water about the dive. We all started to laugh when she told him how good we were at spitting out the regulator while doing the share air skill. None of us grabbed the regulator and the inflator at the same time because we did not wanted to let go of the other person. No need to say that those mistakes were not repeated on the other 3 dives.
For those of you that remember me from the post about how scared I was about the Cudas, Sharks and Eeels, I have good news. We were in the second dive, and I was following the instructor when all of the sudden a huge Cuda comes out of nowhere and start to follow the instructor. The instructor turns around and points the Cuda to me. I was aware of it before she did. Somehow I was very relaxed and did not panic. The Cuda had kind of a baby face and was just there. This is my first encounter with a Cuda face to face and I have to say it was great and I am looking to the next one.
On Saturday we had two more dives. We did them out of Key Largo. We went to the City of Washington and MikeÃÔ Wreck. Before we go on the last Dive that was MikeÃÔ Wreck our instructor says that they feed sharks there on Friday and Sundays and that sharks may come to where you are and see if you have any food. Not a second after he said that someone in the water goes Å©ey there is a Nurse Shark down there I was already in the water and when I saw the size of that thing I could not believe it. To me it looked like a 7 400 lbs shark. I got to be on the water with two the fishes that I thought were my worst nightmare and I was calm and happy to be there. I love this sport. I want to give thanks to all the people that were part of this experience from beginning to end, all the instructors, all the students in the class and everyone that at one point of another one had something to do with my SSI cert for OW. If any of you read this drop me a line or post a comment. I am now in the search for a buddy to go diving with and if any of are interested let me know I will put the boat and the gas. All I need from you is to want to dive.
