My wife and I spent the past week in St. John USVI for a well deserved rest from the kids and to obtain our Open Water Certifications. We scheduled our classes with Cruz Bay Watersports and used PADI e-learning for the bookwork before arriving. The morning of our first confined dives we were excited, well, I was excited, my wife was terrified. She is very "Type A". In fact, she may be a Type above that (A+?).
We met our intructor, Amy, who wasted no time going over basic rules, equipment, and getting us suited up and into the pool. As we started practicing basic skills my wife just lost it. She felt overwhelmed and worried about everything at once. In tears she turned to me and said "I can't do this! You're on your own!". Amy simply said, "let's take a swim". With that, she held my wife's hand and we just swam under the water - "swim and breath" she would say. There were many times during the week when we would have a "swim and breath" moment. Amy demonstrated tremendous patience and never quit smiling. Her knowledge base was solid and her commitment to us and our safety was certain. This class was no gimme. Many times we repeated and repeated and repeated a skill until everyone involved was satisfied with the result. The option of quitting was never offered - only improving.
I was awestruck during our last open water dive as we were swimming around a reef looking at different critters, to see my wife, swimming around as if she had been diving for years. The very same woman who in tears was calling it quits in a 3 foot swimming pool was smiling around her regulator as she poked at a lobster hiding in the reef at 30 feet.
My hat is off to all of the dedicated instructors who, like Amy, go beyond what is required and do what is necessary. Thanks to a tremendous instructor, I still have a dive buddy.
We met our intructor, Amy, who wasted no time going over basic rules, equipment, and getting us suited up and into the pool. As we started practicing basic skills my wife just lost it. She felt overwhelmed and worried about everything at once. In tears she turned to me and said "I can't do this! You're on your own!". Amy simply said, "let's take a swim". With that, she held my wife's hand and we just swam under the water - "swim and breath" she would say. There were many times during the week when we would have a "swim and breath" moment. Amy demonstrated tremendous patience and never quit smiling. Her knowledge base was solid and her commitment to us and our safety was certain. This class was no gimme. Many times we repeated and repeated and repeated a skill until everyone involved was satisfied with the result. The option of quitting was never offered - only improving.
I was awestruck during our last open water dive as we were swimming around a reef looking at different critters, to see my wife, swimming around as if she had been diving for years. The very same woman who in tears was calling it quits in a 3 foot swimming pool was smiling around her regulator as she poked at a lobster hiding in the reef at 30 feet.
My hat is off to all of the dedicated instructors who, like Amy, go beyond what is required and do what is necessary. Thanks to a tremendous instructor, I still have a dive buddy.
