SeekerOfJustice
Guest
Well, over this past weekend I was able to complete my OW certification. 
Very excited obviously. I have been SCUBA diving in the past. Spent a great deal of time in Hawaii when I was young and have been a free diver for years. (Used to be good at it until I got old and fat) I lost 43 pounds though and set out for certification that my good friend signed us both up for and paid for the same. :cool2: Thanks SirDiver.
The course was held at Blue Water Divers in South OKC. Blue Water Divers OKC The class portion was informative and man do I like these computers. The old chart method was always trouble for me. The first pool session was great and the instructors were very precise and methodical about instruction. They certainly seemed experienced at instructing as all bases were covered that I could foresee. I hate wearing contacts BTW. Could not open my eyes under water for fear of losing one. 
Need Lasik. Second pool session was great. 14 feet deep pool was used and we got quite a bit of buoyancy control testing in on that one. Used a Scuba Pro Nighthawk all along. There were obstacles to go over and under etc down there and it was quite a nice dive after the skills had all been sufficiently completed. One tough part was one student who we will call "Bob" was constantly bumping into others and kicking/flailing about for some reason.
OW lake dive. Held at Lake Tenkiller in Gore Ok on June 12, and 13th. WOOHOO! Here we go. I Must admit thought that my idea of diving in a lake in Oklahoma sounds rather nasty. However, I was pleasantly surprised. On the first morning after a nearly 3 hour drive I meet the whole group for breakfast. Great stuff there. I was assigned "Bob" as a buddy. Uh... Ok... Cautiously optimistic at this point.
To the dive sight. Bob and I were the first group in the water with our instructor. This instructor was absolutely top notch in my book. In fact, they all were. There were a total of around 6 to 8 instructors with our group at any one time. All with their own pair of buddies with some things being done one on one. My group 1 of the A team was me Bob and Master for that first day. We go over the descent and skills on surface and Bob loses his mask. Uh... 10 minutes to find mask. I thought the diver who found it should have received points toward the search and Recovery credits. On descent, all is well that drops well. I was overweighted and had blown out the Zipper on my 5 mill wet suit. DOH!! But was ok. I was still getting used to the Nighthawk though. Had trouble with the valve on the release button getting stuck but did not float too much. Had to use other dump valves. Did not like that BCD really. Descend to 15 feet and the water is rather mirky. Vis around 5 or 6 feet right there. Instructor had gone over no culling/hand swiming etc and be gentle on bottom to avoid stirring up junk. We do our skills. Bob Floats to the top. Ugh!! Instructor goes to get him. Dadgum.... We make our way to some sunken boat wrecks. WOrking on skills and buoyancy all the way. Bob sculls and stirs up everything. Dive time 21 minutes max depth 28 feet. WOOHOO. Vis was 15 or more feet or more out there in the open where the boats were. Nice.
Second dive. Again descend to 15 feet on the flag. Mirky. Do skills. Bob jettisons to the top somehow. Instructor gives me the ok? And a stay sign. I give two big OK's back. I was there alone for what seemed to be an eternity. (2 or 3 minutes) I was fine. Really, I know this is not the normal procedure but dadgum. Poor guy. While alone< had the best time of the trip. Saw a huge Buffalo fish and some big bass. Bob makes it back down. We make our way back to the wreck to work on bouyancy. Viz is not as good now that other divers have been around. We practice the buddy diving with me and bob while instructor hovers above us. Bob sculls into my face and pulls reg out. . Bob later knocks my mask off. WTF? Despite many stern instructions to avoid such an activity Bob seems not able to hold his arms to himself. Bob floats away again. Instructor makes bob carry rocks in his hand underwater off and on for a few min to show how buoyancy works. When we hit the warm water, I floated up a bit. (Density I presume) Apparently the upper release valve does not work when you are upside down. Hence but dump valve, which I had trouble reaching. In 15 feet of water you don't have much time to figure this out before you "Bob" to the surface. Dang. I was pissed at myself. Had done pretty well to that point with buoyancy. I advised the instructor that he had the patience of Jobe and I feel for you.
Very excited obviously. I have been SCUBA diving in the past. Spent a great deal of time in Hawaii when I was young and have been a free diver for years. (Used to be good at it until I got old and fat) I lost 43 pounds though and set out for certification that my good friend signed us both up for and paid for the same. :cool2: Thanks SirDiver. The course was held at Blue Water Divers in South OKC. Blue Water Divers OKC The class portion was informative and man do I like these computers.
The old chart method was always trouble for me. The first pool session was great and the instructors were very precise and methodical about instruction. They certainly seemed experienced at instructing as all bases were covered that I could foresee. I hate wearing contacts BTW. Could not open my eyes under water for fear of losing one. Need Lasik. Second pool session was great. 14 feet deep pool was used and we got quite a bit of buoyancy control testing in on that one. Used a Scuba Pro Nighthawk all along. There were obstacles to go over and under etc down there and it was quite a nice dive after the skills had all been sufficiently completed. One tough part was one student who we will call "Bob" was constantly bumping into others and kicking/flailing about for some reason. OW lake dive. Held at Lake Tenkiller in Gore Ok on June 12, and 13th. WOOHOO! Here we go. I Must admit thought that my idea of diving in a lake in Oklahoma sounds rather nasty. However, I was pleasantly surprised.
On the first morning after a nearly 3 hour drive I meet the whole group for breakfast. Great stuff there. I was assigned "Bob" as a buddy. Uh... Ok... Cautiously optimistic at this point. To the dive sight. Bob and I were the first group in the water with our instructor. This instructor was absolutely top notch in my book. In fact, they all were. There were a total of around 6 to 8 instructors with our group at any one time. All with their own pair of buddies with some things being done one on one. My group 1 of the A team was me Bob and Master for that first day. We go over the descent and skills on surface and Bob loses his mask.
Uh... 10 minutes to find mask. I thought the diver who found it should have received points toward the search and Recovery credits. On descent, all is well that drops well. I was overweighted and had blown out the Zipper on my 5 mill wet suit. DOH!! But was ok. I was still getting used to the Nighthawk though. Had trouble with the valve on the release button getting stuck but did not float too much. Had to use other dump valves. Did not like that BCD really. Descend to 15 feet and the water is rather mirky. Vis around 5 or 6 feet right there. Instructor had gone over no culling/hand swiming etc and be gentle on bottom to avoid stirring up junk. We do our skills. Bob Floats to the top. Ugh!! Instructor goes to get him. Dadgum.... We make our way to some sunken boat wrecks. WOrking on skills and buoyancy all the way. Bob sculls and stirs up everything. Dive time 21 minutes max depth 28 feet. WOOHOO. Vis was 15 or more feet or more out there in the open where the boats were. Nice. Second dive. Again descend to 15 feet on the flag. Mirky. Do skills. Bob jettisons to the top somehow.
Instructor gives me the ok? And a stay sign. I give two big OK's back. I was there alone for what seemed to be an eternity. (2 or 3 minutes) I was fine. Really, I know this is not the normal procedure but dadgum. Poor guy. While alone< had the best time of the trip. Saw a huge Buffalo fish and some big bass. Bob makes it back down. We make our way back to the wreck to work on bouyancy. Viz is not as good now that other divers have been around. We practice the buddy diving with me and bob while instructor hovers above us. Bob sculls into my face and pulls reg out. . Bob later knocks my mask off. WTF? Despite many stern instructions to avoid such an activity Bob seems not able to hold his arms to himself. Bob floats away again. Instructor makes bob carry rocks in his hand underwater off and on for a few min to show how buoyancy works. When we hit the warm water, I floated up a bit. (Density I presume) Apparently the upper release valve does not work when you are upside down. Hence but dump valve, which I had trouble reaching. In 15 feet of water you don't have much time to figure this out before you "Bob" to the surface. Dang. I was pissed at myself. Had done pretty well to that point with buoyancy. I advised the instructor that he had the patience of Jobe and I feel for you.
