Sounds like you had a good time, Kerry and the crew at Kona are great, so way to go with selecting one of the better dive ops in Kona
Not sure who Kerry is (the lady who owns the shop?) My instructor for confined water part was Katie, then she transferred me to instructor nicknamed "Shaggy." I kept calling him "Scooby" on occasion, but he didn't seem to mind. Why would he? He had a really great job (except for pay, as I understand.)
---------- Post added November 6th, 2015 at 11:06 AM ----------
" Setting up the gear was mundane but necessary"
can you elaborate on that statement, - thanks
The initial part was to show me how to put together regulator, BCD and tank. The exercise was "put it together;" "take it apart;" "put it together;" "take it appart;" ..., ..., ..., "ok, one last time," ... It felt like building muscle memory, which was probably the idea.
Here is the funny part. After all of that, when I went to my first dive at home (to Catalina, off of a boat,) I set up my gear when everybody else was setting up theirs and all I was trying to do is to look inconspicuous and routine. When I was done, I was (again, inconspicuously) checking out all the gear around me to see if I forgot anything or did anything wrong. Suddenly, I notice that all the other rigs have this strappy thingy around the valve - arrggh - I've forgotten about it so I had to disconnect my regulator and put the strap around. Easier said than done. The knob wouldn't budge. I tried to turn it harder, while at the same time *pretending* I was doing it lightly as it was supposed to be just "finger tight" the way I was taught. Won't move. After a few tries, I put all my strength into it (and I'm a big and strong guy) and it wouldn't move. Oh well, I though I'd have to deal with it after the first dive, when it suddenly occurred to me that I didn't depressurize the system. A "pfssst" later and it all disconnected nicely.
So, those mundane tasks are clearly necessary.
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