Newbie...just back from St. Lucia!

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Skinsfan1311

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Glen Burnie, MD
Just got back...after being stranded in Miami a couple of days...did my AOW in St. Lucia.....what a blast! After reading the multiple debates, on this board, I contacted my original OW instructor, and asked his recommendation, if I should even take the AOW....he told me to go for it, and I'm glad I did. (he's familiar with my skills). I'm not under the illusion that, now that I've got my AOW, that all of a sudden I'm this great diver who's qualified to run off and go deep diving, wreck diving, night diving, etc. I'll always dive within my abilities...that being said.....what great dives they were! I stayed at the Sandals Grande St. Lucian...a PADI dive facility with a great staff. I was assigned an Instructor, which was nice for me, and the other divers, as they didn't have to worry about the newbie suckin' down air and ending their dives prematurely. While the more experienced divers did their dives with a Divemaster, my instructor, Tim, and I did our skills. I chose the wreck & boat dives as my alternates. All the dives were done from modern, well-equipped 46' dive boat.
The descriptions of the dives don't do them justice...so I'll touch briefly on each one. My first dive was a wreck-dive...they have a boat, sank in '86, called the Leslee M. It sits in about 65' of water. It was totally encrusted with coral and had fish all around it. The viz was great...at least 40'-50'...after our SI, I did the navigation dive...had a little trouble with the compass sticking, but, Tim straightened me out and made sure I held it level....worked the kick-cycles out and I had no problems after that...after I completed my skills, Tim led me on a great dive through the coral...
Next day...I did my deep dive...at the base of the Piton....110'...he had me tie a simple knot, on the surface,(took about 5 seconds) and had me repeat it on the bottom....took 4 tries...at depth, though, once I had it, I could tie the knot in about the same amount of time as I did on the surface. Very interesting that the effect that the nitrogen has on you. We were only at that depth ~10 minutes and slowly worked our way to the surface.....the views were stunning...I didn't realize how much life was down there at that depth. We had at least 60' of visibility...the views just blew me away. After our SI, we did a shallow dive ~25' in some coral....again..lots of fish and stuff to see. On the next day, (evening), we did our night dive. That was a great experience...the viz was only around 20', and it was the first night dive for a few of the more experienced divers as well. I was amazed at how the lights brought out the brilliant colors. We saw lobsters, huge crabs, puffer-fish, squid and all kinds of fish that I couldn't begin to name. I was very impressed with Tim...I know that some of these resorts don't have the best reputations for teaching, safety, etc. I can tell you, that unequivically, (sp?), I was truly impressed with the professionalism, and emphasis on safety at the Grande. I felt safe and comfortable on all of my dives. I read, and re-read the chapters, and Tim made sure that I understood all of the Knowledge Reviews. Now I can truly see why, and how, divers get hooked. Thanks for reading!
 

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