OW complete

[LowDrag]

Wow!!! That was a blast. My wife, son and I went up to Hoodsport Washington this weekend to complete our open water cert's. The weather was overcast and rained at times but then cleared up Saturday evening and was really nice until we left yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately , my son had equalizing issues and could not make his third and fourth dive. He played it safe like he should have and our instructor told him to come into the shop on Tuesday and they would make a plan for him to get back up to Hoodsport and get his cert dives completed. As for my wife and I, we completed all four dives without issue. The vis varied anywhere from 6" to 5' at best. I got stung by a Lion's Mane jelly just under my nose and on my right cheek. When I entered the water this weekend I was, to say the least a bit nervous but as I completed the first dive and made it half way thru the second my confidence was restored and the excitement of getting certified came back. I had a couple of moments of anxiety but I mentally worked thru them. I want to say thanx to everyone here that gave me reassurance and advice that helped me get back in my fins... I am looking forward to moving ahead in my diving and I am getting anxious to get back in the water. One thing, though, MY BUOYANCY SUCKS!!! LOL!!! I thought I was doing pretty good in the pool but when I was in the salt I found that I was all over the place. My Dive Con was cool and did not give me grief about it. He said I would get better with more dives and that he would help me on future dives. It is absolutely amazing to me how I could be cruising along one minute then be 6' up and climbing the next. I will get that down. One time I was on the rise when he (My Dive Con) noticed I was gone. As I was ascending I could see him looking around like, "hey, where the hell did you go?". I know it is not a funny situation but I could not help but crack up as I was trying to get his attention to let him know I was okay and just above him. My wife was looking around to and looked up and saw me, she pointed to Mike to show him where I was at just as I settled back down next to them. He just asked me if I was okay and then we continued the dive. When we finished the dive we talked about it and discussed what happened. So, that is a small account of our weekend, I hope everyone else had a great weekend of diving.

Have a great day everyone, I have to get ready for work...:depressed:

 

[Tessunderwater]

Congratulations on your certifications! My area has been out of commission for diving the last week due to this pesky tropical storm that came through. A tip on the bouyancy for salt water, add a little more weight (4 to 5 pounds) and do a weight check at the end of your dive to see i you need more or less weight. Good luck!

 

[TSandM]

Glad to hear things went better this time!

One tip for buoyancy -- as a new diver, swim close to the bottom. If you're a foot off the bottom and go up a foot, you're likely to notice and take action before there are further problems. If you're four feet off the bottom, you can go up a foot or more without noticing, and by that time, expansion is continuing the process. (That was one of the tips NW Grateful Diver gave ME as a newbie!)

 

[SnorkelLA]

Congrats! I completed my checkout dives some years ago in conditions much like you described. I had just as much fun as you described, even given the bad vis!

Now your next step is to NOT do AOW, but instead do the specialties themselves! You'll get more out of it, trust me

 

[eponym]

Congratulations, Dave!

It's good to know you got your previous medical issues sorted out and were up to the challenge. That's a good dive shop to accommodate your various hiccups. Hood canal's not the easiest place to learn, and obviously the viz was abysmal. But get back up there again, there are always good things to see. GPOs in particular, and really big Lion's mane jellyfish.

And since you asked, yes, I had a great training weekend too. The students made it easy for me, ten other divers from our shop showed up to dive the same site, it was a lot of fun.

Best wishes for you son's training,
Bryan

 

[GinaRae]

Congrats!
Hmmm... I wonder if that was the same jelly that got my instructor's upper lip and cheek on Thursday night...
Were you at Octopus Hole?

 

[LowDrag]

Congratulations on your certifications! My area has been out of commission for diving the last week due to this pesky tropical storm that came through. A tip on the bouyancy for salt water, add a little more weight (4 to 5 pounds) and do a weight check at the end of your dive to see i you need more or less weight. Good luck!

Hi Tess, yeah we were over weighted already but a better weight check is definitely in store for our future. We have plans to go to the coast where we know of a little cove next to a Coast Guard station that is very calm where can do a good check and work on buoyancy during the same trip.

Glad to hear things went better this time!

One tip for buoyancy -- as a new diver, swim close to the bottom. If you're a foot off the bottom and go up a foot, you're likely to notice and take action before there are further problems. If you're four feet off the bottom, you can go up a foot or more without noticing, and by that time, expansion is continuing the process. (That was one of the tips NW Grateful Diver gave ME as a newbie!)

Thanks Lynne, we will put that tip to use soon. We definitely need to work on our buoyancy. Although, I will say Danee did much better than I did...

Congrats! I completed my checkout dives some years ago in conditions much like you described. I had just as much fun as you described, even given the bad vis!

Now your next step is to NOT do AOW, but instead do the specialties themselves! You'll get more out of it, trust me

Thanks, I appreciate that. Isn't that AOW? I was considering the 4 specialties themselves as AOW.

Congratulations, Dave!

It's good to know you got your previous medical issues sorted out and were up to the challenge. That's a good dive shop to accommodate your various hiccups. Hood canal's not the easiest place to learn, and obviously the viz was abysmal. But get back up there again, there are always good things to see. GPOs in particular, and really big Lion's mane jellyfish.

And since you asked, yes, I had a great training weekend too. The students made it easy for me, ten other divers from our shop showed up to dive the same site, it was a lot of fun.

Best wishes for you son's training,
Bryan

Thanks Bryan, we saw the big Lion's Mane but no GPO's this time around. Our DiveCon could not find the boat where the GPO usually hangs out. As for the medical issues, yeah, those are good to go and thanks to Lynne, I left the Sudafed at home this trip.

Congrats!
Hmmm... I wonder if that was the same jelly that got my instructor's upper lip and cheek on Thursday night...
Were you at Octopus Hole?

Nope...we were at the Sunrise Motel and Dive Resort. Our DiveCon on that run was an instructor that was being observed by our lead instructor for certification as an instructor herself. She was stung to.

 

[Mustang29]

CONGRATS!!

My son & I were certified at the same place, I'm guessing by the same shop. (Mike the DC was a good clue).
The visibility there can get really crappy during training dives.
We will be up there this coming weekend for some dives at Sund Rock, & some crabbing at other locations. Were Mark & Irene your instructors?
How was the crab population? We were there during the Native American shrip season & they were in there thick cleaning up the byproduct.
I had the same issue with buoyancy on our check out dive, but after ditching 8 lbs. it was much better.

Maybe we'll see you up there sometime.


Edit: didn't see your signature line before, Same LDS, Nice!

 

[Crush]

Congratulations! You seem to have a great love of diving and a great attitude. Welcome to diving....

 

[Searcaigh]

Once your son has completed his OW dives just get out and dive together within your experience and limits, enjoy the sport.