John12
Registered
I am 62 my wife is 60. We both got S.S.I. OW water certified yesterday and are absolutely thrilled, only regret is we waited until now to do it. Just wanted to share some experiences, give credit where credit is due, and encourage those from my generation that they should stop saying i can't, and go ahead and do it.
Firstly accolades to our instructer Cris Currence and our LDS Divers Direct in West Palm Beach Florida. Terry who is the shop Manager couldn't have been more helpful, thoughtful and knowledgeable. She on several occasions bent over backwards to accomodate our inquiries, concerns and wasn't happy until we were. I am certain that we would never have gotten into the classroom if she hadn't made my wife feel so comfortable and confident that we could do it.
I know that Cris was doing his job as all instructors must be able to instruct. But one thing that comes with age is the ability to judge peoples motives and passions. Cris did not instruct with an ego attitude that said "look how good I am" , but with one that said "look how good you can be". He was always sure that we were comfortable with each step before we went on to the next. He gave extra time when needed, (and it was needed). It was all about being ready and confident in our skills when done.
Talk about skills, mask on, mask off,, took our BCD on and off underwater more than at the time we thought was neccesary, but now realize it was to make us do it without fear or thought. Air sharing ascent procedures over and over, but now we not only know what to do, but are confident we CAN do it.
Twice, once first time dressed in gear and underwater in the pool for the first time, and once in our first ocean dive, my wife started to stress. Cris was able to calm her, reassure her, and get her ready to move on which she did, now she can't wait to go again.He always said there is no need to surface for a problem that you can take care of underwater.
We really paid attention and studied for the classwork, took it seriously studied at home, and were glad we did because we know how and why things work like they do.I got 100% on the final)
We did our last two open water 60 ft dives yesterday . The boat was the Little Deeper out of West Palm Beach. Excellent boat, captain, crew. Can't say more than I will do all of my dives in west Palm beach in the future with them,, no need to look around.
The open water dives were fantastic. No problems with ear clearing, breathing etc. Had to adjust weights a little after the first dive, but only because we knew we needed to from all our buoyancy practice.. Neither of us are perfect with buoyancy yet. The first dive we were adding and subtracting air from our BCD. Second dive when we reached bottom neither of us used our BCD Air, all breath control, awesome.I was a little bit of a air hog, got 47 minutes underwater with a 80 cu ft tank shows i have alot to learn but learn I will. The most important point is that on our second dive we were absolutely comfortable, no worries anxiety able to be in awe of all around us. No difference between 60 ft and 20 feet.
My wife and I are both Christians, and our thoughts on viewing the ocean realm were, Lord thank you, its beautiful. I thought the ocean bottom was large stretches of sand with some stuff in certain spots only. Wrong, everywhere we looked there was life. Saw sea turtles, eels, a moray, wish we had more time but a good reason to go back
I wanted to pass on an additional accolade to this SCUBABOARD website. I asked many questions, some stupid, but gained knowledge and confidence with each question and answer. There is an incredible amount of experience here. Everyone may not always agree, but thats the beauty of it, unbiased, but based upon individual experiance.
I would advise all new divers to try out then buy a good BCD, one that works for you. I have an Aqua Lung Axiom (great) wife has a MARES Kaila (loves it)
Test out and buy a regulator that breathes easy. Its an investment but if your comfortable getting air, you don't think about it all the time and can focus on controlled breathing for buoyancy. I switched my wife to an Aqua Lung Legend after her first pool session, difference was noticeable. As far as computers or consoles,, just get one that you can get comfortable with, deal with a LDS who can put one in your hands, and walk you through how to use it, and if you forget, ask them to show you again.
Sorry to run on,. but like I say we both think it was the best experience of our lives. Any one regardless of age should make doing this a priority. I know we have a number of years to build our memories and count our blessings through SCUBA.
Firstly accolades to our instructer Cris Currence and our LDS Divers Direct in West Palm Beach Florida. Terry who is the shop Manager couldn't have been more helpful, thoughtful and knowledgeable. She on several occasions bent over backwards to accomodate our inquiries, concerns and wasn't happy until we were. I am certain that we would never have gotten into the classroom if she hadn't made my wife feel so comfortable and confident that we could do it.
I know that Cris was doing his job as all instructors must be able to instruct. But one thing that comes with age is the ability to judge peoples motives and passions. Cris did not instruct with an ego attitude that said "look how good I am" , but with one that said "look how good you can be". He was always sure that we were comfortable with each step before we went on to the next. He gave extra time when needed, (and it was needed). It was all about being ready and confident in our skills when done.
Talk about skills, mask on, mask off,, took our BCD on and off underwater more than at the time we thought was neccesary, but now realize it was to make us do it without fear or thought. Air sharing ascent procedures over and over, but now we not only know what to do, but are confident we CAN do it.
Twice, once first time dressed in gear and underwater in the pool for the first time, and once in our first ocean dive, my wife started to stress. Cris was able to calm her, reassure her, and get her ready to move on which she did, now she can't wait to go again.He always said there is no need to surface for a problem that you can take care of underwater.
We really paid attention and studied for the classwork, took it seriously studied at home, and were glad we did because we know how and why things work like they do.I got 100% on the final)
We did our last two open water 60 ft dives yesterday . The boat was the Little Deeper out of West Palm Beach. Excellent boat, captain, crew. Can't say more than I will do all of my dives in west Palm beach in the future with them,, no need to look around.
The open water dives were fantastic. No problems with ear clearing, breathing etc. Had to adjust weights a little after the first dive, but only because we knew we needed to from all our buoyancy practice.. Neither of us are perfect with buoyancy yet. The first dive we were adding and subtracting air from our BCD. Second dive when we reached bottom neither of us used our BCD Air, all breath control, awesome.I was a little bit of a air hog, got 47 minutes underwater with a 80 cu ft tank shows i have alot to learn but learn I will. The most important point is that on our second dive we were absolutely comfortable, no worries anxiety able to be in awe of all around us. No difference between 60 ft and 20 feet.
My wife and I are both Christians, and our thoughts on viewing the ocean realm were, Lord thank you, its beautiful. I thought the ocean bottom was large stretches of sand with some stuff in certain spots only. Wrong, everywhere we looked there was life. Saw sea turtles, eels, a moray, wish we had more time but a good reason to go back
I wanted to pass on an additional accolade to this SCUBABOARD website. I asked many questions, some stupid, but gained knowledge and confidence with each question and answer. There is an incredible amount of experience here. Everyone may not always agree, but thats the beauty of it, unbiased, but based upon individual experiance.
I would advise all new divers to try out then buy a good BCD, one that works for you. I have an Aqua Lung Axiom (great) wife has a MARES Kaila (loves it)
Test out and buy a regulator that breathes easy. Its an investment but if your comfortable getting air, you don't think about it all the time and can focus on controlled breathing for buoyancy. I switched my wife to an Aqua Lung Legend after her first pool session, difference was noticeable. As far as computers or consoles,, just get one that you can get comfortable with, deal with a LDS who can put one in your hands, and walk you through how to use it, and if you forget, ask them to show you again.
Sorry to run on,. but like I say we both think it was the best experience of our lives. Any one regardless of age should make doing this a priority. I know we have a number of years to build our memories and count our blessings through SCUBA.
