Started my PADI Open Water Certification today!!
- Thread starter mfox007
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Day 3 of OW Certification is in the books!!!
So our first day in the pool was great. Breathing underwater felt like riding a bike. I felt no different breathing through my snorkel compared to my reg. Doing the SNUBA in Cozumel back in January definitely broke the mental barrier of breathing underwater.
The day started off with us doing some physical fitness tests. We put on our basic four piece and had to swim 12 lengths of this Olympic sized pool (maybe a little shorter). No hands, just feet. Since I am also training for Rugged Maniac, my leg strength and muscle endurance allowed me to breeze through that portion (finished first, but it wasn't a race
). Then we had to tread water for 10 minutes. Again, no problems there.
After that portion, we began to assemble our SCUBA assemblies. First time was step by step with the instructor. We first let some air out into our palm to smell the air for contaminants. We then had to visuallly inspect the o-ring in the valve. I saw mine had a little piece of extra rubber. I showed one of the instructors and he told me it was OK (I've worked on automotive A/C systems so I know a bad o-ring when I see one). I put the first stage on and attach the LP hose to the BC. I opened the valve, and can you guess what happened.... It was leaking from the o-ring!! Easy fix though.
Once we were in the water with our full setups on we started to go through different techniques. Simple breathing, clearing our reg, partial mask flood and clear, air share, fin pivot, five point ascent/decent, equalizing mask and ears, and free flowing reg. I found the fin pivot the hardest. Need to do a better job on buoyancy.
All in all it went very well. I didn't have to do any of my tests twice. I felt very comfortable in the water. The rest of my class will do day 2 tomorrow and I will be on a plane to Orlando. I will do day two of my pool dives on Friday when I get back.
I also realize now why everyone says to wait and buy gear. The reg I used had small exhaust ports. When we were upright underwater, every time I exhaled the bubbles would shake my mask and cause it to flood a little. SO ANNOYING!!!! I believe Atomic makes a reg with a longer side exhaust. I may look into that now.
Friday won't come fast enough!!!!!!
So our first day in the pool was great. Breathing underwater felt like riding a bike. I felt no different breathing through my snorkel compared to my reg. Doing the SNUBA in Cozumel back in January definitely broke the mental barrier of breathing underwater.
The day started off with us doing some physical fitness tests. We put on our basic four piece and had to swim 12 lengths of this Olympic sized pool (maybe a little shorter). No hands, just feet. Since I am also training for Rugged Maniac, my leg strength and muscle endurance allowed me to breeze through that portion (finished first, but it wasn't a race
). Then we had to tread water for 10 minutes. Again, no problems there.After that portion, we began to assemble our SCUBA assemblies. First time was step by step with the instructor. We first let some air out into our palm to smell the air for contaminants. We then had to visuallly inspect the o-ring in the valve. I saw mine had a little piece of extra rubber. I showed one of the instructors and he told me it was OK (I've worked on automotive A/C systems so I know a bad o-ring when I see one). I put the first stage on and attach the LP hose to the BC. I opened the valve, and can you guess what happened.... It was leaking from the o-ring!! Easy fix though.
Once we were in the water with our full setups on we started to go through different techniques. Simple breathing, clearing our reg, partial mask flood and clear, air share, fin pivot, five point ascent/decent, equalizing mask and ears, and free flowing reg. I found the fin pivot the hardest. Need to do a better job on buoyancy.
All in all it went very well. I didn't have to do any of my tests twice. I felt very comfortable in the water. The rest of my class will do day 2 tomorrow and I will be on a plane to Orlando. I will do day two of my pool dives on Friday when I get back.
I also realize now why everyone says to wait and buy gear. The reg I used had small exhaust ports. When we were upright underwater, every time I exhaled the bubbles would shake my mask and cause it to flood a little. SO ANNOYING!!!! I believe Atomic makes a reg with a longer side exhaust. I may look into that now.
Friday won't come fast enough!!!!!!
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