JC Fedorczyk
Contributor
Quick overview so far of the class. I'll add to it after each session so that people thinking about taking this have an idea of what happens. Definitely hooked!
Well the certification has begun . Our group of 9 people met at the dive shop Friday evening to finish any paperwork that hadnt been completed and to get fitted for the wetsuits, BCDS, etc. This also served as a lesson in how to put together the equipment and take it apart. All our rental gear went into a bag with our name on it and it officially became ours for the rest of the weekend. A quick meeting to go over times for the weekend and a reminder that we should have all our bookwork done and we were done for the day. Home for some dinner and a movie and early to bed. The assembled cast includes: Frank (the instructor), myself and my girlfriend, an engaged couple in which the woman is taking a refresher course and the guy is getting certified so they can dive on their honeymoon, a friend of the engaged couple, 2 teenagers, an older gentleman that just decided scuba would be something interesting to learn, and another guy who is meeting friends in Barbados and his wife is certified already.
Saturday: At the dive shop at 9am for the in-class sessions. Everyone actually came prepared and had everything done! Very pleased that everyone is taking this seriously and wants to learn. The class doesnt have to wait for anyone to catch up. Covered all the information in the books and took our quizzes that accompany the sections. My girlfriend and I turned the tests into a competition and we both ended up with a 98% total. I still contend that she somehow cheated and bumped my elbow at an opportune moment so I filled in the wrong check box. She admits nothing, smiles sweetly, and proclaims her innocence.
Class session takes about 3 hrs and then we grab our gear, grab a tank, and agree to meet at the pool after lunch in one hour. We arrive at the public pool and it is thankfully mostly empty due to the nice weather down here. The instructor starts us with our swim test and in we go. The older gentleman that decided to try scuba diving tired quickly and ended the last lap with a doggy paddle but he finished. Next on the plate is the water treading and everyone jumps in the pool. I start my watch and start timing as a bob around and look at the other folks in the pool. The older gentleman, tired already from the laps, is having some trouble staying up so I made my way over to him and discussed some different ways to stay afloat. He finished up the last part of this test with the dead-mans float. Bobbing around the pool I look at my watch and see that we are coming up on the 11 minute mark. I look at the instructor and dive master and ask them if they have slow watches. The dive master that was assisting thought we were supposed to go 15 minutes. Oops! So the instructor hauls everyone out and we put on wetsuits, assemble our gear, and toss it in the pool. Now this is the part Ive been waiting for. I think to myself and eagerly jump in shallow end of the pool.
Once everyone is in a circle we go over hand signals again, cover any questions that have come up and are informed of the instructor and dive masters favorite candy. The deal is that if anyone puts their masks on their foreheads they owe the instructor and dive master Hot Tamales. Everyone puts on their gear, slaps the regulator in their mouth, and under we go to our knees. Well, I went as far under as a 7mm jacket and I think 14lbs of weight would take me. I was still under water so I was happy. Neat sensation, but it was still too much like skin diving because I could hear the other people using the pool, etc. After about 10 minutes I looked over and the male half of the engaged couple was out of the water and sitting on the edge of the pool. Apparently the swim test and treading water tired him out so much that he felt he couldnt breathe underwater. So he sat on the sidelines for the rest for the rest of the afternoon and watched the group of 8 practice their skills. It wasnt much longer before we came up to discuss things and my girlfriend owes candy to the instructors ..
All the skill testing went just fine and the breathing on the regulator without a mask for a minute was really neat. The feel of the bubbles as they wash past your face is like a soft feather touch. Then everyone prepares to swim down to the deep end of the pool. Needless to say buoyancy control was non existent. I think I did more crawling to the bottom then swimming. I figured out that at about 6 or 7 feet the 7mm wetsuit that I have on loses most of its buoyancy. One minute it is there and Im floaty and the next minute Im getting up close and personal with the bottom of the pool which, by the way, is in definite need of a good scrubbing.
Everyone equalizes okay and gets to the bottom of the pool and we practice a few things and then head back up. As Im swimming back up I realize that I am coming up into a lane of swimmers and Im about to be run over by some old man! A quick dump of some air dropped me down a few feet and I was able to swim over to the rest of the group. Thankfully I wasnt the only one that meandered. We made another trip down to the bottom to practice quick disconnects and the out of air example. Thats quite an interesting feeling one minute there is air and the next its gone. As I sat waiting for the other folks to finish their examples I leaned my head back and just watched the bubbles rise to the surface. Really, really neat and if I hadnt been hooked before this was definitely what did it!
That was the last of our lessons for the day and after 3.5 hrs in the pool everyone is pretty pruney but happy. I would have been more then happy to just sit down at the bottom of the pool with the air remaining in my tank but it was time to go. Today we have some more review in the classroom and our final and then more pool time. Then 2 weeks from now we go to the quarry to do our checkout dives over a weekend.
Well the certification has begun . Our group of 9 people met at the dive shop Friday evening to finish any paperwork that hadnt been completed and to get fitted for the wetsuits, BCDS, etc. This also served as a lesson in how to put together the equipment and take it apart. All our rental gear went into a bag with our name on it and it officially became ours for the rest of the weekend. A quick meeting to go over times for the weekend and a reminder that we should have all our bookwork done and we were done for the day. Home for some dinner and a movie and early to bed. The assembled cast includes: Frank (the instructor), myself and my girlfriend, an engaged couple in which the woman is taking a refresher course and the guy is getting certified so they can dive on their honeymoon, a friend of the engaged couple, 2 teenagers, an older gentleman that just decided scuba would be something interesting to learn, and another guy who is meeting friends in Barbados and his wife is certified already.
Saturday: At the dive shop at 9am for the in-class sessions. Everyone actually came prepared and had everything done! Very pleased that everyone is taking this seriously and wants to learn. The class doesnt have to wait for anyone to catch up. Covered all the information in the books and took our quizzes that accompany the sections. My girlfriend and I turned the tests into a competition and we both ended up with a 98% total. I still contend that she somehow cheated and bumped my elbow at an opportune moment so I filled in the wrong check box. She admits nothing, smiles sweetly, and proclaims her innocence.
Class session takes about 3 hrs and then we grab our gear, grab a tank, and agree to meet at the pool after lunch in one hour. We arrive at the public pool and it is thankfully mostly empty due to the nice weather down here. The instructor starts us with our swim test and in we go. The older gentleman that decided to try scuba diving tired quickly and ended the last lap with a doggy paddle but he finished. Next on the plate is the water treading and everyone jumps in the pool. I start my watch and start timing as a bob around and look at the other folks in the pool. The older gentleman, tired already from the laps, is having some trouble staying up so I made my way over to him and discussed some different ways to stay afloat. He finished up the last part of this test with the dead-mans float. Bobbing around the pool I look at my watch and see that we are coming up on the 11 minute mark. I look at the instructor and dive master and ask them if they have slow watches. The dive master that was assisting thought we were supposed to go 15 minutes. Oops! So the instructor hauls everyone out and we put on wetsuits, assemble our gear, and toss it in the pool. Now this is the part Ive been waiting for. I think to myself and eagerly jump in shallow end of the pool.
Once everyone is in a circle we go over hand signals again, cover any questions that have come up and are informed of the instructor and dive masters favorite candy. The deal is that if anyone puts their masks on their foreheads they owe the instructor and dive master Hot Tamales. Everyone puts on their gear, slaps the regulator in their mouth, and under we go to our knees. Well, I went as far under as a 7mm jacket and I think 14lbs of weight would take me. I was still under water so I was happy. Neat sensation, but it was still too much like skin diving because I could hear the other people using the pool, etc. After about 10 minutes I looked over and the male half of the engaged couple was out of the water and sitting on the edge of the pool. Apparently the swim test and treading water tired him out so much that he felt he couldnt breathe underwater. So he sat on the sidelines for the rest for the rest of the afternoon and watched the group of 8 practice their skills. It wasnt much longer before we came up to discuss things and my girlfriend owes candy to the instructors ..
All the skill testing went just fine and the breathing on the regulator without a mask for a minute was really neat. The feel of the bubbles as they wash past your face is like a soft feather touch. Then everyone prepares to swim down to the deep end of the pool. Needless to say buoyancy control was non existent. I think I did more crawling to the bottom then swimming. I figured out that at about 6 or 7 feet the 7mm wetsuit that I have on loses most of its buoyancy. One minute it is there and Im floaty and the next minute Im getting up close and personal with the bottom of the pool which, by the way, is in definite need of a good scrubbing.
Everyone equalizes okay and gets to the bottom of the pool and we practice a few things and then head back up. As Im swimming back up I realize that I am coming up into a lane of swimmers and Im about to be run over by some old man! A quick dump of some air dropped me down a few feet and I was able to swim over to the rest of the group. Thankfully I wasnt the only one that meandered. We made another trip down to the bottom to practice quick disconnects and the out of air example. Thats quite an interesting feeling one minute there is air and the next its gone. As I sat waiting for the other folks to finish their examples I leaned my head back and just watched the bubbles rise to the surface. Really, really neat and if I hadnt been hooked before this was definitely what did it!
That was the last of our lessons for the day and after 3.5 hrs in the pool everyone is pretty pruney but happy. I would have been more then happy to just sit down at the bottom of the pool with the air remaining in my tank but it was time to go. Today we have some more review in the classroom and our final and then more pool time. Then 2 weeks from now we go to the quarry to do our checkout dives over a weekend.
