I know we learn our lessons, but this piece of drama was learned the hard way. I was only on my third open water dive, ever, in Cozumel, when another diver pushing her way ahead of me to get to a swimthrough, kicked back and knocked my reg out of my mouth. She came from behind me, first pushed me down then kicked back. I didn't and couldn't see her coming. So there I was, only on my third dive, with a huge mouth of salt water, my jaw and left cheek hurting and wanting to cough. My lungs were burning from inhaled salt water and my reg had floated somewhere behind me. I am thankful to say I kept my wits about me. Maybe it was the combination of great diving instruction (we practiced this in the pool among other emergencies ) and dealing with stressful situations over 25 years of nursing. Anyway, did my arm sweep, found the reg, put it in my mouth, purged, coughed, purged, breathed. What also added to this "fun" was that I was holding the girl away from me with my other arm as she was panicked, and grabbing at me when she realized what she had done. The only other thing I might have done was decended to get out of her way, however, she was holding on to me...... Oh, and BTW, my chat with the girl topside was polite, but stern. Quite like a MOMMY correction when you need to get the message across.....you know..FOCUS, LISTEN and UNDERSTAND ME. She apologized. Anyway, I am here to write about it, I hope it is a lesson that neither of us will ever forget.
