Teddy Bears with big-pointy-teeth
On Saturday Jason and I started our AOW certification class. There was an optional pool session (for those who hadn’t been diving in a while) at 7:00 in the morning. Luckily neither Jason nor I needed to opt for it. We would have had get up like 5:15 am to get there for that. No thank you. Instead we needed to be there for the regular starting time at 10:00 (much better). We arrived with enough extra time to take care of last minute details and for Jason to meet Rich, our instructor. I have met most everyone down at Pro Dive now as I spent so much time there agonizing over my gear decisions. Rich in particular was unlucky enough to have to deal with me on at least two separate occasions. I will say this for the folks down there, pretty much all of them were making a concerted effort to remember my name. That’s very nice. After that we stood around and waited for the rest of the class to show up and take care of their own last minute details. Then when we were all there, Rich led us around and up to the classroom portion of the Pro Dive building. I’m still not sure I would be able to find it on my own, so I’m glad he was leading. We all found seats and Rich had us all introduce ourselves in the typical way.
Hi, I’m Susan Cleveland. I’ve been diving for a couple of years and really just wanted to improve my skills in the AOW class.
And so forth. There were eight people including Jason and me in the class, half of whom are planning on going forward through the career training classes that Pro Dive offers. There were two fellows who had just completed their open water certification the day before (holy cow, going into AOW with a total of 4 dives under your belt – they are certainly braver than I) and then Jason and I who were just there for the ride. Everyone else in the class looked very young to me although I would imagine that they were mostly between 20 and 25 or so. Then came the paperwork; signing the waiver, the I’m healthy paper (luckily Jason remembered to bring the note from his doctor saying that he’s okay to dive), filling out your address, and your emergency contact information. Then Rich gave us a brief description of what dives we would be doing and then we went down to practice with our compasses on land. We walked to a small park that was across the street and got to work. We practiced using the bezel and taking a reciprocal heading and navigating a square. It was good to do on land since everything is easier there, but we did get a number of strange looks. A few looks when we were walking around in one long line and then turning around en masse and walking straight back the other way. Even more looks when we started breaking off into twos and walking around in seemingly random directions with one person starting intently at their compass and the other fervently counting kick cycles in their head and squeezing the arm of the compass person after ten of them, at which time the compass person would make a 90 degree turn and start walking again. I’m sure it was quite amusing to watch from a distance.
After navigation practice it was time for lunch and then off to dive. My mom and I discovered a restaurant right near there on the beach when we came down to look for apartments and Roland, Jason, and I had decided to meet there for lunch. We had a nice little lunch and bid Roland farewell. But not before he bestowed upon us a cooler full of dinner. We weren’t going to have much time between our two sets of dives so Roland was kind enough to provide us with food to eat at the picnic tables on the dock. He put the cooler in my car and Jason and I headed for the boat.
Our first dive was the wreak dive, it was a boat called the Tracy. It was a very nice dive. The water was clear and once we got below the waves it was calm and beautiful. The wreck itself was full of coral and I’m pretty sure I saw a nudibranch so that was very cool. Parts of the boat were cut away so you could see into the innards and that made things more interesting. Overall it was a great dive and I had a great time.
Then back on the boat for the surface interval a couple of our classmates started getting a little seasick, one a lot sea sick. I don’t normally get terribly affected, but when other people get sick and start talking about getting sick it makes it like a million times worse. I was just as happy to get back in the water for the next dive. The second dive was the navigation dive which was more of a struggle for me. Not the actual navigating which went pretty well, but the fact that I was struggling with my buoyancy so much I couldn’t concentrate on the navigating. At first I felt overweighted and then when I tried to settle on the bottom for the class I couldn’t stay down. It was very frustrating and I ended up taking a minute to just compose myself before completing my square. After we did all of our navigation stuff we were allowed do some pleasure diving until our air ran out so we did.
Then we all headed back the dock and they were nice enough to let us keep out stuff on the boat while be disembarked to get some food. Jason and I grabbed the cooler from the car and brought it to one of the tables. We opened it and were surprised to discover the huge spread that Roland had put together. We each had a wonderful dinner with a bagel sandwich, a pickle, cheese and crackers, fruit, and a cream soda. And in the bottom we each found an after dinner mint. It was very refreshing and not at all heavy. All in all the perfect meal (thanks Roland). Then we spent a little time in the car warming up so we would be ready to go back out for the rest of the evening.
We all trouped back on the boat and headed out again this time to our night dive. For me, there was a little apprehension about this dive because now there is another piece of equipment to deal with. But it turned out all right and it was a beautiful dive. We all turned out our lights at one point and watched the bioluminescence of some passing microorganisms. The moon was actually so bright you didn’t need much light anyway. Rich also pointed out a four foot nurse shark napping under a small reef ledge and he also gave us permission to totally embellish the story if we wanted to (no, no it was an 8 foot shark and it was chasing us!). Nah, it was pretty cool just to see the thing at all. I also saw a couple of puffer fish (I think it was a spiny puffer), but I’m not sure anyone else did. We all enjoyed the dive and when we got back on the boat we were given the option of doing a second night dive and I think all of us took him up on that. Again it was very cool, but I was getting very cold and tired by that point, so I thumbed the dive a bit early and we headed back to the boat with quite a bit of air left. We dressed and packed while riding back to the dock during which I was very cold and Jason didn’t feel very well. I think he was affected the same way I was (when people talk about getting sick, it makes you get sick). At one point he left mid-sentence to find some fresh air and a direct path over the side of the boat if he should need it. I don’t think he did need it, but he looked a little green for a while. Back on land we went straight home. In fact, when we were getting off the boat one of the dive maters made a joke about going straight home and not out drinking. It sounded like he was kidding and he expected us to go out anyway. No way dude! Jason and I were beat. We drove home and pretty much collapsed on the floor. Unfortunately we still had to rinse our gear. Once that was accomplished we pretty much both just passed out. It was an interesting day, but I think I’ll hold off on any more 4 tank days for a little while yet. I was completely wiped!
Hi, I’m Susan Cleveland. I’ve been diving for a couple of years and really just wanted to improve my skills in the AOW class.
And so forth. There were eight people including Jason and me in the class, half of whom are planning on going forward through the career training classes that Pro Dive offers. There were two fellows who had just completed their open water certification the day before (holy cow, going into AOW with a total of 4 dives under your belt – they are certainly braver than I) and then Jason and I who were just there for the ride. Everyone else in the class looked very young to me although I would imagine that they were mostly between 20 and 25 or so. Then came the paperwork; signing the waiver, the I’m healthy paper (luckily Jason remembered to bring the note from his doctor saying that he’s okay to dive), filling out your address, and your emergency contact information. Then Rich gave us a brief description of what dives we would be doing and then we went down to practice with our compasses on land. We walked to a small park that was across the street and got to work. We practiced using the bezel and taking a reciprocal heading and navigating a square. It was good to do on land since everything is easier there, but we did get a number of strange looks. A few looks when we were walking around in one long line and then turning around en masse and walking straight back the other way. Even more looks when we started breaking off into twos and walking around in seemingly random directions with one person starting intently at their compass and the other fervently counting kick cycles in their head and squeezing the arm of the compass person after ten of them, at which time the compass person would make a 90 degree turn and start walking again. I’m sure it was quite amusing to watch from a distance.
After navigation practice it was time for lunch and then off to dive. My mom and I discovered a restaurant right near there on the beach when we came down to look for apartments and Roland, Jason, and I had decided to meet there for lunch. We had a nice little lunch and bid Roland farewell. But not before he bestowed upon us a cooler full of dinner. We weren’t going to have much time between our two sets of dives so Roland was kind enough to provide us with food to eat at the picnic tables on the dock. He put the cooler in my car and Jason and I headed for the boat.
Our first dive was the wreak dive, it was a boat called the Tracy. It was a very nice dive. The water was clear and once we got below the waves it was calm and beautiful. The wreck itself was full of coral and I’m pretty sure I saw a nudibranch so that was very cool. Parts of the boat were cut away so you could see into the innards and that made things more interesting. Overall it was a great dive and I had a great time.
Then back on the boat for the surface interval a couple of our classmates started getting a little seasick, one a lot sea sick. I don’t normally get terribly affected, but when other people get sick and start talking about getting sick it makes it like a million times worse. I was just as happy to get back in the water for the next dive. The second dive was the navigation dive which was more of a struggle for me. Not the actual navigating which went pretty well, but the fact that I was struggling with my buoyancy so much I couldn’t concentrate on the navigating. At first I felt overweighted and then when I tried to settle on the bottom for the class I couldn’t stay down. It was very frustrating and I ended up taking a minute to just compose myself before completing my square. After we did all of our navigation stuff we were allowed do some pleasure diving until our air ran out so we did.
Then we all headed back the dock and they were nice enough to let us keep out stuff on the boat while be disembarked to get some food. Jason and I grabbed the cooler from the car and brought it to one of the tables. We opened it and were surprised to discover the huge spread that Roland had put together. We each had a wonderful dinner with a bagel sandwich, a pickle, cheese and crackers, fruit, and a cream soda. And in the bottom we each found an after dinner mint. It was very refreshing and not at all heavy. All in all the perfect meal (thanks Roland). Then we spent a little time in the car warming up so we would be ready to go back out for the rest of the evening.
We all trouped back on the boat and headed out again this time to our night dive. For me, there was a little apprehension about this dive because now there is another piece of equipment to deal with. But it turned out all right and it was a beautiful dive. We all turned out our lights at one point and watched the bioluminescence of some passing microorganisms. The moon was actually so bright you didn’t need much light anyway. Rich also pointed out a four foot nurse shark napping under a small reef ledge and he also gave us permission to totally embellish the story if we wanted to (no, no it was an 8 foot shark and it was chasing us!). Nah, it was pretty cool just to see the thing at all. I also saw a couple of puffer fish (I think it was a spiny puffer), but I’m not sure anyone else did. We all enjoyed the dive and when we got back on the boat we were given the option of doing a second night dive and I think all of us took him up on that. Again it was very cool, but I was getting very cold and tired by that point, so I thumbed the dive a bit early and we headed back to the boat with quite a bit of air left. We dressed and packed while riding back to the dock during which I was very cold and Jason didn’t feel very well. I think he was affected the same way I was (when people talk about getting sick, it makes you get sick). At one point he left mid-sentence to find some fresh air and a direct path over the side of the boat if he should need it. I don’t think he did need it, but he looked a little green for a while. Back on land we went straight home. In fact, when we were getting off the boat one of the dive maters made a joke about going straight home and not out drinking. It sounded like he was kidding and he expected us to go out anyway. No way dude! Jason and I were beat. We drove home and pretty much collapsed on the floor. Unfortunately we still had to rinse our gear. Once that was accomplished we pretty much both just passed out. It was an interesting day, but I think I’ll hold off on any more 4 tank days for a little while yet. I was completely wiped!
posted by Susan at 6:19 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home