Scuba #2

hey hottie

 Night two of scuba lessons went pretty good. I was going to make cookies to take to class, but I got called in to work, so Kroger made cookies for the class:) When we got to the dive shop (early so we could put together our gear) we were surprised to find that all of our gear was already pulled and placed in a dive bag for us! Les and Karen had looked at the board, saw the sizes we were fitted for, and gotten all of our gear out for us! what good people. So we all ate cookies and took two tests. They aren't stressful. We take a test per chapter. and if we miss one, we go over it, mark the right answer and move on.
Ron, our instructor, went over the skills we were going to be learning in the pool that night. and as he started talking, I started getting more and more anxious. skill #1- using your partners alternate air source. if you run out of air in your tank, your partner has another tube connected to their tank, and you use theirs. ok, I can do that one. skill #2- take your mask off underwater and just use your regulator for one minute. im not too sure about this one. but ill try it. skill #3- pull your regulator out of your mouth (we all know I have the death grip on this regulator at all times) and use the stream of bubbles coming out of the regulator to breathe from. I raised my hand at this point and said ' why will we ever need to do this?'. and Ron said that if your regulator were ever to get stuck, where constant air was coming out ( not just when you are inhaling it in), you will need to pop one side out, and breathe from the bubbles it creates. then he said ' you won't inhale water'. i said ' yeah right'. Ron said I will owe him an apology after our lesson. I said, if I dont swallow water, I will apologize. anyway. skill #4- he turns our air tank off and we see what it's like to breathe from an empty tank. I am sweating at this point. I raise my hand again. ' can we just practice this skill outside of the water?'. negative. he's really going to make us do this.
So we leave the classroom, pack up, and head to the UK pool.

all of our gear waiting to be put on

 

 

 

Karen and Les. somehow Les got a women's wet suit. haha

We get in the pool and start in the deep end. and when I hit 15 feet, my right ear feels like it is going to explode. I can't get it to 'pop'. so I am squeezing my nose and blowing out like he told us to. apparently I squeezed too hard because yesterday and today my nose is so bruised and tender to the touch. I finally got it to a tolerable level, but it never felt great. We practiced our skills for the next 2 hours. I did good with the alternate air source. I even did ok taking my mask off. although that was tricky because when you blow out of your regulator, bubbles go up your nose, then you have to blow out your nose, all with my eyes closed because I have contacts. but it was ok. Pulling the regulator out of my mouth was difficult for me, but I did it. and somehow I managed to suck air from the stream of bubbles. but apparently I wasn't watching my instructor. so when I put the regulator back in my mouth, he made me do it again, until he told me I could stop. geez! :) Then he calls me over and tells me he is going to cut my air off. and I shake my head no. because remember you can't really talk under water. it's all hand signals. but he did it. he cut my air off. and guess what- i didn't have a panic attack. I gave him the signal i was running out of air and he immediately turned it back on. I wanted to hug him.

me and Ron, our instructor.

So, I owe Ron an apology. and i was really proud of myself for getting through all of those skills. It is hard for me, but I am doing it. not only doing them, but becoming comfortable with them. Luckily Philip is so comfortable underwater and never freaks out. that makes him the perfect dive partner for me:)
so hopefully, God forbid, anything happens on one of our dives, I won't freak out. i mean, i probably will. but at least in the back of my head will be the knowledge of what to do. :)