If you know me, then you know that I'm not one of those people that brag on my expertise and tell you how great I did at things and how wonderful my life is. After all, who wants to read about that anyway? No, I tend to expose my raw nerves to the reader, let you read about my failures, my vulnerabilities, difficulties, fears and sometimes my successes. Today was a wonderful but nerve-wracking experience. Before the pool training, students spend time going through at least three chapters of the PADI Open Water Diver manual, reading--and if you take the course online there are nice intermittent videos--and taking quizzes--to familiarize the future diver with information needed before the first contained pool training exercises. I completed these in addition to my Forensic Psych courses I still have to complete and my work items that are always waiting for me in an ever growing list--but the diving information is fascinating and, as a nurse, public health professional, emergency management person and forensic healthcare leader/provider I found it interesting on other levels as well. That was the easy part.
The hard part today was getting into the pool and managing to find a way to "sink" at first. You see, the pool was on the chilly side because the pool water heater was not working and so we all were in thicker wetsuits. And I was so 'buoyant' in my 7mm wetsuit that apparently my body just did not want to sink when we were supposed to do something as simple as descend to our knees so we could do some training exercises with the breathing regulator. So, here I am, floundering around on the surface and Chip the owner of Dive Connections and other staff are so professional and patient as they add weight after weight to me to help me and all I could hear in my ears was a quote from Simon Pridmore in an audiobook that I was listening to (He wrote Scuba Confidential)--he said: "In scuba diving, going down and staying down are not the difficult bits, (a brick can do that.) Coming up again is the part that requires skill."
And while I'm struggling to get to my knees on the bottom of the pool, I'm writing Simon Pridmore in my head--"Dear Mr. Pridmore. . . . apparently sometimes even sinking is a skill in scuba diving--unsubmersably yours, Cin Ferguson. . ." Eventually, I did get there. Okay-full disclosure-I had to be held down part of the time.
The next challenge came when the student is supposed to remove their only source of life under water--their regulator--that which delivers life-giving AIR---toss it AWAY and then find such regulator calmly, cooly and with collected ease by sweeping the arm back to collect the hose and gently find the regulator and put it back into their mouth. Yours truly did not do so well on two separate occasions and not VERY well on the third, having to stand up in a panic the first and second time because I could not find the darn thing. My brain was like--"Hey, you need AIR and it is UP THERE!" I jetted for the surface spurting and I don't want to know what I swallowed in that pool water.
These exercises--if you really go back and reflect on your own reflexes and automatic responses ---they teach you how essential this training is and how important it is to practice regularly. Certainly, once you've been trained, you know what to expect, but you don't always know how you are going to react if you don't keep training yourself how to react. If you don't dive often, and keep returning to the pool to practice skills, I think it can be dangerous to just go out on a major dive without doing it Maybe that's part of why Dive Clubs are so useful and why it can be really helpful to pitch in with teaching classes--the basics from time to time. But I'm new. I know nothing. Only what I've heard from experts so far. I'll let you know if what I hear end up more true than not.
Sharing regulators: Another drill requires that you work with a buddy, look at him or her--use a signal that tells them you are "out of air" and then the dive buddy shares their air with you using a secondary regulator (and any of you expert divers are reading--if I get terminology wrong---go ahead--laugh, but please forgive me and I'll accept corrections--I'm just learning and I have very little pride. l:) ) My mistakes weren't huge here, but I need to remember that my motions need to be LARGE particularly if underwater and with something as important as "I'm out of AIR" a little hand signal with minimal emphasis isn't going to cut it.
Last "Cin Event" was funny in that, we were all now free to "swim" in the pool, fins flipping--practicing moving--and so I'm doing quite well, equalizing my ear pressure okay, but--now I really AM a brick (thank you Mr. Pridmore) and I cannot get back to the surface well because I am weighted down so much and I cannot find my power inflator/deflater that adds air and lets out air of my Buoyancy control device (BCD). Chris, one of the fantastic scuba instructors is swimming near me noticing I'm showing some distress and gives me the okay sign and I wiggle my hand for "problem". He points to the ear thinking maybe I have equalizing problems and I'm like no, shaking my head, He gives me the sign for "ascend" but I can't do it hardly because I don't know where my power inflator is--so I'm kicking as hard as I can against all my weights so I can tell him . . . he figures it out and shows me where to find the power inflator--just near my left hand-- (I feel like Dorothy and Chris is Glenda the Good Witch--"You've had the power all along my dear") and "Ah . . ." I press the button, inflate the BCD a little. Now, I am NO LONGER A BRICK.
The end of the day we finished with a swim challenge to prove we could swim. Apparently there have been some people in the past who decided to take diving courses and thought that the courses included learning how to swim as part of the diving course, or they didn't think they needed to learn how to swim because diving is 'under water' and you don't need to know how to swim for that. That boggled my mind a bit.
It was hard to get out of the wetsuit and get BACK into the cold pool water to swim the laps (shades of Navy Aircrew School in 1984 flashing back in my brain as I swam, but at least I wasn't being dropped in open water in February in Pensacola in a wetsuit two sizes too big waiting for a helicopter so I could practice hooking up to it, have it raise me up a little on a cable, only to have it let me back down into the cold water). Swim was done. I was hungry.
I think those were most of my challenges today, plus I couldn't see so well without my glasses. I have soft contacts on order and I'm thinking of getting at least 1 prescription dive mask. If anyone reads this who is a diver and you have glasses/prescription lenses--I'd love to hear your thoughts. Contacts? Prescription dive mask? Both?
Well, let's see what tomorrow will bring, shall we?