5/28/08 scuba

last night was our 1st class in scuba.
did i enjoy it? the jury's still out. matt says he did and is very happy i was there with him.
turns out there are 2 people in a more advanced class than us that were there last night, adn we didn't know they were into diving.

anyway, last night, and the next 2 tuesday nights we have 2 hours in the classroom, and then 2 hours in the swimming pool.
then a written test day
then we have 1 day of intro to open water or somethign like that and
3 open water boat or shore dives.

i remembered a lot of what i read, but unfortunately not the questions he was asking. oh well. our instructor is kinda cool. he's from scotland and has done lots of diving in the very cold north sea. BRRR.

i have to admit while i was looking forward to trying scuba i was pretty darn scared. i've snorkeled a few times, but i've never been very good at being able to stay underwater. i warned whats-his-name-it-starts-with-an-S that i have a bouyancy issue - it takes a lot to get me to sink. i was right. i think we spent a good 45 minutes thru the course of the night trying to get me weighted where i could stay under - and we didn't quite succeed, but we did figure out a few things to do different next week. the main thing is we're meeting up on friday - and we'll try to find a smaller BC - bouyancy compensator - or lifevest/weightbelt/pockets/tank holder thing.

we did learn how to connect all the stuff, as well as what to do after the dive with the gear. while we were trying to adjust my BC we heard a pop. turns out i blew an O-ring. actually i didn't do it, it just was time for that little rubber ring to go. it actually shredded. quite impressive.

we had to swim 6 laps in fins with snorkel and mask to prove we could get around in the water, and then had to tread water for 10 minutes to prove we could at least stay on the surface for a short time :-).

it was extremely hard to stay underwater. we were supposed to get down on the floor of the pool and sit or kneel. once i finally got on my knees and upright, it took 100% of my concentration to remain there! it was very hard to go through the procedures. at one point S had to actually hold me underwater so i could do the mask clear bit. i was actually kind of worried about that step. i remember doing that back when we took a snorkel class in high school. but it went fine. and when i managed to go through the 3 different ways to clear the regulator underwater i did them just fine! but everytime S asked if i was 'ok' it took me a second to ask myself 'am i ok?yes i am' and then signal back 'ok'. at one point matt accidentally bumped into me and man i did not like that at all!. i also found it very frustrating not being able to talk ..i'd have a question or something and i'd have to surface to ask, find out the answer, and then go to all the trouble of getting back underwater.

all in all i'd say i did pretty good. the other 2 gals there last night who are in the more advanced classes were very encouraging. one asked me how i liked it and i had to tell her 'honestly i have no idea'. she giggled but said she felt the same way after her 1st night. they both said things get easier the more you do it. which of course i know.

i was actaully pretty darn scared of the underwater part. but the thought of being able to see so many fish and cool things in their natural habitat is really what's driving me to continue with this. matt has said though, if i hate it it's ok. our friend who plays cello who was there last night came by after and said we looked pretty good. but i've no idea how much he was able to actually watch us seeing as he was deep (sorry) into his stress & rescue class!

near the end of pool time i started to feel light-headed. i'm lucky it happened when it did, becuase it ended our night, we didn't have to go back underwater. i tried to stay down, but i couldn't do it. i was just too 'off' feeling. i signaled i had to go up, and managed to reach for and grab the side of the pool. i think i might've scared S -gee i wish i could remember his - SIMON! i might've scared simon a little because i couldn't talk immediately, and almost the 1st thing out of my mouth after saying i fet a little dizzy was 'get this thing off me, i feel sick'. man did i. just a strong wave of nausea came over me. simon and matt wasted no time in undoing my BC - i was a basket case right then concentrating on standing up, not being sick, and stopping the room from spinning. actually all's ok. we know what the cause was:

we failed to get dinner - we thought there'd be time between selecting gear and the class, but it turns out we didn't. luckily i had brought a carb-bar with me and i ate that 1/2 way through the night. so nothing to eat since lunch. nerves played a big part of it. exertion. man there was plenty of that! a bit of hyperventilation with the canister of air... it was 11 when we got home and started heating pizza for me to eat! i also downed 3 bottles of water between exitign the water and akign up this am.

man my shoulders and neck hurt today! even though you're in water that canister is heavy! i can barely pick it up on land! forget lifting it into the water!

i'm still a little aprehensive about next week. matt and i have talked about seeing if we can hire him for an extra 'let us get all dressed up and just situnder the water' type of thing, to get a little more comfy with it. the nice thing is there are only 3 of us in the class, and the 3rd didn't show last night.

so there you are. i didn't freak out or wig out, but i did have a hard time with certain things.

i can honestly say if i had taken scuba way back when i was in high school like we had originally planned i probably would not have been able to do it. i'm 99% sure that i would've freaked out. simon said (haha) that i wasn't his worst student, so that made me feel a little better.