6/20/08 scuba

well last week went much better. so much so in fact, that we've been given this next tuesday off!

i'm adjusting slowly - about 1/2 the speed of matt. you know the troubles i had 2 weeks ago with the sub. as bad as that week went, last tuesday was fantastic!

i never popped up to the surface, even when i swallowed a bunch of pool water. i managed to get to the bottom of the deep end. i went through all the drills - regulator, alternate air source, and mask clearing in both the shallow and deep ends. i swam around all over, and we had a toy. simon had brought a torpedo toy. looks like a nerf toy, but it's heavy so it actually sinks. his wife also joined us, and the 4 of us 'played toss' underwater - both in shallow and deep ends. just before we get out, i guess we had 10-15 minutes left, simon tells us we have to sink (shallow end), take off the mask, hand it to our buddy, and then swim 1 lap of the pool. basically it's to make sure that if our mask falls off underwater we're able to swim after it (hopefully it'll always float!) or at least be able to ascend without drowning or holding our breath. holding your breath is bad. it causes bubbles and bubbles are bad. i had to take a few minutes to psych myself up for it, its so painful to open my eyes underwater. matt did a great job. and he flew! i think i crawled! i knew i'd be able to breathe - simon had me takign the snorkel into the tub and sticking my face underwater without the mask and practice breathing. but i went real slow because i was running my hand along the lane tiles. keeping a finger in teh groutline between tiles and 'stucco' pool bottom i knew i was going straight and could keep my eyes closed. i did have to open them a little. just enough to see the color variation of the lane stripe and the space where that ends and the pool wall is so i could turn around. i was really proud of myself after last tuesday night. if the rest of hte sessions go like that P-shaw, piece of cake! but i'm not getting too over-confident. i expect there is a place where things just 'click' but i don't know how much left i have to learn or what they are, so i'm not going to get hubrous (sp??? huberous????) as soon as i do i'll be voted off the island! anyway, we did indeed push back the open water and dry suit training until next month. that's fine with me. as cold as it's been this month the sound is pretty cold!