Scuba-Blue-13
Contributor
We (wife and I) just got back from a short Jamaican vacation where we finished up our OW certification and I wanted to share a few observations/thoughts.
First and foremost - a great big thank you to all that post regularly on these boards. I knew I had picked up a lot of information, but wasn't sure how much I'd retained until I got in to the water and everything came back as I needed it. I am certain I am a better diver (especially as a newbie) because of all of your information, advice, and knowledge.
1st post certification dive went much how I expected it to, we were on the boat, got the briefing about the site, how long we should expect to be down, and buddy pairs assigned, buddy checks, etc. We hit the water, made sure everyone was OK and began our descent. It was at the bottom that ScubaBoard really started ringing in my head- loudly - I watched 1 diver (who I later found out finished his certification the day before me) immediately ditched his buddy and swam off on his own, ended up literally 200' from his buddy, kicking every coral and fish he came across along the way. I had 2 distinct thoughts, 1st was "what a putz", and 2nd was "he is of absolutely no help to his buddy if there's a problem, and if he has an issue we're pulling a body back to the boat."
Once we all regrouped and were all within a safer distance of one another, he begins floundering around on his own again and at some point ends up above my wife and nearly kicked her mask off. Needless to say, I was more than a little pissed, and stayed just a little closer to her "just in case".
Fortunately that was his last dive of the week so he didn't pose any more of an issue on any of our later dives.
We did receive a nice compliment, that again, I owe to all of the information here. We were talking with a few experienced divers who asked how long we'd been diving, when we said we had just been certified they were legitimately shocked! Said we looked like we've been diving for years, good trim, good buoyancy, good form and manners, etc. Come to find out, I continually surfaced with as much air as this guy with Rescue Diver that's been diving for over 10 years as well! I may be reading too much in to it, but at this point in my career (7 dives) I am thrilled to be surfacing with 1100 PSI after 45 minutes bottom time.
I could go on about all of our dives, but really I just wanted to say thank you, and to say that after a lot of reading here, I feel like I'm capable of adding something to the conversation.
First and foremost - a great big thank you to all that post regularly on these boards. I knew I had picked up a lot of information, but wasn't sure how much I'd retained until I got in to the water and everything came back as I needed it. I am certain I am a better diver (especially as a newbie) because of all of your information, advice, and knowledge.
1st post certification dive went much how I expected it to, we were on the boat, got the briefing about the site, how long we should expect to be down, and buddy pairs assigned, buddy checks, etc. We hit the water, made sure everyone was OK and began our descent. It was at the bottom that ScubaBoard really started ringing in my head- loudly - I watched 1 diver (who I later found out finished his certification the day before me) immediately ditched his buddy and swam off on his own, ended up literally 200' from his buddy, kicking every coral and fish he came across along the way. I had 2 distinct thoughts, 1st was "what a putz", and 2nd was "he is of absolutely no help to his buddy if there's a problem, and if he has an issue we're pulling a body back to the boat."
Once we all regrouped and were all within a safer distance of one another, he begins floundering around on his own again and at some point ends up above my wife and nearly kicked her mask off. Needless to say, I was more than a little pissed, and stayed just a little closer to her "just in case".
Fortunately that was his last dive of the week so he didn't pose any more of an issue on any of our later dives.
We did receive a nice compliment, that again, I owe to all of the information here. We were talking with a few experienced divers who asked how long we'd been diving, when we said we had just been certified they were legitimately shocked! Said we looked like we've been diving for years, good trim, good buoyancy, good form and manners, etc. Come to find out, I continually surfaced with as much air as this guy with Rescue Diver that's been diving for over 10 years as well! I may be reading too much in to it, but at this point in my career (7 dives) I am thrilled to be surfacing with 1100 PSI after 45 minutes bottom time.
I could go on about all of our dives, but really I just wanted to say thank you, and to say that after a lot of reading here, I feel like I'm capable of adding something to the conversation.
