aquaholly
Registered
By: Holly Surratt
On Saturday at 8:00 AM instructor Rick and I along with seven Open Water Students met at the shops’ pool to begin Confined Water Dives 1, 2, & 3. After completing a 10 minute survival float, we prepared our gear and as I gave a short briefing before dropping on the shallow end of the pool. With wide eyes the divers acclimated to the new feeling of breathing underwater, after I gave a detailed demonstration the divers mimicked me in preforming a few skills such as regulator clearing, recovery, and partial mask flood. We surfaced and switched to our snorkels before beginning our surface skills then heading right into dive 2. After the second dive, we surfaced and took turns playing the dramatic role of tired diver while our buddy practiced their tows. We swam around and threw some torpedoes before completing a few more skills.
Rick and I loaded the truck and headed to Tiger Tale Lake where we enjoyed our lunch on a picnic bench in the sand. Students flooded in one by one as we prepared our gear and practiced with our compasses then headed to the water. After a buddy check we dropped down in the sand and began our first open water dive. As I leaded a tour around the lake, we found a trampoline where we practiced some buoyancy skills then swam around for 20 minutes before surfacing for an interval. We took turns again playing the role of tired diver (some of us deserving an Oscar) while our buddies practiced their tired diver tows. After completing all of the surface skills we finished the day with dive 2.
8:00 A.M. came early again and I was discouraged by the news forecast of high winds and rain. We began our 200 meter swim in the pool with heavy rain pouring down on top of us everyone with sad thoughts of having to reschedule the class. To our surprise after surfacing from Confined Water 5 the sun was shining and the wind had died down. Frowns turned into smiles as everyone packed up their gear before grabbing a bite to eat and heading to the marina.
Boarding the Big Com Ocean, we went over a few rules and headed to our first destination, The Neptune Memorial where we got our first taste of real ocean diving. With a visibility of 20 feet and water temperature of 75 F we made our first lap around the Lost City of Atlantis reading the names of the deceased on memorial stones. We finished our skills and surfaced after an amazing dive and headed south for the Emerald Reefs, making a free descent to 20 feet we came across a large sand bed where we completed some skills and began our dive. Making our way East to the anchor line we came across a large lion fish which would have made for a nice dinner if I hadn’t forgotten my spear gun. We completed a safety stop and surfaced celebrating becoming six newly certified divers.
Congratulations to Charika, Tyler, Ryan, Nate, Carlos, & Jonothan for becoming Open Water Certified.
Learn to dive by clicking here.
See you next week,
On Saturday at 8:00 AM instructor Rick and I along with seven Open Water Students met at the shops’ pool to begin Confined Water Dives 1, 2, & 3. After completing a 10 minute survival float, we prepared our gear and as I gave a short briefing before dropping on the shallow end of the pool. With wide eyes the divers acclimated to the new feeling of breathing underwater, after I gave a detailed demonstration the divers mimicked me in preforming a few skills such as regulator clearing, recovery, and partial mask flood. We surfaced and switched to our snorkels before beginning our surface skills then heading right into dive 2. After the second dive, we surfaced and took turns playing the dramatic role of tired diver while our buddy practiced their tows. We swam around and threw some torpedoes before completing a few more skills.
Rick and I loaded the truck and headed to Tiger Tale Lake where we enjoyed our lunch on a picnic bench in the sand. Students flooded in one by one as we prepared our gear and practiced with our compasses then headed to the water. After a buddy check we dropped down in the sand and began our first open water dive. As I leaded a tour around the lake, we found a trampoline where we practiced some buoyancy skills then swam around for 20 minutes before surfacing for an interval. We took turns again playing the role of tired diver (some of us deserving an Oscar) while our buddies practiced their tired diver tows. After completing all of the surface skills we finished the day with dive 2.
8:00 A.M. came early again and I was discouraged by the news forecast of high winds and rain. We began our 200 meter swim in the pool with heavy rain pouring down on top of us everyone with sad thoughts of having to reschedule the class. To our surprise after surfacing from Confined Water 5 the sun was shining and the wind had died down. Frowns turned into smiles as everyone packed up their gear before grabbing a bite to eat and heading to the marina.
Boarding the Big Com Ocean, we went over a few rules and headed to our first destination, The Neptune Memorial where we got our first taste of real ocean diving. With a visibility of 20 feet and water temperature of 75 F we made our first lap around the Lost City of Atlantis reading the names of the deceased on memorial stones. We finished our skills and surfaced after an amazing dive and headed south for the Emerald Reefs, making a free descent to 20 feet we came across a large sand bed where we completed some skills and began our dive. Making our way East to the anchor line we came across a large lion fish which would have made for a nice dinner if I hadn’t forgotten my spear gun. We completed a safety stop and surfaced celebrating becoming six newly certified divers.
Congratulations to Charika, Tyler, Ryan, Nate, Carlos, & Jonothan for becoming Open Water Certified.
Learn to dive by clicking here.
See you next week,
