Spoiled Student

After being a "Hot Tub" diver for over 7 years, just diving in the Carib on vacations, my wife decided to join me and become a cold water diver recently. As part of the transition, she bought a drysuit and decided to take an Advanced Class.

Well, I've got to throw some Kudos in the direction of Fifth Dimension dive shop here in the Seattle area, as well as her SSI instructor. It turned out that she was the only student to sign up for the class, but they didn't cancel it, quite the opposite in fact. They decided to customize the class to meet her learning needs and her schedule!

The first couple of dives were used to help familiarize her with drysuit diving, to establish proper weighting, and to get her used to learning in the proper underwater position: HORIZONTAL! So, in just a handful of dives, she's established good horizontal trim and buoyancy control, a high level of comfort in cold water, and according to her instructor, a huge skill level improvement in her drills.

After the first dives in her poodle jacket, she decided (on her own) that her setup felt really floppy and unstable, and she wanted to try a BP/Wing setup. Well, the SSI instructor and the shop were superstars about that. They not only provided a BP/Wing and weight system at no additional cost, but they also loaned her smaller tanks for free too, as the instructor thought my LP-Steel98s were too heavy for her. She didn't even have to pick the stuff up, the instructor hauled everything from the shop and met her at the dive site.

So, she ended up buying a 6' hose for her reg, and liked the BP/Wing enough that she's planning on getting a Pioneer or Pioneer/FredT setup before our trip to Nanaimo next month.

Needless to say, I'm a happy dive buddy. I've tried to be encouraging without steering her in regard to technique and gear selection. But I think it just makes a lot of sense for both of us to be rigged in the same manner. She may never take DIR-F, but in this class, she's been introduced to all of the DIR skills that are learned there, and in a one-on-one teaching environment. I don't know what private lessons usually go for, but I'd say she's a might spoiled diver. Well, the special treatment is all probably because she's a cutey, but you gotta play the hand you're dealt, right?

She's still got her Navigation and Nitrox checkout dives to go this weekend, and I'm definitely going to make a point of tipping her instructor. Thanks FifthD and Thanks Roy!

Rick

Went through a similiar thing in the fall.

Jaye (wifie) was warm water certified. We live in So Cal, and she's been diving in 7mm for about 4 years now.

Got her a drysuit when I got mine in November. It was a little challenging for her at first - the extra weight, the whole gas in the suit thing, etc. We took the drusuit classes together, but it just came faster to me. She was corkin' about every 3 dives for the first 10 dives or so.

She's got it dialed now. Moved into a Seaquest Libra (a chick Balance) out of her ill-fitting SP Ascent, moved to a long hose primary, took her AOW class, etc.

She's holding on to her AirSource, and will not likely migrate into a BP/W anytime soon (and DIR/F is probably a bit intense for her laid back diving style...maybe DIL is more for her ) but its been very cool to see her transition to dry and become more comfortable, more aware and more in tune with her buoyancy and trim.

As her primary dive buddy, its been a great thing to watch.

K

when it comes to diving education, and it sounds like your wifes experience supports the good reputation they have for teaching. I bet she goes for DIRF, though!

Interesting parallel, Ken, it sounds like we're both very fortunate to have the dive buddies we do!

I'm just glad that our better-halves are having so much fun diving. My wife dreaded the rental wetsuit that she used getting certified back in the day, and hasn't dove cold since. But as anyone who's tried it knows, diving dry is a HUGE difference. Plus, a class is only as good as the instructor, and like you're saying Jeff, FifthD has a great reputation for a reason.

If she does go through the Fundamentals class, I hope she doesn't turn into a DIR nazi and start calling me a Stroke! Well, better yet, I'll just try my best not to dive like one.