Day 1, Monday:
It's 11 am, having just arrived in Kona direct from Kahului (Maui) I picked up my rental car and headed south down the highway following the directions Sarah had provided to her parents home, which would double as our classroom for the next 3 days. Their home was situated at approximately 1300 ft. above sea level on the slope of Mauna Loa. The unobstructed view of the landscape and ocean was the backdrop for our meeting area, but after closing the curtains Joe finally had our attention.
Our class was made up of 3 students, Sarah and Mike (who were planning on getting married the day after DIR-F - talk about a busy week for both of them!) myself and our instructor, Joe Talavera. We all had very different styles of notetaking and learning, with Mike quietly absorbing everything, Sarah asking lots of questions that we had either not thought of, or were to embarrassed to ask, and me with my digital recorder so I could over the lectures again at a later time (I don't "multi-task" as we would discover over the course of the next 3 days, so I rarely take written notes in class, I prefer to listen and focus on the lectures) Joe started off by having us share a bit of our diving background, which turned out to be pretty similar. None of us had more than 40 dives, making us new to the sport of SCUBA. Mike was just out of his BOW class and had the least "baggage" in terms of bad habits already formed. I, being an internet student probably had the most wrong ideas that needed to be corrected, but for the most part we were all pretty much blank slates in terms of our diving history.
Our first day Joe let us know what we were in for, explaining how we would proceed and the skills we would cover. We broke for a couple of hours, then followed up with an evening of dry land excercises and sizing our harnesses correctly (My harness required about 2-3 inches of tightening up on each side). There was a lot of laughter the first night as Joe's sense of humor set us at ease. We would discover the next day that the "academics" were the easy part - it was the execution of those academics over the next 2 days that would really stretch us and provide the learning opportunities we had come for.
That night after returning to my hotel in Kailua-Kona (about a 30 min. drive away) I checked into "Uncle Billy's resort" then climbed 4 flights of steps carrying my gearbag, laptop and duffel up to my room. I stood in my room practicing clipping off my spg and primary regulator to their appropriate D-rings over and over again until it came naturally (note to self: Practicing while standing is NOT the same as when you are horizontal in the water). I checked my gear over, then crawled into bed for a good nights sleep.
Day 2, Tuesday:
Due to a storm system which had been hanging over the state for nearly a week and causing high surf, Joe moved our swim test to the harbor in Kona. The good news for me was that this was only a 1/4 mile from where I was staying, so I was able to sleep in till about 7:45. We made our way to the sandy area and a calm pool sized area of water next to the Kona boat ramp. The water was (for Hawaii) a chilly 75 degrees as we stepped in, but it soon felt quite warm as we began moving around.
We started out with the 50ft swim. I volunteered to go first and after several deep breaths I dove under and surfaced just barely at the 50ft mark. Nothing impressive, but I had made it. Next was Sarah - she did her breathhold swim on the surface so I stood by the 50ft mark where I cheered her on.... unfortunately my cheering of "Keep going, you're almost there!!!!" was heard as "You are already there!" and she surfaced only a few feet short of the mark ... after my apologies she caught her breath and completed it without problem as did Mike... I kept my mouth shut after that. Years ago I had been on the swim team and spent nearly every day in the pool swimming for fun... but that was years ago ... While I go freediving frequently that uses different muscles. Still we all finished the 300 yard swim and while I won't tell you Sarah and Mike's times, I finished last in the group at 10 min. 46 seconds. Not fast, but at least under the 14min. time limit. It definitely felt good to work out those muscles which had lain relatively unused for so many years.
We walked back up the warm beach and discussed what would happen on the first dive. Joe explained that he would set up a line in triangle which we would follow. He would show us each of the 5 kicks, then have us repeat them while he video taped us. We followed him into the water and after a short surface swim through shallow water we submerged in a "deep" area (10 ft. depth). Joe gave us a few minutes to get our balance and find the "trim" we had discussed the night before in class. Then he began demonstrating the kicks. Forward, backward, pivoting etc. all came with seemingly natural ease...for Joe. Next we each tried to follow his example...let's just say when we exited the water we knew the bar had just been raised. Our exposure to buoyancy and trim in our BOW classes would need a lot of work. We each blamed the surge and the depth on our poor performance. Joe, in a very calm tone, explained that the surge was only about 5ft and that the real problem was our "need" to continually move instead of remaining motionless. Of course we didn't believe it, but he didn't say anymore about (he knew the video would show otherwise).
We drove to our classroom and moved quickly into what we all "wanted" [tongue in cheek] to see, the dreaded video. As we watched the video I realized it wasn't quite as bad as I had perceived it, but as we finished up Sarah pointed out "did any of you notice the surge?" I thought about it and realized that in the video it was imperceptable, but what was very perceptable was my constant motion and finning. Each tiny movement pushing me further from where I wanted to be. Joe took the time to point out where we each had suceeced in the day, sometimes only for a brief moment in time, but at least we had each been there some of the time. Then he also pointed out our bad habits - mine was a constant tendancy to be positive and a need to keep my knees up and fins flat instead of pointed up toward the sky. None of it seemed to be insurmountable to me, but then again all we had been doing was finning. That was as simple as walking down the sidewalk... tomorow we would add the "chewing gum" aspect... which is what would ultimately give me my most trouble.
I arrived back at my hotel room quite tired and ready to sleep. Tomorrow will be better I told myself as I drifted off to sleep.
[continued in next post]
It's 11 am, having just arrived in Kona direct from Kahului (Maui) I picked up my rental car and headed south down the highway following the directions Sarah had provided to her parents home, which would double as our classroom for the next 3 days. Their home was situated at approximately 1300 ft. above sea level on the slope of Mauna Loa. The unobstructed view of the landscape and ocean was the backdrop for our meeting area, but after closing the curtains Joe finally had our attention.
Our class was made up of 3 students, Sarah and Mike (who were planning on getting married the day after DIR-F - talk about a busy week for both of them!) myself and our instructor, Joe Talavera. We all had very different styles of notetaking and learning, with Mike quietly absorbing everything, Sarah asking lots of questions that we had either not thought of, or were to embarrassed to ask, and me with my digital recorder so I could over the lectures again at a later time (I don't "multi-task" as we would discover over the course of the next 3 days, so I rarely take written notes in class, I prefer to listen and focus on the lectures) Joe started off by having us share a bit of our diving background, which turned out to be pretty similar. None of us had more than 40 dives, making us new to the sport of SCUBA. Mike was just out of his BOW class and had the least "baggage" in terms of bad habits already formed. I, being an internet student probably had the most wrong ideas that needed to be corrected, but for the most part we were all pretty much blank slates in terms of our diving history.
Our first day Joe let us know what we were in for, explaining how we would proceed and the skills we would cover. We broke for a couple of hours, then followed up with an evening of dry land excercises and sizing our harnesses correctly (My harness required about 2-3 inches of tightening up on each side). There was a lot of laughter the first night as Joe's sense of humor set us at ease. We would discover the next day that the "academics" were the easy part - it was the execution of those academics over the next 2 days that would really stretch us and provide the learning opportunities we had come for.
That night after returning to my hotel in Kailua-Kona (about a 30 min. drive away) I checked into "Uncle Billy's resort" then climbed 4 flights of steps carrying my gearbag, laptop and duffel up to my room. I stood in my room practicing clipping off my spg and primary regulator to their appropriate D-rings over and over again until it came naturally (note to self: Practicing while standing is NOT the same as when you are horizontal in the water). I checked my gear over, then crawled into bed for a good nights sleep.
Day 2, Tuesday:
Due to a storm system which had been hanging over the state for nearly a week and causing high surf, Joe moved our swim test to the harbor in Kona. The good news for me was that this was only a 1/4 mile from where I was staying, so I was able to sleep in till about 7:45. We made our way to the sandy area and a calm pool sized area of water next to the Kona boat ramp. The water was (for Hawaii) a chilly 75 degrees as we stepped in, but it soon felt quite warm as we began moving around.
We started out with the 50ft swim. I volunteered to go first and after several deep breaths I dove under and surfaced just barely at the 50ft mark. Nothing impressive, but I had made it. Next was Sarah - she did her breathhold swim on the surface so I stood by the 50ft mark where I cheered her on.... unfortunately my cheering of "Keep going, you're almost there!!!!" was heard as "You are already there!" and she surfaced only a few feet short of the mark ... after my apologies she caught her breath and completed it without problem as did Mike... I kept my mouth shut after that. Years ago I had been on the swim team and spent nearly every day in the pool swimming for fun... but that was years ago ... While I go freediving frequently that uses different muscles. Still we all finished the 300 yard swim and while I won't tell you Sarah and Mike's times, I finished last in the group at 10 min. 46 seconds. Not fast, but at least under the 14min. time limit. It definitely felt good to work out those muscles which had lain relatively unused for so many years.
We walked back up the warm beach and discussed what would happen on the first dive. Joe explained that he would set up a line in triangle which we would follow. He would show us each of the 5 kicks, then have us repeat them while he video taped us. We followed him into the water and after a short surface swim through shallow water we submerged in a "deep" area (10 ft. depth). Joe gave us a few minutes to get our balance and find the "trim" we had discussed the night before in class. Then he began demonstrating the kicks. Forward, backward, pivoting etc. all came with seemingly natural ease...for Joe. Next we each tried to follow his example...let's just say when we exited the water we knew the bar had just been raised. Our exposure to buoyancy and trim in our BOW classes would need a lot of work. We each blamed the surge and the depth on our poor performance. Joe, in a very calm tone, explained that the surge was only about 5ft and that the real problem was our "need" to continually move instead of remaining motionless. Of course we didn't believe it, but he didn't say anymore about (he knew the video would show otherwise).
We drove to our classroom and moved quickly into what we all "wanted" [tongue in cheek] to see, the dreaded video. As we watched the video I realized it wasn't quite as bad as I had perceived it, but as we finished up Sarah pointed out "did any of you notice the surge?" I thought about it and realized that in the video it was imperceptable, but what was very perceptable was my constant motion and finning. Each tiny movement pushing me further from where I wanted to be. Joe took the time to point out where we each had suceeced in the day, sometimes only for a brief moment in time, but at least we had each been there some of the time. Then he also pointed out our bad habits - mine was a constant tendancy to be positive and a need to keep my knees up and fins flat instead of pointed up toward the sky. None of it seemed to be insurmountable to me, but then again all we had been doing was finning. That was as simple as walking down the sidewalk... tomorow we would add the "chewing gum" aspect... which is what would ultimately give me my most trouble.
I arrived back at my hotel room quite tired and ready to sleep. Tomorrow will be better I told myself as I drifted off to sleep.
[continued in next post]
