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We did it!! We finally got it done after so much crap that went on, my g/f and my self finally got certified on nov 06,2004. Now picture this. We started this little adventure some time in the end of July beginning of august 04. We started our pool/ class room session and it was like we both (my g/f and me) were already trained, our instructor was really surprised by the way we conducted our self underwater and just how we took to everything. We were calm cool and collected, we could done and doff our gear w/o fail, we got our gear together with out the constant help and watch full eye of our instructor and his assistant, and when I say watch full eye I mean watch full eye, which was good as far as I’m concerned cause a couple of students made me feel a little leery of them being in the pool with me and my g/f let alone open water. So any way here we go and get everything done pool and class sessions done out of the way . GREAT!! Well then I go and get hurt at practice blew my bone out of my pinky compound fracture trying to make a move into a key bunker (the snake aka paintball lingo) go sliding head first and my pinky jams the ground and out goes the bone in my pinky threw the skin, I did not even know I did it till the end of the game and I feel a tingling sensation in my finger and look to see my glove covered in blood and dripping. Ok no big deal I’m a medic it don’t look that bad, I’ll go to the emergency room down the street and get a few stitches and be done with it. Well I go and the doctor walks in take a peek and goes oh no biggie we’ll stitch that up and get you out of here, great, well not so great as she starts to suture up my pinky she gives this little uhh ooh, well being a medic “uhh ooh” is not funny any more when you’re the one on the table. What’s the problem? I ask. Well you seem to have ripped away a bunch of skin that we need to close the wound up with, PROBLEM, yes I was thinking the same thing now. We need to call in a plastic surgeon for this ok no big deal either. Well the reason why I tell this tale is the shear fact that my open water check out dives were in four days already scheduled. The surgeon goes and takes apart my finger more to get it to close, So as he is doing his thing we get to talking and I bring up scuba, well that was not the right thing to bring up to him, he starts lecturing me on the dangers of scuba and how it really is not a sport for just any one to get into. Well that’s when I started in with all the fun little FACTS that I picked up from here scuba board back up by research to confirm what people had wrote ( I like to confirm what comes from the horses mouth) plus all the great info I picked up from my class room instructor ( Dave R your tops when it comes to teaching ) he quickly shut up after that open mouth spew of facts that I just unleashed. After all that he says I want to see you in my office in…… guess what……. Yup four days. I kindly explained to him that I have my check out dives in four days and he turns around and gives this little look of ooh no your not he proceeded to tell me I can not go near water for at least a month to may be two depending on how fast my finger recovers. I was thinking and ask well what if I just cover the finger up in a glove and seal it off from water? NO not good enough stay out of water for the time being and I’ll see you in four days. So after two month…… two months the doctor clears me to go diving if I want to. I told you all of that cause of this next part. My g/f and me go and schedule a date to do our check out dives, it’s now the end of October in new jersey weather gets kind of cold water temps around 58 deg so were like fine lets do it, but in the back of our heads we both my g/f and my self were questioning do we remember everything are we going to be able to get it done? Sure, why not we both were like fish in the pool and be both grew up playing and swimming in the ocean, what’s the problem? We all meet at the dive shop one chilly morning, the sun is being hampered by clouds but we packed up the gear and headed to the back bay in Belmar NJ and don our gear and wait for the instructor to give the thumbs up to finish getting the rest of the gear on. My g/f and me go thru all the routine checking each other, helping get each other suited up and we make way into the water, kind of cold at first but no problem for us. I look down under water and when I say I could not see my own elbow, I mean it, vis stunk even for new jersey water. So we swim to our dive float and go down under to the bottom. We could only see the bottom if you stuck your face to the bottom. Once the changing of the tide finally finished the vis got a little better but no much, all in all my g/f and me were still like we did not miss a day at all both of us breathing fine doing everything like we were supposed to everything was going great, we went and did the other skills excellent, so far and by this time the water inside our suits is warmed up and we are nice and comfy going great UNTILL I go and do my regulator recovery . I go take my reg. out release it and I hear it free flowing no big deal I try to get it by doing what we were taught but it just kept swimming away, now this was a problem for me I was not running out of breath cause I was not forcing my exhale just letting the air escape slowly and calmly I was looking at my instructor and he did not looked upset so I was like “oh ok no big deal he’s not upset no need to start the flag throwing” so in my mind I was ok with the whole ordeal I was going to reach for my octo. once I knew it was a lost cause and would not be able to recover my reg. All of a sudden I got my instructors octo stuffed in my face as he’s purging the reg. At the point I thought ok something must be wrong we look at each other and I swear as I write this the look he had of calmness and look I know I gave was more on the line of “what the hell are doing a-hole” and simultaneously we lock arms and slowly go up to the surface doing my little ahhh noise to let him know I’m not holding my breath once on the surface I started to get a little agitated with him, saying what are doing shoving that in my face for I was fine I was doing what I was supposed to be doing . He went on to say “no, no, no you were fine you looked calm and I could see you were assessing the situation but we really don’t know each other and I don’t know how your are going to handle the situation and my main job is to watch out for your safety” so I was ok with that answer. We went and changed out my reg. set up and this is were I kind of got upset with my self after going thru all that work of setting up a new reg set and bottle I go back in and my new octo free flowed but stopped once I turned down and then something in side my head said “hey stupid, you just had an incident down their do you really want to go back out” and like a thick headed male I kept going and as I swam out a little more further some little voice inside kept saying no not now we can do this later, you don’t want to do this. I finally said “ok I really am not into this right now I think I’m done for the day” Now why I got so upset is the fact that the instructor just got done saying “you looked really comfortable when the reg. Went free flowing and you did not panic and you assess the situation and you did everything right even in a kind of controlled emergency” so why did I back out of my dive. The instructor gave me “the you did good not going back in speech” but something was eating me. My g/f finished her part of the first day check out dive and I was behind now, maybe that’s it, she was ahead, to this day I still can not answer it, and I will not share it with her but I’ll throw it out to you people, people who have been diving for a while if any one ever had a problem like that. But any way so we had to go and schedule a day to finish up, we picked the following week well that Tuesday it rained and it was real cold, it got canceled we rescheduled for the following Tuesday and the water was clear as anything but cold as anything and the water was no hot spring. The first half hour of our dive the instructor and his assistant kept asking me are you ok, how ya doing, you want to keep going out to the float. Kind of a swift kick to the ego if you will. I finaly get to the dive float and we go down and funny it was like the situation never happened, I did my reg recovery with not one problem flooded my mask to it off and put it back on and fixed my hood around it cleared it one shot done, everything went with out a hitch we got back up to the surface and the first words out of his mouth was you looked and swam and acted like the two of you belong down under water.
So as of November 11,2004 WE ARE CERTAFIDED AND READY TO GET WET.. In the summer time. I will say this, as my g/f and me were going thru the class and even before I ask a lot of question and read a lot of pages and saw some others have problems with check out dives and all of you kept encouraging them to get back up dust your self off and go back down, don’t give up. It’s really nice to know we have become part of a group as much as it is miss under stood and the question of “why in world would you want to do that” that everyone on scuba board is willing to give their two cents on experiences they had and keep encouraging people to never give up and rarely ever do you see any one putting down a new comer.
Thanks to all who have helped with out even knowing you have helped
When a persons constitutional rights are pulled from them they live in a communist state.
When one feels they have the inalienable right to force one to conform is called a dictator. Thats when we go to war to protect those rights.
Some people live unsatisfying lives.
WELCOME to ScubaBoard!!!
Awesome story, enjoyed the read!
Welcome to the world's greatest addiction - YES greater than paintball (although that certainly has its attraction!).
I hope to continue reading your posts and being updated on your dive adventures (keeps me sane while I'm not in the water).
Don't give up on cold water, get a warmer suit.
Welcome to Scubaboard! Maybe we'll have to invent "Underwater Paintball". Guess you'd have to use a rebreather, cause the bubbles would certainly give you away!
Thanks for introducing your self as a newly certified diver and telling us the story!
Congratulations on your new certification!
You may never know why you didn't feel comfortable doing that last dive on that day you mention. The subconcious mind has a way of sensing things that our concious mind does not. When the little voice says "don't go", always listen to it. Sometimes the only way you find out "why" is to ignore the little voice. You may only have a few seconds of "understanding" before you get involved in a situation that you may never come back from, so ALWAYS listen to that little voice and don't be too concerned if you can't figure out what your subconcious was uncomfortable with.
It's OK to thumb a dive for ANY reason. No one should ever fault you for thumbing it before or during any dive. Beyond asking "what happened" and accepting any answer without argument, most safe minded experienced divers would never pry for an answer.
Dive safe!
Christian
P.S. Due to the high volume of new posts in the Introductions and Greets forum, it's not always possible to keep up with all the new posts here. So, please help me out and send me a PM if you post anything you want me to read or respond to in this forum. :sunny
Great news for vacation divers who cannot talk themselves into buying a personal CO tank tester!
>> Rent one for a week or longer here <<
Now let's see more CO readings in your trip reports, ok...??
You are now on the Dark Side. Your story was great. What you learned is this: Only you are the one that knows whether you can make a dive or not. Do Not let anyone convince you otherwise. Aborting a dive means you can always do it another day.
hehehehehehe!!! all in good fun, your story cracked me up. Not so much as what you said it was how you said.. You'll definetly fit right into place here!! Congrat on your certification and Welcome, glad to have you aboard!
Everything boils down to two things, survival and adaptation. You have to master both to have control of your environment, surroundings and future. Author: am unknown Sfod-D Operator
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Welcome to the board!!!
Wow!
