Kellyccz
Guest
My fiance (an experienced diver) and a married couple who is friends with us (both also experienced divers) are going to Puerto Vallarta next month for vacation. I love the ocean and have enjoyed snorkeling before, so this seemed like the perfect timing for taking Scuba classes so we can all dive together in Puerto Vallarta.
I went to a very reputable shop in our area that had loads of options for ways to complete your OW class. I opted for the 1 weekend class - all day Saturday and all day Sunday (8am - 4pm). There were only 3 people in my class - myself, and a father and his 16 year old son. We actually started at 11 the first day (the director had called me a couple days earlier and said that the boy had a sports practice and were wondering about coming in at 11 on Saturday if that would be ok. If it was not ok with me, he would have had them reschedule, but since it was, we just started late that day and had a "working lunch" for classroom stuff. Little did I know if I would have insisted on starting at 8am, I would have then had private instruction!). But, I digress. We had the books ahead of time and I had read through and completed all the knowledge reviews. We reviewed the first 3 chapters by going through the answers to the knowledge reviews, watching a safety powerpoint for the chapter, then taking a quiz. You had to get an 80% (8 out of 10 questions correct) to pass. If you did not pass, then you had to review and retake. After going over the first chapter in the book, we headed to the pool (as our off timing that day rearranged the "typical schedule" since there was another class scheduled to use the pool at 2 that day). We learned about the equipment, how to assemble your regulator and tank, etc. then hopped in. We did our first contained water dive skills and also had some free time just to get used to breathing underwater and relaxing and enjoying it.
I had a bit of a freak out type moment when first going under water with the regulator in my mouth - I didn't feel like I could breathe. The Director was one of our teachers and he was great - he came and took me on my own and held my hands and helped me through it. Turns out I am not a fan of their training regulators - I never felt like I could breathe well (the second day I brought in my fiance's Sherwood regulator and it was MUCH better). The rest of the first day went well - scraped up my knees and elbows while free swimming underwater as they hadn't taught us much about bouyancy control yet and I was just busy focusing on breathing and not panicking. After that we changed and finished the next 2 chapters of classroom work.
The second day we hopped right in the pool first thing and did our 200 meter swim and 10 minute tread. All I can say is thank goodness we did this first thing, as we were in the water for 6 hours continuously (except a 1/2 hour lunch break where we ate poolside) and after doing 4 dives, I can't imagine doing those same skills then.
The second day I felt MUCH better with the better regulator and was a lot more comfortable all around. I had a little trouble with the skill of flooding the mask and removing underwater, breathing without mask for 1 minute and replacing mask. Took a whole bunch of water in my nose and subsequently, my airway, and popped up out of the water (from the 4 foot deep ledge we were sitting on) like a jack in the box choking up a storm. The second time, I didn't inhale, but water still went up my nose and I choked a bit. I have a deviated septum as well as a hole in my septum from an injury several years ago, so I am not able to exhale enough pressure through my nose to keep water out very well. I ended up having to pinch my nose for this skill. The instructor was awesome though and she helped me through it and I finally did it. When I had to do take off my mask at bottom of pool and swim around for a minute without mask and replace, I was much more confident at it. I will admit I am still not a fan of that skill, but I did it. I had a little trouble with was the swimming 30 feet on one breath to simulate a CESA. It sucks because the pool isn't deep enough to allow you to do it up like normal, and they warned us it is so much harder doing it the length of the pool, as everything is working against you. It took me 3 times to do it, but I finally did it. The only other skill that gave me a little trouble was the taking the regulator out of my mouth and orally inflating my bcd while standing at the bottom of the pool. I exchanged the regulator for the inflator hose fine, but didn't have enough air left to clear the regulator properly (purge method doesn't work well for me yet), and forgot to put my tongue on the roof of my mouth. So I got enough water to make me cough and sputter a bit. This was one of my big fears was being under the water and choking - I couldn't understand what you would do in that situation. My fiance had told me - you just cough into your regulator and you'll be fine. It was hard to comprehend though. So, when it happened, for an instant, I wanted to shoot up to the top and cough like normal, but I remembered what he told me (and what our instructors had taught us) and I held the regulator in my mouth and coughed for a good 30 seconds until I had cleared my airway well - and I was fine. I was glad it happened, so now I know what to do if it happens, and more importantly, I know I can do it without panicking. All of the other skills went really well.
After 6 hours and 4 dives, we changed and went to the classroom to do the last 2 chapters, and practice using our eRDPml for dive planning, then we took our final. I got 100% on every test, except 1 where I missed 1 question from misreading it. On the 50 question final, I got 100%.
I was beyond exhausted when I got home, but I liked doing it in the 2 days - I think had I done it over several weeks, I might not have gotten over my anxiety so quickly and had more trouble. This way I was in the water long enough to overcome it. And I had EXCELLENT instructors that I can't say enough good things about. The instructor said she would stay after class with me and work on anything I wasn't comfortable with - we could've done it over and over and over until I felt good about it. I will take any future classes with them because of the way they took care of me.
Now, it's just 27 days till my first open water referral dive in Puerto Vallarta. I'm a little anxious about it - worried about the taking off the mask skill when I will be 20 feet down instead of right below the surface. But, I am also incredibly excited and know I can do this.
Kelly
I went to a very reputable shop in our area that had loads of options for ways to complete your OW class. I opted for the 1 weekend class - all day Saturday and all day Sunday (8am - 4pm). There were only 3 people in my class - myself, and a father and his 16 year old son. We actually started at 11 the first day (the director had called me a couple days earlier and said that the boy had a sports practice and were wondering about coming in at 11 on Saturday if that would be ok. If it was not ok with me, he would have had them reschedule, but since it was, we just started late that day and had a "working lunch" for classroom stuff. Little did I know if I would have insisted on starting at 8am, I would have then had private instruction!). But, I digress. We had the books ahead of time and I had read through and completed all the knowledge reviews. We reviewed the first 3 chapters by going through the answers to the knowledge reviews, watching a safety powerpoint for the chapter, then taking a quiz. You had to get an 80% (8 out of 10 questions correct) to pass. If you did not pass, then you had to review and retake. After going over the first chapter in the book, we headed to the pool (as our off timing that day rearranged the "typical schedule" since there was another class scheduled to use the pool at 2 that day). We learned about the equipment, how to assemble your regulator and tank, etc. then hopped in. We did our first contained water dive skills and also had some free time just to get used to breathing underwater and relaxing and enjoying it.
I had a bit of a freak out type moment when first going under water with the regulator in my mouth - I didn't feel like I could breathe. The Director was one of our teachers and he was great - he came and took me on my own and held my hands and helped me through it. Turns out I am not a fan of their training regulators - I never felt like I could breathe well (the second day I brought in my fiance's Sherwood regulator and it was MUCH better). The rest of the first day went well - scraped up my knees and elbows while free swimming underwater as they hadn't taught us much about bouyancy control yet and I was just busy focusing on breathing and not panicking. After that we changed and finished the next 2 chapters of classroom work.
The second day we hopped right in the pool first thing and did our 200 meter swim and 10 minute tread. All I can say is thank goodness we did this first thing, as we were in the water for 6 hours continuously (except a 1/2 hour lunch break where we ate poolside) and after doing 4 dives, I can't imagine doing those same skills then.
The second day I felt MUCH better with the better regulator and was a lot more comfortable all around. I had a little trouble with the skill of flooding the mask and removing underwater, breathing without mask for 1 minute and replacing mask. Took a whole bunch of water in my nose and subsequently, my airway, and popped up out of the water (from the 4 foot deep ledge we were sitting on) like a jack in the box choking up a storm. The second time, I didn't inhale, but water still went up my nose and I choked a bit. I have a deviated septum as well as a hole in my septum from an injury several years ago, so I am not able to exhale enough pressure through my nose to keep water out very well. I ended up having to pinch my nose for this skill. The instructor was awesome though and she helped me through it and I finally did it. When I had to do take off my mask at bottom of pool and swim around for a minute without mask and replace, I was much more confident at it. I will admit I am still not a fan of that skill, but I did it. I had a little trouble with was the swimming 30 feet on one breath to simulate a CESA. It sucks because the pool isn't deep enough to allow you to do it up like normal, and they warned us it is so much harder doing it the length of the pool, as everything is working against you. It took me 3 times to do it, but I finally did it. The only other skill that gave me a little trouble was the taking the regulator out of my mouth and orally inflating my bcd while standing at the bottom of the pool. I exchanged the regulator for the inflator hose fine, but didn't have enough air left to clear the regulator properly (purge method doesn't work well for me yet), and forgot to put my tongue on the roof of my mouth. So I got enough water to make me cough and sputter a bit. This was one of my big fears was being under the water and choking - I couldn't understand what you would do in that situation. My fiance had told me - you just cough into your regulator and you'll be fine. It was hard to comprehend though. So, when it happened, for an instant, I wanted to shoot up to the top and cough like normal, but I remembered what he told me (and what our instructors had taught us) and I held the regulator in my mouth and coughed for a good 30 seconds until I had cleared my airway well - and I was fine. I was glad it happened, so now I know what to do if it happens, and more importantly, I know I can do it without panicking. All of the other skills went really well.
After 6 hours and 4 dives, we changed and went to the classroom to do the last 2 chapters, and practice using our eRDPml for dive planning, then we took our final. I got 100% on every test, except 1 where I missed 1 question from misreading it. On the 50 question final, I got 100%.
I was beyond exhausted when I got home, but I liked doing it in the 2 days - I think had I done it over several weeks, I might not have gotten over my anxiety so quickly and had more trouble. This way I was in the water long enough to overcome it. And I had EXCELLENT instructors that I can't say enough good things about. The instructor said she would stay after class with me and work on anything I wasn't comfortable with - we could've done it over and over and over until I felt good about it. I will take any future classes with them because of the way they took care of me.
Now, it's just 27 days till my first open water referral dive in Puerto Vallarta. I'm a little anxious about it - worried about the taking off the mask skill when I will be 20 feet down instead of right below the surface. But, I am also incredibly excited and know I can do this.
Kelly
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