UPDATE: Day 1
Yesterday was day 1 of the class! We left early, because in my book, early is on time, on time is late, late is...bad. So we arrived about 50 minutes before the class started, and drove down the road to a CVS and hung out for a bit, which is what all the cool people do...
Anyways, 9AM rolls around and class begins, missing one student. We go over all 4 quizzes and 5 knowledge reviews, which takes us to nearly noon. I only missed two questions on the knowledge reviews, and they were simple mistakes of putting down the wrong answer, and not a matter of me not understanding the concepts. At around 10, the other student arrives and joins in.
Our instructor was very good at explaining everything if someone had a question, and was very patient with people who didn't understand the concept the first few times around.
The only thing that bothered me about this portion was the fact that it was very clear that some students didn't do the quizzes and didn't watch the DVDs, and simply glanced over the book. Oh well - their life, not mine. But it is scary to think I may come across people like that in the future that may become my dive buddy for the day. Not cool.
My rating for the instructor for that portion: A+
After lunch, it was time to get in the pool! We all received a BCD, tank, weight belt, regulator, alternate air source, and SPG (submersible pressure gauge). We all buddied up, and my buddy was my fiancee. We assembled all of the gear first.
The BCD was dunked into the pool to get the tank strap wet. After that, the tank was strapped onto the BCD. We then removed the dust cap from the tank. Here's one issue I had with this step - this should have included "check for presence of o-ring, and check quality of o-ring." However, no mention of the o-ring was made for the entire class! But that didn't stop me from doing it. After the dust cap was removed, we attached the entire hose assembly to the valve, being sure to not over-tighten it. Hand tight is good enough, really! Once that was done, we routed the hoses to their proper locations/clips, and made sure the low pressure inflater had the supply hose attached properly.
That's it! Gear is set for this dive - very easy!
Now that the gear is set...the instructor had one person get into the pool (my fiancee), while the other stayed on top and inflated the BCD (me). Once inflated, it was handed down to the person waiting in the pool and it was allowed to float around while the other BCD was inflated and handed into the water. Once both BCDs were in for each buddy team, the remaining people went into the pool.
The first step while in the pool was to get our weight belts on, making sure for right-hand release. Once they were on, the BCDs were put on with the help of our buddies. A few people quickly learned that some (or is it all?) regulators free-flow when turned mouth-piece up in the water. It felt great having all that gear on - not uncomfortable at all. We took a few breaths from our regulator to get the feel of it (Darth Vader, anyone?). It was *extremely* easy to breath from the regulator. MUCH easier than a snorkel.
We donned our masks/snorkels, and we were split into two groups. There were four of us in my group with the lead instructor. We were told that we would kneel down in the shallow end of the pool for about 30 seconds and breathe, just getting used to it and making sure everything was working OK. After explaining, we all went down and...first true breaths under water (I don't count a snorkel as breathing under water)! AWESOME!
One thing I noticed right away was that the bubbles from exhaling shake my mask a bit, and it's noisy! It was a bit weird at first...but after a few minutes of being underwater, it didn't bother me at all and never thought of it again. I also think that getting my breathing under control made the bubbles a bit less violent.
I'd like to state that while underwater, the instructor will frequently check to see if you're OK - hand-signs were used often which I thought was great.
After 30 seconds, we surfaced and and went over the next step. Next thing we would do would be regulator clearing. There are two methods to doing this - you're told to do both, later on you pick whatever works for you. There's the "blow really hard" method, and "press the purge button" method. Both are easy. You don't have to exhale too hard to get rid of what little water there is, and I've found that one puff gets rid of all the water. As for the purge, make sure you keep your tongue against the mouthpiece or else you'll be drinking a lot of water! Just a quick little press and presto - no water!
Once we learned how to clear our regulators, we learned how to recover them. Again, 2 methods. The first is looking to your right, dropping your right shoulder, and swinging your right arm back and then out. When this is done, it pretty much always gets the regulator hose around your arm and then you can bring it to the front. No issue here - just stay relaxed, you can hold your breath a lot longer than you think you can. Worst case, your head is just 1-2 feet below the surface! When I did this skill, we were really cramped and my hose got stuck on the person next to me, and it took me about 15 seconds to get it free. But I did it! Stayed calm, instructor let me figure it out, had no issues. The second method is when you raise your tank a bit with your left hand, and then you take your right, reach up and over behind your back and feel for the beginning of the hose and trace it out until you can pull it to your mouth. Again, easy.
...and there's more! I will post more later, and a report of day 2 when I have time. Hope you enjoy what I've done so far!
