AOW completed!

[phoenix09]

Just got my AOW this weekend! It was so much fun - did wreck, buoyancy, and night dives on Friday, then deep and UW nav on Saturday. I was diving in Lake Travis in Austin, so the wreck dive was pretty cool, we got to go around a sunken sailboat a couple times. I was actually more nervous about the deep dive than the night dive, but both ended up going pretty well. Only mishap on the night dive was when my buddy and i got separated, then the instructor and i lost each other...but we all came up before long and found each other again.

The deep dive was very relaxing, surprisingly enough...we went down to 82 ft and had to sign our names and open a combination lock. It didn't take me too much longer underwater, so I guess nitrogen narcosis didn't affect me too much...but I do remember being much more focused than normal while trying to open the lock. Our instructor also had us take tennis balls down on the dive, and we took them out at depth to see that they had imploded from the pressure. We had to practice buddy-breathing for 8 minutes on our saftey stop, though, and I did NOT enjoy that. My buddy told me afterward that my eyes were "as wide as saucers", and I was very fixated on the regulator whenever I didn't have it in my mouth!

All in all, it was a fun weekend, though I did wake up incredibly sore the day after the dives were finished, from lugging the gear up and down about 40 steps each dive.

 

[LowVizWiz]

Congrats on the AOW!

Why 40 steps????

Wys.

 

[Tatakai]

congrats I willl be taking the AOW very soon and can't wait. Good luck and safe diving.

Tatakai

 

[jbd]

We had to practice buddy-breathing for 8 minutes on our saftey stop, though, and I did NOT enjoy that. My buddy told me afterward that my eyes were "as wide as saucers", and I was very fixated on the regulator whenever I didn't have it in my mouth!

Interesting that you had buddy breathing to do as that doesn't seem to be commonly taught these days. How much time had you spent on this prior to your AOW course and this practice time during the safety stop?

Glad you had a great time with the course!!

 

[phoenix09]

Why 40 steps????

When we went down to the lake, there was a staircase with 20 steps, a platform, then another 20 steps. The lake was so much lower than normal that we had to go down quite a few more steps before we got wet!

Interesting that you had buddy breathing to do as that doesn't seem to be commonly taught these days. How much time had you spent on this prior to your AOW course and this practice time during the safety stop?

We actually didn't do any buddy-breathing before this...and I even had the same instructor for my AOW as for my OW. We knew how to do it in theory, but it was much more stressful in practice...I got the hang of it after a while, but still didn't feel super comfortable with it. I can do it now if I ever needed to, which is what counts I guess.

 

[jbd]

In the end was the buddy breathing easier to do than you thought it would be?

 

[phoenix09]

In the end was the buddy breathing easier to do than you thought it would be?

Yeah, it wasn't so bad...I guess the most important thing to do is just stay relaxed and try not to panic. Of course, that's the case for most things with scuba diving. It was nice to know that even if I had to do an actual saftey stop, not just the usual 3-minute precaution, I could still do it even if my buddy and I were both out of air. One more thing I'm prepared for, now.

 

[LowVizWiz]

When we went down to the lake, there was a staircase with 20 steps, a platform, then another 20 steps. The lake was so much lower than normal that we had to go down quite a few more steps before we got wet!

I see... I guess I'm spoiled I've done mostly boat dives, even the beach dives are relatively short walks.

Wys.

 

[jbd]

Yeah, it wasn't so bad...I guess the most important thing to do is just stay relaxed and try not to panic. Of course, that's the case for most things with scuba diving. It was nice to know that even if I had to do an actual saftey stop, not just the usual 3-minute precaution, I could still do it even if my buddy and I were both out of air. One more thing I'm prepared for, now.

Music to my ears!!!! or is that music to eyes since I'm reading this

Remember to practice some of these skills from time to time.