chris_b
Contributor
First off, there's nothing sarcastic about this thread's subject, it really was a blast!
We're finally nearing the end of our pool sessions for the basic OW class. This week we did what our instructor called a "lake simulation." Seven of fourteen students in the deep end at once, all with high-tech lake simulators in their masks (wetted brown paper towels), to create the visual equivalent of a silted-out grungy lake bottom. We couldn't see a thing, other than slight differentiation between light and dark. Three assistant instructors were swimming around "simulating" various "events;" of course they didn't have to wear blinders. The challenge was to stay down for ten minutes.
The assistant instructors kept busy pulling peoples' fins off and throwing them out of the pool, turning their air off, pulling on their masks, tangling them in lines (both anchored to the bottom and attached to floats on the surface), etc.
I was pretty proud of myself =-) as I was the only one of the group who was still had fins by the end. Somebody tangled me in a line attached to a bunch of weights, so I untangled myself, coiled up the line, and wrapped it around the weights so it would be hard to pull out again. They tried to break my mask seal a few times but weren't successful. My air was turned off three times, and my tank was unstrapped from my bc. The no-air situation was a shock the first time, but it was really easy to turn it back on. The strap is a two piece thing, and I couldn't see to get it back on; I spent the rest of the time holding the tank under my left arm!
Anyway, I think this was the most fun I've had in the pool sessions. After we were done, the other seven students got in the pool and we got to watch. It was almost as fun watching as it was participating!
Ok, well, just wanted to share!
Chris
We're finally nearing the end of our pool sessions for the basic OW class. This week we did what our instructor called a "lake simulation." Seven of fourteen students in the deep end at once, all with high-tech lake simulators in their masks (wetted brown paper towels), to create the visual equivalent of a silted-out grungy lake bottom. We couldn't see a thing, other than slight differentiation between light and dark. Three assistant instructors were swimming around "simulating" various "events;" of course they didn't have to wear blinders. The challenge was to stay down for ten minutes.
The assistant instructors kept busy pulling peoples' fins off and throwing them out of the pool, turning their air off, pulling on their masks, tangling them in lines (both anchored to the bottom and attached to floats on the surface), etc.
I was pretty proud of myself =-) as I was the only one of the group who was still had fins by the end. Somebody tangled me in a line attached to a bunch of weights, so I untangled myself, coiled up the line, and wrapped it around the weights so it would be hard to pull out again. They tried to break my mask seal a few times but weren't successful. My air was turned off three times, and my tank was unstrapped from my bc. The no-air situation was a shock the first time, but it was really easy to turn it back on. The strap is a two piece thing, and I couldn't see to get it back on; I spent the rest of the time holding the tank under my left arm!
Anyway, I think this was the most fun I've had in the pool sessions. After we were done, the other seven students got in the pool and we got to watch. It was almost as fun watching as it was participating!
Ok, well, just wanted to share!
Chris
