Hi,
Great website and forum.
So I was raised by the sea, Ireland, Wild Atlantic way, and from ages 10 to 19, did the local summer safety courses, including rescue, dealing with a panicking drowning subject who wants to kill you by turning you into a floating aid. Dealing with spinal trauma in water, doing resuscitation in water. I failed my last course being unable to tow someone for 100M without running out of steam. I struggled. No worries, I made it that far over the years and was happy about it. It was fun and I enjoyed them. The last one was tough though and people do fail it.
The rest of my life was spent snorkeling about on holiday as far as sea time goes. I never did scuba. A few years back, I decided to finn down hard while on holiday and got a good dose of eardrum pressure pain. I pulled a muscle in my right side shoulder. I so badly wanted to reach this bottom part I had seen often on the swims. It must have been 4 meters down. It goes to show I knew zero about what goes on lower than 2 meters. I didn't realize how much I could hurt myself doing that.
This year that reminded me to find out. So I signed up for PADI OPEN WATER during holiday time.
200M swim demo is what mainly hit me hard. I should have done more pool time. I should have done less pizza time. You get the idea. However, the water training stuff kicked in with no problem with the duck dive swim recovery. The body remembered. Back float. No problem. Tread water. Can do. Next pool lesson with scuba gear. Entered the pool with gear as taught. Kept floating even on a deflated BCD. Needed more weight. Got them. It took longer this day to get the mask clearing right. Weight recovery is difficult without learning some tricks. I couldn't keep balance without needing to use my arms and couldn't pivot. I could not get the LP to reconnect after disconnecting, even after being shown. Learned that in theory class and was shown how to correct some things.
Open Dive 1 added more weight and solved buoyancy issues. Learned pivoting. I don't need arms much now. Did the skills. Some progress. Then the problem came during the surface interval. Sun was beating down. Not enough water. Limited shade. I feel weak and only have the neoprene half off with legs still on. The instructors see I am smashed. So rehydrate me and into the water for a cool down. After 10 min, I feel better. They watch me on Dive 2, and it goes fine, but my finn skills are odd, and after, I am smashed but not nearly as bad as before. The instructors show me how to kick correctly for ascending, descending, and level trim swimming. They recommend that I drink nothing but still water and bring big bottles of it for Dive 3 and 4.
Dive 3 and 4, big sombrero-sized hat, and lots of water. Neoprene off fully at the interval. Go into the water more to cool off. The instructor sees I can do the ECD with a buddy who needs my air and how to inflate his BCD at the surface. He can see I am more in control of my dive and less exhausted than before. I feel good. I am careful. Nothing rushed. In fact, the instructor wants me to speed up sometimes but in a relaxed way. Do the skills. Fine. Had lots of time left for a recreational dive with the instructor showing me stuff. Passed.
So basically, I submitted the four logs, which got accepted and now await certification. Still, I get this isn't about having pretty pieces of paper but the people you are with, especially the dive master and your buddy, who is everything. Who else do you grab to put in front of you when the jellyfish come?
Full suit fitting issue. Had lots of air pockets in there. I bought an O'Neill Reactor-2 3/2mm Back Zip Wetsuit- Graph/ Dayglo - XL this summer. It fits me. Is not tight.
The XL 5mm full suit I tried on for the PADI course was too tight. I had to go for 3XL, which meant air pockets and zips that could end at my fingertips. All indications seem to point to a custom suit, they said (either that or I shed more weight, I am thinking).
I don't get why the jump from XL to 3XL.
Anyway I am currently reading scuba theory and watching YouTube and haven't decided what to do next, or if I will do something next. I suppose I should join here and ask questions.
Feel free to tell me anything or ask anything and thanks for reading!
Great website and forum.
So I was raised by the sea, Ireland, Wild Atlantic way, and from ages 10 to 19, did the local summer safety courses, including rescue, dealing with a panicking drowning subject who wants to kill you by turning you into a floating aid. Dealing with spinal trauma in water, doing resuscitation in water. I failed my last course being unable to tow someone for 100M without running out of steam. I struggled. No worries, I made it that far over the years and was happy about it. It was fun and I enjoyed them. The last one was tough though and people do fail it.
The rest of my life was spent snorkeling about on holiday as far as sea time goes. I never did scuba. A few years back, I decided to finn down hard while on holiday and got a good dose of eardrum pressure pain. I pulled a muscle in my right side shoulder. I so badly wanted to reach this bottom part I had seen often on the swims. It must have been 4 meters down. It goes to show I knew zero about what goes on lower than 2 meters. I didn't realize how much I could hurt myself doing that.
This year that reminded me to find out. So I signed up for PADI OPEN WATER during holiday time.
200M swim demo is what mainly hit me hard. I should have done more pool time. I should have done less pizza time. You get the idea. However, the water training stuff kicked in with no problem with the duck dive swim recovery. The body remembered. Back float. No problem. Tread water. Can do. Next pool lesson with scuba gear. Entered the pool with gear as taught. Kept floating even on a deflated BCD. Needed more weight. Got them. It took longer this day to get the mask clearing right. Weight recovery is difficult without learning some tricks. I couldn't keep balance without needing to use my arms and couldn't pivot. I could not get the LP to reconnect after disconnecting, even after being shown. Learned that in theory class and was shown how to correct some things.
Open Dive 1 added more weight and solved buoyancy issues. Learned pivoting. I don't need arms much now. Did the skills. Some progress. Then the problem came during the surface interval. Sun was beating down. Not enough water. Limited shade. I feel weak and only have the neoprene half off with legs still on. The instructors see I am smashed. So rehydrate me and into the water for a cool down. After 10 min, I feel better. They watch me on Dive 2, and it goes fine, but my finn skills are odd, and after, I am smashed but not nearly as bad as before. The instructors show me how to kick correctly for ascending, descending, and level trim swimming. They recommend that I drink nothing but still water and bring big bottles of it for Dive 3 and 4.
Dive 3 and 4, big sombrero-sized hat, and lots of water. Neoprene off fully at the interval. Go into the water more to cool off. The instructor sees I can do the ECD with a buddy who needs my air and how to inflate his BCD at the surface. He can see I am more in control of my dive and less exhausted than before. I feel good. I am careful. Nothing rushed. In fact, the instructor wants me to speed up sometimes but in a relaxed way. Do the skills. Fine. Had lots of time left for a recreational dive with the instructor showing me stuff. Passed.
So basically, I submitted the four logs, which got accepted and now await certification. Still, I get this isn't about having pretty pieces of paper but the people you are with, especially the dive master and your buddy, who is everything. Who else do you grab to put in front of you when the jellyfish come?
Full suit fitting issue. Had lots of air pockets in there. I bought an O'Neill Reactor-2 3/2mm Back Zip Wetsuit- Graph/ Dayglo - XL this summer. It fits me. Is not tight.
The XL 5mm full suit I tried on for the PADI course was too tight. I had to go for 3XL, which meant air pockets and zips that could end at my fingertips. All indications seem to point to a custom suit, they said (either that or I shed more weight, I am thinking).
I don't get why the jump from XL to 3XL.
Anyway I am currently reading scuba theory and watching YouTube and haven't decided what to do next, or if I will do something next. I suppose I should join here and ask questions.
Feel free to tell me anything or ask anything and thanks for reading!
