On to open water dives

[jepuskar]

My girlfriend and I finished up our confined dives and class work on Friday...everything went well. We had lots of play time in the pool and we concentrating on bouyancy. At the beginning of our play time we had a rough time with hovering, but with me, it just clicked after about 10 minutes of practicing. I was hovering using my breathing to control my position in the water and at the same time, I was thinking..holy #$%^ this is sooo neat. I was hovering for quite a long time..enough so to stop because I was getting kind of bored. My girlfriend had a rough time, but the assistant instructor and I helped her out with it and she got it down.

We are doing our open water in a quarry this upcoming Saturday, I think 23 ft down on a platform. Our instructor went over what we are going to be doing and all that good stuff. This week is going to take soo long for me. Is it Saturday yet?

Friday we are going to our LDS to play around in our wetsuit for the first time...this is going to be in a heated pool...she has a 7mm and I have a 6.5mm suit...that should be kind of toasty dont you think? I hope its not too funny feeling....it was pretty tight when I tried it on, but it didnt restrict my breathing.

Anyways, I know alot of you have answered my questions on this board and I just wanted to let you know that everything is going great...we are going to plan a dive with our LDS in Lake Michigan in September and also continue our edumacation.

Thanks,
Jason

 

[ckharlan66]

Congradulations and good luck on your OW dives.

Remember, Never stop learning.

Chad

 

[JDostal]

Good luck! Sounds like you are well on your way.

It does take forever for those first dives to arrive - I was counting the hours until I could actually get underwater again!!

 

[mndolphin]

Congrats. sounds like youll do great.
I agree with omicron, seems like forever till you get your open water dives done!

 

[MSilvia]

And about the wetsuit... if water sloshes around in it when you move, or if it's TOO tight, it doesn't fit.

 

[JDostal]

msilvia, I am going to be taking your sig to heart this weekend. I have done cold dives before, but the 40 degree temp in Lake Superior in my 7 mil is going to be dang cold this weekend...brrr.

 

[Jack R]

I did my AOW and Rescue in a quarry in PA in April. It was 37 degrees. I wore a Mares semi dry suit which to me means WET. It was so cold I peed 3 times in 15 minutes!!

That was probably more info than you wanted to know. But I'll tell you it was a lot of fun. My OW dives I did on my (first) honeymoon in the cayman islands. My second honeymoon (with my second wife) was on the Palau Aggressor in Micronesia. I figured what the heck you only get married a few times in your life, why not splurge!

Enjoy your dives and always learn and improve your skills.

 

[JDostal]

Yeouch! 37 degrees? I haven't dove in that cold of water yet. I am borrowing a 5 mil shorty from the dive shop for the weekend, so hopefully that will help. And I'm thinking about grabbing a pair of three fingered gloves too.

 

[gr8lakesdiver]

Hey have a great time. A couple of hints about the practice session. Build your system then get changed into the neoprene. If at all possible put a regular hose in the pool and cool off periodically. Practice til comfotrable with skills with hood/gloves on. Then take it off an put in a pocket (as to not mess with bouyancy).

A couple of pointers -- not like you'll need them. No sweat.

 

[jepuskar]

Gr8lakes........I will take your advice on building my setup first..probably wouldnt of thought about that. Our LDS is awesome, I'm sure they will have something for us to cool off with.

Will be interesting.....90 degree water in a 6.5mm wetsuit.