surprise physical
- Thread starter gbray
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
piikki
Contributor
I am interested in that too. To clarify I am not interested in disclosure what YES:s you ticked in case you did but your statement seems to indicate age was enough of a reason. If there are places that require people barely over 40 (or any cutpoint) to produce medical forms 'just because' it would be good to know where they are and are they just an anomaly or commonplace in certain areas.
Just an update. My insurance covered the stress test and all went well, no physical problems.They told me I was the third person in 3 weeks taking a stress test for a scuba class. I guess it is more common than I knew. I am on my way to the quarry for the class tomorrow. More later.
Gary
Gary
fisheater
Contributor
Congrats!
Hey that's a win-win!
You get to take the class and you have a great benchmark of your fitness.
About 3 years ago I had a heart attack scare. It ended up being a pinched nerve and a few other perfects storm quirks. The upshot was that they put me through the wringer that day and I walked out feeling like a million bucks. I was 50 or 51 at the time. It felt good to know I had been subjected to something beyond the cursory annual exam came out healthy.
Pete
The weekend finally happened. I made it to Mermet Springs with all the paper work to take my AOW. On the way I stopped and picked up a dive buddy who wanted to go just to dive. We got to the hotel about 12:30 Friday night. After working all day, fitting in a stress test and driving until midnight,boy was I wore out. So much so I could hardly sleep that night.
The next morning we got to the quarry about 8 AM. My buddy set about looking for someone to dive with while I got my paper work set for class. The class consisted of myself and one other who was only doing the class portion and not the dive. I was unsure of how much I would get out of the class. After the night before I was not looking forward to sitting thru the lecture but it had to be done.
The instructor looked thru my log book and we discussed what I wanted out of the class. She said she could tell from talking to me and looking at my gear I had been influenced by my cave diver buddies. As a result she really tailored the class to suit my needs. I was very pleased with that. We discussed dive planning and gas management for the deep dives at length. after 6 hours of class time for the deep diver and boat diver ( the last two I needed for the AOW card) I was ready for the water.
We got geared up and went to the dock. I was wearing my new ( slightly used) Hollis drysuit. I jumped in and immediately my neck seal failed and my suit flooded. No way I could do a deep dive in 39 degree water (at depth) like that. I was really disappointed. Much to my pleasure they came up with a neck seal saver. A piece of neoprene tube which fit around my neck like a piece of innertube and let my neck seal seal against that. It worked. We went to the 65 foot platform and did the usual skills. We then went for a swim so she could evaluate my ability. That dive was only to 73 feet. After doing our safety stop and practicing with the hung stage bottle we went to the 15 foot platform and did a timed swim to calculate my SCR. We then went up for air fills and a SI. She said she does it like that to be sure the student is ready to go deeper before actually taking them down. Apparently some are not ready to go deep when they take the class(imagine that).
Now we are ready for the deep dive. We gear up again and jump in and... you guessed it, my suit flooded again. I got in a hurry and didn't get the seal saver positioned properly. By now it was too late in the day to dry out and try again. We decided to start fresh the next day. I went to the hotel and hung everything out to dry.
The next morning we tried again. I jumped in and yea, it held. We went to the 85 foot platform, did our drills and checked everything out then went to the 100 foot platform. All is just fine. From there we dropped down to the bottom. I looked at my computer to see how deep we were and it read 187 feet. I looked at it again and thought what is wrong with this silly gauge? i checked it a couple times. I knew the quarry is no deeper then 120 feet so we must have found a new hole. I was excited. This is awesome. after swimming around for a few minutes we went back to the 85 foot platform. suddenly my gauge started working properly again . Then I got a really bad case of vertigo. I signaled the instructor. she signalled to ascend just a little bit , open my hood on both sides and clear my ears. It worked. aparently I had an inbalance from side to side of cold and warmer water inside my hood. we finished our swim, went to 50 feet for a 3 minute safety stop then went to 20 feet for a 5 minute stop. After we surfaced she said it was an excellant dive, very relaxed and she really enjoyed it, very unusual for a training dive. It wasn't until later when I was telling my dive buddy I didn't even get narced that it occurred to me that I was narced out of my head. We didn't hit 187 feet. It was my tank pressure, 2187 that I was looking at. Boy did I feel silly. My computer showed 111 feet deep. I guess it is true, you really don,t know it when your narced.
Next we did the boat dive routine, on the boat, off the boat repeat a few times for different entries, one more fun dive and we were done.
After all my struggles I finally got my AOW card. Next is stress and rescue and then Fundies. Then I will feel like I have finally gotten past the beginner level.
The next morning we got to the quarry about 8 AM. My buddy set about looking for someone to dive with while I got my paper work set for class. The class consisted of myself and one other who was only doing the class portion and not the dive. I was unsure of how much I would get out of the class. After the night before I was not looking forward to sitting thru the lecture but it had to be done.
The instructor looked thru my log book and we discussed what I wanted out of the class. She said she could tell from talking to me and looking at my gear I had been influenced by my cave diver buddies. As a result she really tailored the class to suit my needs. I was very pleased with that. We discussed dive planning and gas management for the deep dives at length. after 6 hours of class time for the deep diver and boat diver ( the last two I needed for the AOW card) I was ready for the water.
We got geared up and went to the dock. I was wearing my new ( slightly used) Hollis drysuit. I jumped in and immediately my neck seal failed and my suit flooded. No way I could do a deep dive in 39 degree water (at depth) like that. I was really disappointed. Much to my pleasure they came up with a neck seal saver. A piece of neoprene tube which fit around my neck like a piece of innertube and let my neck seal seal against that. It worked. We went to the 65 foot platform and did the usual skills. We then went for a swim so she could evaluate my ability. That dive was only to 73 feet. After doing our safety stop and practicing with the hung stage bottle we went to the 15 foot platform and did a timed swim to calculate my SCR. We then went up for air fills and a SI. She said she does it like that to be sure the student is ready to go deeper before actually taking them down. Apparently some are not ready to go deep when they take the class(imagine that).
Now we are ready for the deep dive. We gear up again and jump in and... you guessed it, my suit flooded again. I got in a hurry and didn't get the seal saver positioned properly. By now it was too late in the day to dry out and try again. We decided to start fresh the next day. I went to the hotel and hung everything out to dry.
The next morning we tried again. I jumped in and yea, it held. We went to the 85 foot platform, did our drills and checked everything out then went to the 100 foot platform. All is just fine. From there we dropped down to the bottom. I looked at my computer to see how deep we were and it read 187 feet. I looked at it again and thought what is wrong with this silly gauge? i checked it a couple times. I knew the quarry is no deeper then 120 feet so we must have found a new hole. I was excited. This is awesome. after swimming around for a few minutes we went back to the 85 foot platform. suddenly my gauge started working properly again . Then I got a really bad case of vertigo. I signaled the instructor. she signalled to ascend just a little bit , open my hood on both sides and clear my ears. It worked. aparently I had an inbalance from side to side of cold and warmer water inside my hood. we finished our swim, went to 50 feet for a 3 minute safety stop then went to 20 feet for a 5 minute stop. After we surfaced she said it was an excellant dive, very relaxed and she really enjoyed it, very unusual for a training dive. It wasn't until later when I was telling my dive buddy I didn't even get narced that it occurred to me that I was narced out of my head. We didn't hit 187 feet. It was my tank pressure, 2187 that I was looking at. Boy did I feel silly. My computer showed 111 feet deep. I guess it is true, you really don,t know it when your narced.
Next we did the boat dive routine, on the boat, off the boat repeat a few times for different entries, one more fun dive and we were done.
After all my struggles I finally got my AOW card. Next is stress and rescue and then Fundies. Then I will feel like I have finally gotten past the beginner level.
Froid
Contributor
Precisely how do you think "scuba" is making any money from this?
Not necessarily the scuba industry getting the money but it felt to me like because of the scuba industry me or the insurance was going to pay an extra $1000 plus for me to be able to participate, and this is exactly what did happen.
Similar threads
