Good morning, all!
Well, we successfully completed our ow certification this last weekend. We did our open water dives at the
Blue Lagoon, and had a blast.
This reminds me of when I finished my AFF training in skydiving years ago. Yes, I was no longer a skydiving student, and could essentially jump with whomever I wanted without a jumpmaster, but that didn't mean I necessarily
should just go off and start doing my own thing.
I feel this way now after getting our c-cards. I realize just how much I
don't know, and how much I have yet to learn. Does this mean I'm uncomfortable being in the water? No! I love being in the water, and feel reasonably comfortable with the skills I was taught. I know I (when I write "I," I'm referring to my wife and I as a buddy team) should dive with experienced divers to improve my skills and become a better diver. Mentoring is a big deal where I work, and I definitely see its value. Now all I need to do is build a network of mentors who are willing to dive with newbies so we can learn more and refine our skills.
My instructor does about a class a month, and I asked him about accompanying the class to the same area during their open water dives. My goal here is to just hang out with the same instructor team, and while not actually interacting with his class, just dive in the same area, practicing our own skills. Not only did he say that was fine, but actually encoured us to do this anytime he was out there. "Come on out with us any time we dive. I encourage all of my former students to do this."
The one skill I personally had the most anxiety about was the free flow regulator drill. While hearing about it, this sounded like it was going to be a tough skill to pass, but after all was said and done, it wasn't that hard. Most of the skills were actually pretty fun to do, and I had a great time doing them.
Our instructor then did an optional peak performance buoyancy class for us, and all of us took that class as well. I feel that those two extra dives really helped with my buoyancy control, although I still have a lot of work to do in maintaining optimal buoyancy. These dives were much more fun in that there was less stress in trying to pass all the required skills for our OW. Maybe this is what finally made something "click" during our fin pivots. All of the sudden, something just went off in my head and it was like "Hey, I get it now!"
We hope to do as many dives as possible before our cruise in December, where we plan to dive in Grand Cayman and Cozumel. We have much work to do, and lots of practice, but this kind of practice can also be fun. It's one of the reasons we decided to learn scuba, right?
Have a great day, y'all!
