Woo Hoo!

[buhund]

I completed the classroom work and confined water dives this weekend.

I didn't really have problems with the skills. I guess all the lurking/reading on this forum has done a lot of good. When things didn't go "smoothly" (like removing and putting on BCD underwater) I just took my time and remembered that as long as I was breathing everything was fine.

There was only one other guy in my class which made it nice. The other guy did good in the pool yesterday but had some trouble today. He had a mental block about breathing under water and couldn't get past it. The instructor is going to work individually with him tomorrow night. I'm sure he'll get it.

After the skills were done the instructor let me "play around" in the pool for a while. I spent the whole time moving around and working on bouyancy control. I know you regulars will be happy.

I have the checkout dives next weekend. Hopefully the lake will warm up a little more.

Thanks to all those who post tips and pointers. I know it made a difference for me.

 

[CLEAR BLUE]

Congratulations! I'm sure you'll do great. Where are you doing your checkout dives? In any event, happy and safe diving and welcome to the board.

 

[biggmarty]

Good stuff. I've had the luxury of taking OW as a part of my college schedule. we spent 6-7 class sessions on lecture stuff/test review, and 4-5 sessions to learn the skills, and now its mostly "get in the pool and work on buoyancy". our instructors even set up some "swimthroughs" from hula hoops, noodles, etc, to try and get us ready. i'm confident and i'm set to go for my checkouts this weekend, too

 

[buhund]

I've updated my profile with hometown. My checkout dive will be at Lake Travis in Austin.

 

[Texasdivechick]

I did my OW checkout dives in Lake Travis two weekends ago. I assume you're going to Windy Point? Don't forget your hood/ Beanie. The temp was 51-54 F at the 35' platform. There were some freakin' huge catfish, about 3-5 feet, that came right up to us. Be prepared for the vis to be very low. I was kinda freaked about this at first. Especially once we got off the platform and started swimming around. I ended up sliding down a steep dropoff without being aware that I was going too deep. My instructor had to pull me up (couldn't see him, vis was bad) because I went from 35' to 55' without realizing it. But the drive there is beautiful, and you will have a great time.
And since you're from TX, qanytime you need a dive buddy, let me know!

 

[Dark Wolf]

Congrats, buhund, and good luck on your checkout dives!

 

[Gil57usa]

I did my OW checkout dives in Lake Travis two weekends ago. I assume you're going to Windy Point? Don't forget your hood/ Beanie. The temp was 51-54 F at the 35' platform. There were some freakin' huge catfish, about 3-5 feet, that came right up to us. Be prepared for the vis to be very low. I was kinda freaked about this at first. Especially once we got off the platform and started swimming around. I ended up sliding down a steep dropoff without being aware that I was going too deep. My instructor had to pull me up (couldn't see him, vis was bad) because I went from 35' to 55' without realizing it. But the drive there is beautiful, and you will have a great time.
And since you're from TX, qanytime you need a dive buddy, let me know!

:no Dropping 20 feet without realizing it can get you in trouble fast, especially at deeper depths. Since you are a new diver, make it a point to keep track of your depth as you work on your skills. As you become more confident and fine tune your buoyancy skills it will become second nature to maintain depth. Good luck.

 

[PePaw]

Congrats ! Whos your LDS ?
I'll be flying in on April 27th. Going to do a clean-up of the Comal River on the 28th and then shoot over to Lake Travis on the 29th.

 

[tbeindit]

sweet, just wait until you do some real diving

 

[buhund]

I am definitely looking forward to some real diving. My wife and I are going to Cozumel in July so I want to get some dives in before we go.

I will likely try to tag along with some Austinites if they'll have the patience for a new guy with rental gear.

PePaw: I ended up going with Dive World Austin for my instruction. Based on recommendations I looked at Tom's, Dive World, and a couple others but ended up choosing Dive World because they were offering the classes and checkouts on the weekends I wanted to take them. I was comfortable with the shop and instructor.