WooHoo! Great B-Day Present

[Vetdrm]

Today, our family was ready to finish our last 2 OW dives. We completed the first 2 in June, went on vacation to Xcalak, Mexico , dove there once as Scuba Divers (terrific experience!) and are finally finishing up, having planned a trip to Cayman Brac next month.
Fingers are crossed that we'd earn our OW certificates today.
Alarm goes off at 5:15 am this morning, awaken from dive-filled dreams, some good, some bad. Feel a bit congested, allergies flareing up the past few days, take a Claritin, down some coffee, pack up dive gear, awaken sleeping 16 year old son.
Outdoor temp 61 degrees. Arrive at murky quarry, water temp at surface 73 degrees. 15 feet vis. Finish last 2 OW dives. I take about 11 tries to successfully clear my mask after removal, but I do not panic and finally get through it. We passed, as a family, and spent a great deal of quality fun family time doing it. It definitely has brought our family closer together which is the greatest gift I could hope to receive.

 

[rawls]

Vetdrm...Great story...A big congratulations to you and your family...Those mask clears can be buggers sometimes. Just working with a student today on mask clears. She finally got it down....With a big smile on her face. That's what makes all the work of teaching a wonderful thing. Keep diving and be safe...Once again...congratulations...Great Job....

 

[LdyLwyr]

Congratulations Vetdrm! I hope you and your family enjoy many great dive trips in the future. Diving has worked the same magic with my husband and I. We have very different 'hobby' interests and it is great to find something we both love so much.

Happy Diving!

 

[Walt1957]

Congratulations! My wife and 11 y/o daughter have found diving to be a great family activity.

I do suggest that you work on mask clearing until you can do it in your sleep. It is something that you will occasionally need to do unexpectedly, and the better you are at it the less it will be a problem. When more than one thing happens at once, each little stressor can add up, so if this becomes easy for you it is less likely to spoil the fun.

 

[Vetdrm]

Thanks everyone.

I do need to practice mask removal. On our first dive yesterday, I did the flooding and clearing just fine. The instructor said I seemed to stop exhaling through my nose before I sealed the mask bottom. I'm thinking that I can clear my mask by just pushing on the top and blowing out through my nose. The water should exit the bottom of the mask right?
Luckily a LDS has open pool time available for divers every Sunday for the next 11 weeks. Plenty of time to practice mask removal and work on buoyancy before our vacation.

 

[FunkyDiver]

Congrats on your accomplishment! My son and I just were certified in June. We are hving a good time with this and can't wait until we can do an ocean dive (hopefully early next year). Anyway, pushing on the top of the mask and blowing through your nose is how we were taught to clear our masks. It works very well even for large volume masks.

 

[spectrum]

Congratulations!

Be sure to put more work into the mask cklear exercise. That needs to be automatic because if something happens a flooded mask may only be part of the problem.

Are you planning to be active local divers? Doing tour AOW class inh Wisconsin is a great way to get introduced to your local waters and the best ways to dive them. As active local divers your skills will grow much faster making you safer divers, when you go on vacation it will be a special treat.

Pete

 

[TXScubaBear]

Congrats!!
A friend and I start class next week.....sooooooo looking forward to it and have gotten lots of tips and encouragement from the board members here.
Love this site!!