My first dive was at Chankanaab in Cozumel. I wore my 7mm wetsuit because in the pool that was supposedly 80 degrees, I froze my ass off....I was not cold, but I never felt overheated, thankfully! We began the descent, and even though I theoretically knew how to equalize, I don't think I was actually blowing when I was pinching my nose. The instructor was really patient with me and we didn't go down any further until I was able to equalize, which eventually happened, even though my hubby was already on the bottom waiting for me. We finally got to the bottom, did a few skills, and then the instructor motioned to me to follow her....I was unsure what we were doing, and when we didn't stop, I started to freak out cause she didn't tell my hubby to follow us as well. I then realized I could look back (as long as I didn't stop finning, cause then I'd start to sink....you know, being overweighted and not understanding how to use my BC properly), and when I did, I saw my husband following us as well. After I realized we had not left him, I started to relax and looked around at all the neat things and welcomed myself to the underwater world that I had always wanted to explore.
My most recent dive was earlier today. We wanted to go out and try to break our bad luck lobster luck, so we went to a site that has a rocky entry, and rocky reef and kelp forest. I watched the surf for a while, saw it was no bigger than a foot, and decided to strap on my HP130 and make my way out. As luck would have it, my husband made it out into the water, getting hit by one big wave, while I got pummeled by a few 2-3 footers. After struggling for a while, I finally made it out past the break zone, got my fins on, and made the surface swim out. We dropped at about 25 feet, had 1-2 feet visibility, and some serious surge. In our 10 minute dive, I realized how much my buoyancy control has improved....and I realized how much my husband's and my communication has improved as well. After the dive, I found I got three new urchin spines stuck in my body (two in my knee, one in my finger)....got home, dug them out, and realized how much more efficient it was to remove them right after the initial impact, rather than waiting a month or more for them to surface on their own!
Going out tomorrow, hoping for better conditions....but if I don't get better conditions, at least I get time underwater....but at least at tomorrow's site, there are no urchins or rocks to get pushed into!
