"An Around-the-World-Ticket for Two, Please."

Scuba School

Posted by Sarah O'Neill , Friday, 24 September 2010 04:10

As I am writing this I am sat by the beach at sunset watching Ben sail off on the boat to do a night dive as part of his 'advanced scuba course', so you can see, he loved it and is now continuing his scuba education to become even more qualified! We don't have wifi in our 'bungalow', and have been at scuba school from 8.30 till 6 the last three days, so haven't been able to get on line long enough to blog, so here goes!

We began scuba school at 4pm on Monday after a laiad back day at the beach. We met the other two students, Allan and Scott, Father and Son, and our Instructor, Gaz. We watched over an hour of great videos from PADI produced in the 80's so lots of great hair and fashion! We were given a pretty hefty book each with 'knowledge reviews' 1 - 5 through it, so the idea is you watch a video, read a chapter and then complete the questions in the knowledge review, alongside practical diving of course!!! So Monday night was not too strenuous at all, but concerned me as I became more aware of what lay ahead!

Had an early start to get breakfast at 8am, ready for our 8.30 start on Tuesday. Arrived and went through some academic stuff, and then got kitted out for sizes of equipment, a wetsuit, snorkel, fins and a BDC (Bouyancy control device - like an inflatable and deflatable life jacket). We were then taught how to connect our regulators, (breathing bits) to the huge heavy oxygen tanks, and the all important SPG which tells you how much air you have, and then connecting up the BCD. Gaz made us put this together and disassemble it all about 4 times, but we definately knew what to do by the end! We put our equipment in a numbered bag ready for our dive later. More academics, which are pretty full on, and then lunch at 11! Get an hour, then have to be back as the boat goes out every afternoon just after 12.

Got on a small boat which took us out to the big dive boat and got ready. Gaz gave us a briefing of what skills we had to do under the water. These are called confined dives, that you do either in a swimming pool, or in our case, a shallow area of a quiet bay. We all managed to reach the bottom fine, and had no trouble breathing, so that was all good. I am so glad I did that little intro to Scuba at Centre Parcs, although it counts for nothing, at least I didn't have a hissy fit going under the water for the first time! Had to perform our skills, which included taking the regulator (mouth breathing thingy) out of our mouths and then putting it back in, clearing it of water first and then breathing again, which I had also done at CP so not too troublesome! Then had to take it out, and let it drop behind us, and retrieve it which was a little more scary as lost sight of it, but were taught how to locate it calmy and pop it back in, clear it of water and breathe again! Did all of this fine, but then it came to the mask skills. This did not go so well. I was able to clear a partially flooded mask, which means a little water has got in, and you hold the top and breathe out your nose hard to clear it, and then a fully flooded mask. However, the next step was to take the mask off. As with all the skills I act out each stage in my head and visualise it, then perform it, however, the minute my nose was out it seemed to instinctively breathe in, no matter how much I told it not to. I completely panicked and gasped for breath, and began choking, lashing around etc, Gaz held me down trying to calm me, as I still had the mouth peice, but by now I was so freaked out, I was scrambling for the surface so we both went up. I choked and spluttered and cried, it was awful! Gaz was great, really understanding, and told me the same happened to him when he first tried it, to which I said I didn't believe him, but he said it was true. Once I had calmed down a little, we tried on the surface bobbing heads under water, but I did exactly the same. I asked if I could hold my nose, and he said fine. We went back down, and I tried this technique, which was ok, but I struggled when getting it back on, of course I couldn't hold my nose as I put the mask on my nose, and of course, water goes into the mask as you replace it, which you can easily clear, but my crazy nose decides to breathe again, so had exactly the same problem, but with Gaz keeping me down, and making me breathe through my mouth until I calmed down, I was able to clear the mask and had completed the skill! Needless to say, Ben was a natural at ALL the skills, and has not seemed to be troubled by anything! Once we'd done other skills, including using a buddy's alternate air source in case yours fails, all of which I was fine at, (it's just mask removal I suck at!) we got back on the boat to head somewhere else for our first logged open water dive. We were waiting for a while for another group, which was two Japanese girls, who were certified, but having a refresher as they hadn't dived in a while, and the reason they were so late was that it took one girl 45 minutes to even put her head under, which made me feel miles better about myself!

The dive was to 12 metres, and we just had to descend along a rope, down and down, which my ears struggled wth a bit, but I managed to equalise all the way down, and it only took us 3 mins to all get down, when Gaz said some groups take 15, so that was good! Was able to enjoy this dive, no skills! Was still nervous, being so far under, and getting used to it all, but it was great, we were under for 36 mins in total!

Once we had come up we got our stuff off and I asked Gaz about the next day. Unfortunately he told me I had to do a 'no mask swim' the next day which terrified me! I was quite close to crying again at this point. We headed back to the dive centre, and I was looking out at the beautiful sunset feeling terrified.

We found somewhere nice to eat, it even had real fabric napkins! I relaxed a little, and was proud of what I had achieved, but still worried about the no mask swim!

I have run out of light to write by, the sun has set in front of me, it really is a spectacular sight, but I can no longer see to type, so will have to continue the story tomorrow!

Sarah x