I'm certified!! or certifiable...

Last weekend (well since I didn't post this entry until now, it's actually two weekends ago), I completed 4 open water dives in order to get my scuba diving certification. It was quite an experience. I have wanted to get certified in order to be able to dive while on vacation and plan vacations around diving, but I have just never done it. A couple of friends and I had started talking about taking the class and then finally, in May, Nell Anne and I signed up for the class. We took the class for three weeks, gearing up in a 5 ft swimming pool and studying and taking tests. We completed the classroom section in May and we were feeling pretty confident. For some scheduling reasons, we were unable to go on the open water dive that month. Jim, our instructor told us that we could go another time as he takes students once a month up to the Puget Sound to do the open water dives. Well, for some reason, we missed the June trip, the July trip, the August trip, and we were about to miss the September trip when Nell Anne put her foot down (hard to believe, I know) and said no more. We were going and that was that (my apologies to Chris for missing his wedding on the 24th).

I resigned myself to the fact that we were going to finally complete our certification...and then it hit me - I wasn't going to be in a swimming pool where I could stand up and pop my head up out of the water at any sign of trouble. I began to get nervous. What if I had a problem 40 ft under the water? Was I going to have a panic attack? My fears were intensified after we went to the scuba shop to get fitted for the wet suits. The wet suit that is needed to dive in cold water is thick. Much thicker than the ones we used in the swimming pool. To make matters worse, they obviously didn't have an off-the-rack wetsuit that was going to fit my body correctly. In order to find a suit that fit my circumference, it was at least 6 inches too long in the legs and the arms. It was extremely difficult to put on and it was even more difficult to move once I did have it on. I felt like Gumby or the Michelin man. I when I walked around, I looked like an extra in one of those old zombie movies unable to bend my limbs as I lumbered around trying to convince myself that this was still a good idea.

At this point, I wasn't turning back regardless of my growing fears and nervousness. How difficult could it be? Tons of people have done it and I consider myself fairly adventurous. One thing I did to prior to the trip, which probably wasn't the best idea, was that I went out with some friends to a concert the night before we were headed out to dive. After the concert, we had to go out and have some drinks of course. Needless to say, I wasn't in bed until at least 3 am and I had to be at Nell Anne's at 7 am to take off to Tacoma. So after minimal sleep, I was headed out the door, and I really hoped that I would be returning home after the weekend in tact.

We got to Sunnyside Beach in Steilacoom, WA at around 9:45 am and met our instructor and the others that were diving. We then began the laborious process of getting into our gear. This I found to be an uncomfortable and tedious task. We started out with a 6.5 mm wet suit that was long sleeved and full legs, which I already described above. We also had additional gear that we hadn't tried on at the scuba shop. There were some boots, which are like thick aqua socks that are ankle high. They were tight and extremely difficult to get on, especially since you had to have the wet suit on before putting them on. Once that small miracle was accomplished, we had to put on another wet suit on top of the one we had on. This one was 5mm thick and was sleeveless and went to the knees. The main difficulty I had was trying to figure out what to do with the extra 6 inches of length that I had of neoprene in the legs and arms. It was all bunched up. I was trying to pull it up so that the extra would be somewhere around my mid legs and arms and not at the ankles and wrists. That stuff is really difficult to move. I was feeling exhausted before I even had half of my gear on. Then we had to put on a hood that left only our eyes, nose and mouth exposed. This was tucked into the wet suit which then made it extremely difficult to turn my head either direction. Then we had to start adding the actual scuba gear. A weight belt (16 lbs.), gloves, the vest, which is called the BCD, which also held additional weight (in my case 32 lbs of lead), and then the tank (probably another 30 lbs) and a mask made the ensemble complete.

It was the most ludicrous thing I have ever done. Imagine pouring yourself into a body suit that makes you virtually immobile and then add 100 lbs or so of equipment and weights to that. Now go jump in the ocean. Sounds reasonable enough. Everyone should do it.

Jim, our instructor was then telling us what to expect and what we would be doing. I was completely stressed out. I was sure that I was going to have a panic attack any second. We followed him into the water and tried to follow his instructions. Pretty soon, we were under the water and what do you know, I could breathe. So far, so good. Then we started to go deeper. The problem that I was going to have became immediately obvious. BOUYANCY. Without getting into too much detail, I was having a difficult time keeping myself in one place. I would let air out of the BCD (too quickly apparently) and sink to the bottom like a rock. Let me just tell you that this is not what you are supposed to do. My ears couldn't adjust to the pressure change that quickly and I found myself practically screaming (yes, you can scream through the regulator - the breathing device) in pain from the sharp pain in my ear from the speedy descent. In order to correct this error, I filled up my BCD with air (again too quickly) and sky-rocketed up to the surface. This was not the correct solution either. I spent the majority of that first dive panicked, disoriented and alternating between sinking to the bottom and bobbing back up the surface. Let me just say that as far as I am concerned, Jim hit it on the head when he said that the first dive is the worst. I was convinced that I would never be able to control my bouyancy properly. My ears were killing me as well. We finished our first dive and got out to take a break and eat some lunch. I knew that this was just the beginning of an extremely long weekend. I had to start ripping equipment off, because I was feeling so constricted and immobile that I was starting to freak out. Everything but the wetsuits and boots came off. All of a sudden, I almost felt mobile in the wetsuit.

Then we did our second dive, which was mainly a huge test of the skills we had learned in class. We were in a cirlce at the surface while Jim explained what we would be doing under the water. We had to pretend to be out of air and share air with our buddy and go to the surface together, fill our masks with water and then clear them, we had to hover (stay near the bottom without touching and go higher and lower just with the air coming in and out of our lungs - very difficult for me) and a few other skills. This all seemed to make some sense until we got under the water. Again, I was disoriented, although not as much as the first time. I was a little panicky down there, not sure how we were going to complete these tasks without talking. But Nell Anne went first and I was able to watch Jim going through the whole thing with her and so I knew what was coming, thank goodness. Once we finished our skills, Jim asked us if we wanted to tour around or if we wanted to get out. Not surprisingly, we all chose getting out. This was a lot more work than I had expected.

We got out of our gear as quickly as we could (not very quickly) and then we each had to pack up our gear to take back to the hotel and clean (much more work than it sounds). We all went to the dive shop and filled up our tanks for the next day and then Nell Anne and I headed to the hotel. We took all our stuff in, and tried to figure out how we were going to get the task done of rinsing all of our gear in the bath tub. I decided it would be better to clean the gear from inside the tub. So I took a shower and then had Nell Anne hand me all the gear while I cleaned it. Poor Nell Anne had to deal with handing me the stuff while my ass was hanging out of the tub. Sorry for the horrifying visual. Anyway, that chore took forever and we were fully convinced that this sport involves too much equipment and cleaning of the equipment. Also, we were completely exhausted from the day. What we needed now was a meal. We headed out and after driving around, we found an Outback and had the most delicious and grubby meal ever!! I think that was the best tasting beer I ever had. It's funny how good things taste after a long hard day of activity and hard work.

Stay tuned for day 2 details, we're not certified yet....