Wednesday was our first group confined water dive scuba experience. Todd, Seth, Madi and I attended the class and had a great time. The first skills that we were required to complete included a 300 yard swim and 10 minute float. Seth and Madi did a wonderful job on those tasks and I was very proud their performance. We then moved on the the more interesting portion of the first dive.
We had several instructors with us in the pool and they were so nice and really encouraged Seth and Madi during their lesson. Some of the skills for this session included filling our masks with water and clearing them (under water), taking the stage 2 air source out of our mouth's under water and replacing them, purging the water from our stage 2, and practicing our entry and exit procedures with our dive buddy's.
While diving in an open water setting it is especially important to use the recommended buddy system. During this dive Madi and Todd were buddies and I was paired with Seth. I was very impressed with Seth and Madi's abilities to demonstrate the tasks the first time they tried and without any additional help from the instructors. All of the people at our local dive shop are so nice and helpful, we really like the facility that we chose for our lessons. They have a store in Tempe and in San Carlos, Mexico. The Mexico location also has a dive boat and according to everyone, the best local mexican cook who prepares the meals for the trip. They told us that we should go down there for the weekend to complete our four open water dives. They frequently swim with dolphins and see many other tropical fish, sting rays, eel, sealions and even the occasional shark! I think they have talked us into it, we'll keep you posted.
After we completed the skills required for the first dive, we decended to the bottom of the pool, about 10 feet, and were able to play torpedo and spent some time just having fun under the water.Melissa was at work and couldn't attend this session, so I took her back on Friday and she got fitted for her equipment and scheduled private lessons that will enable her to work around her schedule. She is very excited to begin her classes.
Todd and I have done several dives at various locations over the years. We have always regretted not having photos of our underwater experiences. Last year in Maui we bought a disposable underwater camera with a flash in order to take photos of Madi's snuba experience. We took numerous photos, however when I had them developed none of them came out! This week we had the owner of our dive shop show some of his underwater pictures and videos and they were so awesome that we decided to get a quality underwater camera. We selected a Sea & Sea DX-1G. It is a 10 mega pixel digital underwater camera that has a flash and is able to be taken down 180 feet. You can purchase an additional flash that attaches to it by an arm if you will be doing photography at depths that require more light. He also gave me a PADI underwater photography class when I purchased the camera that I will be taking after we complete our current class. I will take some underwater photos this week and post them here soon. We will finally be able to have quality photos of our underwater experiences.
