After recital I had a 2 week break from my job. I decided that I was sick of saying "When I have time I'm going to do X, Y, or Z" and then never doing any of those things. So I was given time to do something, and I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do. Sean wasn't able to take leave so a trip was out of the question. I was rather impulsive and for someone who usually researches the heck out of most things I sort of just went with a scuba diving company that wouldn't make me dive on a Sunday. I drove down to Reef Encounters one day, handed them my money, signed up for the course and was handed a course book. I was able to do all of the academic portion online which made me happy at times and at other times frustrated. Pros to doing it online: I didn't need to find a babysitter I could just do the class while I watched Ely, I could do it on my own time, I could go at a pace that worked for me. Cons: Ely was always around and if she wanted any of my time I usually had to stop what I was doing and entertain her, I did have the option to email my instructor if I had a question but I didn't because you know, pride, anyways if something confused me I didn't have someone readily available to answer the question and had to figure it out on my own, also I wondered if many of the things I was viewing online would have been easier to see in person like how to assemble equipment and what not. The nerd inside me decided that I needed to keep learning a part of my life. I didn't realize how much I miss learning until now. I need goals, I need more of them in my life these days. I finished the academic portion the night before my first class and was excited, like really excited to start the next day.
Day one:
As a disclaimer things eventually got better than my first day of scuba diving, my first day was actually terrible. I look at most everything with a sense of humor now, but the actual day I was a hot mess. I think I'm going to write a more spiritual post on that later. Anyways, I was really worried about being late, Ely's sitter lives on a different base than us, the gates are closed and opened at the weirdest times right now, I was mostly really worried about being late. I also was just really anxious and needed to know what was coming, how long we would take, if we would be granted a lunch break. I need to know. Just "show up with a swimming suit" was not enough for me. Where was my syllabus, itinerary, something?! So I showed up ten minutes early with all of my snorkeling gear, a lunch, 2 waters, a towel, my book they gave me and a bag. The shop was closed but I could see someone setting up in there so for ten minutes I panicked, "Do I go in? Do I stay here? Am I even allowed to park here?" I go in at nine, a girl that was going to join me for the class had been in there a while, the guy that was in there seemed kind of pissy and told me I was in fact not allowed to park there and I had to go park down the street. Cool, so I'm late now. I park down the street, carry all of my crap with me. Pissy guy is my instructor. I sit down and he starts to tell stories of a bunch of people that have the audacity to sign up for the course who can't swim. Tells some more stories of foreigners that basically screw up the course. More stories of people that don't actually finish the course (wait, that's possible?) Great, I'm going to turn into one of these stories this guy tells. I'm not one that enjoys learning by throwing others under the bus. After we have established that we can swim he goes on to review stuff from the course and the girl next to me is a rock star at all of the information and I'm just like, my daughter woke me up at 4 am and I can't think right now. We get our gear and go down to the sea wall. We go over how to assemble everything, put on our wet suits and all of our gear and sweat up a storm. Head down to the water, pissy guy insults my fins and says that split fins are for people who "can't fin" right before we go into the water. He's so nice.
He asks us if we can stand in the water, I can't, I'm floating around like an idiot and getting tossed by the waves, but that doesn't seem to matter. We start to work on the skills that we need. The first took me a while, breathing through the mouth piece without anything covering the nose and without plugging your nose. I was being tossed around by the waves and was really distracted by this. After a while I finally got it, we move onto the next skill, clearing our mask and taking our mask off under water. I swallow a bunch of seawater here. To this day I hate this skill, it's the most vulnerable feeling to take your mask off under water, I come up and freak out and start swimming backwards. I can now switch Pissy guy's name to Furious guy. I was swimming just fine, backwards, he is screaming "Stop Swimming backwards!" Leaps towards me, hits his knee on coral, hugs it, acts like a male soccer player about his injury. Thanks for saving me? He hates me. I get all the skills we need in order to swim out to a deep part of the ocean and start to go down. I don't trust this guy, nope, this isn't happening today. I come back up to the surface and call it quits and almost cry on the way to shore. I'm sort of relentless about being able to try again, on another day, at a pool. The nicest thing pissy guy did was arrange for that to happen.
A note: If you back out of your scuba class, there is no refund. If you don't acquire the skills, there is no refund. They know that at that point in order for you to get certified you are at the mercy of the scuba shop you choose to go with. They loose nothing if you don't pass, which is why it is so important to find a teacher and a curriculum that matches your learning style. I should have researched who would have been the best match for me. I definitely needed a pool first, which some places automatically offer, this place does the ocean first and I'm assuming it's because of it's closeness to their shop location and the fact it's free.
Day 1, again: Can I just say coming back to the shop and repeating my first day was a super humbling experience. The whole night before I was praying for a different instructor, who was more patient and the teacher I needed. I don't say "better teacher" because I'm sure pissy guy is a great teacher, just not the one for me. I was actually really embarrassed coming back. I spent the whole day praying for strength and understanding. Many many prayers went into that day before that lesson. I walk in and already introductions are like night and day. She is warm and kind. Two young men join my class. I had already heard this lesson but hers is vastly different than her colleague's, she simply presents the information. There are no war stories of all of the previous idiots she's taught, no throwing anyone under the bus in order for her lesson to be made more clear, she just teaches us what we need to know. She tells us that she is taking us to the pool and that the guy I had yesterday was going to finish the lesson. I die inside a little. I pray the whole ride over there he doesn't show up and that she can just teach us. When we arrive she pays for our use of the swimming pool, I feel grateful to the shop for letting us do this as they only use the pool if ocean conditions are bad. First thing she asks us to do is to swim laps. Something I could do! I pass that skill. She shows us how to assemble our gear. I'm so on point today, I don't want to mess up again. She teaches us all of the skills which were so much easier to get not thrashing around in the waves. I'm able to do all of them fairly good the first time. I'm so excited about this. I know I've said I would write this in a later post, but my success was not me, that was Christ helping me every step of the way. We do rescue diving and practice equalizing the pressure in our ears. The sun is starting to go down. We are done, pissy guy has never shown up. I didn't screw up this day, unless you count the emergency switched I bumped into in the bathroom while we were changing clothes. I decided that even if I didn't become certified I really needed to get through that first day for my own self esteem and I did. I learned so much by being able to have the 2 different teachers. There are things that I need to remember when teaching beginners dance. It was good for me to be completely new at something. I needed reminders of how vulnerable of a feeling that is as I frequently teach new dancers.
If you are interested in diving, research the different shops first! I should have researched the teacher I was going to have, if it was going to be ocean or pool first. Sean is taking a class soon that does their first day in the pool, always. I'm the type of learner that needed to have the pool first. After having Andrea I went online to look at the reviews and she had the most positive review out of all of the teachers. I should have requested her first and saved myself the headache and heart ache of that first day. The second first day was definitely needed in order for me to succeed. Stay tune for Day 2 & 3!
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