Getting My Feet Wet
Trip Start
May 09, 2005
1
34
53
Trip End
Aug 01, 2005
Dahab,
Egypt
Friday, July 1, 2005
The course, which runs about 3.5-4 days, is broken up into 5 modules. Each module means watching a cheesy PADI film chapter, reading a looong chapter from the book, completing a practice quiz/worksheet, talking the material over with the instructor and then a 10 question quiz is administered. SIGH. This is on top of the tiring hours you spend in the water practicing (called confined dives) what you learned and successfully completing a large set of what they call 'skills.' After all is said and done, I'll also complete 4 open water dives with my instructor. I did modules 1 and 2 yesterday afternoon so was able to get quite far in the skills practices in the water today. It's especially helpful as I am the only student!
Anyways, I showed up at 9am and was fitted for my equipment. Apparently all of the dive centers only carry men's equipment sizes (go figure). So I pushed and pulled and grunted into my full body wet suit that was sleeveless. Then I had to wear a shorts length suit over it that was long sleeved. Problem #1: I was blessed/cursed (depends on your personal opinion) with a tiny upper body frame and waist, and a J-Lo booty with big hips (good for birthing I'm told) and thunder thighs (as my father calls them). So the problem was that the size Small fit great in the lower region but was too baggy in the upper--not good for keeping warm in the water. So I was given the X-Small which as you can guess was barely manageable over the booty but fit great on top. But it was determined that this was the best way to go. Hmph.
The standard equipment review was conducted, etc. and we headed off to our dive site a minute taxi ride away (which turned into 15 because the police decided today they were regulating the taxis and demanded a bribe of 15 LE to pass) which is known as the Lighthouse (because this is where the lighthouse used to be). I have to say, as I pulled all of the wet suits and equipment on, I was asking myself what the hell I was doing. What ran through my head was that email that went around some years back that made fun of snow skiing and gave all of these anecdotal steps to skiing that were quite true but when put in the manner they were--made one ask him/herself why the HELL they bothered to ski as it didn't sound too enjoyable! This was like trying to walk across ice in ski boots holding skis over one shoulder, pulls in the other hand, wearing layer upon layer of poofy clothing with a hot sun overhead. Not fun.
Anyways, I won't give a blow by blow of what happened in the water; but I was shocked that the skills I most feared and thought I'd be horrible at were the ones I most excelled at and vice-versa. For example, I did well on losing my regulator (what you breathe out of) and recovering, clearing it, and returning to normal breathing. But I did horribly on things like keeping myself buoyant and not staying tense in the water which just makes you flop all over the place like a fish out of water (ha ha...get it?) I was also freaked about equalizing (clearing your ears, sinuses) as I have a terrible time with pressure and my left ear. I found that I had to go down a bit more slowly than others and be constantly trying to pop my ears. It's said that most people the first time around actually hold their breath under water the first time which is perfectly natural. But I took to breathing under water normally straight away. The hard part is remaining calm and keeping your breathing as slow and normal as possible, especially when you tend to panic on certain things.
The only thing I am worried about a bit is that today I felt I had gone down pretty far and the pain in my ear was a bit much and when I got it under control I was so damn proud of myself! But I asked Kevin (my instructor) how far we'd gone and to my dismay he replied: 3-4 meters (that's about 9-12 feet for us Americans). Eventually, we will be diving up to 18 meters...so we'll so how that goes.
But all in all, for how generally difficult it was today, it's a truly rewarding experience. When you successfully complete a skill it feels really great! I also was able to enjoy a bit of the sea life in between skills when we swam for a bit. So I got a small preview of what is to come when I am able to actually go diving out in open water.
So it was a long day as I did not leave the dive center until about 6:15pm (I had to watch more video and take more quizzes after the long day in the water, in addition to schlepping heavy equipment everywhere and properly washing it all in fresh water). My little shoulders are on fire and killing me. I've also set a new personal record for the strangest tan line to date. The backs of my hands are tan and have a lovely line from where the wet suit sleeve ended. It's quite funny looking really...I'll try to take a photo...just what I'm sure everyone wants to see!
Anyways, it's early to bed tonight for me and then back at the dive center at 9am for another full day. Hopefully I won't have forgotten everything or be too sore.
TO BE CONTINUED...
