Sunday, June 22, 2008
Well, today was my final dives for my scuba certification. The dives took place at Thelma Spencer Park in Rochester Hills, MI. It was a beautiful morning that lead into a beautiful afternoon. Partly cloudy skies with a temperature hovering about 80 degrees.
As soon as we got there, it was time to set up equipment. Since having the experience doing everything yesterday, today was a snap. Todays first dive was a continuation of our skills performances. Since our last dive yesterday was cut short due to thunderstorms, we had to finish up the shared air ascents. Yesterday I received air, so today I would give air. Once everyone was ready, we did a surface swim out to the dive platform to find it. I was in the lead swimming out and was able to find the dock first! Was actually kinda proud about that. Once the Dive Master tied to float off to the dock we proceded with the shared are ascents. My dive buddy for this was Bob. It went with no problems. Our next skill was to remove weights and do a bouyant emergency ascent. I was first to do the skill. I dove to the platform, pulled by weight from the BC and handed it to the instructor. Then is was a simple kick to start moving up and laying back and floating to the surface. Remembering to slowly exhale on the way to the surface. Practicing this skill is very relaxing. It is a neat feeling to see the water surface come closer. The refraction of light through the surface is almost surreal. Then, once at the surface, the Dive Master brought up my weight and it was a matter of re-installing the weight at the surface. No problems. I then had to wait for Janice and Bob to finish their skills and we once again had to do an underwater swim back to the bench on the beach. The heading back was 270 degrees. Janice took the float and I watched the compass. We were once again dead on.
Once completing the first dive, it was time to change tanks and to fill out log books. We also had a chance to grab a small bite to eat. After eating yesterday and diving aftword, I chose to just drink gatoraid.
Our second and final dive was our "fun dive". This is a dive that we had to plan with our buddy and then give to the Dive Masters to watch from shore as we completed the dive. Janice and I decided our dive would be a "P" shaped pattern. 8 minutes swim straight out from the shore at a 90 degree heading. Then a 4 minute swin on a 180 degread heading. Then a 4 minute swim at 270 degree heading. Then a 4 min swim at 0 degree heading. Then finish up with a 4 min swim at 270 degree heading. Supposedly on our third segment of the trip there was suppose to be a sunken sailboat wreck. Unfortunately, we did not see it. The visibility was 5 to 10 feet. We did however see a bunch of fish. Many times we would look around and find ourselves with fish all round us. It was cool to look up and see schools of fish above you. Our dive went really well as we ended up almost exactly where we went it. At most, we were 10 feet off. I was very happy about that!
Today was a great dive day. Unlike yesterday that felt very rushed and busy, today was much more laid back and enjoyable. This was what I was hoping for scuba diving.
SCUBA CERTIFIED!