I have been scuba diving twice now, but both times were "Discover Scuba" where you dive with an instructor who worries for you about your air and depth and whether your lungs will explode if you ascend too fast. So they were relatively stress-free dives and they were in Hawaii and Costa Rica, respectively, which had amazing sea life to compensate for the terror of taking myself 40 feet below the surface. So I survived and actually enjoyed them.
Then along came a Groupon. We've gotten to do some pretty cool things via Groupon, and lo and behold a certification class came up for over 50% off, checkout dives included. That deal, plus the much appreciated used equipment donation from the hubby's parents (both of whom are expert divers), kind of took away my excuses not to get certified.
So tonight I found myself in my first Open Water certification class. The whole course is basically 15 hours classroom learning plus 5 checkout pool dives, followed by 4 checkout open water (lake or ocean) dives. Provided I can survive this week I'll do the lake dives when it warms up in the spring. In addition to 2 hours of classroom time tonight, there was a 200m swim and 10 minutes of treading water.
I'm really terrible at treading water. I don't think I've done it since I took swimming lessons in elementary school. No one treads water for fun. Plus, in a pool, I do not float. I sink straight to the bottom. However with a variety of leans, floats, and kicks I managed to stay afloat for those ten minutes, which is all I needed to get to the next class.
If I didn't know how much I liked seeing the reef life and how relaxing it is once you're in a dive, I honestly would say I would be totally freaked out. But the instructor is really good and I was promised there is no more treading water involved for the rest of the course. So I'll hang in there and let you know how it goes.
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