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Thread: Memories & Experiences OW/Basic class.

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    Default Memories & Experiences OW/Basic class.

    We all started here.

    What fond/wierd/scary/funny memories do you have of your OW/Basic class and checkout dives?

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    Moderator lottie's Avatar
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    Falling right onto my face in the sand coming out of the sea - did that each and every time over the three days....at least it made everyone else laugh
    Lottie

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    Seeing the look in my buddies face when he descended with his snorkel in his mouth.
    Being buzzed by diving ducks at 9m. "what are those superfast silvery things going past ? They don't look like fish!", then spotting the two little webbed feet hammering away behind them.
    Finding myself at the surface, (again!), after another episode of crap bouyancy and shouting in sheer frustration, "What the %*@^ am I doing up here?" and then realising that some 50-60 students and their instructors have turned to stare at me!
    SSMD Diver.

    Today is a good day to Dive.

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    Cave Diver BamaCaveDiver's Avatar
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    Getting sea sick for the very first time in my life

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    Photo & Videographer Papa Bear's Avatar
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    Bama, there are those that have and those that will, but non that won't!
    May all your dreams be wet ones! Visit us at Twotankedproductions.com
    Reed's Rod dive Tool Please help save the worlds Coral reefs! http://safemooringfoundation.org/

  6. #6
    Registered Users hbh2oguard's Avatar
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    Watching the instructor and the rest of the class getting picked up and tossed by the sets after he told us to enter right as the sets were on the horizon while I was in ankle deep water waiting them out. But the best part was kicking out past the instructor while he was disoriented trying to fix his mask.

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    LadyDog and I were the only students for the week at SE Fly 'N Dive in Aruba...and the four instructors on staff had nothing better to do than drill the crap out out of us all week long. It was a real boot camp kind of experience, and we're better divers because of it.

    My favorite experience of all was the day of our final check-out dive. We were riding on three-footers at the surface, with a pretty good current. After we got our kits all prepped the lead instructor threw them as far overboard as he could. Then he made us sit there and watch them float away. When they were a good 100 yards away and drifting ever faster out to sea (or so it seemed, anyway) he told us to get our fins, masks and snorkels on and go. Once we had retrieved and donned the gear we were to swim back to the boat and he would hand down our weight belts. Of course, he had also secretly turned off the air valve and generally screwed up the harness so as to make donning a major pain in the a**.

    It was tough, and we swallowed a good bit of the Caribbean in the process, but it was invaluable training that we completed successfully.

    Mountain Dog
    It's not the destination, it's the journey.

  8. #8
    Master of Mask Mold seasnake's Avatar
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    ooooo ... I like that idea ...

  9. #9
    Photo & Videographer Papa Bear's Avatar
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    Mine was at Santa Cruz Island in the month of January! The water was cold and clear and standing on the back of the old dive boat the "Emerald" was like standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon! I could look down and see the team that had gone in before me at 60ft plus! In those days you had to do your water skills and then "Blow and Go"! That was a controlled ascent from 60ft blowing bubbles all the way to the surface! You learned that you could make it on one breath in a practical demonstration of dive physics!

    I stood there waiting for my turn telling myself that "I can do this" over and over as the anxiety built in my throat starring into the cold clear water. The surface was being broken by bubbles from the teams below me expelling twice as much air then any two seasoned teams! Then a team would break the surface with a gasp and then a smile!

    I was shaken from my trans by Stan Jackson telling me and my buddy Dave Michalski "Your next, lets go"! I will tell you Dave went first and it was all I could muster to to step out of that plane at 15000ft and that is how it felt! The next is a blur and to this day I can't tell you how I stepped off the back of that boat, but the bubbles and cold engulfed me and my breathing was close to hyperventilation!

    I gathered myself and tried to relax eying my buddy and wanting to keep up my end of the team! Dave's eyes were as wide as mine and we put the regs in our mouths and dropped below the surface fallowing Stan Jackson down to where Otto Gasser awaited on the bottom! We did our skills, putting the numbing cold out of our minds and taking off our simple gear and then dawning it with ease!

    It was time to "Blow and Go" as a team under the eye of the third diver and instructor Mr. Jackson! You held your reg just outside your mouth and blew those bubbles and we pushed off the bottom looking up! We were committed and I will always remember the smile on Dave's face as we took our place as divers on the surface behind the Old Emerald in the cold clear water that didn't feel so cold anymore!

    We were now divers free to explore our new world and use the 15 minutes of air we had left in our steel 72s! Get out of our way we had a new world to cover! I guess you never forget your checkout dive!
    May all your dreams be wet ones! Visit us at Twotankedproductions.com
    Reed's Rod dive Tool Please help save the worlds Coral reefs! http://safemooringfoundation.org/

  10. #10
    Photo & Videographer Papa Bear's Avatar
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    Having just returned to Santa Cruz Island it is still beautiful and we here in southern cal are lucky to have such a diving resource!
    May all your dreams be wet ones! Visit us at Twotankedproductions.com
    Reed's Rod dive Tool Please help save the worlds Coral reefs! http://safemooringfoundation.org/

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