First Pool Dive

Why don't sharks eat clowns?
Cause they taste funny.

Well, I went diving. And I did good, all things considered.

Last week we learned that while your equipment is heavy on land it weights nothing in the water.

I had to go get a tank but I told them I couldn't carry it. It has three thousand pounds of air in it, I cant lift that much! One of the assistant instructors carried it for me. I told him I would breath it all and carry it back myself when it was empty. He was a happy guy he was laughing. Little did I know that he would become my personal assistant before the end of the session.

First we had to learn to put our tanks together. The breathing hose went on the right and the gauges went on the left, I kept checking my hands for the "L" and trying but I must have had like a European model or maybe I assembled it wrong or something cause everytime I tried to put the hoses on the tank with the valve away from me like the instructor was explaining, the hoses were on the wrong sides! So I would put the valve towards me and the instructor would say "No Cheryl, the valve goes away from you" But the hoses were on the wrong side! Very frustrating. My personal assistant is smiling again, he is very happy guy. He says try flipping the valve left to right instead of front to back. And the hoses are suddenly where they should be. He is smart, I will keep him.

Then we turn on the valve. Which way? I know nothing of valves. "Lefty lucy, righty tighty" I also know nothing of left and right. My personal assistant "Other left Cheryl" Thank you.

Now I roll my tank into the water and put it on. I have to make sure my weights are in place in my BC (vest) so they dont fall out while I am diving so I tug on the weight pocket and out it comes. Good thing I checked! I put it back in and tug again, out it comes, must be something wrong with the clip it wont stay in!

I tug on the pocket and out it comes. I put it back in and tug again, out it comes,I tug on the pocket and out it comes. I put it back in and tug again, out it comes, Everyone is now looking at me cause I am holding up progress here, but I have a problem this BC is defective or at least the clip is.
Over comes my personal assistant. He is a little too happy, he has this grin on his face like he takes the little bus to the dive site.

Apparently there is a quick release saftey feature on my BC and you release it by pulling on the pocket. He puts my weights back in and tells me "Dont do that" so I dont do that and the weights stay in.

Did you know that there are no left and right fins? My personal assistant is very smart.

Under water I can take my regulator out of my mouth and put it back and can take my mask on and off and clear it and can put air in and out of my BC (vest) without shooting up to the surface like a rocketship.

When we get to the diving part I get a dive buddy, he is the young guy who lapped me last week in the 200 mile swim. OK Maybe it was yards. We actually work well together. I can do a diver tow and push. I practiced on my buddy and then he practiced on me. I told him if he needed extra practice he could pull me around on all of our dives. He told me that I was a very generous person. I'm good like that.

During the open dive one of the other students kept falling on me and knocked the regulator out of my mouth. He had bouyancy control issues, so I just got out. I was cold any way cause I didn't wear my wetsuit. Next time I may have to bedazzle them with my wetsuit skills.

Next week will be all classroom work so I will not do any diving, but I will keep in touch

Love Cheryl

First Week of Dive School

Well the first week in dive school and we did not actually dive. Very disappointing but next week we will dive twice.

I passed the first two tests in the book and the sneaky pop quiz things they didn't tell you about. And then we did the swim test. In the swim test you have to swim 200 yards and then float or tread water for 10 minutes. 200 yards in a pool the size of mine is a lot of circles. I think one of the younger guys lapped me and I may not have gone in enough circles but I did the tread water thing twice so I don’t feel bad.

During the week I needed a picture of me in my gear so we did a photo shoot in my pool. One of Christophers friends took the pictures cause Dennis tried it and you couldn't recognize anything in the pictures. (His usual pictures). We did some dry shots and some wet ones. You will see them shortly.

With the help of liquid baby powder I got the overalls on. After the wet shots when I got out of the pool it was me, the overalls and 40 gallons of water. The legs fit quite well and did not take in any water but the body is another story. Everytime I bent over a pitcher of water poured out of the neck. Not once, not twice, but 3 times. This may not be good. But this thing can definately not be any tighter so ......... we will see.

My dive computer said i had 7 minutes of bottom time, 77 degree water and no decompression necessary after my 40 foot dive. I really thought I had it that time til the 40 foot thing, everyone knows my pool is only 16 X 32, so 40 cant be right. "We" will have to work on this.

Cheryl

Communication from Florida

This was sent to me by one of my "dive buddies" in Florida. Apparently I will fit right in. Amazing huh?

"Depending on the size of the gators present you should perhaps carry a "Gator Bell" to warn them of your presence and some pepper spray for defense. To figure out the size of the gators present though, you have to inspect their poop. Gators under 12 ft have poop that is small to moderate in size with a normal smell. Gators larger than 12 ft have a much larger poop with tiny little bells and it smells like pepper spray."

So I bought a whistle.

Dennis is happy to know I take the threat of gators seriously. It puts his mind at rest. I think he upped my insurance again.

Cheryl

sAVE-a-dIVE kIT

FACTS

1. More people are killed each year by dogs, pigs and deer than by sharks. The United States averages just 16 shark attacks each year and slightly less than one shark-attack fatality every two years. Meanwhile, in the coastal U.S. states alone, lightning strikes and kills more than 41 people each year.
2. the Mako shark is the fastest swimmer in the ocean clocking between 43 and 60 miles per hour
3. Alligators can run at speeds of up to 20 miles per hour. However that speed can only be maintained for a very short distance.
4. Alligators are not immune to snake poison. However, they do have extremely tough skin

RULES OF DIVING

1 Dont stop breathing
2 Plan your dive and dive your plan
3 Dont stop breathing

I know I know I should be diving but I wont be until Sunday. Long story, but then again all of mine are.
My booties are in! and they fit.

I have removed my knife (with great effort and at personal risk) and placed it in a safebox in my dive bag for safe keeping. I figure I will not need it to dive inthe pool and do not want to be tempted to use it. I promise to use it "only for good" (like my marshmallow shooter. {You will learn more about that as the summer goes on})
Just need my hood and gloves and probably a safety sausage. Every diver should have one of those. I think I want a yellow or orange one, to coordinate with the rest of my stuff. it should blend with the theme but be a splash of color. These decisions are not to be made lightly.

Anyway, I now have a logbook to enter all my dives in (actually I have 3 but cant figure what goes where in any onf them so I will draw my own stuff) and a rashguard (we would not want me getting a rash now would we) and I have begun my saveadive kit.

A saveadive (save -a-dive) kit is the little kit divers have for things that they or their dive buddy might need, break or have use for in the case of emergency. this should include extra straps, o rings, extra batteries and other items.

I have a first aid kit with cat in the hat band aids, a pocket knife with 12 attachments of which I only recognize 8 and can only get 4 out anyway, mask defogger, D rings , duct tape (Dennis says I can fix anything with duct tape.finstrap breaks? duct tape it to your foot. Hole in hose? Duct tape it Tank strap sliding? duct tape it to you Makes sense and that scares me) an empty bottle/paper and pen, tissues, a map of NJ, 2 stamps, q-tips and tic tacs. I have no idea what it would take to save my dive but I guess I will find out.

I have watched the video and taken the first test in the book. I am ready.

I think I will buy a new towel for Sunday, one with fishes on it. Sounds like a plan. See...I am thinking like a diver already. 2 Plan your dive and dive your plan

Bye! Love yas I have to go shopping

Cheryl

My Dive Knife

Five little fishes swimming in the sea
teasing Mr. Shark you can't catch me you can't catch me!
Well along came Mr. Shark as quiet as can be
SNAPPED that fish right out of the sea.

I really am pretty much set to go.

I only need my hood and gloves. My booties are not in yet but they are coming.

Dive lessons will not start until 6/11 now but they gave me my instruction manual. I can figure out my bar pressure at 164 feet below sea level but I cant get my waterproof knife out of the case. I think what makes it waterproof is that it is hermetically sealed into the case.

Dont laugh at me, Dennis cant get the knife out either. So back to the dive shop I go.

This is a very special knife. It apparently has an instruction booklet. That only one person in the world has read and he is not there. And he took the book with him.

It takes a 6 foot 2 /210 lb linebacker 20 minutes to get this knife out of the case.

We are going to work on this. "We" as in we are a team, or in you and me, or are we going to Ask Jeeves? or maybe there will be 3 or 4 of us working in tandem to unsheath my knife and in between unsheathings we can form a rock band.

This is not funny, I may need this knife to cut me out of that wetsuit I bought last week.

I also pushed the button on my dive computer. It is 6am in Tokoyo and I live at 400000 feet above sealevel and need to decompress for 112 minutes. I guess I shouldn't have pushed the button. "We" will have to work on that too.

Class is 5 weeks. I apparently will need them all. The excelerated plan may not work for me.

Love
Cheryl