 |
I’m not normally the type of girl revolves her life around the man she just happens to be dating, so why did I find myself blue lipped, white toed and shivering uncontrollably this weekend, wondering what in the hell have I got myself into?!? When Mr. Right-(now) talked about going on vacation together, I was all for it. There’s few things I like more than travel. Getting to spend a week in an exotic location with a man I actually have taken a liking to is an opportunity to good to pass up. Locales researched, hotels reviewed, airfares shopped, and finally two round trip tickets with hotel for a week in Tahiti!
“They should have great diving there. I love to dive” he says. Huh? What? What do you mean dive? I thought vacation was some beach time, some pool time and the required visit to the spa. “Oh I always wanted to try diving.” Since when? says the reasonable part of my brain. “Are you certified?” he asks. “No but I was going to try and get certified this year anyway”. How the hell are these words coming out of my mouth!
What else can I do at this point but go sign up for a certification class. Diving is an expensive activity. It starts with the certification class and the gear. There seems to be a limitless amount of gear you can buy. Did you know they have whole stores dedicated to this? Then you have to have the new swimsuit which must match your goggles and fins. Trying finding said swimsuit at the end of season, nightmare!
So this weekend was the first half of my certification course. The instructor and dive master are nice and knowledgeable but the facility had some issues. The chemicals in the pool were off so the pool had no visibility and unlike promised in the brochure it was NOT heated. We learn to assemble the gear and do various skills the first day. By the end of the day I am so cold that I physically hurt.
They they want to you do stuff that is simply counterintuitive to your survival instinct. They want me to take my mask off or take my air out of my mouth on purpose! Are they nuts? Its damn hard trying to blow air out your nose and suck in through your mouth at the same time. Or was I supposed to suck in through my nose and blow throw my mouth? Whatever, its confusing. So what part of this whole diving thing is fun? How does anyone do this stuff and decide to make it an obsession?
Saturday night I was questioning my ability to return on Sunday. Sunday, I got a little smarter and donned a fully body suit so it wasn’t as cold. I managed most my skills ok and only drowned a little bit. I do my open water certification this coming weekend (more money by the way). I’m frankly not looking forward to it and this weather isn’t helping. I’m praying for sunshine and 90 degree weather. Wish me luck and pray they can pump most of the water out of my lungs. I hope he appreciates this! |
