As I love snorkelling it seemed logical that the next step was to try scuba diving. Being the cautious sort I decided that to give me taste of what was involved and more importantly whether I would actually like it, was to try it out in the safe environment of a swimming pool with a scuba diving experience day.
All I had to take along was my trunks, towel etc. the same gear you take for swimming and a medical certificate, which I easily got from my GP saying that I had no medical conditions which would make scuba diving unsafe, for me to do, all the scuba gear was included and provided by the instructors.
I joined a group of six other guys and girls who were also taking part in this scuba diving experience, like me this was their first time at scuba diving as well, they were just as apprehensive as I was, I wasn’t particularly scared, just a bit unsure of what to expect. They made us all welcome with the usual casual banter before we were gathered together in a room, which reminded me a bit of a school classroom to begin the safety briefing and watching a video. The video was a great way of showing different aspects of scuba diving and the safety involved, for me as it’s useful to actually see what they are talking about to make sure its clear.
Then we headed off to the changing rooms and got into our swimwear before going to get the scuba gear, normal swimming pool type arrangements, with lockers to store your clothes and things. They then issued the gear and once all kitted up and checked over we went to the side of the pool.
The instructor was an okay guy, in fact he was pretty cool and extremely patient with everyone. Once in the water we grouped round to practice mask clearing, that’s how to get rid of water should it get inside the mask and regulator clearing, in simple terms that was getting used to taking the regulator out of your mouth and putting in back in again correctly and like most things the more times I did it the easier it became.
It was really thrilling diving and swimming underwater, relatively easy once I had stopped trying to hold my breath and breathe properly! This was the bit that I personally found most difficult, my brain took a while to register that I did have air and that you don’t have to breathe fast! This was serious stuff but very enjoyable. The instructors tell you what to do and check that you are okay all the time, in fact they watch you very closely all the time.
At the end of the session we all changed and headed back to the classroom to be given our certificates, apparently these can be used towards a PADI Open Water Diver Certificate if anyone one wanted to continue with the scuba training, which I thought was really useful and certainly made a great way to ending the scuba diving experience.
Tags: Scuba diving, Scuba diving experience, Scuba diving gifts
