Scuba Sas!

Tonight was my first scuba lesson. Firstly, to all you vets out there - I have NO other outlet in my life right now so I deserve some scuba time! I don't want to hear any of your stories about "when I was in vet school I had to walk ten miles uphill in snow/rain/sleet just to get to my anatomy lab that was super stinky because the heat was on (the freezer was broken, etc.) and I never got to even think about taking a break to do something fun like SCUBA DIVING!"

We signed up for classes (and paid, mind you) about 2 weeks ago. Since then it has been pulling teeth to get our manuals so we can start on the 'academic' portion of the class (see, it's not all fun). It seems our manuals are on the 'slow' boat, and will take another week to get here. But we will still be starting our pool work on Sunday, manuals or no. I was worried our certification would be delayed unneccessarily!

As Dr. Reich frequently says (and demonstrates physically), let me take a few steps back here. Let's start with the drive down to the scuba shop, which is convieniently located at what seems to be the most 'off the grid' location possible. We were kindly given a ride by another student, who has been on this island for about 4 months and has seemed to loose all sense of driving in that time. He has a seriously low compact car, and with the added weight of three females (who I will kindly say added up to 300+ pounds) his car bottomed out on every single little bump in the road. So basically every....10 feet or so. And not just any bottoming out. I'm talking, scrape your entire undercarriage, lose small parts, and create pretty sparks all over the place. I thought for sure after a few times he would realize that his car could not possibly continue to drive in the manner to which he was accustomed while we three girls were still inside - and yet this continued the entire way there and back.

I knew we were in some trouble when I looked down at the directions and read:

• down the Bay Road through town
• Bay road ends at a T, turn right down the Birdrock road
• past the fancyloaf bakery (which is, by the way, super small and set back far from the road)around the roundabout (yes, it is a roundabout, albeit an invisible one)
• first right
• over curb
• all the way down to the sea

Now I realize that this may seem somewhat logical to you, but when you are navigating from the wrong side of the car and he's driving on the wrong side of the road and it seems like there are road hazards every 5 feet or so...these directions were in Greek to me. Plus, there are no street signs. So no way I would have known where Birdrock Road was...
Anyhow, our trusty driver thankfully knew a bit more about the navigation than I and he got us to our destination more or less intact. Of course, then there's the bit about the curb - which was really and truly a CURB. At the front of the driveway to this hotel/restaurant/dive shop! A curb that we, the 500 pound car, could not go over without losing a vital part of the vehicle. So we walked.

I love that all of the signs here have beer logos on them...I always associate scuba diving and drinking!

Yes, this is the massive 'curb' they wanted us to hurtle over in a little compact car. Hence, my interest in purchasing a Jeep.

The dive shop was small, mainly a storage closet for dive gear, but they have a pretty sweet boat and the gear all seems in top shape. We were introduced to the gear, instructed about proper safety techniques in handling the air tanks (ie. no dropping them), and shown how to attach all of the hoses/gear to the tank and how to disengage everything post-dive. Aside from my innate fear of 'contents under pressure' (I hesititate to even check the air in my tires by myself!) I felt pretty good about the mechanics of scuba gear when I was done. I did get a bit nervous about how little the amount of gear we would need...I just somehow figured that I would need hundreds of pounds of equiptment to keep me alive so deep in the scary ocean. I hope I can handle the transition from poolwork to ocean...

Kristin and Kristen working on their gear

Look Dad, the gas is on and I still have both hands!

Speaking of pool - the pool at this hotel had barstools in the water. I think places in Florida would be a lot more popular if they just added that little amenity! I was pretty psyched about ordering a drink post-class, until our instructor told us we had to take a swim proficiency test (which the little voice that sits on my shoulder told me we would have to take, but I argued and argued...). That involved doing 10 laps (across and back = one lap) and then treading water for 10 minutes. By the end it was all I could do to make it down the steps without collapsing. I am woefully out of shape.
All in all, a pretty fun experience. I am looking forward to my first real dive...not too deep (55 feet?) but the spot he's taking us to is supposed to be chuck full of fish and turtles and such. He said he even sees nurse sharks (not too exciting, those are all over Florida). I'm hoping to see a Tiger shark!

I promise not to get this close.
(picture taken from National Geographic's website)