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An odd collection of dive reports and weirdness spawned from the underwater paradigm.
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Pool Dive 3/27/09
Date: 3/27/09
Location: El Camino Country Club Pool, Oceanside (not as classy as it sounds - it's Behind Hooters)
Dive Time: 66 minutes
Max Depth: 10 feet
Surf: 0 to 1 inch
Surge: 0 to 2 inches
Buddy: Blake, my 12-year-old son and Nancy for shore support
Blake loved his first time getting wet with SCUBA gear on. Nancy arranged for us to use the pool at her tennis club as the site for our little discover SCUBA class. Blake took to the water quite well as we practiced the giant stride, equalizing, mask clearing, sharing air and underwater hand signals. Kind of a boring dive for me - although there were two couples swimming above us with some cool tattoos. Also, we had a plastic underwater torpedo to throw around. Blake loved every minute of it and he mastered all the skills quite quickly. Afterward, he said it was the coolest thing he had ever done in his life. Just wait until he goes in the Ocean!
Our trip to Maui is only a day away and it's been a crazy week with work, getting Blake to do all his homework for his Open Water certification, watching the open water video again with the family as a refresher, and prepping dive gear for all five of us. On top of that I start my rescue class as soon as we get back so I'm slowly picking away at the reading. Mike (SoCalSwami) was cool enough to set the class up with a great instructor, and we'll be taking it together, so I'm really looking forward to it.
Blake seems to be getting the academic part of his Open Water stuff pretty easily, and after a bit of frustration and even some tears, figured out how to read the PADI dive tables. Didn't have the heart to tell the poor kid he'll probably never use the tables after the final test, since dive computers do all those calculations anyway.
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All this week I've been thinking about the risk verses reward in diving. I've been diving just long enough to see close friends get severely bent up and oxy toxed, and friends and acquaintances suffer even more serious injuries from diving. I used to worry about stuff like that, but taking two years off has given me a new perspective. The rewards far and away justify the risks. To go places and see things few people will ever see, to enter such a beautiful and unique world as a temporary visitor, gives life a much deeper meaning. And to share that profound experience with my family makes it even more meaningful, because it's like giving them one of life's greatest gifts. I used to fear injury or worse from diving, but no more. If something bad happens at least I can say I was living life to the fullest, and doing what I love the most. I see the same perspective in many of the people I dive with - not to dive is out of the question because it's truly part of who they are. Besides, great whites usually take their prey by surprise anyway, so we will even know what happened. ;-)
I guess I bring this up since my whole family dives now, and since I am trusting them to King Neptune. Of course, we'll do everything we can to keep anything bad from happening, and statistics are on our side.
I was hoping to get another local dive in this week, but with all the busyness and marginal conditions, just didn't get to it.... I'll write more on Moweeeeeeeeeeee.
wetrat out. |
Posted: 11:50 PM, 3/27/2009 |
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