You may recall that the boys and I are Scuba certified. I hesitate to call myself more than an occasional vacation diver, but I do enjoy it. My son is a little more adventurous doing a drift dive in the Niagara River and my husband is one dive away from his Advanced Diver certification.
So the wonderful husband scheduled a dive trip for the three of us for this weekend. Granted this is probably the worst weekend to go away seeing as school just started, I am in the midst of a new job and we have about 10 birthdays to celebrate. But it was thoughtful and he is really excited. A weekend away looking a ship wrecks 70 ft below the surface.
Seems harmless enough until I get the details. First of all the location is 6 hours away in upper Canada. It appears that the hotel we are staying at is on park grounds and that park closes at 11pm so we must, must, must get there Friday night before the gate goes down or we are sleeping in the car. Also, Sunday we need to be back home to attend an info session on Max's POTENTIAL trip to Japan, which means we must, must, must leave Sun morning before 8 am. That's about 12 hours of driving for 5 hours of diving.
Well, we have had tight schedules in the past so this isn't that bad.
Until I hear the next part. I need a 7mm we suit because the water can be as cold as 40 degrees. You heard me - only a few degrees above FREEZING. The packing list includes gloves, coats and hats to put on in between dives because it is so damn cold. Did I mention we have 4 dives Saturday? In between we sit on board wet with cold water.
I spent close to $1000 on wet suit, hood, gloves and more weights as the suit will make me more buoyant. I can't even bend my arms it is so thick. Image the shoes I could have bought for this price tah.
Let me paint this picture. Before entering water I am loaded down with a black wet suit and full vest, hood which covers my entire head only the face peering through, gloves, slippers and fins, a bc loaded with air tank and a regulator in my mouth, leaping off the side of the boat. Once I finish the first dive, I I am back on a swaying boat. My hands and feet are blue (I have Rinaud's syndrome). My 7mm wet suit is on from the bottom down, from the top up I am wearing layers of fleece, a winter hat and most likely a blanket. You know my nose is running cuz I am still dealing with allergy season. I remove the blanket to periodically vomit over the side of the boat, because I am continually motion sick.
What happened to beautiful fish and coral under the sun as the water glistens on my warm skin?
I will try to get photos for next week.
No one can say I am not adventurous!
Showing posts with label scuba. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scuba. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
Return of Aqua Team
Aqua team is how I refer to my husband, son and myself when we are Scuba diving. We all have nicknames as well. Husband is Manatee, son is Sting Ray and I am Starfish. I know its silly but we have a great time.
Last night we took a refresher coarse to prepare for our dives in Montego Bay later in the month. Its a good thing we did the refresher, because we had a few... shall I say issues.
It started with squeezing into the wetsuit. Yeah, just not looking like Halle Barry in a James Bond flick. Luckily my hubby isn't really 007. Next I start putting my equipment together as the instructor stops by. He notes that I forgot to add the buoyancy control vest to the regulator and tank. Pretty basic unless you plan on holding the tank throughout the dive. I also forgot how heavy the equipment is and nearly fell over on my way to the edge of the pool. This is all before entering the water.
I should add Manatee and Sting Ray were awesome. Not only do they look like pros they remembered everything. Me not so much. I apparently did not check my partner's tank connection very well, which I realized as the tank nearly fell out of the jacket while we were under. Opps. Also blew up my vest so much that it fell into the excess pocket, which sounds like a hole. Vest bursting at seams is not great for my self esteem.
After two hours in the water, I finally fell back into it. Of course, we were all out cold and exhausted at 8 pm last night, but that is the life of an extreme sports family like the Aqua Team.
Photos pending.
Last night we took a refresher coarse to prepare for our dives in Montego Bay later in the month. Its a good thing we did the refresher, because we had a few... shall I say issues.
It started with squeezing into the wetsuit. Yeah, just not looking like Halle Barry in a James Bond flick. Luckily my hubby isn't really 007. Next I start putting my equipment together as the instructor stops by. He notes that I forgot to add the buoyancy control vest to the regulator and tank. Pretty basic unless you plan on holding the tank throughout the dive. I also forgot how heavy the equipment is and nearly fell over on my way to the edge of the pool. This is all before entering the water.
I should add Manatee and Sting Ray were awesome. Not only do they look like pros they remembered everything. Me not so much. I apparently did not check my partner's tank connection very well, which I realized as the tank nearly fell out of the jacket while we were under. Opps. Also blew up my vest so much that it fell into the excess pocket, which sounds like a hole. Vest bursting at seams is not great for my self esteem.
After two hours in the water, I finally fell back into it. Of course, we were all out cold and exhausted at 8 pm last night, but that is the life of an extreme sports family like the Aqua Team.
Photos pending.
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