It was a long, tricky road (or river, as the case may be), but the good people at Kings County Divers stuck with me.
I'd started waaaay back in the fall of '06, hoping to go diving during the TASCA sailing trip to the Virgin Islands. A good friend was interested in joining me, and he was already a certified diver, so I figured I'd join him.
But then he couldn't make it, and I couldn't afford the ever-increasing airfare. And that was that.
Plus it started getting mighty chilly.
With everything-in-the-world getting in the way, as usual, I didn't pick up lessons again until early fall of 07.
I took two pool lessons, but then was hit on the head by the little punks in my neighborhood. With stitches in my scalp, I was forbidden to submerge.
That brings me to spring 2008.
FINALLY I finished the pool work -- mostly. I had a lot of trouble with the "mask clearing" exercise.
Basically, you have to flood your mask (or, preferably, remove it altogether) underwater. You put it back on, and breathe out through your nose until the air pushes all the water from the mask.
Easy? Maybe for some people. But the water rushing in against my over-sensitive sinuses gave me a full-blown panic attack.
I took a few more weeks off, and then was caught up in the summer's heavy performance schedule.
But Mia at KCD kept in contact with me and scheduled me for my first Open Water session in mid-September. But, before I could do that, I had to prove I could clear the mask (that was the late-evening conflict on 9-11).
So I went to the pool at 9pm and somehow, magically, my phobia had vanished. I was able to pull off the mask and put it back on.
Next we were off to Dutch Springs for Open Water 1.
I did four dives in two days and was half-way to my certification.
Two weekends later, we went out to the bleak Oak Beach in Captree State Park (near Jones Beach) for Open Water 2, plus a night/limited visibility dive.
We were supposed to go to Montauk, but the day's nor'easter forced us west.
The current was ferocious, and I got pulled nearly 300 yards in under a minute. The water was so turbid, I couldn't see my outstretched hand. But this gave us very good compass practice and I safely navigated my way to shore (which feels really weird in a strong current when you can't see anything... it's like you constantly are swimming in circles to keep the compass needle straight).
Two of my fellow students swam with a flag:
Unfortunately, the damp weather brought out every bloodsucker imaginable (except, maybe, for lawyers), and they did THIS to my back!!
I counted over 100 bites!!
Happily, I'm all better now and just returned my gear to the dive shop earlier tonight. And Mia gave me my Diver's Certification Card.
YIPPEEE!!!
You can find more photos of my fishy adventures, here on my flickr page where, mysteriously, this video of me struggling into my dive suit has gotten some attention.
In only a few days, it's gotten nearly 400 hits and been favorited! Weird!
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