I know I haven’t managed to keep a blog a day. But I’ve been pretty sick and have been exhausted with going into work. I can’t take any time off only just having started the job, wouldn’t look good.

Anyway so last night my other half (Paul) and I had planned to start Scuba diving. A friend of his has been doing it for years and teaches in Southport, so we tagged along and had our first scuba lesson.

I was pretty nervous before we left. I’m not the most confident of people in a bathing suit, let alone trying to do something that I’ve never done before, ever… I haven’t even been under-water since I was at school.

My instructor was very cool. A guy called Mike. He talked me through a few things and then we sat at the side of the pool to put on the suit. It didn’t feel that heavy when it was resting on the floor, but getting in without cracking the back of it was a little more difficult.

At the shallow end it was okay. I could stand up. Although I was under the impression that as soon as I got in the water that I’d sink. The whole suit was filled with air though so I couldn’t.

Attempting to follow instruction and breath through the regulator went okay. So we tried with my head under water. I didn’t like it. Not one bit.

Your most basic instinct when in water and you want to breath is to come to the surface. To breath underneath it is against every survival instinct you have. You are fighting nature, fighting the urge to surface.

I found that I was paniking more at the shallow end by the edge of the pool so Mike moved us further into the water said we’d try some swimming. You know once I was actually under the water and moving and I breathed, realised I could breath I was fine. It was only when I stopped and was thinking about it, it seemed to make it worse. I was at the deep end before I knew it. 🙂 That made me happy.

Mike wanted me to get used to kneeling on the bottom, but I kept tipping backwards when I got down and found it very hard to get myself right again. I was like a turtle. Mike said that it didn’t matter if I was on my back, my knees or anything. As long as I was breathing, I was okay, everything else was fine.

I liked being under the water, we stayed there for most of the lesson. I got a little un-nerved when while at the bottom someone came over to him and started wrestling with the back of his tank. But I did stay calm and while they were occupied I just tried to carry on and breath while sat on the pool floor. I did good, the instructors tank had come loose and one of the other members had spotted it and fixed it for him.

Mike then tried to get me to do a forward roll at the deep end. I wasn’t comfortable doing this so I didn’t. Maybe next time.

After a good while longer, he checked my tank, only having 100 bar in it to start I was getting low, so he showed me the gauge, 0 bar we headed back to the shallow end and as I was getting there I tried to breath, nothing was coming out… I didn’t panic though until it got to inflate the suit to float. There was nothing left and I was filled with weights and stuck. My rational brain thought about it for a moment though and I knew I could stand up, it wasn’t a problem, although it was difficult.

So I’d made it through my first lesson, now we had to get out the pool. Believe you me, I’d never thought for one second that the suit weighed so much. I knew I had wobbly legs, not used to the swimming, but it was immensely heavy. We rinsed it off and took it apart then showered and went to the club meeting.

My other half hadn’t had such a good lesson, he was terrified under the water and couldn’t get used to the breathing. Where as I spent most of my time under, he spent it panicking. Poor thing! I was made up though, something I could do okay, and the teacher praised me… 🙂

So, would I do it again. Yes. I really want to, I know it isn’t easy. I’m not telling you any lies, I was scared. Still am scared to some degree. I need to know more, I need to know all the safety aspects. I don’t ever want to run out of oxygen under water, no way, so I will learn as much as I can.

Been tired today in work, we didn’t get home till gone 11 last night. But it is a happy tired. I’ve done something I wasn’t sure I would ever do. But I really do want to dive with real fish and see them up close and personal that would be amazing.

I wanted to blog about this because it is something I think might interest a few people. I also think my progress in learning might be good. Something to reflect on, something to remind me of what it was like back in the beginning.

Speak soon.

Dawn