Starting Open Water Dives
We arrived in Jamaica for a 2 week holiday with the intention of completing our Open Water Courses.
On the first day around 9am we walked past the hotel pool and a guy called over “would you like to try scuba diving?” Yes we would! After we had handed over our referral paperwork, he got us into the pool to check out our skills. He made me take off my mask (my most hated skill) and watched me struggle for quite some time before I eventually completed it. I used to dread that skill!
Eventually he was happy that I could perform the necessary tasks and we were booked on to the 11 am boat to do our first Open Water dive.
On that first dive I was incredibly nervous and I struggled to clear my ears.
My instructor was very patient and explained that some people had ‘slow ears’ and it was ok, we could take as long as we liked. Once I eventually managed to get down, the water was clear and warm, and I loved it!
On my third open water dive I confidently jumped in, started to descend, went down a couple of metres and suddenly had no air. I had checked it on the boat, but now my gauge was showing zero each time I breathed in, and breathing was hard.
I frantically signalled my instructor who brought me back to the surface. He checked my gauge and it was showing full, 3000 psi. He checked my air and it was only partially turned on.
At that time it was standard practice to open your tank valve fully, and then turn your valve back 1/4 turn. It’s no longer recommended practice, because it’s very easy to jump in with your tank only 1/4 turn open – like I did. It’s OK to turn your tank off while you are travelling to the dive site, but once you are ready to kit up, turn it fully on, and then leave it fully on.
We completed both our Open Water Course and our Advanced Open Water course in Jamaica. Having completed our Open Water course I had loads of confidence. In hind sight, I was a terrible diver, but I thought I’d got it nailed!
I remember correcting another far more experienced diver because his octopus / alternate air source was dangling as he was swimming, and feeling perfectly justified in such arrogant behaviour 😉
Advanced Open Water Course
As part of our Advanced Open Water course, we did a wreck dive to dive a sunken plane just off the end of the Montego Bay runway. Gary dropped his mask almost as soon as we jumped in and had to borrow one from the boat. We had an amazing dive around the plane wreck, and then right at the end our instructor shot off into the sand, and came back with Gary’s mask.
Gary in Jamaica
One of my first UW photos
Perhaps the most memorable dive was our Deep adventure dive – one of the 2 mandatory dives for the Advanced course. We went down a shallow sandy slope and then back up through a coral chimney that started at around 27 metres deep and opened out at about 12 metres. It was both spectacular and scary, as it wasn’t particularly wide!
The requirements have changed since then, but at that time on the Deep adventure dive, you had to perform a cognitive function test on the surface and at depth. Our instructor gave us an addition to do on the surface, and timed how long it took us to do it. Under water he gave us the same slate with the same 2 numbers, and I added them in less time than it took on the surface. When he passed the slate to Gary, he queried something before doing the math. Once back on the surface I found out that the numbers were the same, but the addition had been changed to a subtraction, which I had completely overlooked in my enthusiasm to do the math quickly.
