scuba

My favorite cheesy newspaper line so far: “If it looks like a Duck, plays like a Duck, it must be a champion.” That’s from Honda, the current sponsors of the Pond (I know it’s the Honda Center but it’s really the Pond) Runner up is the LA Times headline “Webbed Feat”.

Can’t wait to work my way up to freediving with dolphins.

On the 23rd, I think Scott and I will be diving to see the SueJac. We won’t be going inside or anything too wild, but it should be pretty cool anyway!

Scott and I safely completed the 3R’s morning of training and did a short dive afterwards. Slack tide (or slack water is close enough) would have been better, but it wasn’t terrible when we exited out of the water about 2 hours after high tide. We actually did quite a few things wrong, but for my first dive without an instructor (and my first shore dive), I’m pleased with how it turned out.

Well, diving will now continue as a PADI open water certified diver. Woot! Dove the rookery at Santa Barbara Island, which was just teaming with sea lions. They came right up to us, swam, danced, stared. It was amazing. Fortunately, they didn’t “chew on fins or snorkels“. (Gotta ask Brian about that one!) I wonder if chewing on fins would be considered an attack, or just play. Brian said he’s never seen them attack anyone. Can’t wait to see the photos classmates and instructor took.

Woohoo! I made it through day three quite successfully. I didn’t like the snorkel descent skill today, but that’s easy enough to practice. A few highlights: it turns out my dive buddy Eivar is from Hacienda Heights (same town I grew up in), I got 49 of 50 questions on the final exam correct, my hover isn’t so great but my buoyancy while swimming was much improved. Really looking forward to tomorrow’s trip on the Pacific Star boat out to Santa Barbara island. I’m very happy with the training I’ve gotten from my instructor Brian and the folks at Eco Dive Center. All goes well tomorrow and I’ll have my PADI c-card. Hopefully the beginning of a long, fun and safe dive hobby. Still deciding if I’m going to wait till Sept 24/25 to do more diving as part of an advanced open water course, or dive in with a nighttime adventure this week with people from the shop. Hmmm. Decisions decisions.

Woohoo! I completed the first of two weekends of padi open water certification. It was a blast. More to come.