After my Discover Scuba course I decided to challenge myself and attended to PADI Open Water course. The first lesson included theory of scuba on video and skill exercise. Even though skills weren’t complicated, felt one of them very challenging for me. Underwater mask removal and breathing without it got me a little panic and I just ascended to the surface straight away when I took the mask off. The exercise was also uncomfortable for many when the water turns to your eyes and nose but it was frustrating that I couldn’t do that.
After we jumped to the ocean we left the mask removal exercise and got just to enjoy diving. If feeling after pool lesson was bad, after open water dive I felt so much better. Almost after eight hours dive day I got to home tired but very happy.
The course is also much more than just diving. I got the course book and started to read that, which was a little bit difficult first, after long pause of studying.
Soon was it time to second lesson which I got to enjoy in sunshine once again. In previous lessons there were about five to six people in our group but in this time I was alone so I got a private lesson. I think that thing was only good so we could do things as fast as I can and concentrate to things which were tricky for me.
After studying theory it was time to practice skills in the pool and also that for me tricky mask removal. Even I tried to calm me down it was as insuperable as before. Straight away when I took a mask away I felt like I couldn’t breathe at all and I had to ascend. It was a real pleasure that there were no other in the lesson so we could talk about my problem in peace. We decided to try that in a shallower pool and when I got calm me it was just a piece of cake. Another tricky thing was a controlled emergency swimming ascend but after successful exercise I felt like a winner.
If after previous lessons I have been excited, I was very rely when I went to my last lesson. In this time putting the cylinder and the BCD together was easier and I had also done my homework of theory. Because we had already done all of our pool skills there were only two open water dives left. We jumped to the ocean and went through those easy previous skills and mask removal also. I was much exited of doing that in the bottom of the sea but when I did that successfully I got more confidence. Even equalizing and also descending is a bit tricky for me because of my sensitive ears, I really enjoyed my dive. It was really cool to dive deeper and see a bit more of life in the sea.
Finally I should do the final exam to get the certification of PADI Open Water course. The quizzes had been easy but when I saw the final exam I wasn’t sure if I can get at least 70 percent right. After a long time I was ready with test and passed that! As I have said before the course have been really going over your limits and it felt really good to get that certification. I’m really proud of me and very thankful for my teachers in my scuba school. Now I’m just waiting for warmer weather to jump to the water again.