My main goal is to strive to become one of the best hybrid underwater creatives on the planet, respectfully. Hybrid means I’ll be doing underwater photography and videography once I get going.
Today I went to Denver Divers and did their Try Scuba class. In this blog, I want to share my experience. I’m enrolled in the open water diver class with Denver Divers, and then trying the scuba class I did today was not mandatory. I’m the type of person that needs to do something to understand it. The SSI online course I completed has been beneficial. However, I still wanted to experience what it felt like and learn firsthand.
The cost was $75, and if you are reading this and on the fence about trying it, stop and sign up. I’m neither sponsored nor have any relationship with the shop. It was just fun and worth every single penny. I am more confident going into my actual classes after doing this today.
My instructor for the session was John. John was super laid back and made me feel at ease working with him. For something like scuba diving, that is important, and he was a true professional.
While chatting with John, he told me he had been diving for 21 years, which blew my mind. My daughter Maliah loves the water, and I hope to go diving with her and my youngest daughter Jada about ten years from today. John shared that he has two older daughters he dives with, and we chatted about that, which excited me.
John was explaining things in real-time and teaching me by showing me first, then letting me attempt the skill. This is an optimal learning environment for someone like me. I wanted to figure things out by trial and error in a safe environment, which was super helpful.
The funniest moment for you all to laugh about happened before I got into my class session. When trying on the scuba boots in the lobby before my class, I was about to attempt to put the scuba boot on with my socks as if I were trying on regular shoes. The guy helping me was super nice about telling me I should probably take my socks off as most people don’t wear socks when scuba diving… I couldn’t help but laugh at myself; rookie mistake.
John showed me basic diving skills and where everything was on my BCD. Being able to have hands-on time with the gear was super cool. It was like test-driving a car to see how it handles.
Once we got underwater, a mistake that I kept making was not breathing. I bet you are thinking to yourself, wait, what. Yeah, let me try to explain. When underwater, John gave me basic and understandable instructions to help me learn and set me up to swim underwater. For some odd reason, I kept holding my breath while watching him then I would breathe once I started to try something. I also was doing this when I would stop to look at the cool fish on the bottom of the pool at the Denver Divers pool.
John was upfront with me about how this is common and helped me with some things that would help me not do that. I breathed more and got the hang of it during our last two dives. The previous two practice dives felt like a lifetime but couldn’t have been more than 5 minutes. Once I started breathing normally and controlling my breath while underwater, things got fun. John was doing cool tricks while we were underwater. He was moving so effortlessly, that it was pretty cool.
One colossal downside was my inability to reach natural Buoyancy. I was getting angry with myself because I kept going to the bottom of the pool and pushing off to swim in the center of the water. I was mad at myself because I was very aware that I will not be unable to do this in the ocean. If I was to do something like that, I could hurt the marine life around me, and that is not ok, and I don’t plan on messing up anybody’s house underwater. At one point, I even went so far as to give John the surface-up signal and asked him how I could improve. He gave me some instructions, and then I went back down and swam much better. What helped was filling my BC just a tiny bit and trying to be conscious of my breathing. It was my first time EVER scuba diving, and that one lesson alone John taught me was worth the price I paid for the class. He was super helpful!
I know nothing comes overnight, and everything takes time. I wanted to try scuba, so I could feel what it was like, and I’m thrilled I did it. From my ears popping once to when I was on the floor about 10 feet deep to try to control my breathing while swimming. It was all a learning experience! I have three days of in-person class sessions coming up for my open water diver class, and I feel much more prepared thanks to John and the Try Scuba class.
I’m looking forward to learning more and trying to keep working toward the primary goal of taking pictures and videos underwater at a high level.
Lemar