« Developing Your Child | Main | Conversation with teenage daughter »
Open Water Dive
By admin | August 8, 2007
Scuba diving was one of the things in my ‘to do’ list. I tried to garner interests from my two daughters and her cousin. My sister-in-law decided to join in too. We know how important it is to connect with our teens. We talked about it several months’ ago and it wasn’t until the cousin showed interests that my daughter started doing research. Once you get them warmed up it’s easy to delegate the job and Ihad assigned that job. They went to the internet to check out a few organisers. Fortunately I had some experience with msn, it was a breeze to conference through the msn with them. It’s so important to keep up with the times to connect with the teens!
I remembered the last time I tried to explain something to my mum and felt frustrated when she don’t know what I was talking about. Now it’s kind of fun sitting in the same room and msning to each other and with the cousin in our msn conference. Now I realised how useful it is to read my email and hear them writing to me in the msn and I would go into the organisers website to check whilst they check on other organisers. We checked on what are the differences in the pricing, what is included in the dive and where to register. Teamwork! After that we had to choose the dates that all of us could attend the theory class and practical class in the sea. We decided to go to Tioman and that cost us each S$530.00 to go for theory class one nite, take the exam then go for the 2 days open water dive and get a certificate. Obviously I did not really know what I was in for. We booked our Monday theory class. I had to pay a deposit and since we all could not make it at the same time I offered to do it on July 21 when I had my Toastmaster’s club meeting in Tanjong Pagar. I climbed up an old restored building which is three floors up a flight of narrow stairs. When I opened the door, I caught sight of a quiet cosy place decorated with a bar-like table. As I scan the room, I saw wet suit, flippers, goggles and some scuba diving equipment were neatly hung on scaffolding bars. The wooden floors brought back nostalgic feeling of the my old house in Victoria street way back 1950s!
A young lady walked towards me with a bright smile. She checked her computer and found that we had not registered online. We ran through some details about the course dates and payment. Then a young man came to assist her. He then gave me a recycled bag to put my five books on the Open Water Diver Manuals for the theory course that we had to take. I was asked to return the recycled bag. It was heart-warming to know that we are aware of global warming and practising protection of our earth. I had registered it in my head to ensure I return it to him. We were supposed to read from Chapter 1 to 3 before we come back for the training and exam! Wow, one look at the book I was thinking I had better form a study group and make sure we all study together and revise so that we could all pass at the same time.
My youngest daughter 12 was not keen to join us, she is getting thick with her friends. I was concerned that if one day when she decided to take scuba diving she has no company and when we go on diving trips she would not be able to join us. It’s so important for her to connect with us and bond with her sister. Good excuse to have potluck on that weekend and read through our book together. Reluctantly my youngest daughter had to be coersed to get away from her laptop msning her friends. She finally sat with us to go through Chapter one! We did not finish at the first sitting and planned to come back on July 28 Sat to read through again. Our confined water diving (practice in the swimming pool with full gear) was scheduled on July 29 Sunday at the Safra Telok Blangah from 10am to 5pm. We thought it would be useful to complete before our confined water diving. More fun doing it together. Pot-luck again! My sister-in-law’s cooking has improved tremendously over the years and now she is the best cook apart from my mother in our family. We looked forward to her home cooked food!
Sunday July 29, the sky was cloudy the whole day! We were each given a set of gear for diving. We were first taught what they are, how to prepare them for diving and how to get into the wet suit, how to use the weight, the tank. We had an instructor and an assistant. After we realised what we had to put on, my sister-in-law and I looked at each other. We guessed each other’s thought, “the tank is so big and heavy how are we going to manage!” We were assured and guided patiently. We got into the water, put on our mask and tried for the first time to breath through the regulator. I have been swimming very often in my condo and laps regularly. This time breathing in and out through the regulator made me uneasy. We had to deflate the BCD (Buoyancy control device) to sink and inflate to float easily above water. Both of us kept floating because we were anxious and could have breathed in quite heavily. The three girls as usual had no fear. I had to signal to go up when I had this unfounded fear of not being able to breath when we were asked to practise clearing our mask. During our break, I realised my sister-in-law had the same problem too. I even had a thought to not join them in the sea. The instructor explained that it is normal to have discomfort which can be overcome with more confidence. Initially we can feel clausterphobic. At the end of the practice about 5:30pm we were feeling cold and we knew we had to come back to practise more to have more confidence.
July 30, 2007 Monday about 7pm we trooped to the Divers office and we sat on the cushions on the floor with a low table. The trainer went through with us about the Knowledge Development Sections & Confined Water Dives. We were shown a presentation slides. We were then taught how to do calculation using the Recreational Dive Planner to plan our dives. By then it was 11pm! I have long given back my maths knowledge and certainly dont quite understand what he was talking about. The two teens were absorbing all that so quickly and the pre-teen was falling asleep because it was way past her bed-time! My sister-in-law was tired too a full day in the office. My eagerness to understand it kept me awake, albeit tired too. By midnight, we knew we could not take the exam so we had to come back again! We had a great time learning together and being together.
We planned to come back on August 6 Monday for the exam because any other days some of us have CCA, meetings and concert to attend.
August 4 Saturday we had our potluck and waiting for the cousin to come and teach us the calculation because she seemed to have got it quite well. We had a white board and my eldest daughter started to explain to us because the cousin could not be with us yet. When the cousin came she took over. I must say that they were good. She explained in such a way that I was able to grasp. It was a new learning for me and my sister-in-law. My internal dialogue went like that “Is it age that slow us down or ….mental alertness… or….?” Nevertheless, most important is to have the enthusiasm to continue to learn new things! Living it up with a positive mindset! When we finished, we practised the calculation several times hoping that we dont have to stay back so late when we go on Monday August 6.
I called the Diver’s office to see whether we could go on Aug 5 Sunday to have our second confined water practice. He said, “Only the two of you need.” Your girls are like fishes, they dont need. I said, “Oh, OK.” So we went and this time a youn lady trained us. She was patient and shared many of her experiences; both of us were more confident, we kept practising the clearing of our masks. This time we finished in 2-1/2 hours.
Topics: Life Adventure |