Father's Day Scuba Fun

It's been a minute since Quentin and I have had the pleasure of both getting out to do something together.  I read a post about a Discover Scuba session and decided it would be a really fun activity to do on Father's Day.  Our interest in scuba diving was initially piqued after a deep sea snorkeling adventure on our honeymoon.  We also have a good friend that is a diver and talking to him about some of his diving excursions over the years has fueled our interest even more.  During our trip to Jamaica, we had an awesome time deep sea snorkeling.  The boat took us out about 30 miles offshore.  Once the boat was  anchored, we threw on the fins and mask and went for it.  It was so beautiful.  We swam side by side  exploring the majesty of the underworld.  At one point the water temperature and scenery changed.  The water was dark and it looked like we'd happened upon wreckage from the Titantic.  We quickly surfaced and realized we'd wandered pretty far from the boat and the other snorkelers.  As we approached the other snorkelers, someone mentioned seeing a Nurse Shark just below near the reef.  We caught a quick glimpse of the shark, and made our way onto the boat for departure.  In 2003, the movie Open Water was released.  It is a pretty frightening movie, loosely based on a true story.  Thinking back to our deep sea snorkeling experience, I  understand how you 'could' get separated from a group and possibly left behind, especially during an activity amongst total strangers.  Every since our snorkeling experience over 12 years ago, scuba diving has been something we've talked about doing together.

Discover Scuba was a far cry from our time in Jamaica, but it was awesome to learn about the equipment, gauges, underwater communication and some of the basic safety maneuvers.  A few things were tricky, I struggled with the task of allowing water into your face mask and clearing it out while submerged. It took me three times to successfully figure it out.  The most hilarious exercise was learning to recover your mouthpiece should it get knocked out while underwater.  Our instructor demonstrated the motion to retrieve your mouthpiece.  He talked about how a mouthpiece could accidentally get kicked out of your mouth by another diver.  He also shared an instance where a fellow diver had an issue with their tank and yanked his mouthpiece out of his mouth to get the air they needed.  Thankfully dive packs have a second mouthpiece, so a diver has the ability to share the air in their tank should something like that occur.  He wanted to simulate a real life situation by having each of us remove and recover our mouthpiece.  In the event we couldn't locate our mouthpiece, he would give us his.  In my mind I thought this is definitely the one task I would get right the first time, because there was no way I was putting 'his' mouthpiece in my mouth.  Now if it were a real life situation I'd probably be one of those quasi-panicked divers that just rips it from his mouth to get air, but in this exercise, no dice...mind over matter.  I got it on the first try, as did Quentin. On the way home, we laughed and joked about that drill hysterically. Quentin was thinking the same thing I was...gotta retrieve this mouthpiece on the first try, because there will be no mouthpiece sharing today. 

Quentin really enjoyed his gift and we loved having a few hours to get out and do something fun together.  At some point we'll have the opportunity to take the class, complete the open dives and get certified.  We're definitely looking forward to checking this off the bucket list.