UTD Tech 1 "Let's go for a swim..."

"Let's go for a swim..." Those were the last words I remembered our
instructor, George Watson, say to us before we submerged for the first dives of our
Tech 1 class. Knowing what I know now, George is a horrible team mate.
Disasters seems to strike when ever he starts a dive with "Let's go for a
swim". I've never had so many entanglements, broken lights, blind
buddies, failed buoyancy devices, or failed gas supplies in my life with
any other team mate. Did I mention that many of those failures were
simultaneous?

Let me put it into perspective for you; during one dive, my buddy was
mask-less, out of back gas and had a failed deco gas supply. During our
simulated deco ascent, I did my deco, stowed the reg and proceeded to
attach my deco bottle to my blind, out of gas team mate. When we
surfaced George commented on how comfortable that we were in the water,
but we really didn't need to do a blind bottle pass when the team was
already that compromised. It was George's way of saying Good job, now
don't do that again. We experienced many moments like that
throughout the class.

The dives started off simple, pretty much where my Fundamentals
class left off, but quickly became more complex, to the point where
my brain seemed to shutdown at one point in time and I couldn't
interpret which gas failure George was trying to throw at us, much less
figure out how to fix the problem. I left that weekend fairly
disappointed in my performance, but knew that a break away from the
class would do some good and I would be able to self-analyze the dives
and wrap my head around the failures.

I came back during our next training weekend with my "A" game and ready
to complete our critical skills dives so that we could begin our
experience dives. This weekend, a third team mate had joined our two man
team. All of our names start with the letter J and we were quickly
named the "J Team". I had dove with everybody in our team before, so I
mostly knew what to expect. During our critical skills dive, George
threw multiple complex failures at us, which we handled almost
flawlessly. Then we started our blue water ascent, which started off
fairly relaxed... in the beginning, but quickly turned into multiple
failures with multiple lost masks, lost gases, and failed buoyancy
devices; while doing our simulated deco. I was impressed by how quickly
our team came together to deal with the failures. When we surfaced,
George made a few minor critiques on our team work, which we were
already well aware of before we surfaced, but George was pleased enough
to allow us to start planning our experience dives.

During our surface interval, we blew down the remaining gas in our back
gas / deco tanks, began blending for our experience dives, and began
planning our first of two experience dives. We wrote our profiles in our
wet notes, which George went over with us before the dive to make sure
that we weren't going to kill ourselves.

Then came the dives. I started both dives a little more nervous than
most dives. George didn't start either dive with "Let's go for a swim",
so that eased my mind a little bit. I was more nervous about the
significant deco that would be incurred instead of my skills or depth of
the dive. I was confident in my ability to do the dives, but since
these were firsts for me, I was intensely focused on the execution of
the dives. Both dives went off without a hitch. The vividness and the
fine details of the things that I remember were amazing. I had done this
same dive previously without helium or the significant deco and I only
thought that I remembered the details of the dives. I've now seen and remembered
things from these dives that I have not experienced before; from the
white algae looking substance with tiny green spores, the tiny
crustaceans bobbing in and out of the silt, a translucent fish, and the
gypsum crystals that are more abundant and unique from the crystals in
the shallower depths. I'm excited to explore some more and now have a
license to learn, grow, and gain more experience.

Overall, this class was an excellent experience. Oceans First Divers, where
the class was hosted for the academics and pool portion, was a very
clean, professional, and personal dive shop. It was the first time that
I've been in a shop with an attached, indoor pool. Very nice! George is a
patient and talented instructor. He put up with many hours of newbish
questions, walking us through thought processes, and the numerous
personal blunders. And the team.... Being familiar with the other
members of J Team made the critical skills easier to deal with and made
the overall experience that much more enjoyable.

On a parting note, I'd like to display a public service announcement
from the "J Team". I pity the foo' who has to enter the water with
George when he starts the dive by saying "Let's go for a swim..."