Today, Austin did his first two of four PADI Junior Openwater dives at Whytecliff Park with his amazing instructor, Chelsea Cameron, from The Diving Locker. Chelsea works so well with Austin and genuinely enjoys his nature and sense of humour.
It took over an hour to get suited up in the wetsuit, neoprene boots and gloves, attach his buoyancy compensation vest/device (BCD), regulator and gauge to the air tank, don his 20-pound weight belt, mask and snorkel, and waddle (Austin's description) over logs to the frigid water, fins in hand. Chelsea was so patient through the process, helping Austin with his weight belt where he collapsed in a heap of drama (wink, wink) with still a few metres remaining to the shore. Even the tank and gear themselves are quite heavy, particularly for a boy of 10 to carry. I called the weight belt Austin's "ticket to adventure," because without it, he'd just skim the water's surface.
In the days and weeks leading up to today's dives, Austin has been really enthusiastic and eager to go. He noticed a slight leak in the hose connector to his BCD and was fairly concerned that he may run out of air on his dive. Chelsea assured him that it was a very small leak, and he needn't worry about running out of air. Nonetheless, he felt compelled to repeatedly check his gauge (3000 psi), insisting the needle must have moved a millimetre while they were finishing suiting up.
Chelsea said Austin did really well. We're lucky it wasn't raining. It was quite cold, and Austin was certainly ready to dry off and warm up after spending about 75 minutes in the water (they didn't get out between dives - just floated at the surface). Austin enjoyed the underwater scene so much that Chelsea said he didn't want to end the second dive.
The skill Austin needs to master tomorrow, to qualify for his certificate, is mask removal and clearing while kneeling on the ocean floor. Today, he panicked during the mask-clearing exercise, when he accidentally breathed in some ocean water through his nose. He ripped his regulator out of his mouth, and surfaced in a hurry. This is quite a dangerous panic response, but very typical of new divers of all ages. Chelsea suggested filling up the bathroom sink with ice cold water, wearing the mask and snorkel, breathing through the snorkel while removing and replacing his mask. Austin practiced this several times, using his strategy of holding his nose once he removed the mask. Skye and I have tried to encourage Austin not to hold his nose, because it simply won't be practical when he's demonstrating the skill tomorrow, with 3mm-thick neoprene gloves on his hands!
In the first dive, they went as deep as 24 feet for about 20 minutes. I'm not sure how deep they went for the second dive, but Austin explained that a subsequent dive would generally be more shallow than the previous dive on the same day.
Austin marvelled at the huge crabs, lumpy seastars, jellyfish and anemones he saw during the dive. He said we don't need our crab trap anymore - he can catch them himself!! I think we can give him the job of cleaning the hull of our boat (wink, wink).
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