Jeff and Robyn's Stories: Discovering Scuba

One important item on my bucket list is that I really want to get Scuba Certified. However, to maximize my certification, I really want Robyn to get certified as well. That way, we can go diving on vacations and have lots of adventures together.

I had it all planned out. We would take a class together and then live happily ever after. (I know, it's a very detailed plan. I hope you were able to follow that.) Unfortunately, Robyn had a concern with this plan. She was pretty sure that Scuba is too scary and she might die.

Amazon has a little program they've started to compete with City Deals and other similar companies, called Amazon Local. They sent me a deal for a local dive shop where they could do a "Scuba Discovery" class for $10 / person.

When I saw that my heart leaped for joy! This was the perfect compromise. I asked Robyn if she would be willing to go discover Scuba with me. I told her she only had to commit to one hour and then we could either confirm that it's much too scary and I would never bother her about it again, or she would discover it's pretty cool and we could get certified together.

The place is called Dive Utah and it's located in Holladay. It was a little inconvenient because the class started at 6, so I had to leave work early to drive through traffic and get there on time. But we made it safely, so all was well.

When we arrived, the first 30 minutes was a classroom atmosphere. They explained all the equipment, they explained basic principles of diving. (The most important thing we learned is to never stop breathing, because if you drift up or down while holding your breath, the change in pressure could cause serious problems.)

We had to pass a little quiz before we could get in the water. I took the quiz before we started and got 100%. But if that wasn't easy enough already, he went through the quiz question by question and told us the answers, so we could just fill it out as he told us if we wanted.

We finally got to get in the water. It was just a swimming pool, but there were still crazy marine life forms such as a real live Scuba certification class.

The first thing we did in the water was put on all our gear. As soon as I got it on, I realized that wearing a big air tank on your back is kind of like being a ghostbuster, with their big nuclear reactors on their backs. Naturally, I shared that with the whole class. "It feels like I'm a ghostbuster!"

Only seconds later, he had us put the regulator in our mouths and try breathing through it, above the water. Instantly, I knew that I had become Darth Vader. (They must have based Darth Vader's breathing on a scuba regulator.) I immediately regretted using up my geek moment talking about Ghostbusters. Luckily, the teacher was either as geeky as me or he just knew his audience, because he said, "Luke, I am your father." It filled me with gladness.

Once we were geared up, he showed us some basic skills. We had to show that we could take the regulator out of our mouth (while still breathing out, because you never stop breathing) and then put it back in and clear it of water. We also had to be able to clear water out of the mask.

Finally, he just let us swim around the swimming pool. I definitely need work, I would be crawling along the bottom and would push the button to gain some buoyancy, then I would magically be at the top of the water. After that, I would push the button to release air and I would be back on the bottom. It would seem I need to learn balance.

After swimming around for a while, the class was over. Then came the most important part. We grabbed a camera for a photo op.