Posted by Wayne on March 19, 2002 at 22:47:03:
In Reply to: Re: What I went through to dive Saturday..... posted by randy54 on March 19, 2002 at 12:09:29:
I usually use pouches in my W.I. BC, so wearing a belt is kinda foreign to me nowadays. Recently I was assisting an O.W. class in the pool. I was to wear a belt, because I was going to help demo how to put one back on and also so I would be in roughly the same configuration at the students.
Before the dive, I had thrown a bunch of 2-pounders in the pool. They are handy in dealing with the student's weight issues. They try to sink in the shallow end and we know if more weight is needed before they attempt to descend to the depth of the deep end. Anyway, I was gearing myself up and about to put on my belt, when we found that two of the students had bought their fins at Costco and they would not stay on their feet because the straps were slippery junk. So I had to run back into the shop and grab fins for these folks so they could do the dive.
When I came back, I exchanged their fins in the shallow end of the pool to speed them up and make sure they did not stop the class. Well as soon as this was done, I was asked to hand over some weight. No problem, says I and I swam to the deep end and dumped my air. I was in a 5mm suit, and for some reason I could not submerge. I tried and tried. I then did a pike and could not force myself deep enough for the fins to hit water. I looked like a fish on the deck of a boat! I noticed that everybody was looking at me, and then realized that I had a weight belt on a bench just outside the pool. I tried to act really non-chalant as I exited the pool, put on the belt, and went back for the weights.
The good thing is that the students were too inexperienced to figure out what all the floundering was about. My dear friend who was teaching was definately giggling through her regulator. Once on the bottom, I got to laughing at myself and had trouble doing anything useful. I really had the giggles and could not stop laughing at myself.
Hmmm. Then there have been a few times where I did not bring a hood. Wow that was cold. One of those was on a Yukon dive and I got an ice cream headache before the dive was through.
Oh well, I better stop thinking of my screwups. There have been many in my decades of diving.
Wayne