Rental Gear
I went to Diventures on a Friday to pick up my BCD, wetsuit, and regulator. Our certification dive instructor, Jerod, was going to bring tanks and weights for us to use. Callie grabbed a regulator and then we realized that due to my . . . size, the larger rental BCDs were not quite a great fit, so we grabbed one of the class BCDs, which were a bit larger. The next step was for me to find the correctly sized wetsuit. We started with the largest size they had. Callie directed me to a fitting room, and I went in to try it on.
The 3XL suit fit me, barely, although I later discovered that the shoulders were a bit tight and over time caused some discomfort. Fortunately, they now have one 4XL for rental and it fits me quite well. Callie got a bit of a laugh though because I did not realize that the zipper goes in the back. Actually, she apologized for not pointing it out, and did not laugh at me, but that just shows she’s great at her job and probably has encountered it with new divers previously.
Saturday Morning, Beaver Lake, Arkansas
Beaver Lake, in northwest Arkansas, has a scuba dive park. I have been told that the dive park is one of the best places in the Midwest to dive, especially for new divers. John, another experienced diver, was there to dive with us. He also did some spearfishing in another part of the lake (and got a good-sized catfish later in the day). John volunteered to shoot some video and get some pictures for us.
Jerod had us start getting our gear set up and explained how things would go for the day. We were going to do 3 dives. We would repeat skills, but in the lake, and have some fun time. The skills went by pretty easily. They were no more difficult in the lake than they had been in the pool.
Technical Stuff
This was my first time diving in a wetsuit. They are a pain to get on, a pain to get out of, and just a pain. It also turns out; I really didn’t need it for these dives. I didn’t wear it Sunday.
While I needed 16 lbs. of weights in the pool, I required quite a bit more in a wetsuit. I ended up with 26 lbs. of weights on me. I had 4 lbs. on each side of the tank in pockets in my BCD, and 9 lbs. on each side in front in the integrated weight pockets on the BCD. That’s a lot of weight.
Impressions
This is the part where I try to explain the magic. We played with fish. Jerod showed us that by simply snapping our fingers a bit, the perch would congregate around our hands and some even nipped at our fingers a bit. It did not hurt. I think they were nibbling on dead skin or something like that. We played with fish, in a lake.
I know that the world as a whole has become cynical. We want solid reason and scientific answers to everything. People do not take time to appreciate beauty and wonder and amazing things around us. We played with fish, underwater, in a lake.
Hovering there in the water, watching those fish darting in and out has to be one of the most amazing things I have ever seen or done. I have found that many people get hooked on scuba diving. It’s like a drug and becomes a lifestyle for them. I totally get it, and I think at that moment watching those fish, I caught it.
I’m going to rapse philosophical and a little bit spiritual here, so bear with me. Life is amazing. Life on earth is here in so many forms. There is life in places humans cannot survive and even now, we are still discovering new species (the Meramec Saddled Darter, in 2009, for example, right here in Missouri).
I personally see the hand of God in creation in this. We played with fish, underwater, in a lake. How incredibly cool is that?
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