Diventures offers the classes as six sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays for three weeks or three sessions Friday through Sunday on a single weekend. I didn’t really have an option as I had commitments every Tuesday and Thursday evening at the time, so I did the weekend option. Molly was my instructor.
Classroom Time
Friday night started out with time in the classroom. We reviewed material that was basically just about everything we covered in the online portion. There were lots of opportunities to ask questions and we did. There were only three of us in the class so there wasn’t a lot of competition for attention.
We also spent Saturday morning in the classroom up until we broke for lunch. I think the most challenging part of it was understanding how the dive tables work. These are tables that let you manually figure out how long you can stay down at a certain depth on a single or a series of repetitive dives. The tables also tell you how long you need to stay out of the water before your next dive. Molly was thorough and patient explaining them.
Of course, a dive computer will calculate that all for you, but those are a recent development, and it is always good to know how to do something manually before you let the computer do it. It’s comforting to know that if the computer malfunctions, I’ll have an idea that something is off and know how to look it up myself to verify it.
Pool Time
Friday night, we then hit the pool. The first step was the swimming skills and physical fitness assessment. You are required to swim 200 meters without stopping or touching the bottom of the pool. There is no time limit. I have problems with my right shoulder, so I did the backstroke, mostly kicking with minimal arm movement, and took forever, but got it done. One of the guys beat me by several minutes.
The next test is to tread water or float for 10 minutes. This is where I shine. My body naturally floats. When I say naturally, I mean I have, in a calm pool, started to fall asleep while floating. I takes me no effort at all. The guy who outswam me by so much was not so lucky. He didn’t float well at all. At the end of the 10 minutes, he was exhausted. The lesson in this is that we’re all different with different skills and strengths. If you need someone to get there quick in the water, choose him. If you need someone to stay above the surface for an extended period, I’m your guy.
