My Diving Experience

by Marina Koepke, C.K. Advisory Board

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to breathe under water? My Girl Scout troop and I went down to Denver to learn how to scuba dive where you can breathe underwater. We learned how to scuba dive at A-1 scuba center in downtown Denver and became a PADI seal diver.

This program is filled with under water action that young divers will love. We learned about all the scuba gear and what and what not to do while scuba diving. Our experiences of breathing under water were great. We zoomed around the floor of the pool with the water scooters. We also played games like Frisbee under water. The scooters were awesome. You could speed around the pool going under water and coming back up. This scooter is much more fun to ride than the ones you have in gym class. It looks like a rocket. It has a fan and handles. On the handles there is a trigger to make you go.

When you learn to scuba dive, you need to know what all your gear is, what it is for, and how to use it. You have a BCD or Buoyancy Control Device. Your BCD is the vest that you wear that all your gear is attached to. Your BCD helps control you under water. You can fill your BCD with air to help you float or let air out to help you sink. You also have your scuba tank. The scuba tank contains all your air that you need to breathe under water. When you start your dive you begin with a full tank of air. You have an air gauge this tells you how much air is in you tank you look at it every so often to check how much air you have left so you don’t run out without knowing. When you go scuba diving you have to have something to breathe out of or else you can’t breathe. On your right side you have your regulator. Your regulator allows you to breathe the air that is in your tank. On your left you have your octopus. Your octopus is a second regulator. When you go diving you don’t want to just breathe under water you want to see too. Your dive mask allows you to see under water. Attached to your dive mask is your snorkel. Your snorkel helps you breathe when you are on top of the water so you don’t waist air in your tank.

Our instructor, Jack Taylor, taught us the most important rules of diving,

Never

Hold

Your

Breath

and always dive with a buddy. Scuba diving is a buddy sport. I think scuba diving is the most fun buddy sport. You can go out and explore sunken ships with your best friends. You could also go looking for Bikini Bottom and meet Sponge Bob and his friends.

In order to become a PADI seal we had to complete 5 Aquamissions. An Aquamission is a step in learning scuba diving skills. In Aquamission 1 we learned the basics of scuba diving. With our buddy in Aquamission 1 we learned to put on the gear and adjust it. You can’t talk under water so you have to use hand signals to communicate with your buddy underwater. You also learn how to read your air gauge, and how to pop your ears. Popping your ears is very important. If you don’t pop your ears going down to the deep end it causes a serious injury because of the pressure. I had trouble popping my ears going down to the deep end of the pool. So I plugged my nose and blew against it gently. After awhile I was able to pop my ears. When I popped my ears going down it sounded like a balloon deflating. It also made my eyes water a tiny bit.

In Aquamission 2 you learn how to remove you regulator. After you take the regulator out of your mouth it fills with water. When you press the purge button on the regulator giant bubbles that tickled your cheeks fly in front of your face.

Aquamission 3 was a blast! You get to inflate and deflate your BCD. When you put air in your BCD you float then you take air out and you sink. It was like being a wave moving slowly. There is another very important rule.

Slowly

Ascend

From

Every dive.

That means swim to the surface slowly. Think of it as you are swimming through a forest of coral and you don’t want to brake apiece so you swim slowly.

Aquamission 4 is a little tricky. You learn to recover your regulator when it is behind you. You also learn to hover. Hover means you sit in mid water Indian style and relax. The fin pivot the trickiest. You have to stay in one place and put air in your BCD then let it out and be stiff. It’s like doing a push-up with no hands and no effort. It’s easier said than done.

In Aquamission 5 you learn to clear your snorkel. When you are swimming on the surface you don’t want to waist your air in your tank so you put your snorkel in and of that gets filled with water then you have to know how to clear out the water. At first when I cleared my snorkel I still had water in it. It was like waves crashing in to my snorkel.

Jack Taylor (our scuba diving instructor) was fantastic. He taught us how to take water out of our masks. When I saw Jack clear his mask it looked impossible and scary. Then I tried to clear my mask and it seemed like the easiest thing in the world. I found that it wasn’t scary at all. When I cleared the water out of my regulator it sort of tickled my gums and cheeks. When my buddy Ariana and I were going down to the deep end we looked at each other in excitement Jack made this cool sound with his hands in the water to get our attention. He made a fist with one hand and then hit it against his other hand. It sounded like a dolphin’s echolocation sound. Jack was very funny.

To be on the PADI seal team you have to be 8 years or older. If you are younger than 8 or you haven’t had any scuba diving experience you can still experience the wonderful world of diving in the Bubble Maker Party. I would recommend the PADI seal team to all kids 8 years or older. I am looking forward to go on to the Master seal team. So if you're looking for a breath taking under water adventure go to A-1 Scuba or check out their web site at: www.a1scuba.com.