Diving is hard

After schedule conflicts and cancellations, I finally got to go on my first dive Sunday. We went to Shaw Cove in Laguna Hills. It was just me and another student, instructor and Robin from the Dive shop I got all my gear at. After some instructions, we got in the water at about 8am.

This was my first beach entry dive where there is actual surf. Other beach entry dives had ankle slappers for waves. This day there was surf around 2 – 3 feet. When the first over head wave hit and I went under water I knew something was wrong. All of a sudden, I couldn’t breath. I could only take short breaths. I tried not to panic. I kept thinking I just need to relax. I was trying to get a fin on one foot so I could rollover on my back and get the other one on. But I couldn’t breath. Robin came over and helped me. My air on the tank valve wasn’t open all the way. Even with the regulator open all the way and out of my mouth, I still could only take short shallow breaths.

I got a DiveRite BC. It has a back plate and straps. It’s not the normal type of BC. The strap goes across the chest where as other types go across your stomach. It seems when the first wave hit me, my suit expanded and instead of going out, the strap on the BC made it expand into my chest. As soon as I open the strap, I could breathe again.

The rest of the dive was fun. Underwater navigation is fun and challenging. When we got out of the water to change tanks the surf built up to 4 to 5 feet. The instructor decided to call it a day and we would finish navigation another day. That’s when the hard part of diving comes in. With full dive gear and tank, about 60lbs, we had to climb 75ft of stairs. I was so tired when I got to the top. When I went home I was exhausted. At 7pm, I went to bed. So, I just want to let everyone know, diving is hard.