Today was finally my first day of class. My wife and I are getting a free open water class from her brother's best friend who's a master instructor. We did the book stuff and studied prior to getting to FL, and today got into the pool pretty quickly after setting up our gear.
The first thing was do a 10min float, which I don't do. Somehow I stayed up and on my back for the 10min and didn't panick. My wife layed out stiff as a board and barely moved, and kept laughing at me moving around and banging into stuff. But I made it.
We started the basic beginning stuff, and we both had some trouble not breathing through our noses. She managed to try to drink the pool, several times. I figured she would give it up after the first time, but she gathered her self up, and tried again. She got some skills done, and others kicked her butt because she'd get a bunch of water in her mask and suck it up her nose. A storm blew in so we stopped and took a lunch and did our written tests and she was done.
I went back after lunch and had to do laps, 12 down and back in a 30ft pool. I haven't ever swam that far, cumulatively in years. Somehow I doggie paddled my way slowly down and back, and had my triceps try and lock up on me about the 4th trip. That sucked a fat one. But slow and steady is how the fat boy did it.
We were going to do the open water lesson somewhere around Cocoa Beach in a lake near the instructor, but the decided to head to Ft Lauderdale a day early. We planned to go down Tuesday and be there for lobster opening at midnight. They decided we will go tomorrow, and do the open water lesson somewhere down there. So I'm pretty pumped about it. I'm proud of my wife for trying several times and not giving up after the first issue. He checker her off on what she accomplished and said she can go back at it whenever she's ready.
I've got my fishing and lobster license ready, even though I won't eat them. My brother in law and his wife do, and I can bring some back for other people. So here's to my first outing. The best part is my BIL has the gear, and we are staying at his place, and I'll throw the instructor a hundred bucks even though he said he will do the class for free. The BIL is retiring in 4 mo ths, so whenever we want to come down and hit the water, he's ready. I know I probably won't do much diving at home due to costs, but I see us coming to FL more often in the future.