Soon after that I didn’t dive for about three months because my mum knew that nothing seriously could happen in the pool. Soon as I ask her if I could do my open water course, she didn’t think for a minute, she just said no! I kept asking her everyday, until eventually I got my instructor John to come over again to talk to her, about what I’ll be doing in my course. I guess she must have thought seems I put so much effort into it on asking her everyday, so she finely gave in and said yes. I was so happy and excited, I couldn’t wait to start.
March 2003 was when I started my ‘open water course’. The first dive was in the pool, just doing some other skills and the second dive was in open water. Which we did in Wales. While we were there the water was absolutely cold, it was about two or three degrees. When we descended my head went completely cold. All I was thinking was I can’t wait to get out and be warm.
While we there down there, there was a platform built on top of the rocks where divers go to practise some skills. It was only about ten metres deep. I had a few problems with my ears on equalising, but I soon got use to it.
After we did the skills, we swam around and went deeper to eighteen metres where I saw just a small boat but nothing else. Around half an hour in to the dive it was time to get out because most of us were low on air. We got out and stayed out for about forty-five minutes.
We just sat down and had a drink. When we finished our drinks and changed our cylinders, we went back into the water. The water was slightly warmer, so that was good.
On the second dive in there we were only in there for about twenty-five minutes. This time all we did was swim around. Soon after that we had to get out and get ready to go home because it took four and a half ours to get back.
They very next day I did my second pool dive which was good but before we could actually go in to the pool, we had to have a class room session. Tom and John my instructor’s told two students and me what information we will need to know for our test. The information consists of, how to dive safely, what you should do in case of an emergency and the main rules of diving, which is Never Hold Your Breath; and some other important information. When they finished telling us this they gave us this book to read for about an hour and half to study. The hour and a half past so quickly, when the time was up Tom gave us this exam to do. It looked quite hard, so I tried it and did my best but I failed.
I didn’t do any diving for about a month and half because I wasn’t allowed because I failed my exam. During that month and a half all I did was reading and revising, because all I wanted to do was pass this exam so much.
I felt so bad when I failed the exam. So finally when the day came for me to the exam I was trembling in my shoes. I was terrified of failing again. When we sat down in the small classroom, it was just me, the exam and my knowledge to get me through. It seemed like I was in there for hours but I was only there for half an hour. This exam seemed a lot harder than the first one I did, so I was glad when I finished. I felt good that it was over. John took my exam away to mark it, I was felling really worried in case I failed again but at the same time I couldn’t wait until I found out what I got. As he walked towards me he put down my exam results in front of me. I didn’t want to look at it but I did.
When I glanced my eyes towards my exam results John said “well done you passed at ninety percent”, I couldn’t believe so I looked at my exam results to see if it was true and it was. “Yes” I said out loud. I was so happy to pass, I felt so good about my self.
Once I finished my exam we went down to the pool to do the last pool dive. All we practised were all the skills we already had done and just swam around.
The next day, we went to Lancaster to a dive site called ‘Capeanray’. We just walked around to see how big the quarry was, it was massive. There were even trote in there. Lots of trote. So we went back to the car to get kitted up. It took about twenty minutes for everyone to get ready. Once everyone was finished getting kitted up, we walked down to the entrance of the quarry. While we were in there we just completed the rest of the skills, then we swam around. When I was down there I saw two plains, one boat and one mini-submarine. By the time we did that it was time to get out because we were low on air.
During the service interval we went to the café and had a drink and a few chips. When we finished we went back to get kitted up again. When we were all kitted up we went down to the entrance and entered the water. On this dive we saw the planes again and we fed some trote. All of the trote were swimming through my legs and around me.
When we got home I had to sign some forms and then John gave me my certificate to say that I was now an “open water diver”.
This changed my life now because I’m now allowed to dive any where in the world to eighteen metres with another diver who’s qualified.
