DKF

After a very active weekend of diving, Kelly and I finally finished our PADI Open Water Diving Certification. Woohoo! Many, many thanks to Alberto Marti, Antares Ramos and the rest of the crew of Scuba Dogs! Their excellent instruction got us here.

We started our diving adventure back in June 2005. On my first visit before the wedding, we signed up for certification classes. We thought we’d be able to squeeze them in the week before the wedding. The plan was to get certified and dive with Drew, Wendy, Rob and Mel. Yeah right! Wedding prep quickly killed that idea.

So, we shelved diving for a later date. That date (or at least 1/2 of it) ended up being our October visit. While in to visit the Garity family, we knocked out our 2 confined water (pool) dives over at Scuba Dogs outstanding facilities. Kelly fell ill with a wicked cold which almost scuttled the dive plan again. However, she soldiered through and finished up. Knowing we’d be back in December for Kel’s cats, we scheduled our 4 open water dives, which brings us to this weekend.

Yesterday, we did two open water (ocean) skills dives in Escambron, a man made inlet not far from Old San Juan. In theory, the inlet would provide a nice wave break and make for a nice, calm introduction to open water diving. Wicked weather killed that theory. The inlet was incredibly choppy which made the surf entry and swim to the dive pretty taxing. Once down, visibility was around 10 feet which was rough and I had problems all day equalizing. On the second dive, congestion tore me up and I had to cut the dive short because I could not equalize. Despite the short dive, we got all of our skills in.

Dives 3 & 4 were going to be at Crashboat, which is apparently an amazing beach dive. However, at the last minute, Alberto hooked us up with a boat dive at Culebra, gorgeous island off of Puerto Rico’s northwest coast. We jumped at the opportunity because it is one of the best dive sites in PR. Excited, we were up at 5:15 AM to make the trip to Fajardo, the hometown of Kelly’s grandfather Vicente Medina.

It looked like fate would make things difficult again. In an uncharacteristic turn, I became very, very queasy during the 90 minute ride from Fajardo to Culebra. The ocean was very choppy and it made the trip longer and rougher. As a rule, I never get motion sick, so I was beginning to believe God simply did not want me to be a diver. However, shortly before we anchored, my stomach settled down and I was fine. On a related note, black coffee and leftover BBQ chicken for breakfast before a dive is probably not wise. I suspect this was more the culprit than the bumpy ride.

Dive 3 had us anchored over a reef in near crystal clear waters. Visibility was around 100 feet. After we completed our skills tests, we had about a 25 minute dive around the reef. The dive was amazing and beautiful. All doubts I had about diving were erased. I knew this is something I want to do as often as I can.

We anchored in a quite cove for lunch and surface time. After lunch, I did some snorkeling and tried out the new waterproof housing we got for our Canon PowerShot SD100. I got some great shots of a nearby coral reef. Visibility was also great in the cove.

Dive 4 wrapped up our skills tests and took us on a long, meandering dive along a reef. The camera battery died early in the dive or we’d have more pictures. Luckily, we got one shot of us together (see above). The end of the dive was a little exciting as I ran low on air. I am a big guy, I suck up the O₂. But, there was never any danger.

The return trip to Farjado was smooth as was the drive in to San Juan. We met some cool cats on the dive boat and I have to say that, so far, I like the overall vibe of the dive community … serious fun. We finished the evening at the Scuba Dogs facility, returning gear and taking our final certification exam.

During the exam, Kelly’s brother Billy, an accomplished diver and friend of Alberto’s, stopped by with Ingrid to offer moral support, a little good-natured ribbing and to tell us we had churrasco waiting at home. Spurred on by the thought of food, we cranked through the test and are happy to report that we both passed on the first try! As we pulled out of the Scuba Dogs parking lot, it was 9:52 PM.

I opened this post with thanks to Alberto and Antares, and I close that way. Thank you guys! You really went the extra mile to make our certification a fun, safe and very wonderful experience! Click here to check out the dive pictures. Alberto also took video of today’s dives. As soon as we get a copy, I’ll post a few bits as well.

Now, off to bed. We return to Vegas tommorrow.

Posted on December 4th, 2005 by Doug and Kelly
Filed under: Diving, News