In the summer of 1984, I was ready to learn to scuba dive. At the dawn of my interest, I believe scuba was an item to be checked off the bucket list, a one and done experience. The choice of where to learn was never in question. With my trip up Mount Whitney with the UCSB Outdoor Recreation program fresh in my memory, I decided to take their Basic Scuba Diver certification course. My other reasons for enrolling in the class were the belief that the course would be more disciplined than that offered by a dive shop and my classmates being mostly college students would be in better physical condition for diving. UCSB with its Olympic-sized outdoor pool and classrooms certainly offered superior physical facilities.
A word about “basic” and “open water” scuba certification
may be in order. Under the Professional
Association of Dive Instructor (PADI) certifications prior to 1987, there were
two entry-level certifications—Basic Scuba Diver and Open Water Diver. The Basic
Scuba Diver course had the same classroom instruction and pool (confined water)
training as the Open Water Diver course, The Basic course required only a skin
diver and two open Water scuba training dives. The Open Water Diver required
two additional open water dives and included training in underwater navigation
and emphasized calculating surface air consumption to predict a diver’s air
consumption for a given depth.
The First Day of
Class
The first evening of instruction, Wednesday, July 1, 1984
confirmed all my assumptions. We met in
a classroom in Girvetz Hall. Our
instructor, Dave Rowell, introduced himself.
He worked in finance and taught diving on the side. He seemed to be the epitome of everyone’s image
of a scuba instructor—fit, tan, shaggy hair, and a playfully adventurous
attitude. I was immediately
impressed. We then introduced ourselves.
My fellow students were all
undergraduates either enrolled in summer session or staying in town for the summer. At 28-years-old, I was the oldest student in
the class. When asked why we were taking
the class the most common response was “I just want to try it” but two people
stated they needed it for their marine ecology studies.
Dave covered what we could expect in the class. We met two nights per week, Monday and
Wednesday. Each three hour session would
be divided in half—90 minutes in the classroom and 90 minutes in the pool. We had to complete all sessions, workbook
exercises and skills checks and three open water dives to get certified. The first dive—a skin dive (full gear except
regulator and tank) would take place at Arroyo Burro (Hendry’s) Beach. The open water scuba dive would take place at
the Channel Islands on board the Sea Ventures out of Port Hueneme.
Dave then passed around the text book, Open Water Sport
Diver Manual, 4th edition released in June 1984, by Jeppesen Sanderson
Inc. We also received the accompanying
workbook and rectangular plastic card which Dave referred to as the Repetitive
Dive Table. The card was printed on both
sides with letters, numbers, rows and columns.
It looked like hieroglyphics without the benefit of a Rosetta
Stone.
Picking up on what had to be a room of perplexed expressions
as we examined the card, Dave directed us to put those away for now because we
wouldn’t need them until the following week.
“Don’t lose those,” he cautioned.
“Learning how to use it to plan your diving is probably the most
important information you will get from the
lectures.”
The Foreword of the book set the stage and seemed to capture
the reason each of us enrolled in the class.
Welcome to the exciting and spectacular world of underwater
diving. You are going to see and do
things that go far beyond your dreams and expectations. Diving is never adequately described, it must
be experienced.
Before we could get to the point of seeing and doing, a lot
of book learning needed to be completed and a number of skills developed. The book was organized around four thematic
sections: Equipment, Diver, Environment,
and Dive Activities. Dave said that we
would need to read the equipment section and complete the workbook exercise for
that section by the next class.
Thereafter, we would need to read the assigned sections before the first
lecture every week and complete the workbook section before the second
session.
Dave wasted no time in getting into the first section of the
book, Equipment.
Dave explained that while the course fee covered the rental
of the scuba tanks, wetsuit, weight belt, and regulator, we had to provide our
personal gear—mask, open-heel fins, snorkel, and neoprene booties and
gloves. A dive knife was optional, but
he highly recommend we purchase it before the open water dives.
“Do not forget to bring your gear every night to the pool,
except for the dive knife, and everything to the skin dive and scuba dive,” he
said. “Otherwise you will not be able to
participate in the skills and drills.”
Referring to the text, he sequentially explained the
function of each piece of gear, how to properly use it, and the finer points of
function and fit. Dave produced examples
of each piece of gear from a duffle bag and passed it around as he pointed out
its features.
He mentioned that Goleta and Santa Barbara has several full
service dive shops, Bob’s Diving Locker, Santa Barbara Aquatics, and Diver’s
Den.
“The gear you get at the dive shop will do the job. It is designed for scuba diving. Do not buy low priced gear at Fed Mart or a
sporting goods store. It is designed for
kids splashing around at the beach, not serious diving.”
He continued, “I encourage you to buy your own equipment
rather than borrow it from a friend. If
you have your own gear, you are more likely to keep diving.
Someone asked, “Is one shop better than the others” and
“Where do you get your gear?”
On this point, he was neutral. “Each shop carries certain name top brand equipment,
like U.S Divers, Scuba Pro, or Dacor.
They may carry lesser-known brands at lower prices. I encourage you to visit all the shops and
try on different masks and fins. What’s
important is fit. A mask that leaks
because it doesn’t fit right causes you to be miserable for the entire dive. A
fin foot pocket that is too narrow could cause you foot to cramp. If one shop does not have gear that fits you
properly, go to another.”[1]
He then provided the obligatory buyer beware caution. “Each shop is good but they will try to
convince you that their gear is best and that the best gear is the most
expensive. This is not necessarily the
case. Higher priced gear usually offers
better materials or features. Whether
you want to pay a premium price for name brand gear or one that has all the
bells and whistles is up to you.”
I recalled that when I was buying my dive mask for
snorkeling, I tried on several different styles before settling on a large
sized Dacor mask with clear silicone skirt.
Other masks with rubber skirts did not seal as well or didn’t feel as
comfortable. I had to pay a higher price
for it but it was worth the extra expense.
I would be using that mask and snorkel for the scuba class.
“That being said,” he concluded, “Aquatics offers a 10
percent discount on gear purchases to all people in this class. That is the shop that is providing the
wetsuits and scuba gear. You have to go
there anyway before the next class to get fitted for your wetsuit and buoyancy
compensator.”
The Swim Test
After the overview of the class, we adjourned to the
swimming pool for the swim test which consisted of a 200 yard swim, 10 minutes
treading water, and a 25-yard underwater swim.
I had been swimming a bit in the lap pool at the Los Caneros Court Club,
so I was confident that I would do fine in the swim.
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After changing into our swim suits, we lined up on the edge
of the pool. Dave announced “you can use
any stroke but you can’t stop.” He said
“go” and 10 people hopped into the pool and started swimming the eight
width-wide lengths that defined the 200 yards.
The swimming ability of the group varied, some swam like competitive
swimmers and others just kind of completed the test using whatever stroke they
knew. I did the entire eight lengths
using the front crawl. I was not really
a strong swimmer but I had no problems finishing the eight lengths, although my
foot started to cramp near the end. I
had been plagued with foot cramps often when swimming since I was a kid.
Treading water was easy.
The underwater swim, done without fins, was a bit more of a
challenge. I have never mastered the
frog kick, so my underwater swimming style without fins is a cross between a
breast stroke pull and a fuller kick. If
I had not quit smoking cigarettes a few years prior, the underwater swim would
have been a serious challenge. About
halfway, I got the feeling that I needed to breathe. That quickly grew to a feeling of near panic
of suffocating if I did not get to surface immediately. I felt a surge of relief when I got to the
wall and pushed to the surface. I have since learned that with practice and
certain breathing techniques I can push through that feeling that is a real
barrier to breath hold swimming
Everybody passed the swim test. We were on our way to becoming divers!
[1] I
found out a short time later that Dave used U.S. Divers gear purchased from
Santa Barbara Aquatics with a handsome instructor’s discount. He had played golf with the owner once a week
with the shop’s owner, Curt Weissner, when they were undergraduates at
UCSB. He explained that all of the diver
equipment companies had a program to inexpensively outfit instructors,
especially with BCs and regulators as a marketing strategy. He explained, “new divers want the best
equipment. They figure their instructor
has the best, so they are inclined to buy whatever equipment their instructor
is using.”
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