Two classes in now I've already decided I like the pool work much better then the class work. I figured out their system, they get you committed to the class with all the fun stuff the first week, then the next week they have you show up with all your gear. It's at this point, once you have your investment in the sport with all your equipment, that they dive (excuse the pun) in with all the nasty things that can happen to you underwater. Having a pink froth spew from your body, a symptom of an air embolism, does not sound like a good day to me. Well, too late now, I have all my stuff. Nothing grosses me out more then spending money foolishly, so I'm in it for the long hall.
The pool work this time was much easier. The basics of making sure we could use our snorkel with and without our mask. Then a few laps of the pool using various fin kicks. Two different kinds of dive technics to get to the bottom, then a drill to dive to the bottom of the pool and drop our weight belt, surface, then dive back and put it back on. Have to admit, it took me two tries to put my belt on, getting dressed underwater is a little different then land! The rest of the drills were simulating water entries, walk the plank (that's my name for it), backwards leap of faith, and a side entry. That was it for our skills tests this week.
The night ended with a stimulating game of underwater hockey. Our sticks consisted of something that looked like a wooden spoon that allowed us to push the puck across the bottom of the pool. A goal was scored if the puck touched the other side's wall. Not to make excuses, but I think teams were stacked! It was 6 vs. 5 and I was on the team with six, but two of them were the little ones (which I don't think they even count for one!). The rest of my team was rounded out with two women and the biggest guy in the class. The other team was composed of the kid who I know was on his high school's swim team, the navy rescue swimmer, the guy that can hold his breath the longest and a couple. Hardly seems fair on paper, let alone in the water.
The game started, I figured I'd hang back because I didn't have much confidence with my team. Sure enough the other team was to our wall in next to no time. I went down with about a foot to spare stole the puck back and went racing to the other side. I almost made it to their wall before running out of gas and had to surface. By that time another one of their swimmers picked up the loose puck and took off towards our wall. With nobody back on defense, they scored easily. 1 to 0. Next two scores pretty much went the same way. Down 3 to 0, we were told it was best of 7. At this point, I decided enough of this, time to take matters into my own hands. I rushed the puck when it was dropped, had it to their side before they really even started moving. Now the only problem, all five of them were all coming down at me at once. I was running out of air, but I figured this was our only chance, if I came up they would just score again. I resorted to smashing it in the corner for the goal. It ended 4 to 1, they scored fairly quickly to put us out of our misery. Kind of fun, but it seemed like I had to do all the work! Sure could have used Becca as a teammate.
Next week, we'll actually start working with the tanks.
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