We have finished our last confined water dive and we are soon off to the Bahamas! Our day in the pool was divided into two parts. During the morning we worked on SCUBA skills, including a review of the skills we learned on previous Sundays. (You can see how far we've come in the pool here and here.)


Ready to get in the water

One skill we worked on was our controlled emergency swimming ascents (CESAs). This gave us a chance to learn how to deal with the (very unlikely) chance of running out of air. CESAs consist of raising one hand above our heads to insure we do not bump our heads against any intruding obstacles, and kicking continually upward making an "ahhh" sound, allowing air in our lungs to escape so it won't cause problems as changes in pressure happen.


CESAs underwater

In order to successfully pass this skill we must be able to complete this task for a length of about thirty feet. Since the pool isn’t thirty feet deep, we had to swim horizontally, down the length of the pool. Swimming the length of the pool underwater while continually breathing out is HARD! We needed some extra practice to make sure we got it down perfect!


Sarah watching over us

The second half of the day was more fun. We got to play underwater games, swim through hula hoops (great for buoyancy practice) and take some group pictures. Sarah even showed us how to enter the water backwards, like if you were on a small boat.


Sarah showing her skills

It was a great chance to have fun, but more importantly, it allowed us to become even more comfortable handling all of our equipment and being underwater. Overall, in one word...AWESOME!

Even better? Next stop: the Bahamas!

- Mary