Learning how to scuba dive

This is the third pool session of the course. Today we will be using full-body, thick wetsuits. Our instructors are giving us some briefing before we start setting up the scuba equipment.

I'll have to take off my short wetsuit: today, for the first time, we'll be trying the same full, thick wetsuits we will be using for the checkout dive!

A long line of tanks, regulators, buoyancy compensators and weights are aligned against the wall.

A fellow diver getting his tank well strapped on his BC.

I have just worn the full 7mm wetsuit. Such a thick suit is designed for waters as cold as in the Puget Sound (4 degrees C), so wearing this in a warm swimming pool is going to make you sweat your soul.

I'm adjusting the equipment on my back. Including the weights, it weighs some 100 lbs. And the darn suit is too thick and too warm. I'm sweating like a whore in church.

Just entered water. Giving an OK sign to my instructor. The darn mask keeps fogging all the time, despite the anti-fog sea drops. Once in the water, the temperature inside my wetsuits drops a little bit. It still seems like finding yourself in an oven.

Let the fun begin!

I'm playing a sort of underwater volleyball with the other divers. We have a little yellow rubber torpedo which has neutral buoyancy, and can be basically thrown underwater along a straight line. It's a lot of fun, it's by all means similar to being in absence of gravity.

Fun fun fun. I'm kicking quite hard to gain depth here. You can actually kick so much that you burn up more oxigen that the air you breath can provide...

You wouldn't say, but we are actually trying to learn stuff here ;)

If I only had kept my eyes open, this would have been a nice shot.

I'm trying a backroll entry. This is the usual way to dive from an inflatable raft. Utmost care must be devoted to making sure nobody is beneath you. Bumping into another diver's head with your steel tank is not something he would appreciate.

We have all done a backward entry, and are giving to the instructor the signal we are ok.

This is the line to get out of the water. We pretend that the little ladder leads to the boat. You just have to patiently wait your turn. The operation is not trivial because of all the appendices, the fins which you must remove before stepping on the ladder, and the sudden loss of buoyancy as soon as you leave the water.

Trying one of the possible rescue swims. You grab your buddy by his arm, and pull him.

Trying the same rescue swim as before. This time, I am the distressed diver, and Roberto is the rescuer. Notice that I unzipped my wetsuit as much as I could, on a (vain) hope that water would cool me down a little bit.

This is another rescue swim. After inflating both buoyancy compensators, you pull the distressed drivers by his tank's valve.

Sometimes, sinking is so much difficult. The wetsuits generate a whole lot of additional buoyancy, that you need to compensate by sticking some more 10/15 pounds of lead into your BC pockets.

God knows what I'm trying to do here. Probably indicating the size of my male endowment...

Out of the swimming pool, ready to undon the equipment. Am I tired? You bet.