Weddingbee boards

So my fiance has always wanted to get his scuba certification and he wants me to get one as well so we can scuba dive in St Lucia. I wont be able to go on the boat with him unless i go Scuba Diving and he doesnt want to leave me behind and go but I dont want to hold him back from doing it.

He is actually get certified here before we leave his first in water class in wed. I am actually taking the educational part with him and they told me I wouldnt have to pay anything until I come at least try it on WED in the pool and see how i feel... If i hate it and panic I am done no money lost .... if i like ti and want to do it I will just have to pay and will already be caught up with him.

It takes about 4-5 week in pool training and educational classes then you have to do an open water dive before they allow you to get your certificiation.

The whole concept to me would be amazing. I think it would be such a wonderful thing for us to do together but I have never even been snorkeling. IN FACT while i am not really afraid of the water and I can swim some (not the best) i have always been to afraid to learn how to even go under without hold my nose for fear of drowning...

So I am really worried I will not be able to do this.... MY biggest fear of it all right now is ... you have to take your regulator out of your mouth underwater and then put it back in and clear it out and the water out of your mouth without odviously choking on any of it. You also will have to do the same thing and breath from your dive buddys secondary air supply. You also have to clear your mask of water by semi taking it off.

I am just curious if anyone has been suba diving before or is taking classes and how easy you feel it is to do & if it was scary

Thank you so much Bunny for your insight ... I am excited but more nervous and scared about it.  I really think it would just be an amazing thing to do & we have been looking at diving pics taken in St Lucia and it just looks absolutely amazing even some have dolphins in it... and he said he has been looking it up and  for some reason their is really no sharks in st lucia.

he thinks it is going to be a piece of cake but he also is more familiar with some of this than me... He is a fireman so they do similar drills with their breathing tanks and he is very comfortable with holding his breath and breathing through only his mouth and such.

@ winterbride oh most definately I will be doing it here in our home town with him....It is just so much money to get certified but i definately would have to do it here bc i just cant believe that at those resort classes they "train" you in 3 hours. Thats scary to me lol... but i know that once we get it we can use it forever and what we are going after is the Open Water Diver.

The  lady instructor  we have been talking to thinks I am going to do fine& will be suprised how easy it is but of course she would say that

And it is my understanding that with Sandals where we are going if you are certified you get 2 dives per day... included with most of your gear provided. 

I am also really worried about my swim test.... I can swim but i dont go swimming very often & havent been in like 2 years soooo....

So we finished our first in pool scuba lesson last night..... it went good and bad

Breathing was a piece of cake... but since i had not purchased my own equipment yet... my mask didnt fit my boots didnt fit my fins were too big...

I couldnt sink then with the weight belt I couldnt stay off the bottom

I kept getting water in my mask

I dont know how to swim with those stupid fins on....and I am really worried I am not gonna be able to pass my swim test of 8 lengths of the pool & treading water for 10 mins....

Which honestly makes me mad because the lady instructor had told me when i talked about signing up that i only had to do 4 lengths and float for 10 mins.. there is a huge difference in that to me.

I went this past weekend for my first session.  I have a lifelong fear of water, so it was all incredibly challenging for me.  I managed the 200 meter swim and 10 minute water and have never been more proud.  The mask drills and clearing the regulator are scary, but YOU CAN DO IT.  I passed all of the requirements of the first day, which include the exercises you mentioned being worried about. If I can do it, anyone can.

The most important thing to remember is to STAY CALM and keep breathing.  Your instructors are there to make sure nothing bad happens.  It's ok not to "get it" right away, it's ok to freak out.  During the exercise of flooding the mask, taking it off and putting it back on, I freaked out the first time.  After a quick pep talk from my instructor we went back down and I did it again.  Just be patient with yourself.

You can do it!! 

@Gerbera - I am taking a PADI course in Los Angeles, they are offered by dive shops all over the place though, PADI is the largest "diving school" and is international (I am doing school/pool here and completing my ocean dives in Mexico), but there are a lot of reputable courses. 

Oh clearing the Regulator and switiching to a backup regulator was no problem for me I was fine with that  it is the mask clearing

ALso knowing i will be required to take my mask off and breath with my regulator for at least 1 min is what freaks me out! I have never been able to go under without holding my nose because i can not keep the water from going into my nose and down my throat & gagging or choking me. Now I did try this with my nose held with my fingers and i was fine.....

Typically no they dont use the weight belts they have BCD's that can be weight integrated but they brought the weight belts just incase.... since we were just in the shallow end we didnt even start out with them on... he didnt think we would need them but i couldnt get myself to go under the water and sit on the bottom without some weight i just couldnt stay down.  So we added one weight  to the weight belt and then i was off balance  trying to swim so he  moved that and added a weight to my bcd pocket to balance me but then i couldnt find my netural boyancy so i was dcrawling on the bottom lol.

I talked to them about the swim test and he told me as long as i could swim it by the time I was done we were fine... & as long as i could stay above water on my own for 10 mins via floating or treading I was fine.  He did tell me they would just keep working with me on mask clearing and not having to hold my nose and eventually it will be second nature to not want to breath through my nose.

My instructors were impressed at how much I did do expecially with gear that was not a good fit & are even going to make sure to set up a regulator with a extra small mouth piece on it just for me for the duration or my training.

I honestly didnt find my tank Heavy at all once in the water.. I had a little trouble lowering it into the water and getting it on my back out of the water but that is what i got my big strong dive buddy for .... of course I am a very small lady under 5ft tall and 100lbs

we are  taking the Open Water Diver PADI course through a local dive shop ... we do our tests and watch our videos at the dive shope and we use the pool at the YMCA but it is not taught by the YMCA it is costing us about $400 per person but that will be start to finish as long as it takes us to certify & for our certification( they arent teaching us on a set time schedule) They think that Fiance will be ready in probably a month while it will take me probably the next 3 to be ready 

 That is including everything pretty much they are loaning us out all the equipment we need that is a 3 hour in pool class every week but  fiance already has his mask fins snorkel boots and wetsuit so he is gonna buy the same for me so next time we go to class i have a comfortable fit. The only thing that will be extra is depending on where we want to do our first open water dive if we choose to go to one of the weekend trips we have to pay for our own accomodations package and  travel to get there, but if we do something more local like a day trip we just provide our own travel and meals of course

Yeah we have already decided that we know 60ft (because from what we are learning you can safely assend 60ft a Min, so even though i am sure in a panic 1 min seems unbearable it definately would be livable.... ) is to be our max but may even stay in the 30-40ft range on our honeymoon just until we get more comfortable and more experienced divers. My baby says if i just wanna go 10ft under he is ok with that  or if i cant do it and we just snorkel. I honestly feel a million times better knowing he will be by my side... & that he is medically trained rescues people  from dangerous situations for a living and not afraid or nearly anything helps to LOL. Even in the 3.5ft pool he never let go of my hand or left my side.

Any particular dives that are a must in St Lucia? Mrs Caniche

And as stated earlier i think if i learn how to use my fins.... it will be much easier to actually move through the water not just stay in one spot trying lol

Thats such a cool picture... where did you guys stay when you were in St Lucia?

We just googled drift diving lastnight .... im not so sure if that is a safe thing to do as an inexperienced diver lol. I was reading some stories about really strong underwater current in St Lucia that has me a little scared apparently they did have a good enough dive instructor to have them all grab hold a rope but where did that rope come from ??? What if there is no rope?

 ONE Of my biggest fears are apparently a very common occurance to alot of people diving in the ocean.... getting 30-60-80 however many feet down and realising the boat ride to the dive spot made them sick and that they need to puke. I intend to stock up on lots of anti nasuea, motion sickness meds because i get car sick and probably will get sea sick too

We had looked into the wrecks but i had never heard of the Rosemond Trench

Did you guys see any larger sea creatures while you were there? LOL i am hoping for just baby fish  & cute stuff nothing big or maybe a dolphin LOL

We are going to St Lucia for our honeymoon we will be there July 26th thru August 2nd. We are staying at the Sandals Regency St Lucia... yeah that is part of why we wanted to do the diving since it was included and it was something that fiance wanted to always do.

Yeah i am not hoping to see much big stuff lol expecially not until i get comfy just being in the water.

Did you do anything else in St Lucia you would reccomend? Or anyting you wouldnt waste time on? Restraunt reccomendations for a non seafood eater like me?