On the bottom, I give the signal for buddy breathing. We're going off my regulator. I'm going to take my jacket off first. Breath, bc clips, breath, bc cummerbund, breath, left arm through bc then swing it around me, breath. I'm out of my jacket. Jesse starts his removal. Then he starts floating up. Uh oh. He's wearing a Classic, so as I swing it around me, I'm searching for the clips to button it down. It's like a frantic hokey-pokey. Right arm in, left arm out, crap, where's the air? Turn about. Too late, I realize, we have reached the surface. Oops. In that run through, I even experienced breathing off my reg upside down. Not something I would like to do on a regular basis. It was a wet and sloppy breath in the middle of that exercise.
I need to do something else for a bit before I try again. To earn a score of 5, I need to have everything buckled in and have a swim around while buddy breathing before the ascent. And it needs to look good, not frantic. Let's practice some open water skills. I am going to be graded on them soon. Reg recovery 1 & 2, mask clearing 1 & 2, oral hover, reg free flow, and equipment removal. It's not important that I can do the skills, it's important that I can show the skills. Slow and exaggerated. It takes some practice.
Next, I'm going to do some skin diving/equipment removal. At the bottom, take off my bc, snorkel to the surface, skin dive around, dive back down to my bc and put it back on. During one of my surface swims, I notice Logan and Richard floating around. I skin dive down behind Richard and slowly turn his air off. Logan can see me and I signal to him that I'm turning his tank off, so he's ready to share air with Richard. I have never been able to do this without them feeling me turning the tank off. Again, practice.
I dive back down to my equipment and put it back on. But this time, I close my eyes. First dive night, Zach had me put my gear on blindfolded. Time to use that trick. I spend a few minutes clipping and un-clipping my bc until is becomes easier. If I don't have to look at my jacket to fasten it, it will not be as hard when I'm buddy breathing. OK. Jesse is in close proximity and I bring out my slate. "Can we try again?" I ask. Nod. "Share air" I signal.
His bc comes off, and he keeps hold of it so he doesn't float up. Mine comes off, we exchange jackets. I swing the Classic around and Jesse is in charge of the reg. He has it, holds it for me, so all I have to do is clear it, take my breaths, then spit it out, nod when I need it again. That way we have more hands free for the tasks. I'm laying flat on the jacket on the bottom of the pool, keeping Jesse from floating up, clipping into the Classic, and buddy breathing. I have a surreal moment when I know I've got it this time. I'm blowing my slow bubbles while he's got the regulator, trying to find those clips. Got them. I signal for a swim around. We Padi handshake to the surface to the sound of thunderous applause. (In my head) YES!!!! I just want to do a little dance, so I do. Shake shake shake!
Big shout of to Jesse who helped me earn a 5 on this skill! So far, I have a score of 13. 5 on the equipment exchange and float test, 3 on the open swim. I still have the snorkel test left. Woo!
When Mike asked, "Ready to do that at a moments notice?" my response after a small pause... Bring it.
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