No, really. I think I know what I'm doing.

So I went to Crystal River for more dive classes this weekend. I went up to complete my required two dives with an instructor to get my Nitrox certification. Also I was working for Cpt. John as a second crew hand. Which basically meant I reviewed the tests and helped teach the skills while John supervised to make sure everything was on the up and up.

I was joined by two of my co-workers, one is certified and the other along with his wife, are getting first time certified. Thanks to my ever-prepared planning skills, they had all of five days to get ready for their class and checkout dives. Needless to say I was worried about their skill levels and more importantly, safety.
It turns out my concerns were not unfounded, as on the second day Jerry learned a hard lesson about diving. You cant breathe underwater.

I was charged by John with the responsibility of taking the class back to the Three Sisters springs and teaching them a few skills: breathing without a mask, replacing and clearing your mask, and an Emergency Swimming Ascent. So I go back and we go through most of it in 10 minutes or so. I take each diver down to 12 or 15 feet, have them take a deep breath, then remove their regulator and swim to the surface.
So I take Jerry down when its his turn, and signal him to proceed. He takes the reg out of his mouth, looks around for a second, then realizes his lungs are near empty. I see the look of panic in his eyes as he frantically (and unsuccessfully) tries to recover his mouthpiece. Something I thought we had already covered, but I digress. I immediately realize it is tangled and he cant get it into his mouth so I swim for him, offering up my own primary regulator. In his panic he doesnt even notice and I see him look skyward. "Here he goes" says my inner voice, and sure enough he takes off for the surface. Granted this is the ultimate goal, but at a more controlled pace. Lucky we were in shallow water.

In short, I got to practice my Rescue Diver skills in a real world setting this weekend. Special thanks to John for telling me after the fact that the students dont really need to spit out their reg, just not breathe from it.

On the positive side I got my Nitrox certification finished, and got to use my new Nitek dive computer on a few dives. Yippeee, watch out grouper.