Our bodies are 60% water and after my first scuba class, and the amount of pool water I swallowed, I expect that I'm pushing 65% water and 5% chlorine. What caused me to swallow the water, strangely enough, was not scuba. It was the much simpler act of snorkeling.
The class (there are four students) started with classroom work learning the basics, putting our scuba equipment together, and learning how to check that the equipment is working properly.
The second half of the class was in the pool. First we proved how out of shape we were by swimming ten lengths of the pool and treading water for ten minutes.
Next we put on fins, mask, and snorkels and went through the basics. My issue was exhaling and sinking too far, allowing my snorkel to fill with water right when I had no air to purge it with. This resulting in me sputtering and coughing until I figured it out. Even after I figured it out I still had problems. While swimming around the pool breathing through the snorkel water seemed to be leaking in. This lead me to breath in and/or swallow copious amounts of chlorinated pool water. I will have to experiment a bit with snorkel placement next class to see if I can locate the problem.
Once we stopped snorkelling and put on our tanks everything was fine. I have no problem clearing my mask and regulator of water and have no issues at all. Figures I would have problems with the simplest skill and no problem with the more complex.
By the time the class was over we were all pretty exhausted. It really takes a lot of energy moving around water. Add to that I was bloaty from all the water I swallowed and all my coughs and burps smelled like chlorine and It was just peachy.
I got home, rinsed off in the shower and crawled into bed where I proceeded to not fall asleep. When I finally fell asleep after 1:00am I dreamt most of the night that I was awake and couldn't fall asleep. It took massive doses of caffeine for me to get through my chores today.
Hopefully tomorrow's class will be more scuba and less snorkel ... at least until I can get the hang of it.
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