Certified Open Water Diver

After two postponements, I finally completed my open water scuba diver certification this weekend.  I did two dives at a quarry in Atlantic, Iowa yesterday and two more today satisfying the minimum requirements for open water diving certification.

My Open Water Diver card.

The postponements ended up being good as the water temperature was comfortable at 79ºF (26ºC).  The dives went relatively smoothly and the skills tested were relatively simple.

The quarry is full of fish which are surprisingly tame.  Mostly bluegill.  There is a thermocline at around twenty feet where the temperature drops five to ten degrees.  You can actually see the two layers of differing temperature water.  The layers don't mix (similar to how the Rio Negro and the Amazon rivers didn't mix) so you can see if one layer is clearer than the other.  I ended up diving down to around 30 feet (9 meters) where is was surprisingly colder.

The four short dives (each about 30 minutes long) were tiring.  I returned home yesterday and today totally exhausted.  I also pulled a muscle putting my tank on for the first dive.  I can feel my right arm stiffening up and it will be sore for a while.

Will I use the classes?  Who knows.  I'm giving myself a ten percent chance of ever scuba diving again.  Ten percent ain't nothing so who knows what adventures this will open up.

I'm glad my certification is finally done.  It feels like it became a psychological barrier that stopped me from starting other projects.  It really shouldn't have stopped me from doing anything but ... it did.  Now that it's done I feel a bit freer.

Thank you to the Mother-in-Law.  Your Christmas/Birthday money paid for most of the classes and certification.  It is appreciated.