Delving into greater depths- a true underwater experience-Day One (Afternoon-PM)

It was time to do my second open water dive!

As we did the back roll into the water, it somehow felt like a custom to me; it got more and more fun every time I did it! When we got settled in the water, we did a tired diver tow exercise. It was a fun exercise, because instead of our instructor giving us a buddy, he asked us who we would like to do the exercise with. In other words, he asked who you would like to give you the diver's tow, and who you would like to give the diver tow. Well of course, I asked the strongest swimmer in the group to tow me, and I requested the lighter for towing, lol. We towed our buddy for about 20m, which was tiring as hell, but it surely was fun when I was being towed.

This skill was followed by, assisting your buddy with a cramp. We took turns holding each other at the bottom of our fins, and tilting the fins upward, pushing back on the leg. There was a bit of tension in my leg, since I didn't have a cramp anyways. However, these were very simple and straight forward tasks to begin with.

Soon it was time to go underwater. He gave us another quick briefing about how to use our dive computers, and then showed us the sign for okay; and we slowly went down. He didn't give us much instructions for the afternoon, so we had to expect anything below there this afternoon. As we sunk to the bottom, it was still relatively shallow like the first day, however as we swam along the reef, I glanced at my computer and realized that we were delving a bit deeper. My nervous juices started flowing again, I had no idea how much more we were going to go.

Thankfully, the afternoon was a nice and chill dive. Literally the only skills we did underwater were face mask removal for 1 minute-then clearing and orally inflating our BCD to control our buoyancy.
I saw alot of amazing creatures that afternoon, I specifically remembered seeing a sea horse, a huge lobster, and a gorgeous angelfish couple. I was totally blown away by the angelfishes, they were huge and so magical, and my slow swimming made them swim very closely by. I guarantee you if I was swimming wildly, and fast, I wouldn't have gotten such a close look. When I saw them, I was so annoyed that I didn't have a dive camera. Of course I knew I'm nowhere ready for underwater cameras, since I am still a great threat to the reefs, lol. I would only be able to use cameras after I get my buoyancy in check.

About 28 minutes into our dive, Andreas (our instructor), turned around to face us and told us to look at him. He crossed his legs and his hands made the okay sign. He was in a very relaxed position and it looked as though he was super relaxed. He then asked us to try one at a time, and I thought to myself, how am I going to do that? Is that even a skill?

The two other trainees did it effortlessly, but me? A total mess! LOL
I folded my legs, closely following the exact steps as everyone else, and still somehow made a mess of it. After a few tries, I got it for just about 20 seconds, then I slipped out of position, like a loose knot, LMAO. I didn't care, it was enough that my instructor showed me the okay sign, and we continued on our way.

Soon enough my instructor showed me the sign to go up, and as I glanced at my dive computer I realized that we were underwater for 31 minutes at a maximum depth of 8.3m. I couldn't believe I was underwater so long, I literally felt like a fish!

Somehow, while looking up to resurface slowly, I felt like I was not going anywhere.
So I swam slowly up, but then I felt Keywell, tugging on my BCD. I wanted to laugh, because he showed me the signal for slow down; he must have been laughing in his head too.

LOL

When he tugged on my BCD my head was almost at the surface anyway, so I don't know what good that did, but I'm thankful that he was there to remind me that a slow resurface speed is important!.

When we resurfaced, Andreas told us that there were two more skills before we went back to the boat. "Oh boy!" I said to myself, worried that it was going to be challenging. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the orange object. He started explaining that it was an inflatable signal tube, and asked us what we think it is used for. All of us said, to be used as a signal, and our instructor laughed and said, "well it's obvious right? Even its name says it." We laughed together and then he called us closer to see how to use it. He demonstrated about two times and then gave us all a chance to use it. It's pretty simple to use!

Our last skill for the day was removing our weights and replacing it in water. We had to hold the weights up at our side, ensuring we're holding the end without the buckle so the weights won't somehow slip off. Then slowly roll over on our front, ensuring that we had either our snorkel or regulator in our mouth. I tried it with the snorkel first, but then realized that my head was way too low and alot of water was getting in as I breathe. I quickly rolled over, told my instructor what the problem was and then switched to my regulator. It was much easier this time and I got it in no time. Although it wasn't on, as snug and nice as it would be if I was on the boat, the weights still were on the right areas of my body, IT WORKED!
MY INSTRUCTOR LOOKED BELOW WITH HIS SNORKEL TO ENSURE I PUT IT ON RIGHT, THEN HE GAVE ME A BIG THUMBS UP AND SAID, 'OKAY!'

Yet again I felt like a champion, over coming every obstacle that came my way!
Though I was slowly getting the hang of the skills and diving in itself, I couldn't wait to be certified and be done with all the skills. I was so ready to dive without these skill practices, I just wanted to go diving with a camera and explore the gorgeous reefs. Yea I know, I sure was in a haste, and I knew that would take some time.
But when you get sudden bursts of excitement, they're so hard to control, so hard to tame!
Anyway, two dive days down, literally only one more to go!!!