On this occasion my partner was a friend of mine, who had been a diver for quite a while. He was helping the staff out in this training session and partnered with me. The purpose of the exercise was to swim down and put on your scuba gear
underwater. Also to exchange your scuba tank for a new tank underwater. This could come in handy if you have to stay underwater to decompress from a deep dive.
So into the pool the equipment goes. Then in I go with my buddy. I swim down grab the scuba regulator
turn on the tank and breath. Okay that part done, I now have air. I place my arms into the BCD jacket with the scuba tank attached, swing it up and over and Wa La, I'm done. This is going to be a breeze. Next up buddy breathing to the surface. He takes a breath hands me the scuba regulator and I take a breath and so on. Piece of cake. Only thing now is taking off one pack and exchanging it for another one. I'm batting a thousand here. What could go wrong.My partner is what could go wrong. I take off my tank and switch out regulators. He helps me put my arms into the other tank and swings it up over my head. Ah, I can't get it on. My arms are twisted and the regulator is being pulled out of my mouth while the tank is pushing me down. Okay, okay don't panic. Your not alone here. Your buddy will see the problem and fix it ... But he doesn't. He thinks its on right and I am the problem.
I try to tell him its twisted. Which is really hard to signal when your arms are twisted above your head. He insists its okay and keeps try to push it on.
Meanwhile, I can't breath. He on the other hand has his tank on and is having no such problem. I finally kick the crap out of him, ditch the tank and head for the surface. He comes up fighting mad, insisting that I was in the wrong. That the pack was on right and I just panicked. Duh, not breathing can cause that you know.
Then the head teacher came running up pulled me out of the pool. Asking if I was okay. He saw the whole thing and said I would have never been able to get that pack on as twisted as the straps where, and what took me so long getting to the surface. I shot my partner a look that said, "HA ... I told you it wasn't me." The teacher jumped in the pool and completed the exercise with me. Piece of cake. I passed.
I completed the course and took my open water check out in Cozumel during Texas Dive Week. And that my friends is another story.
