Camp Cove 21-03-07

I'd been talking with Jenny my partner about trying a dive for a while. We started snorkelling which we both enjoyed and she go the hang of that OK. Then we snorkelled on scuba at Long Bay, using a pony and long hoses for the second stages. She could breathe fine from a reg while swimming around. We tried to descend a bit but we were both too floaty.

So on March 21, 2007 we headed to Camp Cove for a try dive. Well, I'm on qualified to take some one on an introductory dive but I am a DM with over 300 dives under my belt so felt I could do this at Camp Cove. I set all the gear up and we walked into the shallow water. At first Jenny felt lopsided as we snorkelled around getting a feel for the gear on her back. I move some weight around in the top pockets of the BCD to assist. This helped Once we'd adjusted the BCD straps and loosened her wet suit she felt much more comfortable as well.

We descended - the aim being to kneel on the sand with our heads just below the surface. Jenny didn't get her legs behind her so ended up on her bottom on the sand. I pulled her back up right and we had another go and that went well.

We then went down a metre or so but Jenny had trouble clearing her ears. We tried a few times until we worked out that she was still blowing air out of her mouth when she was equalising.

Once we had addressed this she could equalise well and we headed out. We got to 4.9m depth and 24 mins and Jenny was trying to keep herself from the bottom by inflating her BCD (which is the right thing to do). I was unsure what she was doing so we surfaced to check. She immediately felt nauseas so we slowly surface swam back.

This was a great effort for Jenny who had never even contemplated scuba diving a few weeks back. This was an into to the next week where Jenny is booked for a proper introductory dive at South West Rocks.