On waking we both filled out the test section at the end of the chapter we had tried to read lastnight just to see if we had remembered after sleep.
We had a nice breakfast and did a bit more reading before being picked up at around 8.45am to go do our first day of lesson.
We have another girl with us who looks around the same age from Belgium I think, who had managed to do just about the same amount of reading but not the test at the end.
Our instructor is German, he looks maybe late 40s and used to be a nurse, he's been a qualified scuba instructor since 1990 something. He's a typical scuba looking guy, long blonde hair, dark tan. He's really good.
We sat for I don't know how long going over the answers from chapter 1 and him talking us through various things. We also did the same for the next chapter before learning how to set up the diving equipment.
We spent a good 4 hours in the water learning all the techniques we need to be competent in to qualify. It was fun, Liam found it a lot easier than me due to his swimming and water background. I was managing fine just slower but he kept trying to "advise" me which didn't go down that well! He's still been doing it afterwards as well but at least I know he's finding it fun. I don't know how I will manage with the dive tomorrow, we go down to 12 meters (18 the day after) which is quite scary to me because we have to do a lot of work without our mouth pieces in and learning to breath out steadily before attaching ourselves back. We do things like simulate running out of oxygen and having to go for a little bit with no air whilst you get the reserve mouth piece from another person. It's quite difficult but the key is just to stay calm and keep breathing, never ever hold your breath always be inhaling or exhaling which is harder than it sounds. I also experienced some ear discomfort only at 2 meters today so hopefully we will do more work on that tomorrow because that's a concern too! Liam doesn't seem concerned at all, however we did have to stop for a bit today because he was too cold so I guess that's his only worry.
Despite being nervous about it, it's still exciting because the types of sea life he has described sounds absolutely out of this world. Unfortunately our underwater camera isn't built for going that deep so I don't think we will be getting any photo evidence!
We got back to the hotel at about 4.45 and had a cup of tea, had a chat to the owners who are lovely and gave us a bit of chocolate to perk us up because we hadn't eaten all day! I'm so tired, Liam doesn't seem affected in the slightest.
After an early tea, well early for us at about 5.30ish we studied our books and watched the veeery long video. We started at 8pm and didn't stop until 12am, there's so much to learn. Considering one of the risk factors for nitrogen overload in your body is being over tired, it's probably not the best way to be doing the course but we're happy despite being tired.
