Lisa - My Hero April 19, 2006
Posted by Martin in : Thailand , trackbackToday Lisa completed her PADI Open-Water Diving Course.
This was an incredible achievement for somebody who’d come to Koh Tao especially to learn diving with Tik, to shortly discover that Tik wouldn’t be joining her. Lisa now joins the lines of Pavion’s who’ve dived. Only 2 months ago both mum and dad dived in Egypt despite mum having to really push her self hard to get through the practice.
The challenge with the PADI course is that there is a lot of overwhelming information thrown at you on the first day. In reality, one one is actually in the water the procedures become quite routine but the bombardment of safety details and procedures doesn’t do much to put a solo student at ease. Day two is always the worst. There is the classroom lesson in the morning and then students meet in the afternoon to either practice the dive techniques in either a swimming pool or in shallow water.
The first time in the water is by far the hardest. It is, for most people the first time they’ve ever breathed through a regulator, it is the first time theyve had to go to the bottom of the water and need to relax and keep still. Even if a student is not uncomfortable with these procedures yet, there comes a time when he must practice removing the respirator or removing his mask slowly and having to stay submerged without the luxury of oxygen or sight for - what seems like eternity.
People reflectively try to surface in shallow water if there’s a problem yet the purpose of all the exercises are to not do that. Once a student reaches deeper water they always have a few seconds between panicking and surfacing, during which time they’ll likely calm themselves and return to the seabed. During the first day of closed-water exercises there is no time to get over any fear before ones head has already gone above the surface.
If anybody is going to be nervous about diving it tends to be after that first closed-water class when they feel frustrated, panicky and when diving for fun becomes the last thing on their mind. I have a feeling that’s how Lisa felt that day.
Her second day in the water took her into deeper water although she was still nervous. What kept her motivated was her desperation to be part of the DVD production the next day. Lisa had seen how much fun we’d had when I dived last year and she was keen to take home the same souvenir. She also knew mum had faced very similar hurdles but had the positivity to overcome them.
By the end of her second day, she was certainly much less stressed than she had been, although she was still far from relaxed. It was only her last day that things obviously came together and she was full of excitement for the rest of the day.
Lisa is now one of the diving elite. She can now return to Koh Tao at any time. There will always be people there who’ll recognize her and if not she’s got the experience to be able to talk to everybody there about her life as an experienced diver.
Well done Lisa!
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