We've Created a Monster!

Des asked us if Ryan would like to come to the pool they've rented to play around a bit. I thought "Great idea, we could try him out snorkeling and see if he likes it or if it freaks him out." Little did I know...

When I told Ryan he was going swimming that day he was jumping around...but he had to get his homework done. He was sweating trying to get it finished! When we got to the dive shop, things started getting out of control.

Ryan was getting fitted for fins, masks, and then.......DIVE GEAR! WHAT!?! Diving? Um, we didn't talk about that. I don't know about that. He seemed really, really excited. Bruce thought, ok, I guess, why not. (He wasn't the one getting in the pool with Ryan). Did that mean I had to dive too!?! I didn't wanna!





We bought him a mask and a snorkel because we plan on going snorkeling this summer and we thought he could get a lot of use out of the mask because he LOVES the water. Maybe this summer he will tell us what's down there in Long Lake. Maybe it's best if the rule is he doesn't look. He may not go back in after what he sees. Maybe that's just me. Anywho, after we bought the mask he wouldn't take it off. He was just wondering around the store with it on. What a nut!


When we got to the pool, we were playing around with the snorkel gear. He put on flip flops and didn't even realize he was swimming faster. Then Mike came over and started putting the dive gear on. Here we go!

Mike taught Ryan how to clear his mask when he got water in it while he was underwater. He taught Ryan how to use his regulator if it fell out of his mouth. He taught him hand signals (OK, up, down), how to check his depth and air supply, and when to come up and be done with the tank. He taught him how to inflate and deflate the flotation around his tank, too. Ryan was a little eager and didn't always wait for Mike's directions. He also had trouble staying underwater while he was practicing. Mini freak outs, I guess. Bruce said if he had been in the water he would have just held Ryan's head down. I believe it. But I was there and I'm more patient than Bruce. He only took about 3 tries for each.

After that, Ryan was off to play around. At first he was constantly inflating and deflating the floats. As he got more comfortable he looked like an octopus underwater. All the lines were floating around him and he was upside down and spinning around.

After awhile we moved to the deep end, which made me nervous. What was I going to do when Ryan was at the bottom with the gear on that I didn't have? There was another diving learning in there and I liked that he kept checking on Ryan. If bad things did happen we had practiced me using the extra regulator and breathing off Ryan's air. We would be ok.

After some playing around, Ryan decided to bring me down - thanks to Bruce's suggestion (who was not in the water). When Ryan took me down I was a little weirded out that Ryan was better at this than I was! I was ok, but I couldn't move far from him - it was like a 2 or 3 foot line. He was cute and was using his signals on me.


When he was about ready to pull off his gear for some good, old fashioned swimming, he lost a fin. Now we HAD to go back down. He had taken off his weight belt and was too bouyant to retrieve it. I didn't think I could dive down and retrieve it myself (although, I probably could, that sort of thing freaks me out) so I put on Ryan's air and pulled him down with me. He was toooo bouyant and I had to literally pull him down so that I could get down there with the air (wimp! I know). We saved the flipper!



Afterwards we spent the next 45 minutes racing. I was getting a work out and I wanted Ryan to get one too. It was fun. I think we're going again today :)