Scuba Certified

A. needed her open water scuba diving certification for her trip to Singapore this summer so I enrolled her in a course. Until I had to look for one I hadn’t noticed how many dive shops there were which puzzles H. Why are there so many when we are nowhere near a place to scuba dive?

I have never wanted to scuba dive and watching this course progress I wanted to do it even less. It was a two-week course that had book work and then practice in a swimming pool and then they were doing an actual dive to get the sign off on their certification. Where in Utah would this happen? Read on.

First after I signed her up at this dive shop I was told (I swear!) that class began Tuesday night at 7pm but to get there about 15 minutes early because there was paperwork. Well, I misjudged traffic and got her there promptly at 7 which I was a bit embarrassed about until A told me that class actually began at 6:30 meaning we were 45 minutes late. Then I was humiliated. The second night I was told by the instructor to pick her up at 9:45 only to arrive then and A tell me that class had been over for 25 minutes. I hadn’t even looked at my phone. Great, I’d become that parent. The next week I asked H to take her because I just couldn’t face the instructor.

I don’t think people are meant to go underwater and breathe. Here’s why, A would come home and say I need to get my fillings checked because my instructor says if there are air pockets in them my teeth could crack from pressure during the dive, or my ears won’t clear and that’s a bad thing. My eardrums could be affected. Suddenly, we need a full body scan to uncover her health issues for a recreational activity?

So it came time to do the actual dive which takes place at The Crater about 45 minutes away. Really cool. It’s also a place for mineral baths and the resort around it really reminded me of Germany. Funny, Europeans always make fun of Americans for going to McDonalds when they are abroad or looking for other American things. They are just as bad! I heard lots of foreign accents and languages at The Crater. In fact, as I was sitting in the car reading waiting for A to finish, I looked back to the entrance of the crater and there was a man and woman walking out of the crater as if they’d just finished a mineral soak. The man took off his towel and was walking in the resort completely naked. Something tells me he wasn’t American.

In the end, she’s certified and I’m glad I won’t be there to witness her doing this in a real life setting because it scares the heck out of me.