Preparing For Our First Dives Of The Season

Our first dives of the season are scheduled for next week. I'm so excited. This will be my first time in the water since our Jamaica honeymoon last September and my foot reconstruction surgery this past December.
I pride myself on being a safe diver. That said I've made it a practice to always test my gear before I getting back in the water after being out for several months.

My goal is to know that I can rely on everything to work before I have to depend on it in the ocean. To do this, Robert and I rented a tank from our friends at Charleston Scuba and took it, along with our gear, to our community to pool.

Thankfully after testing everything, we can say that our gear is in good working order. Although, I really would like to get a longer BCD inflator hose put on my octo. Hopefully we'll have time to do that when we stop by Diver's Direct down in Florida.

While we were at the pool we practiced my entry in and out of the water. Since I'm not allowed to put the weight of my gear on my newly reconstructed foot, we had to be creative.

The first thing I did was call Jupiter Dive Center to see if they would accommodate my need. They said they would seat me at the very back of the boat so I can enter the water easily.

During our practice session at the pool, we discovered that the best way for me to enter the water for this particular dive is somewhat unorthodox. Since this will be a drift dive where everyone goes down at once, putting my gear on in the water is way too time consuming. But if I sit on the back platform of the boat -- near the ladder -- with my fins in the water, I can quickly put my BCD and tank on and fall mask first into the ocean.

We practiced this at the pool and it worked well. Hopefully it will do the same out on the ocean.

So... four dives are planned for the beginning of next week. My diving gear is checked out and ready. I just need to get my checklist, pack my gear bag, get my camera rig charged and ready to go and make sure I have my diving certification cards.

I'm looking forward to this. It has been far too long.