Sat, May 19, 2018 Dives: 1 Bottom Time: 13 minutes Max Depth: 61-70ft/19-21m Avg Viz: 71-80ft/22-24m Water Temp: 81-85°F/27-29°C Weight: 10 Exposure Suit: Fullsuit - 3/2 (Gloves, Boots) Tank Type: AL - 80cf/11L Gas Type: Air Dive Buddy:   Diana Dafler, Alex Duffy, Mike Binion, Karen Rhienhart Mermaid’s Lair aka Mermaid lair Ambergris Caye, Belize Water Type: Salt Entry Type: Boat

Day 1 Dive 1:
First open water dive ever. First day of OW cert completion.

Was a neat place but my dive went terrible.
Brought my 3/2 suit as I wasnt sure if I would need it, wore it to break it in. Took about a 10 minute boat ride outside the reef to get there. Heat from suit and rolling high waves were making me nauseous. Finally got a step into water and mouthpiece separated from reg somehow even though my hand was over it(no zip tie), ended up ingesting a lot of sea water. After choking on that and getting more inflated couldnt find my octo, flipped to snorkel while I got my second stage back together. After getting everything ready again still getting more nauseous from the waves, deflated and tried to sink but couldnt.. not enough weight. Tried a few shallow breaths to see if I could slip under slowly and it didnt work so I ended up having to swim down. By the time I got to bottom and met up with group I had already burned through 1500PSI.

Short bottom time, didnt get to see a whole lot, and was first one back up. As soon as I hit surface my first breath was all exhaust fumes from boat and up-came all the salt water from earlier. Not a good start for my open water dive, but lots of lessons learned.

This shouldn’t have been the first place we went for OW cert conditioning. After this we went to Mexico Rocks and that place was perfect for just getting used to equipment and everything.