Early in
the summer I caught wind of an introductory SCUBA course taught through the
Milwaukee Recreation Department. The age and swim ability requirements limited
it to YaYa alone, and I quickly signed her up.
The class
was offered at a high school on the west side and taught by a guy who had been
a certified instructor since before I was born - literally. It was a three hour
class, and it began with a long recitation of the waiver form, followed by a
quick quiz. Once YaYa passed that (easy peezy lemon sqeezy for my gal) she was
fitted with fins and a tank and sent into the water.
Intitially
there were a lot of problems with her googles, so many that I secretly
questioned if she was just scared and didn't want to do this, but as usual I
was wrong.
It turns out none of the goggles were small enough for the two kids
in the class, and both girls had the same trouble. They worked through it, but
the delay in getting the gear fit meant YaYa and her newfound friend were a
litte behind the rest of the class. This worked out to their benefit, as the
instructor's assitant was assigned to just the two of them, giving them
essentially a semi-private class.
Like
reading, the class was far more exciting to DO than to watch. For me it meant
three hours of reading my Nook and yawning in a humid pool room. For YaYa, it
was three hours of learning and excitement.
By the
end of the class YaYa was spending extended amounts of time swimming along the
pool bottom, and as a result of the class she will be able to go SCUBA diving
with a professional with no additional training beyond a quick 1-2-3 refresher.
It is a
class I will certainly sign the other kids up for when they are old enough, and
I may sign YaYa up for the fulll course if the funds (and time) become
available.
The best moment of the day? When it was over YaYa, who knew I'd been the sole impetus on this activity, offered a sincere 'thank you' and told me it had been fun. Awwww :)
