This trip took students to a whole new world!!! Well maybe that’s a little bit of an exaggeration as students spent their time learning to scuba dive at MRC, but it definitely opened their eyes to a brand new experience. Students learnt about various pieces of dive equipment, and important safety considerations when it comes to using their safety equipment and regulating pressure while underwater. It’s amazing how using scuba diving equipment can open up a whole new world of experiences, even in something as mundane as a public pool! Extreme Outdoor Education students (and anyone else who wants to) leave a 100 word response below.
Mouat Extreme Outdoor Education 
Scuba diving was cool. Unfortunately my gear malfunctioned and I had to use my instructor’s own gear, but I still got to do it. It was amazing and weird at the same time. Once under the surface of the water, it felt that I wasn’t getting enough oxygen, but felt no need to breathe more. Halfway through I got a dry throat from breathing the air from the tank. I had a lot of fun goofing off in the water. Eventually I got spacey and lost track of time and my surroundings, but I think we all did that. If wasn’t uncommon to bump into others while swimming in such a compact place. I would recommend to anyone interested to give it a go. 10/10
If I were to be asked by someone if I would recommend this kind of trip to them I would follow them up with this question have you done scuba diving? If they were to say no, I would then tell them to look through the documentation required to go on this trip and if there are no problems in that regard then yes, if they were to tell me that they have gone scuba diving before. I would then respond to them asking what level of certification do you have. As if they have obtained a high level of certification and they are capable of doing thing like open water scuba diving I would tell them no, while if they had a low and limited level of certification I would tell them yes. This mainly boils down to how this trip focuses on actually obtaining knowledge required to do scuba diving way more than actually doing scuba diving when the scuba diving was actually done it was only in a pool rather than in an ocean. I get that this was a stylistic decision that was made based upon how expensive it is actually obtaining the knowledge to do open water scuba diving and there were certainly people who benefited from this including myself, but i really do think that it needs to be expressed that this trip is not meant for those who have obtained high levels of certification.
This trip the outdoor extreme class walked to the MRC pool for a lesson on the basics of diving. We did a small classroom session to learn a little bit about dive safety. After our classroom session we went to the pool. They taught us how to put on and use the dive gear. We were shown different tools that they use to keep themselves safe. Then we finally got to try it ourselves. Floating weightlessly under water was a very cool experience that I would recommend for anybody. This trip was one of my favorites and required no bussing to and from the trip
Scuba diving was a great experience and I learned a lot! Before we went straight into action at MRC, we learnt about the dos and don’ts of scuba diving, as well as the equipment used and some important terms. The number one rule of scuba diving was, breathe in, breath out, repeat, and do not hold your breath! I learnt about scuba diving terminology such as BCD, equalization, bends and more. On top of that I learnt about the scuba tank,buoyancy vest,and regulator, how they all work and their purposes. After the short lesson, we headed down to MRC, changed, and geared up in our scuba diving equipment. We all got into groups of 4 and were taught by instructors how to use our buoyancy vests and regulators. In no time everyone was swimming around in the deep end, diving down to retrieve hockey pucks and playing pass with golf balls. I had the time of my life. The feeling of breathing underwater is indescribable. This was such an amazing opportunity and has left me wanting to get my official licence so I can go diving in open waters.
I’m glad you took so much away from this experience. It’s crazy how even a pool can be so different when experienced from a new perspective!
On this trip I learnt how to use the scuba equipment and what every part of it does. I learnt that scuba is harder than it looks and takes time and practice. There are a lot of safety precautions with scuba and it can be danger.
Good start but what was the highlight (or lowlight) of the trip for you?
At the start of the scuba diving trip, I was excited to get going. When the instructor told us that if we hold our breath our lungs would explode and if we didn’t equalize our ears our eardrums could burst, suddenly, the trip seemed a lot less appealing. After putting on our equipment which weighed about as much as I thought, we got into the water. Being in the shallow water sucked because my tank would tilt on my back. Once we got into the deep end it was peaceful, all I heard was my own breathing and the bubbles from my tank. It’s funny that the hardest thing to do during the trip was remembering to breathe, It’s such a normal thing to do but when you’re told to do it or you die you have to consciously remember to not hold your breath and keep breathing. I enjoyed this trip and learned a lot about how the equipment works, I would be interested in getting a Scuba certification in the future.
I know exactly what you mean-I caught myself forgetting to breathe which is crazy considering it’s something that comes so naturally normally.
I’ve always wanted to go scuba diving sometime in my life but it was always ridiculously expensive. But when I saw that scuba diving was one of the trips I was excited. It was tons of fun just learning about it, about the water pressure, the tanks, and equalization. It was all very interesting to me, and of course the most fun part was actually going into the water. Being able to breath underwater was amazing, and swimming around with my friends. Except Alex was afraid that his lungs would explode if he forgot to breath and Kentaro couldn’t equalize his ears so he was near the top the whole time.
I’m glad that you got the chance to experience this activity, and that Alex’s lungs didn’t explode.
My first time scuba diving was amazing! It’s a surreal experience and I think everyone should get a chance to do it. At the start, during the safety speech, they list all the things that could go wrong so it does seem kinda scary, but once you get in the water it’s not that bad. The gear weighs a fair bit out of the water (to be expected) but once you get into the pool you don’t really notice it. I had some trouble equalizing my ears so I didn’t get to spend as much time in the deep water as I would have liked to, but it was still pretty awesome.
Definitely an experience that I want to expand on personally in the future…the pool was fun, imagine what the ocean would be like!
This evening we went scuba diving. I found this to be an amazing and educational experience. We not only dove for the first time, but we also learnt a lot about the history and the workings of scuba diving. For the first hour we had a classroom about all of the gear and how it worked. We also went over the safety and rules for scuba diving. I learned that I am able to regulate my own ear pressure and not panic when something goes wrong. At one point my respirator got knocked out and I found I was able to solve the problem without panicking and continue on with this amazing experience.
I agree. I thought there was a lot of really useful information that we learnt during this experience. I look forward to completing the full course some day!
It was my very first time going scuba diving at MRC and I found it to be so much fun and I also learned a lot too. It was such a great experience for me and for the whole class swell. When the instructor was explaining all of the things that could go wrong, I started to really panic because I was scared that I was going to do something wrong and then mess something up. It scared me a bit but then the instructor told me to breath, and that I would be okay. Right when I got into the water I immediatly loved it. I loved going into the deep end with everyone and just swimming everywhere and not having to go up for air every second because I couldn’t breath. I would absoulety love to do it again and maybe try it out in the ocean one day.
I think a healthy level of fear is good sometimes as it causes us to focus our attention to make sure we stay safe.
Scuba diving was a new thing that I’ve wanted to do even since I went to Hawaii a couple years back. Before walking to MRC we learnt about scuba diving and what do and don’t do when get to MRC as well as the equipment used and important terms and hand signals. The number one rule of scuba diving was to breathe in and breath out which I found very hard at the start because I’m so used to normal swimming. Another thing I learnt about scuba diving terminology like equalization, BDC and a couple more On top of that I learnt how scuba tank, buoyancy vest, regulator and how they work. After the lesson, we walked down to MRC, changed, and slowly got into the scuba gear. We all got into groups and went over how to use all of the equipment. Within 10 minutes after getting in the water everyone was swimming around, playing with toys that they brought like golf balls and hockey pucks. It was super fun but I felt it was cut a bit short and I wish we had more time in the water. I’m happy I got to take a short look of what scuba diving is about and learnt the basics. I would recommend it to anyone who hasn’t done it before because it is a crazy experience that is like nothing else
What I learned doing scuba diving in the MRC pool is actually how scuba gear works. I always just thought that you got oxygen from from the tank and that’s it, I mean you do but there’s a lot more to it like several different tubes, a flotation device, relieving pressure from you ears etc. I learned that you have to have a lot of experience if you want to scuba dive deep or for a longer amount of time. Also that there is a certain breathing pattern, how much oxygen can fit into a tank, how you can put a gel on your goggles to keep them from fogging up while breathing and how there’s more pressure on your body as you go deeper down into the water. Also, NEVER HOLD YOUR BREATH.
What I learned about myself is that my throat gets dry very easily. I had to resurface much more that the other people because my throat would get dry just from breathing a lot, and you can’t really swallow moisten your throat because you have to keep the oxygen tube in you mouth. I also learned that my ears are kinda hard to regulate because every time I’d plug my nose and breath my ears would not pop.
I wish that I could spend a little more time in the water than resurfacing. Maybe it was just the inexperience that kept me from popping my ears or keeping my mouth moist but you can’t really have much experience on your first time.
How I would prepare differently next time is just that maybe wear a shirt, not because of any insecurities its just that the big backpack with the weights rubbed on my shoulder and back a lot and it was kinda uncomfortable while i was swimming.
Definitely a lot going on with this sport and something you need to ease into slowly and gain experience before you go into open water.
I was so exited to do scuba diving for the first time the idea of scuba diving always interested me. I learnt so much on this trip because it was completely new. i learnt all about how to breathe and the names of all the different types of scuba equipment. after that, we walked to the pool and put on the equipment. i was pretty nervous right before because the explanation made it sound scary. I also learnt a lot about myself, i learnt that i love scuba diving a lot more than i thought i would and in the future i might even try doing it in the ocean. There is only one thing that i wish had gone differently is i wish i brought food for after because i was starving after so next time i’m going by to pack a big lunch but other than that this was one of my favourite trips yet!
I couldn’t agree more. This was something new for me and definitely something that I look forward to learning more about and trying again, hopefully next time in open water.
Learning how to Scuba dive was such an enjoyable experience for me. I learned how dangerous it is when you don’t pop your ears when you go in the water when they feel weird. I also learned that I love to go scuba diving because it was really fun and relaxing. I didn’t talk, I just swam underwater. The gear was heavy when you step out of the water and it was nice and light when I was just swimming around which I liked. Going swimming always makes me hungry afterwards so I wish that I brought more food to eat. This was a very fun trip and I hope to go scuba diving again one day
Might have been difficult to talk underwater 🙂 There is definitely a skill to doing this sport and I understand why they want you to complete a comprehensive course before allowing you to dive in the open water.