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I sometimes wonder if I was meant to dive, especially after the last 2 dives I had. I have been trying to finish my advanced certification and have had problems on the last 2 attempts to get my card. The first dive was about 3 weeks ago and was a boat dive off of the Monterey coast at a location called the Metridian field. There was >4' vis and the surface had 4-5' chop. My instructor could not equalize his ears and kept submerging and surfacing trying to work it out and my husband was underweighted and couldn't get under the surface without bobbing back up so he had to scrub the dive. I could only do 1 of the 2 dives I needed because when I got back on the boat I got sea sick for the first time in 20 years. That sucked!
The second was this last weekend at Monterey's Breakwater. First, my husband had forgotten to toothpaste his goggles and they kept fogging up and he had to use kelp to scrub them out. It worked pretty well! We were trying out rented back inflate BC's to see if they would be preferable to the ones we already own which was a mistake. My husband had the shoulder purge valve stick open and the dive instructor had to use his scissors to get it to close. Then when he pulled his rear bottom purge it came off in his hand! It turned out the threads were stripped and it wouldn't stay screwed on. He swam back in at that point just when I discovered my BC wouldn't deflate all the way and I couldn't stay underwater. He was too far away to hear my underwater alarm by this point and I had to scrub my last advanced cert dive yet again!
If you have the option to try out new or rented equipment, be sure to check it out through and through before going out so you don't have to miss a dive due to faulty equipment or have an emergency that could have been avoided. Also, FYI, if you get sick while underwater it is possible to vomit through your regulator (yes, it's disgusting but you won't drown that way). Just be sure to clean it VERY WELL when you are done with the dive! Stomach acid is very corrossive
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