When Scuba turns into Shoe Shopping

I've written a few times about how we're working to get Scuba certified.  Getting certified involves a lot of things.  You have to read the book.  There's a DVD you have to watch.  You have to pass a written test in a classroom setting.  You have to pass off skills in the pool, and eventually you have to pass off skills in a real open water environment.  I expected all of those things going into it.

What I didn't expect was shopping.  And not just any shopping.  That's right.  It involved shoe shopping.  It seems my wife is very sneaky.  Regardless of what we're doing, she somehow manages to make it about shoes.

So here's the story.  We have a set of snorkeling equipment that we bought from Costco.  (And snorkeling equipment turns out to be a subset of what you need to go diving.)  There's nothing wrong with the Costco equipment, but it's the cheap stuff that will meet minimal functional specifications for snorkeling.  However, when we were in Hawaii we found that the fins weren't incredibly effective for swimming and the mask had a tendency to leak.

So we decided that if we were going to get into diving, we should get some new equipment.

We went to the dive shop, fully intending to buy masks, fins, snorkels, and the like.  But before I knew it I was trying on shoes.  How did that even happen?

Of course, Robyn was in her element trying on shoes.

Don't get me wrong, our cute little booties will be very functional when we're getting into colder water or entering on rocky beaches.  I'm glad we got them.  I'm just trying to figure out if Robyn had the whole shoe shopping thing all planned out beforehand.  She knows I hate shoe shopping, but that I'll do it for an awesome cause like diving.

She's good.  She's real good.

My excellent bootie with my fins in the background.

Of course, we got all our basic gear.  (We didn't buy air tanks or regulators, we're not that hardcore yet.  Just fins, mask, booties, snorkel.)

Robyn enjoyed trying on shoes.  I enjoyed trying on masks.

These were the two finalists, but the black was more comfortable.

But look how good I look all decked out.

We tried out our new gear on our second Scuba class in the pool.  I'm not gonna lie, my new fins definitely propel me much better than the old ones.

Not to mention, we both look super snazzy in the water.

Guess who else looks pretty snazzy?  The Watsons did some shopping as well.

If you can't tell which ones are Watsons, just look for the ones slightly less precious than me.

The best news?  We passed off all of our basic skills.   I can now take off my mask under water, put it back on and clear it of water.  I also know what it feels like if my air runs out (I don't like it) and I can even share air with my buddy.  All of this means we've graduated from the pool.  Our next stop is a real open water dive at the Crater in Midway.

We're gonna look super snazzy at the Crater.