Dutch Springs is an abandoned quarry that has been made into a water park/scuba diving site. The water park is a lot of fun if you have children to enjoy it with, which I have.

The scuba diving section is even better. They have boats, a school bus, a Sikorsky H-37 helicopter, a Cessna airplane, a trolley car, and much more submerged for divers to explore.

Let me start by describing our dive attire for the next few lessons.

It is the end of August. We live in Northeastern Pennsylvania where the average temperature at the end of August is between 75 and 85 degrees, still summer weather. We have our swimsuits on under our shorts.

We arrive at Lehigh Valley Dive Center to pick up our dive gear, which included wetsuits, BC’s, tanks, dive masks, regulators, dive hood, and gloves. These are not your average wetsuits. These are 10mm wetsuits. They are thick.

Along with this wetsuit we have to wear a hood and gloves because the average bottom temperature in the quarry is fifty degrees.

Now, I’m thinking…how can anyone dive with a hood and gloves on?? I will tell you, I was so thankful that we had those items because the water was COLD. I’m not talking seventy degrees…I’m talking sixty degrees and below.

The temperature at fifty feet below the surface was between forty-five and fifty degrees fahrenheit. It was cold!! You kind of forget about the water temperature when you’re swimming around doing the exercises, but when you have a second to think about what is happening, you are reminded of the water temp.

For the next five days, Myles and I returned to Dutch Springs to continue our dive lessons. We swam around to different parts of the quarry where they have the submerged attractions. I went into the school bus and had a picture taken. We saw an airplane, a boat, and the Sikorsky helicopter. Such a great experience!

One of the last exercises we had to do was learn how to rescue a diver that was unconscious and lying at the bottom of the quarry. We had to straddle the person over their tank and slowly ascend to the surface, not forgetting the three minute safety stop.

Steve, our instructor, was our victim. As he laid on the sand I straddled his tank and was about to slowly add air to his BC when I see something off to the side. It’s a fish about five inches from me just staring at us.

I tapped Steve on the shoulder to get his attention, he looked the wrong way, I laughed out loud.

I grabbed Steve’s head and turned him in the right direction to see this fish. It just stayed there staring at us. We both laughed. Steve picked up something from the sand and fed it to the fish. I thought, “WOW, that’s cool!”  He then swooshed it away and we continued the lesson. I was able to successfully ascend with my victim and passed the exercise.

We finished our certification in two weeks because we were going to Cancun the following week. We passed with flying colors.

We were now NAUI (National Association of Underwater Instructors) certified beginner scuba divers. I was in my glory! I couldn’t wait to dive in Cancun. I was so excited!!

** Featured photo courtesy of Dutch Springs