Hand signals

“Ok, little dude, what's the sign for 'ok'?”

I was pretty sure the guide wasn't talking to me. My son squinted up and made the universal “OK” sign with his index finger and thumb. He even placed it on his chest like we'd taught him.

“Good job, dude. Up?”

He gave a thumbs up, then a thumbs down before the guide finished asking about the sign to go down.

This was all in preparation for our first snuba dive. My son still has a few years before he can get certified to scuba dive and is just old enough to snuba. With twenty feet being the deepest you can go, we thought this would be perfect.

I knew he was excited the night before because he was quiet. So, being his dive partner for the snuba, we had a little talk.

“Daddy, what if we sit on a crab?”

“We won't.”

“What about a stingray? You said we might sit in the sand.”

“I'll look before we sit and make sure there are no stingrays or crabs, ok?”

That got a solemn nod.

“What are you looking forward to seeing the most?”

“A trumpet fish.” This had been high on his list for the past three days. His mother and sister had seen one and he missed it. Now, it was a burning need. Whenever anything long was under the water, “Is that a trumpet fish?”

“No, that's a piece of seaweed.”

So, I told him we would look for one. I was a little nervous because I had not seen one yet either. I wasn't going to tell my wife, who had seen, according to her count, thousands of trumpet fish (From her reported sightings, only trumpet fish lived in the waters off Saint Croix.), that she might be confusing trumpet fish with seaweeds...

We got to Cane Bay a few minutes early and both kids raced to the waves in order to conserve his energy for the snuba dive. When the guide was ready, my son and I grabbed our masks and fins and sat down for the pre-dive briefing.

I know I've given him several lectures and he has never listened as intently as his did for those twenty minutes. We learned about the hand signs, clearing your ears and breathing. “What's the most important thing to remember?” the guide asked.

I didn't know there was going to be a pop quiz. Apparently, neither did the other two adults. We all hemmed and hawed for a moment before my son pipped up, “Always breathe.” I was going to go with keep clearing your ears.

“Good job, little dude.” the guide said.

One of the hand signs we learned was, if the guide had to go up and check on someone or something, he would make the “safe” sign from baseball, then make a hachette sign of the direction we were supposed to keep going.

With the briefing done, we entered the water. I remember my first time breathing from a regulator underwater and figured it would take several minutes for my son to get used to it. He put the regulator in his mouth and plopped his face underwater... and stayed there, bubbles coming up perfectly.

With fins on, masks and regulators, we started our first snuba dive. We made it out to about ten feet deep and came to large frond under water. I wanted him to see it up close, so, we dove towards it. Then, I saw a fish among the branches and pointed it out. My son saw his first ever trumpet fish. (I still don't think the entire fish population here is trumpet fish like my wife does...)

During the dive, he saw the trumpet fish, three squid and every other fish he'd seen while snorkeling. But now, he was able to see them close and take his time. His first complete sentence when we got back to the beach was, “Can we go again tomorrow?”

Afterward, we snorkeled out over the reefs we'd just snuba-ed. The first time I saw his hand hatchet-chop in front of my mask, I thought he was just swimming. A second later, his little hand was right in front of my mask, his thumb pointing up in, what can only be described as, an Hitlerian fashion. I lifted my head and was greeted with a hatchet chop towards the beach. “That way.”

For the next twenty minutes, whenever I stopped or turned to follow a fish, he hand chopped in front of my face to make sure I kept on track.

Now, I've got my wife keeping on track above the water, my daughter supplying a free soundtrack under water and my son making sure I know exactly how to get back to the shore so it can all be repeated. I am going to enjoy going back to work after this vacation.