like NASCAR, but with drowning

I am now a certified APBA boat racer.

Two weekends ago my family went to Annapolis to get capsule-trained, and my stepdad, stepbrother, and i are now official. Woohoo!

Training consists of, first, learning how to breathe through a regulator, and learning the hand signal for "i'm upside down in the mud and would like some oxygen, thanks" (your hands make a triangle above your mouth).

Then, essentially, i got stuffed into a tiny capsule, wearing a regulator and a helmet, but my nose and eyes weren't covered. They strapped me into a five-point harness, stuck on a steering wheel mock-up, and closed the hatch.

Then they flipped the capsule over. So i'm dangling upside-down in this teensy hatch, in a pool, and water goes up my nose, and i can't see anything, and all i could think was, Breathe in. Breathe out. I couldn't consciously think of the tasks i needed to perform to escape, but somehow, i managed, in the proper order, to do the following (relying on touch alone):

1) Pull the hatch cord and push up (down), opening the hatch.
2) Reach through the steering wheel, squeeze its collar, pull it off, and drop it.
3) Find the zipper of the racing suit, slide the right hand down, find the harness buckle and release it.
4) Push the shoulder harnesses off.
5) Pull myself out of the harness and forward-roll out of it, keeping my legs straight so as not to get massively entangled in cords and wiring.

...success!!