Ok, so those that have been following along know that I had to really work this last weekend to get my ears to clear because of this stupid cold I've got in my sinus'. Well today i went to see my family doctor because it felt like I had a blockage or build-up in my ear, nothing too serious, I've had it before and the doctor just rinses the ear with warm water and presto everything is good. So I went to see him today to get my ear flushed to have him let me know that in fact, I had no blockage, the reason my ear feels funny is that I have a collapsed ear drum!
Apparently when I was pushing to clear my ears under water I moved the "gunk" (big medical term) through my sinuses and into my ear canal (no idea how everything in there connects but somehow apparently it does) and when my eardrums collapsed to equalize the pressure of being under water, the one stuck in place. So even when i had ascended and dried off and returned home, my ear never re-equalized leaving me unable to hear in one ear for a while.
According to the doctor, my ear should clear itself in about 2 - 4 weeks, if it doesn't then an ENT specialist will need to insert tubes which will take me out of diving for another 8 - 10 weeks. Let's just all hope and pray my ears get better and no tubes are needed. Plus I have Search and Recovery coming up in a couple weeks.
Fingers crossed!
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Diving the Marker and Experiencing The Cut!
Ok.. so you remember my "little" problem yesterday with getting me ears to clear? Well, it happened again today!
Much like yesterday this day started out amazing, it was a cool crisp morning, still some snow on the ground, but not enough to make driving or gearing up an issue. We met early as usual and proceeded to get our kits put together. A short discussion on today's dive to 130 feet (the deepest I have ever been) and the few skills we will review at depth. Suits on, kits fastened up, gear clipped in place and we were off to the water. Whytecliff is a great place to dive for the many different levels of divers due to it's gradual bottom, mixed ocean life, walls and last but not least depth! But for us to fully enjoy the depth we must be out far enough, which means a good surface swim. Today for dive one, we headed to the day marker. Now for those of you who have been following my blog and have read Seals to Emergencies you will understand why I am a little apprehensive about being out at the day marker on Whitecliff and even more so when the plan is to descend down to beyond where she was brought up from. Needless to say I am writing this now so I made it... yeah me!...lol. So after grouping on the surface, not an easy task with the waves and surf pushing you all over the place, we started our descent, and once again on hitting around the 20 foot mark, the ear just wouldn't clear. So a short ascent up a few feet and a few more, some pushing and struggling and presto the slow relief of my ear starting to pressurize for the dive. Yeah, time to catch up with Roger and my dive partner, hit our 130 mark and begin to review a few navigation skills and a short tour. To finish today's dive Roger has us practicing a new skill, this is where as you approach or hit your 15 foot safety stop, you release your surface marker (attached to your reel) so that it hits the surface an notifies (typically your dive boat) that you are in your 3 minute safety stop. This is particularly useful as mentioned for boat dives, as you are able to give the boat a 3 minute heads up of where you are going to be surfacing so that they can be there to pick you up. This is not a difficult skill, just one that is good to practice, you don't want your line held too tight as it can actually pull you to the surface if you are not careful, and you don't want to leave the line spooling after it reaches the surface or you'll end up having the line drop below you or the marker drift away from your actual ascent point. Ours comes off without a hitch and we make our final ascent, and our surface swim back to enjoy some beverages, and food during our 90 minute surface interval required for our deep dives.
Bellies full, hands warmed up and kits strapped back into place it's time for dive number 4 and our last one required for certification as a Deep Diver. For this dive Roger and my dive partner are going to show me "The Cut". There is a decent hike to get to the cut and as we found when we got to the waters edge, there is also a lot of debris to get past before you can move into the water. This is only further complicated by the surf that comes in to the very narrow "Cut" and makes it difficult to get your fins on. So... after carrying all our gear along what could laughably be referred to as a goat path and climbing over trees and debris on the shore and fighting to get our fins on while time the waves, we are finally ready to get started. It takes only a few steps before you are well over your head in the sudden drop of the cut and we start our descent only to again have my ears give me issues.... So back over to the wall, raise up a bit, a couple good pushes and one big whoosh and my ear is clear. Pushing off the wall and following Roger and my dive partner down through the cut we are signaled by another diver just below us. Dropping to see him, Roger signals back and forth and then signals for us to drop to the same level as this new diver who points out that there is an octopus, more closely described as a crack-topus, as you can only see an arm and part of an eye in the crack it calls home. Turning away from the octopus and working along the wall led by my Dive Partner we make the slow swim along the hidden edge opposite of the bay I am used to diving in and around the point to enter the bay covering the area that you don't normally see when you descend in the bay. Unfortunately my air consumption being what it is the dive is short as usual and we are unable to reach our initially planned objective of swimming all the way into the bay eliminating the long surface swim. So, alternatively we choose to surface swim back into the cut and climb back out that way, taking the hike and climbing over the long surface swim. The walks not too bad, even came across a dog that was not too happy to see three grown men dripping wet and dressed in dark rubbery material. So once again we were back at the vehicles, stripping off gear and packing it away. Looking forward to the next time the open water calls, and we are there to answer!
Much like yesterday this day started out amazing, it was a cool crisp morning, still some snow on the ground, but not enough to make driving or gearing up an issue. We met early as usual and proceeded to get our kits put together. A short discussion on today's dive to 130 feet (the deepest I have ever been) and the few skills we will review at depth. Suits on, kits fastened up, gear clipped in place and we were off to the water. Whytecliff is a great place to dive for the many different levels of divers due to it's gradual bottom, mixed ocean life, walls and last but not least depth! But for us to fully enjoy the depth we must be out far enough, which means a good surface swim. Today for dive one, we headed to the day marker. Now for those of you who have been following my blog and have read Seals to Emergencies you will understand why I am a little apprehensive about being out at the day marker on Whitecliff and even more so when the plan is to descend down to beyond where she was brought up from. Needless to say I am writing this now so I made it... yeah me!...lol. So after grouping on the surface, not an easy task with the waves and surf pushing you all over the place, we started our descent, and once again on hitting around the 20 foot mark, the ear just wouldn't clear. So a short ascent up a few feet and a few more, some pushing and struggling and presto the slow relief of my ear starting to pressurize for the dive. Yeah, time to catch up with Roger and my dive partner, hit our 130 mark and begin to review a few navigation skills and a short tour. To finish today's dive Roger has us practicing a new skill, this is where as you approach or hit your 15 foot safety stop, you release your surface marker (attached to your reel) so that it hits the surface an notifies (typically your dive boat) that you are in your 3 minute safety stop. This is particularly useful as mentioned for boat dives, as you are able to give the boat a 3 minute heads up of where you are going to be surfacing so that they can be there to pick you up. This is not a difficult skill, just one that is good to practice, you don't want your line held too tight as it can actually pull you to the surface if you are not careful, and you don't want to leave the line spooling after it reaches the surface or you'll end up having the line drop below you or the marker drift away from your actual ascent point. Ours comes off without a hitch and we make our final ascent, and our surface swim back to enjoy some beverages, and food during our 90 minute surface interval required for our deep dives.
Bellies full, hands warmed up and kits strapped back into place it's time for dive number 4 and our last one required for certification as a Deep Diver. For this dive Roger and my dive partner are going to show me "The Cut". There is a decent hike to get to the cut and as we found when we got to the waters edge, there is also a lot of debris to get past before you can move into the water. This is only further complicated by the surf that comes in to the very narrow "Cut" and makes it difficult to get your fins on. So... after carrying all our gear along what could laughably be referred to as a goat path and climbing over trees and debris on the shore and fighting to get our fins on while time the waves, we are finally ready to get started. It takes only a few steps before you are well over your head in the sudden drop of the cut and we start our descent only to again have my ears give me issues.... So back over to the wall, raise up a bit, a couple good pushes and one big whoosh and my ear is clear. Pushing off the wall and following Roger and my dive partner down through the cut we are signaled by another diver just below us. Dropping to see him, Roger signals back and forth and then signals for us to drop to the same level as this new diver who points out that there is an octopus, more closely described as a crack-topus, as you can only see an arm and part of an eye in the crack it calls home. Turning away from the octopus and working along the wall led by my Dive Partner we make the slow swim along the hidden edge opposite of the bay I am used to diving in and around the point to enter the bay covering the area that you don't normally see when you descend in the bay. Unfortunately my air consumption being what it is the dive is short as usual and we are unable to reach our initially planned objective of swimming all the way into the bay eliminating the long surface swim. So, alternatively we choose to surface swim back into the cut and climb back out that way, taking the hike and climbing over the long surface swim. The walks not too bad, even came across a dog that was not too happy to see three grown men dripping wet and dressed in dark rubbery material. So once again we were back at the vehicles, stripping off gear and packing it away. Looking forward to the next time the open water calls, and we are there to answer!
Saturday, November 20, 2010
"I'm Diving in the Snow, Just Diving in the Snow, What a Glorious Feeling, I'm Happy Again!"
My apologies to Mr Gene Kelly for killing his song but this is what I was up to earlier today. Last night brought in a few inches of snow and this morning we were scheduled for day one of Deep Diving with Mr Roger K.L. Fordham, Master Scuba Diver Trainer with Ocean Pro Divers. Last night he had messaged to advise that much like the postal service we were going regardless of weather, so when my alarm rang just after 5:00 am and I managed to crawl out of bed I knew it was going to be an interesting day. Grabbing my gear, lunch and a coffee and dressed in warm undergarments it was time to make my way through the snow and clear the van for my drive up to Whytecliff.Park.
Fortunately my dive partner and Roger are like me and like to get going early in the morning so that you can enjoy your dives and still get home at a reasonable time and still have your afternoon free. So by just after 7:00 am the three of us were gearing up and reviewing the dives for the day. By shortly after 8:00 we are headed to the water and excited about the first of our Deep Dives.
Dive one was a simple navigation objective, swim out, signal, descend, find a place on the wall roughly 100 feet down and then with my dive partner swim away from the wall in a straight line maintaining 100 feet for 20 kick cycles, stop, turn and return on the same path back to where Roger is waiting for us. Process sounds simple enough, only issue, I apparently developed a cold, not usually a problem if you are sitting at home wrapped up drinking tea and eating soup... but when you're intending on diving beyond 15 to 20 feet you need for your ears to be able to clear... mine were not so willing....lol I managed to get a little equalization during the first part of the descent but by the time I had hit around the 25 - 30 foot mark my ear was having none of it. Signaling to my partner and Roger, I ascended a few feet and a few feet more trying to get my ear to clear, nothing! After a few more tries Roger signaled me over to the rock face where I was able to hold on and with the rest of my body immobile and with a final attempt my ears did what they were supposed to and with a very satisfying feeling my ear cleared and equalized with the wonderful sound only a clearing ear can make...lol. With my ear cleared we pushed off the wall and proceeded with our decent to 100 feet. Man I love diving! So much to see! So much to do! So after a nice gentle decent to 100 feet we continue as planned, Roger in his spot on the face of the wall, my dive buddy and I hovering at 100 feet, take a compass bearing, and swim directly away from the wall. Out 20 kick cycles, counted by my buddy, turn and shift into position so i can count cycles while he leads the return swim back to Roger and we are right on the money. With this dives skill component completed it's time for some fun, Roger pulls out of his bag what was once a normal empty 2 liter pop bottle, it is now compressed like it was run over by a truck, all of the air is condensed and pulled the sides of the bottle in on itself. Next we look at some pieces of Neoprene, on the surface some are significantly thicker than others, but down at 100 feet they all appear to be almost exactly the same thickness, lastly Roger grabs an egg from his bag, a little tap tap with his dive knife, opens the shell and out floats a perfect yellow ball. After a few minutes of playing with the egg it's time to leave it for the fish and head off, then after a little exploring, some pictures, a little video we arrive back at 15 feet for our 3 minute safety stop.
After a short surface swim back in and a walk up to the vehicles, it's time to take off our kits, switch tanks and get some food in us while we review the plan for dive 2 and kill the balance of the hour and a half required surface interval to get all the excess nitrogen out of our system.
With the surface interval drawing to an end, Roger gets out his preschool shape sorter...
What a great toy... this little square with individual shapes teaches children to recognize shapes and then focus on finding the similar hole and then coordinate their motor skills to fit the piece in the hole! This has been used for decades with preschoolers, children with autism and now, Deep Divers!
You see, all gases have a narcotic effect to them and as you descend to 100+ feet nitrogen can build up and cause what is know as Nitrogen Narcosis, or you become what is usually called Narced. Being Narced is like being intoxicated, your motor skills suffer, you can get tunnel vision, have focusing issues, etc. So we try the shape sorter on the surface, then at 10 feet and then again at 100+ feet to see what the time difference is and see how bad, (if at all) we get Narced.
Once again, we put on our kits, make the walk to the beach and start our surface swim out to our first descent point. Sitting in about 10 - 12 feet of water we start attempt number one after just over a minute I am done and all pieces are in the cube. After my dive buddy finishes his turn it's time to head out to the depths. When we reach decent point 2 we exchange a signal and start our relaxed descent back down to 100 feet clearing and equalizing the whole way. This time is much easier and taking it really slow my ear stays clear and equalizes with only minor work. Once on the bottom it's time to play with the shape sorter again, Roger passes me the sorter, signals, starts the time and opens the bag, one after another the pieces come out of the bag, into my hand and flipping the sorter around each piece finds its home in under a minute. As it turns out, I am apparently faster at 100 feet then I am at 10 feet... wonder if that would work for my office stuff too...hmm...lol. After my partner has his turn, the toys are put away and it's off for a bit of a swim before heading back towards shore, our safety stop, surface swim, gear down and drive home. Another successful day of dive adventures, and half way to being a certified Deep Diver.
Fortunately my dive partner and Roger are like me and like to get going early in the morning so that you can enjoy your dives and still get home at a reasonable time and still have your afternoon free. So by just after 7:00 am the three of us were gearing up and reviewing the dives for the day. By shortly after 8:00 we are headed to the water and excited about the first of our Deep Dives.
Dive one was a simple navigation objective, swim out, signal, descend, find a place on the wall roughly 100 feet down and then with my dive partner swim away from the wall in a straight line maintaining 100 feet for 20 kick cycles, stop, turn and return on the same path back to where Roger is waiting for us. Process sounds simple enough, only issue, I apparently developed a cold, not usually a problem if you are sitting at home wrapped up drinking tea and eating soup... but when you're intending on diving beyond 15 to 20 feet you need for your ears to be able to clear... mine were not so willing....lol I managed to get a little equalization during the first part of the descent but by the time I had hit around the 25 - 30 foot mark my ear was having none of it. Signaling to my partner and Roger, I ascended a few feet and a few feet more trying to get my ear to clear, nothing! After a few more tries Roger signaled me over to the rock face where I was able to hold on and with the rest of my body immobile and with a final attempt my ears did what they were supposed to and with a very satisfying feeling my ear cleared and equalized with the wonderful sound only a clearing ear can make...lol. With my ear cleared we pushed off the wall and proceeded with our decent to 100 feet. Man I love diving! So much to see! So much to do! So after a nice gentle decent to 100 feet we continue as planned, Roger in his spot on the face of the wall, my dive buddy and I hovering at 100 feet, take a compass bearing, and swim directly away from the wall. Out 20 kick cycles, counted by my buddy, turn and shift into position so i can count cycles while he leads the return swim back to Roger and we are right on the money. With this dives skill component completed it's time for some fun, Roger pulls out of his bag what was once a normal empty 2 liter pop bottle, it is now compressed like it was run over by a truck, all of the air is condensed and pulled the sides of the bottle in on itself. Next we look at some pieces of Neoprene, on the surface some are significantly thicker than others, but down at 100 feet they all appear to be almost exactly the same thickness, lastly Roger grabs an egg from his bag, a little tap tap with his dive knife, opens the shell and out floats a perfect yellow ball. After a few minutes of playing with the egg it's time to leave it for the fish and head off, then after a little exploring, some pictures, a little video we arrive back at 15 feet for our 3 minute safety stop.
After a short surface swim back in and a walk up to the vehicles, it's time to take off our kits, switch tanks and get some food in us while we review the plan for dive 2 and kill the balance of the hour and a half required surface interval to get all the excess nitrogen out of our system.
With the surface interval drawing to an end, Roger gets out his preschool shape sorter...What a great toy... this little square with individual shapes teaches children to recognize shapes and then focus on finding the similar hole and then coordinate their motor skills to fit the piece in the hole! This has been used for decades with preschoolers, children with autism and now, Deep Divers!
You see, all gases have a narcotic effect to them and as you descend to 100+ feet nitrogen can build up and cause what is know as Nitrogen Narcosis, or you become what is usually called Narced. Being Narced is like being intoxicated, your motor skills suffer, you can get tunnel vision, have focusing issues, etc. So we try the shape sorter on the surface, then at 10 feet and then again at 100+ feet to see what the time difference is and see how bad, (if at all) we get Narced.
Once again, we put on our kits, make the walk to the beach and start our surface swim out to our first descent point. Sitting in about 10 - 12 feet of water we start attempt number one after just over a minute I am done and all pieces are in the cube. After my dive buddy finishes his turn it's time to head out to the depths. When we reach decent point 2 we exchange a signal and start our relaxed descent back down to 100 feet clearing and equalizing the whole way. This time is much easier and taking it really slow my ear stays clear and equalizes with only minor work. Once on the bottom it's time to play with the shape sorter again, Roger passes me the sorter, signals, starts the time and opens the bag, one after another the pieces come out of the bag, into my hand and flipping the sorter around each piece finds its home in under a minute. As it turns out, I am apparently faster at 100 feet then I am at 10 feet... wonder if that would work for my office stuff too...hmm...lol. After my partner has his turn, the toys are put away and it's off for a bit of a swim before heading back towards shore, our safety stop, surface swim, gear down and drive home. Another successful day of dive adventures, and half way to being a certified Deep Diver.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Checking Homework and Planning Dives
This will end up being a short addition to the blog posted earlier talking about my first recreational dive without instructor supervision. After our dive for the day we headed back to my place to move all the rental equipment from Scott's car to my van so that I could drive it out to the shop to return it and meet up with Master Scuba Diver Trainer Roger K.L. Fordham hoah! Every time I see Roger I feel like saluting, which as I later found out wouldn't be to far off as he serves in the military. I had met Roger previously and as mentioned in If it ain't broke don't fix it.... and from SORTED to super STARS and Shooting Pumpkins and Making Squares.....I had seen him at work as an instructor. Today, though would be my first day to actually start training under his supervision, I was excited and rightfully so. Roger was quick to get into the chapter reviews and alternating between me and my dive partner for this specialty we reviewed all the answers, made any corrections necessary (not that I had any errors..lol) and answered any questions anyone had. Next we moved on to planning our dives. Seeing as both my dive buddy and I had recently completed our Advanced Certification and on that you end up completing one of your required dives for your Deep Certification we only really had to complete 3 dives. But seeing as we were already going to be at the site, why not bring the second tank on both days and enjoy the extra dive. Roger, being very detailed, like a briefing prior to a military operation, walked us through the initial plan for when and where we were meeting, the planned dive profile for each of the 4 dives, and the skills required to complete the specialty. Needless to say I was excited to be prepping for these dives and can't believe that in less than a week I will be 130 feet deep in the open ocean. Apparently we get to play with kids toys and crack an egg under water... can't wait to see what that is like. Maybe I'll see if I can get a camera and try to capture some shots of what I see. Anyway, time to get back to the family, can't wait to let you all know what it's like at 130 feet, I'm sure it will be an experience.
Look Mommy, no hands!
I can remember thinking back to being a kid riding your bike or in the backyard on the swing, one of the biggest enjoyments (and sometimes scariest times) was when you did things on your own. You let go of Mom or Dad's hand, and stepped out to try something without them being right there. It was a nervous time but also one of realization that you have been taught well and will be ok. It was that way yesterday when Scott, the close friend of mine who got me into diving, was finally medically cleared to dive and as a result we headed up to Porteau Cove for a day of diving without instructors, my first ever.
Upon arrival, it was site check as usual, confirm water height, surface visibility, look for visible debris that would affect entry or surface swim, etc. Then discuss the dive plan, decide on our objective, review safety procedures and discuss signals. Then back to the vehicle to put together our kits, suit up, safety check (BWRAF) and then off to the water. Once in the water it's a gentle surface swim out to the Grant Hall marker and then time to descend.
This was the first time Scott and I got a chance to dive together and my first time with out the "training wheels." Our descent was almost picture perfect, per our plan visually follow the chain from the surface marker to the subsurface marker, then from there straight down to the deck of the Grant Hall. A short stop to look at the deck of the steel tug boat, scuttled in March of 1992 and fast approaching 20 years under water, then a quick signal and descend beside the tug to explore under the wreck. A calm swim around the bottom gives us a great view of the ship and and some of the amazing life that now calls this ship home. No octopus out, nor even signs that he had been around recently but lots of cracks and burrows under the ship that would make for some excellent dens. After completing our circle of the underside of the ship we ascended to take a little tour of the deck and exposed hold looking at the Sunstars and Decorator crabs that occupy the walls. Finishing our tour and having some air in reserve we decided to tour over towards the Centennial III, a steel dredge, and do a short explore of that wreck before a slow ascent, our safety stop and our final ascent to the surface.
It proved to be an amazing dive, great communication, good buoyancy control and perfectly safe. The only complication came when reaching the surface. You see as my computer switched over to count down my safety stop apparently it stopped communicating with my pressure transmitter so that when the safety stop time expired I had no indication as to what my remaining pressure was. Now this turned out not to be an issue as we were surfacing anyways, but this could have been a major issue had this happened at any kind of depth or during this upcoming weekends Deep Dive certification dives. Unfortunately what it did mean though is Scott and I had to call it a day after only one dive. It was a good dive and a great day and I can't wait to get back in the water with Scott again.
Upon arrival, it was site check as usual, confirm water height, surface visibility, look for visible debris that would affect entry or surface swim, etc. Then discuss the dive plan, decide on our objective, review safety procedures and discuss signals. Then back to the vehicle to put together our kits, suit up, safety check (BWRAF) and then off to the water. Once in the water it's a gentle surface swim out to the Grant Hall marker and then time to descend.
This was the first time Scott and I got a chance to dive together and my first time with out the "training wheels." Our descent was almost picture perfect, per our plan visually follow the chain from the surface marker to the subsurface marker, then from there straight down to the deck of the Grant Hall. A short stop to look at the deck of the steel tug boat, scuttled in March of 1992 and fast approaching 20 years under water, then a quick signal and descend beside the tug to explore under the wreck. A calm swim around the bottom gives us a great view of the ship and and some of the amazing life that now calls this ship home. No octopus out, nor even signs that he had been around recently but lots of cracks and burrows under the ship that would make for some excellent dens. After completing our circle of the underside of the ship we ascended to take a little tour of the deck and exposed hold looking at the Sunstars and Decorator crabs that occupy the walls. Finishing our tour and having some air in reserve we decided to tour over towards the Centennial III, a steel dredge, and do a short explore of that wreck before a slow ascent, our safety stop and our final ascent to the surface.
It proved to be an amazing dive, great communication, good buoyancy control and perfectly safe. The only complication came when reaching the surface. You see as my computer switched over to count down my safety stop apparently it stopped communicating with my pressure transmitter so that when the safety stop time expired I had no indication as to what my remaining pressure was. Now this turned out not to be an issue as we were surfacing anyways, but this could have been a major issue had this happened at any kind of depth or during this upcoming weekends Deep Dive certification dives. Unfortunately what it did mean though is Scott and I had to call it a day after only one dive. It was a good dive and a great day and I can't wait to get back in the water with Scott again.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Gimme eight....
Last night marked one of the most amazing experiences (so far) that I have had diving! On the final night of my Night Diving certification, and in preparing for my final dives I was, understandably, a bit nervous. The night was to consist of Night Navigation, essentially for dive one of the evening my dive buddy and I were to lead a tour out along Whytecliff towards the day marker, and at approximately half air, turn around and return back to the start, including the safety stop, with 500+ PSI in the tank. We almost made it... lol. We led the tour out, apparently swimming faster than normal, and covering a lot of ground, saw a ton of great stuff and even crossed over the point. In one area we even dropped below 70 feet (I later found out this was a no no as my buddy was not advanced certified yet...ooops). The swim back was good, but we went with the rock instead of over at one point which would have had me lead the group parallel to the beach and not towards it. Fortunately Dennis was there and corrected my trajectory pointing us back on track (Navigation has never been my strong suit). After our safety stop, and a nice controlled ascent the final 12 feet to the surface I finished with just under 400 PSI, not too bad, but not where I wanted to be.
Dive 2 on the night and #3 for the Night Diving course was where my life was changed forever... at least in the realm of diving. We were on our tour of Whytecliff, happily following Dennis out through the very dark water and just enjoying a leisurely swim when Dennis' light locked onto something on the ground I could not quite place. Following tight to his right side with my dive buddy slightly back and left of me and our DM just back of that we started a very controlled circling descent down to see what Dennis had locked in on. To my surprise, and apparently Dennis', the DM's and everyone else that has heard the story, there in the middle of the sandy bottom, moving at a leisurely pace, perhaps hunting, was a medium sized Pacific Octopus! Rarely if ever seen out of their dens at the best of times and almost never seen out in the open especially in local waters, this was an opportunity of a lifetime! Now unfortunately, due to this being a course, no one had their cameras and Dennis did not have his video camera as he was teaching, so no pictures or video footage to show but I can tell you it was SUPER cool!
After swimming with the octopus for a while and watching it chase fish, we carried on for a bit more of a tour and then headed back in for our final skill of the night, and the course.... the dreaded BLACK OUT!! You see I had heard about this skill in the book and in class, the idea being to mimic and light failure. Can you sit in the dark for a full 3 minutes, just sitting / laying there, and then in the dark, locate your back-up light, activate it and complete the dive with nothing but the back-up? When it came to the impending moment, Dennis swung around to face us, and killed his light. Following suit, we one by one shut off ours and with nothing but the phosphorescent and our tank lights we sat for 3 minutes... or nearly 3 minutes...lol. I was closest to Dennis, and after a minute or two your eyes really adjust to the low light and darkness and you can start to make out everything. At about this point Dennis got my attention and signaled to me, not totally understanding what he was looking for me to do, but knowing pretty much the only thing left to do was locate and use the back-up, I found mine and turned it on. Seeing the light, my dive buddy found and turned on his, followed by the DM and then Dennis. It wasn't until after the dive that Dennis let me know he was signaling for me to let him know what my air was at...lol, it was not time to turn on the lights....lol. With lights on, Dennis started a leisurely swim towards shore showing us some of the interesting items in the shallow water and before I knew it, my depth was 4 feet and I could stand and take my fins off. BEST WAY TO FINISH DIVES EVER!..lol.
Up to the vehicles for one last time, strip off the gear, load up and head home, a certified Night Diver.... yeah me!
Dive 2 on the night and #3 for the Night Diving course was where my life was changed forever... at least in the realm of diving. We were on our tour of Whytecliff, happily following Dennis out through the very dark water and just enjoying a leisurely swim when Dennis' light locked onto something on the ground I could not quite place. Following tight to his right side with my dive buddy slightly back and left of me and our DM just back of that we started a very controlled circling descent down to see what Dennis had locked in on. To my surprise, and apparently Dennis', the DM's and everyone else that has heard the story, there in the middle of the sandy bottom, moving at a leisurely pace, perhaps hunting, was a medium sized Pacific Octopus! Rarely if ever seen out of their dens at the best of times and almost never seen out in the open especially in local waters, this was an opportunity of a lifetime! Now unfortunately, due to this being a course, no one had their cameras and Dennis did not have his video camera as he was teaching, so no pictures or video footage to show but I can tell you it was SUPER cool!
After swimming with the octopus for a while and watching it chase fish, we carried on for a bit more of a tour and then headed back in for our final skill of the night, and the course.... the dreaded BLACK OUT!! You see I had heard about this skill in the book and in class, the idea being to mimic and light failure. Can you sit in the dark for a full 3 minutes, just sitting / laying there, and then in the dark, locate your back-up light, activate it and complete the dive with nothing but the back-up? When it came to the impending moment, Dennis swung around to face us, and killed his light. Following suit, we one by one shut off ours and with nothing but the phosphorescent and our tank lights we sat for 3 minutes... or nearly 3 minutes...lol. I was closest to Dennis, and after a minute or two your eyes really adjust to the low light and darkness and you can start to make out everything. At about this point Dennis got my attention and signaled to me, not totally understanding what he was looking for me to do, but knowing pretty much the only thing left to do was locate and use the back-up, I found mine and turned it on. Seeing the light, my dive buddy found and turned on his, followed by the DM and then Dennis. It wasn't until after the dive that Dennis let me know he was signaling for me to let him know what my air was at...lol, it was not time to turn on the lights....lol. With lights on, Dennis started a leisurely swim towards shore showing us some of the interesting items in the shallow water and before I knew it, my depth was 4 feet and I could stand and take my fins off. BEST WAY TO FINISH DIVES EVER!..lol.
Up to the vehicles for one last time, strip off the gear, load up and head home, a certified Night Diver.... yeah me!
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Embracing the Darkside...
Last night I faced a challenge and overcame... You see I don't often tell people this, but I have a small discomfort or for lack of a better word fear of the dark....lol. Now it's nothing where I need lights on in the house or a night light or can't walk somewhere on my own, it is more that I have a VERY vivid imagination, as a child this is a great thing, even as an author this is a useful tool, but as an adult who has spent many a night walking alone, often through dark places, this is not often helpful. While most people see a dumpster, I imagine all of the horrible things that could potentially jump out or be inside. People see trees, I see locations to hide my body...lol. So the thought of the ocean, an already interesting enough environment, in the dark... gets the imagination flowing. I mean we all grew up with the woman out for the cool evening swim, whose body parts they found washed up a few days later to kick off the first of the Jaws trilogy of movies. Anyone who has seen a National Geographic has seen the horrors caused by Jelly Fish (who are attracted to light by the way...) We have Octupus, Squid, Seals, Sea Lions and Killer Whales... HELLO... Lions and Killers....I can't wait! Now, just so that you can't see them coming, lets go in the water at night!
So now you can see what my imagination was doing to me the few nights leading up to actually getting into the water. By the time last night arrived, I was pretty sure I was gonna get eaten, but i was bound and determined to enjoy the dive for as long as it lasted....lol. After arriving and gearing up, it was a quick briefing, equipment check, and a short walk to the edge of the water (down a really steep hill... in the dark...). Once in the water, fins on, and a short surface swim along the rocks of Whytecliff Park, it was the moment of truth.. time to descend. For tonight's dive, Denis (our fearless leader and instructor) accompanied by a soon to be Dive Master, lead the way towards the bottom and along the rocks for our first dive, a short tour and familiarization of the deep dark. Prawn everywhere with their glow-in-the-dark eyes, and hermit crabs darting in and out of shells. Fish of all shapes and sizes sleeping in the drift and massive schools of other tiny fish out for their evening swim. I soon found myself more comfortable under the water than I feel above it... funny how that happens sometimes. After a quick 26 minutes I had consumed my air so it was ascent time and a slow surface swim back to shore discussing my need to get bigger tanks...lol. Looks like I'll be needing to look at buying tanks sooner than I had planned if I want to extend my dives...lol. Well, that's it for now, time to grab a quick nap before I head off to do it all over again tonight. This time two dives, the final of which I get to spend the last three minutes of, lights off, sitting still.. in the dark!
So now you can see what my imagination was doing to me the few nights leading up to actually getting into the water. By the time last night arrived, I was pretty sure I was gonna get eaten, but i was bound and determined to enjoy the dive for as long as it lasted....lol. After arriving and gearing up, it was a quick briefing, equipment check, and a short walk to the edge of the water (down a really steep hill... in the dark...). Once in the water, fins on, and a short surface swim along the rocks of Whytecliff Park, it was the moment of truth.. time to descend. For tonight's dive, Denis (our fearless leader and instructor) accompanied by a soon to be Dive Master, lead the way towards the bottom and along the rocks for our first dive, a short tour and familiarization of the deep dark. Prawn everywhere with their glow-in-the-dark eyes, and hermit crabs darting in and out of shells. Fish of all shapes and sizes sleeping in the drift and massive schools of other tiny fish out for their evening swim. I soon found myself more comfortable under the water than I feel above it... funny how that happens sometimes. After a quick 26 minutes I had consumed my air so it was ascent time and a slow surface swim back to shore discussing my need to get bigger tanks...lol. Looks like I'll be needing to look at buying tanks sooner than I had planned if I want to extend my dives...lol. Well, that's it for now, time to grab a quick nap before I head off to do it all over again tonight. This time two dives, the final of which I get to spend the last three minutes of, lights off, sitting still.. in the dark!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Doing it with your eyes closed....
Take any basic task you do, walking, running, even eating... now do it with your eyes closed. Whole different experience isn't it... did you feel the nerves? Especially if you try running, normally you'll run or walk at a casual pace, you won't think about where you put your feet, or what you're doing with your hands. You may even be talking with someone or listening to them. But with your eyes closed you are very careful where you put your feet, your hands are generally feeling around in front of you or around you and typically you want it quiet so you can hear whats going on around you and focus. Now if you were smart about it, you went slow, I had a young man at my house in the summer who learned this lesson the hard way by running with his eyes closed, misjudged his location and ran into a fence, face first.... split his tongue in two (looked like a snake) and chipped teeth... that's one trip to the ER neither he nor his mother will soon forget...lol. So why is it so much harder to do our day to day activities with our eyes closed? It's because our eyes are like the scanner on your computer, it's how the information gets to the brain, sure you can type it all, or use a mouse to click one character at a time, but to put a whole page of information, or several, into a computer quickly the best most accurate route is a scanner. Take eating, you eat without really thinking about it, (this also leads to why more than 60 - 80 % of the population of North America is obese, but that's another blog), you hold your fork in your one hand, knife in the other, cut your food, pick it up, place it in your mouth... simple. With your eyes closed, you need to really focus to make sure you know where your food is, the placement of your fork, how big a piece are you cutting, finding that piece, picking it up and then carrying it to your mouth... all these tasks... SOOOO much harder with your eyes closed.
Why all this talk about eyes closed.... because Tuesday I was fortunate enough to join Dennis Chow and a fellow student for our classroom portion of our Night Dive certification. Now this is not my first night dive, for the story about that adventure see It's Dark... Very, Very Dark...., but for this I will not just be doing one night dive as before, I will be doing three over the course of this weekend, one Friday and two on Saturday night. Each of these three dives will have skills that must be demonstrated including Navigation (yeah my favorite....lol), Buoyancy, Orientation, etc. Alone most of these skills are no issue and many of them are very natural after you have completed a number of dives. BUT... much like basic stuff on the surface with your eyes closed, doing all these skills at night on a dive is much harder than in the day. Under the water at night you only see what your light touches, and unlike in the open air, light does not travel very far under water, leaving you with a very narrow field of vision. At night, much like daytime activities with your eyes closed, you spend much of your time "feeling" for your gear as opposed to looking for it. You need to know where your light, b/u light, compass, knife, BCD inflator, Drysuit inflator, gauges, etc all is, and be able to get it by touch and not by sight. This adds an interesting dynamic and further emphasizes that you must be familiar with your gear, and must streamline your equipment as much as possible. Now by streamlining, I do not mean under any circumstances that you want to avoid back-up items or safety equipment, etc, but until one is comfortable with night dives, it's probably a good idea to leave the cameras at home...lol. With streamlining, you want to eliminate gear that you should not be taking with you (stick to your dive plan), if you're training for night, dive your night dive, don't load up on camera or video equipment. Try not to have endless amounts of clips and cords all jumbled together, on the surface or even on some day dives you may be able to look to see which item is which and where cords attach, but in the dark, keep things simple and easy to remember, clip your main light in one location, easy to reach and control, simple enough to turn on with one hand and easy to recover should it be dropped (ie, clipped where you can follow the cord to pull back to your hand.) Your b/u (and you must have at least one) needs to, again, be somewhere easy to locate, especially in the dark as this is used if your main goes out, but is secured where it is not dangling in the way or wrapping around other items and equally if not more important, not dragging where it will disturb, disrupt or injure any sea life. Make sure your compass can be easily reached and used and that you can access your gauges and/or dive computer easily and read them all in the dark. For me this has taken some practice, so despite looking like an idiot, I have geared up a couple times and hidden in a dark room to make sure I can find my compass, reach my lights, and control my computer... so far so good. We'll see what Friday night brings and I'll let you know all about the adventures that await me in the dark, when once again I get "In Over My Head..."
Why all this talk about eyes closed.... because Tuesday I was fortunate enough to join Dennis Chow and a fellow student for our classroom portion of our Night Dive certification. Now this is not my first night dive, for the story about that adventure see It's Dark... Very, Very Dark...., but for this I will not just be doing one night dive as before, I will be doing three over the course of this weekend, one Friday and two on Saturday night. Each of these three dives will have skills that must be demonstrated including Navigation (yeah my favorite....lol), Buoyancy, Orientation, etc. Alone most of these skills are no issue and many of them are very natural after you have completed a number of dives. BUT... much like basic stuff on the surface with your eyes closed, doing all these skills at night on a dive is much harder than in the day. Under the water at night you only see what your light touches, and unlike in the open air, light does not travel very far under water, leaving you with a very narrow field of vision. At night, much like daytime activities with your eyes closed, you spend much of your time "feeling" for your gear as opposed to looking for it. You need to know where your light, b/u light, compass, knife, BCD inflator, Drysuit inflator, gauges, etc all is, and be able to get it by touch and not by sight. This adds an interesting dynamic and further emphasizes that you must be familiar with your gear, and must streamline your equipment as much as possible. Now by streamlining, I do not mean under any circumstances that you want to avoid back-up items or safety equipment, etc, but until one is comfortable with night dives, it's probably a good idea to leave the cameras at home...lol. With streamlining, you want to eliminate gear that you should not be taking with you (stick to your dive plan), if you're training for night, dive your night dive, don't load up on camera or video equipment. Try not to have endless amounts of clips and cords all jumbled together, on the surface or even on some day dives you may be able to look to see which item is which and where cords attach, but in the dark, keep things simple and easy to remember, clip your main light in one location, easy to reach and control, simple enough to turn on with one hand and easy to recover should it be dropped (ie, clipped where you can follow the cord to pull back to your hand.) Your b/u (and you must have at least one) needs to, again, be somewhere easy to locate, especially in the dark as this is used if your main goes out, but is secured where it is not dangling in the way or wrapping around other items and equally if not more important, not dragging where it will disturb, disrupt or injure any sea life. Make sure your compass can be easily reached and used and that you can access your gauges and/or dive computer easily and read them all in the dark. For me this has taken some practice, so despite looking like an idiot, I have geared up a couple times and hidden in a dark room to make sure I can find my compass, reach my lights, and control my computer... so far so good. We'll see what Friday night brings and I'll let you know all about the adventures that await me in the dark, when once again I get "In Over My Head..."
Monday, October 25, 2010
Shooting Pumpkins and Making Squares.....
Yesterday marked my long awaited return to the water after being sick and having to scrub my last two dives of my Advanced Certification. Yesterday was originally scheduled to just be a fun dive, it was Ocean Pro Divers "Underwater Pumpkin Carving Contest" and I was going to take pictures, but a couple days before the dive Virpi, my wonderful Open Water and Advanced Instructor, called to ask if I would like to use the BBQ as an opportunity to finish my Advanced dives. Of course I was all over this and responded to let her and Ashley, OPD Dive shop manager, know that I would finish my Navigation and Peak Performance Buoyancy dives on the weekend to complete my Advanced certification. Sunday morning arrived before I knew it and after a great sleep I packed my gear and all the rental gear into the truck and headed off to Porteau Cove.
Arriving shortly before 9:00, Ashley invited me to join a group from the shop as they headed towards the water for their dive briefing under the direction of their instructor Roger Fordham. Joining the Open Water group along with Ashley, Virpi and I for the dive briefing were many of the shop Dive Masters and Staff including Stewart Hoyt, Dennis Chow, Ryder Heim, Kevin McEachnie, and Matt Mendes. Despite the minor disruptions from the staff playing around at the back, Roger was able to get through his orientation with his class and get them prepared for the last of their Open Water certification dives. It seems like just yesterday that I was standing on the edge of the water listening to my dive instructor walk me through the last of my dives and here it is 2 months later and I'm heading in for dives 10 and 11 already.
After a few more minutes of goofing around with the staff and other divers, it's time to suit up and get ready for the first dive of the day. A quick meeting with Virpi to discuss the plan, first it's the PPB (Peak Performance Buoyancy) dive with the added challenge of testing those buoyancy skills to stop myself in the water and hover right above divers carving their pumpkins so I can shoot pictures. This proves to be more difficult than originally planned, and much harder than it sounds. Upon entering the water and starting our surface swim. it is discovered that the previous nights storm in the cove not only left behind several branches the size of trees floating on or just under the surface (always fun to try to avoid) but also disrupted the sediment leading to almost zero visibility. The plan was for those carving to head out towards the tower of Porteau and spread out in that area so that after "mastering" my buoyancy, I could hover around and get photos of the pumpkins and carving in action. What happened, is that most divers went out far enough to reach 30' in depth and went down there instead of the swim to the Tower and the one group that did go to the tower wanted to stay real close to the chain for easy ascent.... those that have been diving can see the comedic moments in motion already. For those of you who don't see it yet here is the scenario, there is a group of 2 divers sitting at approximately 30' at the bottom of the chain, carving pumpkins. At the top of that chain is me, not aware of where the divers are, about to descend, down the chain, through 30' of water with no visibility and try to stop without hitting bottom or the divers....lol. Now you see the humor!
The descent wasn't too bad, I didn't crush anyone and no one got stuck with a knife, so that was a success. My new BCD worked out amazing and was so nice to control, as soon as I saw the head move less than a foot below me I was able to quickly add air and slow my descent stopping only inches from Kevin's head. A quick move to the left and I was able to join Virpi as she pointed to the area of the chain she wanted me to focus on, and then using only breath control (inhaling and exhaling), stay right there and then follow her light and descend and ascend up and down the chain again using only breath control. Next was circling, for this you kick slowly to one side hovering in a circle around the chain, maintaining buoyancy and still using only breath control for adjusting height. After practicing these skills for a bit it was off on our tour to find people, pumpkins or something to take pictures of to practice both the skill of moving in to take a picture and then back out all with only breath control. No pumpkins or people were found on our little tour, but I did manage to take a few pictures of star fish, a sun star, a couple plumous anemone, a crab and even myself (which also happened to be the best of the photos.) Keeping in mind that this was the first time I have taken photos under water, and the visibility and learning buoyancy... these still suck... lol, but I posted them anyway.
Ok, so photography under the water is going to take some time, but this is one thing I don't mind having to spend a lot of time practicing. After our surface swim back into shore we managed to catch up with Ashley and Stewart and get photos of the pumpkins from their groups, again, not my best work, but pictures of lit pumpkins underwater are cool anyway you take them...hope you enjoy.
After my Buoyancy dive and some fun with the camera, it was time to enjoy some hot chocolate, a couple of sandwiches and a ton of fun with the other divers as we talked about the days dive and diving in general. The biggest treat was being able to talk cameras with Wes Kozak, co-owner of the shop and shop photographer, the things I will learn from him will be incredible (he is teaching my Dive Photography course in April.) After a good surface interval and with a full tank (air and tummy) it was time to head back into the water for what is generally my least favorite skill, Navigation. This has always been my least favorite skill primarily I think because I struggle with the compass being on the back of my gauges. For yesterdays dives, I had my new retractable compass. So again after a short surface swim and a briefing on the skills we are going to practice, Virpi and I descend and get to work. Skill one, Virpi ties off her line on the chain and we swim in a straight line as she measures 50' and I count kick cycles, then on the return she winds back in her 50' of line and again I count my kick cycles, 24 kicks out, 26 kicks back, this gives me a basic unit of measure. Assuming I kick at approximately the same on all dives I am moving about 2' per kick so if i need to go aproximatly 20' I kick 10 times, 100 feet, 25 times etc. Skill 2 starts back at the chain and we swim in the direction or heading that Virpi points, this time I keep us on that heading through the use of my compass and Virpi counts kick cycles. Then, on Virpi's signal, we turn and reverse our direction and, on my lead, follow the compass back to the chain. Remembering of course that there is almost zero visibility you learn very quickly how useful this skill can be, outside of my kick count and compass reading I am completely unaware of where the chain is. Fortunately, with the new compass we end up back close enough to our original location to find the chain... yeah me! Skill 3 takes us to Natural Navigation, for those who have ever dove Porteau you know that there is a fire hose that leads from one marker through some of the interesting sites and ends at one of the further yellow markers. For Natural Navigation, this is what we use, not a tough skill unless you take your eyes off the hose, in this kind of visibility it only takes a second of distraction to lose the hose in the murky bottom and be left guessing where you went wrong. After a short tour it's on to our last skill, skill 4 making squares. For this you take your bearing, swim till you kit your kick cycle count or your partner does and signals you, then you turn 90 degrees swim your kick cycles, turn 90, swim, turn 90, and swim. Now if you have stayed on course and you and/or your partner have counted well, you should be back at your starting point. If you are like me and over-shoot one side, you end up a little off course. I was actually very fortunate in that we ended up very close to our start, apparently some people make some pretty wild shapes under water or get lost all together. Well that ended dive 2 and finally my last 2 required courses to certify me as an Advanced Diver!
Once out of the water, and still smiling ear to ear after finishing dive #11 of my dive career, and now being Advanced certified, it was back to the tent for some much needed and very much enjoyed soup and conversation with my friends and dive family from the shop. Tuesday will come all too fast and that will mark the start of my next journey and newest challenge and certification... NIGHT DIVING!
Arriving shortly before 9:00, Ashley invited me to join a group from the shop as they headed towards the water for their dive briefing under the direction of their instructor Roger Fordham. Joining the Open Water group along with Ashley, Virpi and I for the dive briefing were many of the shop Dive Masters and Staff including Stewart Hoyt, Dennis Chow, Ryder Heim, Kevin McEachnie, and Matt Mendes. Despite the minor disruptions from the staff playing around at the back, Roger was able to get through his orientation with his class and get them prepared for the last of their Open Water certification dives. It seems like just yesterday that I was standing on the edge of the water listening to my dive instructor walk me through the last of my dives and here it is 2 months later and I'm heading in for dives 10 and 11 already.
After a few more minutes of goofing around with the staff and other divers, it's time to suit up and get ready for the first dive of the day. A quick meeting with Virpi to discuss the plan, first it's the PPB (Peak Performance Buoyancy) dive with the added challenge of testing those buoyancy skills to stop myself in the water and hover right above divers carving their pumpkins so I can shoot pictures. This proves to be more difficult than originally planned, and much harder than it sounds. Upon entering the water and starting our surface swim. it is discovered that the previous nights storm in the cove not only left behind several branches the size of trees floating on or just under the surface (always fun to try to avoid) but also disrupted the sediment leading to almost zero visibility. The plan was for those carving to head out towards the tower of Porteau and spread out in that area so that after "mastering" my buoyancy, I could hover around and get photos of the pumpkins and carving in action. What happened, is that most divers went out far enough to reach 30' in depth and went down there instead of the swim to the Tower and the one group that did go to the tower wanted to stay real close to the chain for easy ascent.... those that have been diving can see the comedic moments in motion already. For those of you who don't see it yet here is the scenario, there is a group of 2 divers sitting at approximately 30' at the bottom of the chain, carving pumpkins. At the top of that chain is me, not aware of where the divers are, about to descend, down the chain, through 30' of water with no visibility and try to stop without hitting bottom or the divers....lol. Now you see the humor!
The descent wasn't too bad, I didn't crush anyone and no one got stuck with a knife, so that was a success. My new BCD worked out amazing and was so nice to control, as soon as I saw the head move less than a foot below me I was able to quickly add air and slow my descent stopping only inches from Kevin's head. A quick move to the left and I was able to join Virpi as she pointed to the area of the chain she wanted me to focus on, and then using only breath control (inhaling and exhaling), stay right there and then follow her light and descend and ascend up and down the chain again using only breath control. Next was circling, for this you kick slowly to one side hovering in a circle around the chain, maintaining buoyancy and still using only breath control for adjusting height. After practicing these skills for a bit it was off on our tour to find people, pumpkins or something to take pictures of to practice both the skill of moving in to take a picture and then back out all with only breath control. No pumpkins or people were found on our little tour, but I did manage to take a few pictures of star fish, a sun star, a couple plumous anemone, a crab and even myself (which also happened to be the best of the photos.) Keeping in mind that this was the first time I have taken photos under water, and the visibility and learning buoyancy... these still suck... lol, but I posted them anyway.
 |
| Plumous Anemone |
 |
| Star Fish |
 |
| Crab |
 | ||
| Sun Star |
 |
| ME!! |
After my Buoyancy dive and some fun with the camera, it was time to enjoy some hot chocolate, a couple of sandwiches and a ton of fun with the other divers as we talked about the days dive and diving in general. The biggest treat was being able to talk cameras with Wes Kozak, co-owner of the shop and shop photographer, the things I will learn from him will be incredible (he is teaching my Dive Photography course in April.) After a good surface interval and with a full tank (air and tummy) it was time to head back into the water for what is generally my least favorite skill, Navigation. This has always been my least favorite skill primarily I think because I struggle with the compass being on the back of my gauges. For yesterdays dives, I had my new retractable compass. So again after a short surface swim and a briefing on the skills we are going to practice, Virpi and I descend and get to work. Skill one, Virpi ties off her line on the chain and we swim in a straight line as she measures 50' and I count kick cycles, then on the return she winds back in her 50' of line and again I count my kick cycles, 24 kicks out, 26 kicks back, this gives me a basic unit of measure. Assuming I kick at approximately the same on all dives I am moving about 2' per kick so if i need to go aproximatly 20' I kick 10 times, 100 feet, 25 times etc. Skill 2 starts back at the chain and we swim in the direction or heading that Virpi points, this time I keep us on that heading through the use of my compass and Virpi counts kick cycles. Then, on Virpi's signal, we turn and reverse our direction and, on my lead, follow the compass back to the chain. Remembering of course that there is almost zero visibility you learn very quickly how useful this skill can be, outside of my kick count and compass reading I am completely unaware of where the chain is. Fortunately, with the new compass we end up back close enough to our original location to find the chain... yeah me! Skill 3 takes us to Natural Navigation, for those who have ever dove Porteau you know that there is a fire hose that leads from one marker through some of the interesting sites and ends at one of the further yellow markers. For Natural Navigation, this is what we use, not a tough skill unless you take your eyes off the hose, in this kind of visibility it only takes a second of distraction to lose the hose in the murky bottom and be left guessing where you went wrong. After a short tour it's on to our last skill, skill 4 making squares. For this you take your bearing, swim till you kit your kick cycle count or your partner does and signals you, then you turn 90 degrees swim your kick cycles, turn 90, swim, turn 90, and swim. Now if you have stayed on course and you and/or your partner have counted well, you should be back at your starting point. If you are like me and over-shoot one side, you end up a little off course. I was actually very fortunate in that we ended up very close to our start, apparently some people make some pretty wild shapes under water or get lost all together. Well that ended dive 2 and finally my last 2 required courses to certify me as an Advanced Diver!
Once out of the water, and still smiling ear to ear after finishing dive #11 of my dive career, and now being Advanced certified, it was back to the tent for some much needed and very much enjoyed soup and conversation with my friends and dive family from the shop. Tuesday will come all too fast and that will mark the start of my next journey and newest challenge and certification... NIGHT DIVING!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
I CAN BREATHE, I CAN BREATHE....
Or rather you can, or any other injured or distressed diver that I might come across...lol. Last night I had the wonderful opportunity of being trained one on one by Shannon in Emergency O2. The Emergency O2 specialty covers everything you need to know to administer Emergency O2, from how to recognize signals that someone is in distress, how to set-up the air, test it, what to say to the individual in distress and finally how to administer the O2 until medical help arrives.
It's funny how much I am starting to feel like I belong at OPD, maybe one day they'll give me a key...lol. I arrived a few minutes early last night and just waited out front for Shannon but had to laugh when she arrived and opened the door for me. You see Shannon hurt her back recently (that was not the funny part) and was bringing gear (laundry) back to the shop, but due to her injury she is unable to lift anything so I had to go to her truck and bring in her laundry. It's just like being at home, grab the laundry and get it put away...lol.
It was a great night and lots of learning, instead of going through the book page by page and reviewing the chapter review one question at a time, because it was just the two of us, Shannon took me through everything in detail asking me questions along the way. How fast should the flow be? What are the 2 different types of mask systems? What is Oxygen? What is it made up of? Why is it important? What does it do in the body? It turns out in one of the recent classes Shannon was teaching, she had a Doctor in the class who was able to detail out exactly what the process is, from how much O2 the body actually absorbs, how much is exhaled, how that differs with exertion level, and what exactly it is doing in your body. Shannon was kind enough to walk me through a similar conversation, and due to my gross lack of biology knowledge this was a great experience for me. I now see lungs in a completely different way, no longer are they just bags that sit inside you and hold your air, they are complex systems of branches upon branches of what are called bronchi ending in bronchioles the thickness of a human hair! This is where O2 is absorbed and then moved through your body... man we are an amazing creation!
After assembling and disassembling all 3 of the O2 units OPD has, and talking through all of the differences in masks, portability, ease of use, set-up, and additional tools. Shannon then tested me by asking me to, given a scenario, (1) pick which unit I would prefer to have, (2) set it up, (3) talk through what I would say to the diver, and (4) explain why I would have used this unit in the configuration that I did. We went through a few scenarios so that I got experienced with a couple of the units and different masks and the uses of each depending on the divers status and the amount of O2 to be delivered and how it was to be delivered.
OPD (Ocean Pro Divers) has a great policy in regards to their Emergency O2 and their Emergency training. Once you have received the training you are welcome (and encouraged) to repeat the course when they offer it again, free of charge, to ensure you are keeping up on all your skills. Additionally, they allow divers to take out their O2 kits so that the kit is available should a diver need it, instead of just sitting in the shop where it doesn't do anybody any good.
I am happy to say, I am now certified to administer Emergency O2... now I hope i will never need to...lol. I am getting quite the collection of certification cards... and next month... NIGHT DIVING!!
It's funny how much I am starting to feel like I belong at OPD, maybe one day they'll give me a key...lol. I arrived a few minutes early last night and just waited out front for Shannon but had to laugh when she arrived and opened the door for me. You see Shannon hurt her back recently (that was not the funny part) and was bringing gear (laundry) back to the shop, but due to her injury she is unable to lift anything so I had to go to her truck and bring in her laundry. It's just like being at home, grab the laundry and get it put away...lol.
It was a great night and lots of learning, instead of going through the book page by page and reviewing the chapter review one question at a time, because it was just the two of us, Shannon took me through everything in detail asking me questions along the way. How fast should the flow be? What are the 2 different types of mask systems? What is Oxygen? What is it made up of? Why is it important? What does it do in the body? It turns out in one of the recent classes Shannon was teaching, she had a Doctor in the class who was able to detail out exactly what the process is, from how much O2 the body actually absorbs, how much is exhaled, how that differs with exertion level, and what exactly it is doing in your body. Shannon was kind enough to walk me through a similar conversation, and due to my gross lack of biology knowledge this was a great experience for me. I now see lungs in a completely different way, no longer are they just bags that sit inside you and hold your air, they are complex systems of branches upon branches of what are called bronchi ending in bronchioles the thickness of a human hair! This is where O2 is absorbed and then moved through your body... man we are an amazing creation!
After assembling and disassembling all 3 of the O2 units OPD has, and talking through all of the differences in masks, portability, ease of use, set-up, and additional tools. Shannon then tested me by asking me to, given a scenario, (1) pick which unit I would prefer to have, (2) set it up, (3) talk through what I would say to the diver, and (4) explain why I would have used this unit in the configuration that I did. We went through a few scenarios so that I got experienced with a couple of the units and different masks and the uses of each depending on the divers status and the amount of O2 to be delivered and how it was to be delivered.
OPD (Ocean Pro Divers) has a great policy in regards to their Emergency O2 and their Emergency training. Once you have received the training you are welcome (and encouraged) to repeat the course when they offer it again, free of charge, to ensure you are keeping up on all your skills. Additionally, they allow divers to take out their O2 kits so that the kit is available should a diver need it, instead of just sitting in the shop where it doesn't do anybody any good.
I am happy to say, I am now certified to administer Emergency O2... now I hope i will never need to...lol. I am getting quite the collection of certification cards... and next month... NIGHT DIVING!!
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Abort... Abort... Abort...
So health is a fickle thing... take the cold that I have, along with my jaw pain and mix in a little ocean water in the lungs and you end up with a recipe for bad diving! I started this morning feeling a little under the weather but figured it might just be my jaw, or the slight cold I was working on, but nothing serious... boy was I wrong. So we get to Whytecliff earlier today, gear up and head for the water, I feel a little tired, nothing too far out of the ordinary but it was definitely a harder trek than it usually is, or at least felt that way. Out into the surf, if you can call it that.. lol, and along the wall with my group until Virpi gives the word, and partnered up, we descend. It's so amazing underwater, I know I write this all the time, but until you have been down there, you really don't know what you're missing. So the plan for today is 3 dives, our first being our deep dive to beyond 80 feet, followed by our Navigation dive and our Peak Performance Buoyancy dive. Should be another great day! Our deep goes great, despite the fact I feel a little more tired than I think I should and I seem to be using air faster today, maybe it's the additional buoyancy corrections I'm having to do... needless to say it was great. As we progressed deeper and deeper and I'm watching my needle tip into the 90+ foot range, I look up... what a sight. I am blowing bubbles and loosing track of them as they get to small to make out on their journey to the surface. I am roughly 9 stories under water, breathing and visiting with the fish... life is good! But inevitably, the party must come to an end, as unlike the fish, I am dependent on the tanks on my back to be able to stay here and air does not last forever. So we start our return swim, and stop in about 12 feet of water for our safety stop, which involves a quick game of tic tac toe on one of my partners slates... no joke, I have played tic tac toe in 12 feet of water... my mom would be so proud.. lol. Despite some buoyancy issues trying to stay at 12 feet and not have to work so hard, it was interesting sitting and watching the world move around you. Before long, the 3 minutes is up, we surface and a gentle surface swim (I hate surface swims...lol) back to shore. Here is where the day started to break down, once shallow enough we stand or get our balance on the bottom and remove our fins, then walk up the beach, remove our BCDs and switch tanks, easy.... not today! I hit shallow water, and try to stand, it takes all I have to get balanced on one foot and start working on my first fin, I am still on this fin and my partners are already on their way up the beach. Virpi offered to help and she is floating in the water a few feet away keeping an eye on me. Finally the second fin submits and it's time again to try to stand, hard enough on it's own, and then walk up the beach in full gear. By the time I got to the log we were using to switch gear, I was exhausted and fighting to catch my breath. My partners had already gotten their tanks and headed for the parking lot to switch tanks, so I quickly pulled mine and followed Virpi up the stairs. This was sign number two, I had to stop! I have been to Whytecliff diving twice previous, I have been up and down the hills at least half a dozen times with tanks and even once carried 2 tanks in a single trip... I have never needed to stop... After getting going again from stop number 3 I finally reached my truck, switched tanks, and sat on the back of the truck... After my partners went down, and Virpi came by to check on me before heading down herself I sat and just tried to catch my breath and figure out what was going on. So I grabbed my full tank, locked up the truck and headed back down to the beach, to start my next dive.... 3 stops later, I reached the log, I am sure by now I was flushed and looked like death warmed over. Virpi just looked at me and said, "If you're not feeling up to it, call it a day, the last thing you want to do is risk hurting yourself." That was about all it took, I looked at Virpi, nodded my head and told her I was done. I felt like the Navy Seal ringing the bell, I felt like I had just quit, given up, chickened out.... I grabbed my gear, wished my team luck and headed for my truck, and home.
After making it home, I relayed the story to Jenn (my wife), who sent me to bed...lol. I am such a child sometimes..lol. Virpi called later in the day to let me know they were all on their way back to the shop so Jenn drove me in to OPD so I could clean and put away my gear. This also gave me a chance to get my book filled out from the dives I had completed and thank Virpi again for letting me skip my last 2 dives and make them up another day. Now to just get healthy, O2 training on Tuesday, here we come.
After making it home, I relayed the story to Jenn (my wife), who sent me to bed...lol. I am such a child sometimes..lol. Virpi called later in the day to let me know they were all on their way back to the shop so Jenn drove me in to OPD so I could clean and put away my gear. This also gave me a chance to get my book filled out from the dives I had completed and thank Virpi again for letting me skip my last 2 dives and make them up another day. Now to just get healthy, O2 training on Tuesday, here we come.
It's Dark... Very, Very Dark....
So last night marked the first two of our five Adventure dives, needless to say I was a wee bit excited. The shop had given me new gear to try, this time using a neoprene dry suit. So after calculating the additional weight required to account for the new buoyancy of the suit, I was all good to go. So with Virpi as our guide we geared up and descended into the depths. Our first of two adventure dives on the night was our Wreck dive, after a surface swim (I hate surface swims.. lol) to the Grant Hall marker, we grouped, signaled and descended to set foot, for the first time, on the deck of a boat that has been serving as a natural reef for years. Once grouped at the bottom we made a slow search around the wreck both down where it was buried in the silt and along it's upper surfaces. With our lights on and a careful scan of the underbelly of the ship we were able to discover an octopus den, not sure if our friend was at home or not, but you could tell he had been eating well, by all the crab shells outside of his house. A beautiful kite fish caught our attention as it skirted along the bottom of the ship but staying just long enough for us all to have a good look. Along the upper surfaces of the Grant Hall we were able to meet up with a Decorator Crab, no, not Martha Stewart, this is an actual crustacean who uses bits of seaweed, sponges and debris and sticks it to itself as a disguise, I didn't see him until Virpi pointed him out and disturbed the water nearby so that he moved a bit. Then out of the corner of my eye I caught what surely have been a shark or a barracuda or some other man-eating creature of the deep. It ducked down inside a crevice between a holding tank and the bulkhead, (ok, obviously not a shark...) so me being inquisitive (and a little dumb) I moved in on the crevice to take a closer look and with the help of my dive light, found myself face to face with one of the largest Ling Cod I have ever seen. He must have been about 12 feet long and at least a thousand pounds... ok, maybe 4 feet long, but the menacing look he gave me was really scary.. lol. After a quick once more over the surface of the boat we found ourselves back at the chain and ready for our ascent to the surface... and another surface swim in and back out for our next dive, our last dive of the night, our Night Dive!
So after a quick break, a Nutrigrain bar and a tank change, no that's not code for bathroom break, although it would work, this was an actually tank change, we headed back down the stairs of Porteau. After some trouble with my fins, which should have been a sign that this was not going to be my night, we made our surface swim out the the marker buoy, fortunately not as far this time as the Grant Hall, and prepared for our decent. I'll stop here so you can get a idea of what this looks like, it's after 8:00pm (closer to 9:00), it's dark, darker than dark. Here in the city, night is spoiled by light pollution, street lights, neighbors, headlights, etc. up at Porteau we have a couple parking lot lights and the lights in the distance on the opposite shore... it's DARK! Add to that the fact that we are now going to drop down 30+ feet below the surface loosing color, light and visibility more and more the deeper we go... it's REALLY REALLY DARK!
Here is where life gets interesting or mildly more dramatic, unfortunately I was already having issues with my buoyancy by this point, neoprene is more buoyant so it takes more weight and a slightly different approach to obtain and maintain neutral buoyancy. Little did I know I was already coming down with a cold and my lungs were already working harder than they should, add the fact that my jaw (a long standing medical issue I've been dealing with for years) decided to act up after nearly 9 months of no issues. So lets condense, we have me 30+ feet under water, pitch black except for my (and my groups) dive lights, body already tired and sore, lungs already working over-time, and a dry suit that wants to make an ascent to the surface with or without me...lol. So we are going to practice our Navigation swim, again not a skill I am fond of but one that is essential. My job is to swim in the direction Virpi points, keep my needle in the marks, and my partner counts kick cycles, hit 15 cycles, turn around and swim back keeping the needle in the reverse position and after 15 kick cycles we should be back where we started. Sounds simple, and I am sure for those with a decent sense of direction or even me under normal circumstances it would have been ok. Now remember, I'm already having issues, so here is roughly what happened, my partner and I started to swim, I can't see bottom, all I can see is my compass and all I can feel is my partners hand on my arm. I am struggling for some reason to keep the needle in the marks and my partner is pulling at my arm, not knowing what he was trying to tell me I turn to see him giving me the thumbs up, which in diving means ascend, so I turn to ascend and grab my low pressure inflator for my BCD to prepare for my ascent, look at my partner and break the surface... completely disoriented, I thought we were still right along the bottom, apparently the pulling at my arm was my partner realizing I was ascending the whole time and he was trying to signal that I was going up. After getting my bearings and swimming back to the marker buoy with my partner we started our re-decent and that is when the "fun" started. The hood i was wearing was too big for me so when I looked down on my decent and exhaled, the air caught in my hood, sliding my hood back and pulled my regulator out of my mouth. Unfortunately I was inhaling at the time and took water down my throat. It's funny though, looking back, how fast your training, if you are trained by good instructors, kicks in automatically. Upon hitting the surface and knowing buoyancy was my first and only concern, I reached for my BCD low pressure inflator, unfortunately my gauges were still over my shoulder from the navigation swim so I couldn't find the inflator, so I did the next best thing, I inflated my drysuit, giving me enough buoyancy to take a breathe or two, take my gauges back off my shoulder grab the low pressure inflator for my BCD and add air to my BCD. Now that I was floating safely, it was time to kick back to the marker so that I was centralized for when my group surfaced, engage my lights in the possibility that in the dark my group may see the light above and realize I was still on the surface. Sure enough, after only a minute (seems longer when you're waiting) my group surfaced, checked on me, we got regrouped and descended for a tour of the dark bottom and a surface swim back to the vehicles and on our way back to the shop to switch out tanks then home to rest. After-all, we'll be back in the water today.
So after a quick break, a Nutrigrain bar and a tank change, no that's not code for bathroom break, although it would work, this was an actually tank change, we headed back down the stairs of Porteau. After some trouble with my fins, which should have been a sign that this was not going to be my night, we made our surface swim out the the marker buoy, fortunately not as far this time as the Grant Hall, and prepared for our decent. I'll stop here so you can get a idea of what this looks like, it's after 8:00pm (closer to 9:00), it's dark, darker than dark. Here in the city, night is spoiled by light pollution, street lights, neighbors, headlights, etc. up at Porteau we have a couple parking lot lights and the lights in the distance on the opposite shore... it's DARK! Add to that the fact that we are now going to drop down 30+ feet below the surface loosing color, light and visibility more and more the deeper we go... it's REALLY REALLY DARK!
Here is where life gets interesting or mildly more dramatic, unfortunately I was already having issues with my buoyancy by this point, neoprene is more buoyant so it takes more weight and a slightly different approach to obtain and maintain neutral buoyancy. Little did I know I was already coming down with a cold and my lungs were already working harder than they should, add the fact that my jaw (a long standing medical issue I've been dealing with for years) decided to act up after nearly 9 months of no issues. So lets condense, we have me 30+ feet under water, pitch black except for my (and my groups) dive lights, body already tired and sore, lungs already working over-time, and a dry suit that wants to make an ascent to the surface with or without me...lol. So we are going to practice our Navigation swim, again not a skill I am fond of but one that is essential. My job is to swim in the direction Virpi points, keep my needle in the marks, and my partner counts kick cycles, hit 15 cycles, turn around and swim back keeping the needle in the reverse position and after 15 kick cycles we should be back where we started. Sounds simple, and I am sure for those with a decent sense of direction or even me under normal circumstances it would have been ok. Now remember, I'm already having issues, so here is roughly what happened, my partner and I started to swim, I can't see bottom, all I can see is my compass and all I can feel is my partners hand on my arm. I am struggling for some reason to keep the needle in the marks and my partner is pulling at my arm, not knowing what he was trying to tell me I turn to see him giving me the thumbs up, which in diving means ascend, so I turn to ascend and grab my low pressure inflator for my BCD to prepare for my ascent, look at my partner and break the surface... completely disoriented, I thought we were still right along the bottom, apparently the pulling at my arm was my partner realizing I was ascending the whole time and he was trying to signal that I was going up. After getting my bearings and swimming back to the marker buoy with my partner we started our re-decent and that is when the "fun" started. The hood i was wearing was too big for me so when I looked down on my decent and exhaled, the air caught in my hood, sliding my hood back and pulled my regulator out of my mouth. Unfortunately I was inhaling at the time and took water down my throat. It's funny though, looking back, how fast your training, if you are trained by good instructors, kicks in automatically. Upon hitting the surface and knowing buoyancy was my first and only concern, I reached for my BCD low pressure inflator, unfortunately my gauges were still over my shoulder from the navigation swim so I couldn't find the inflator, so I did the next best thing, I inflated my drysuit, giving me enough buoyancy to take a breathe or two, take my gauges back off my shoulder grab the low pressure inflator for my BCD and add air to my BCD. Now that I was floating safely, it was time to kick back to the marker so that I was centralized for when my group surfaced, engage my lights in the possibility that in the dark my group may see the light above and realize I was still on the surface. Sure enough, after only a minute (seems longer when you're waiting) my group surfaced, checked on me, we got regrouped and descended for a tour of the dark bottom and a surface swim back to the vehicles and on our way back to the shop to switch out tanks then home to rest. After-all, we'll be back in the water today.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Schools back from Summer!
I know the Alice Cooper song is actually Schools out for Summer, and that was what my kids were celebrating a couple months back. But for me, I am excited to be back at school, last night marked my return to OPD (Ocean Pro Divers) for the start of my Advanced Diver training. I have spent the last week trying to read through the entire Adventures in Diving book which includes an intro, a review quiz of Open Water diving to make sure it is fresh in your mind and then a chapter and review for each of the potential, I believe, 14 specialties you can choose from. In this we were supposed to have at least a few read and try to narrow down what we were interested in doing. To complete your Advanced you need to complete 5 adventure dives, Navigation (my least favorite), Deep (the one I am most excited about) and then 3 of our choosing. Options include, Altitude, Aware Fish ID, Boat, Photography, Video, Naturalist, Drift, Dry Suit (which I am already certified on), Multi-level, Night, Search and Recovery, Wreck, and Peak Performance Buoyancy. Our group of three managed to narrow it down to Night, Wreck and PPB (Peak Performance Buoyancy.) Now it's time to read through the 3 additional sections and get the homework done and be ready to dive Saturday afternoon. We will be starting our dives late on Saturday as we are going to try to get 2 dives in (probably Wreck and PPB) before the sun goes down and then in the dark of night slip back into the water for a night dive... I'm both excited and afraid... is now when I tell people I'm not a huge fan of the dark...lol. Sunday will be our final 2 dives including the one i am most looking forward to, our Deep dive, I believe we are going to 80 feet... that's a whole heck of a long way down! Well, wish me luck and I will report on Sunday (or Monday) how the dives have gone.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Sebastian made me do it....
"Under the sea
Under the sea
Darling it's better
Down where it's wetter
Take it from me
Up on the shore they work all day
Out in the sun they slave away
While we devotin'
Full time to floatin'
Under the sea"This song has been "floatin'" through my head since my last dive a little over a week ago. For any of you who have never been down 60' you can't really apreciate what Sebastian and I have been singing about. For anyone who has been down there and deeper, you know that it truly is, "Better down where it's wetter! Under the Sea!"
Just a quick update over the past few weeks, especially while completing my Open Water Course and talking about future dives and courses, I have received several comments from people, either in person, on Facebook, or via email asking me what was next and when and where was I diving. So I have created the "In Over My Head" Calendar, I have detailed on it the courses that I have already signed up for that will be taking place over the next 12 months and i will be updating the calendar with any of the fun or recreational dives I will be doing. If any of you have an interest in joining me for any of the courses feel free to contact me or Ocean Pro Divers and we'll make sure you all set up. If anyone is looking for a dive buddy and you want to join me on one of my dives, send me a message and we'll get it sorted out, also in any of you are planning dives and you are interested in having more in your group let me know and if I can make it I will add it to the calendar and we'll get it all set-up.
Keep checking back for updates or sign up and follow the blog so you don't miss any of the action next week when I start my Advanced program with Virpi.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Dived and gone to heaven!
Earlier today marked my last certification dive and the first of MANY, purely recreational dives. Our final certification dive was not completed last week due to unexpected excitement, see Seals to Emergencies for the full story. So it was back to Whytecliff this morning to make up for the dive, and Ocean Pro Divers and Shannon, always wanting satisfied divers, not only arranged for the one dive but also supplied the gear for a second, purely recreational dive... I LOVE THIS SHOP!! Our first dive was more or less recreational as well, with only one skill to complete, and with the awesome class I was a part of and thanks to the amazing instruction by Virpi, we were able to complete it within a minute or two of reaching the bottom, then off on our tour.
It is hard to describe how truly amazing diving is, is it scary... sure it has it's moments. But no more or different that trying anything that could potentially end in injury. Anyone who is a parent and has ever had the wonderful experience of teaching your child to ride a bike, knows what this is like, as can anyone who remembers learning themselves. Despite the number of times the parent says, "it's ok, I won't let go until you are ready", the child still has fear. Fear of the unknown ("what happens if.... ") and the known (Wow... that concrete is hard!").... lol. But once they are riding, wobbling at first, they begin to build confidence. Here is the breaking point for people though... you see some will stay within reach of their parent, and within their own personal limits, while others will push beyond their parents and their limits until they get hurt or hurt someone else. This is much the same and often the case in diving, while there is always a chance of an accident, the majority of injuries and issues come as a result of someone trying to push beyond their limits without proper instruction or supervision often resulting in injury to themselves and/or their partner(s). So for all of you who have contacted me or messaged me, rest assured, I am well aware of my limits as a beginning recreational diver, and I will be staying well within them. When the time comes for me to branch out and push the limits, it will be done under the supervision and instruction of one of the many wonderful staff at Ocean Pro. Sleep well, I am in great hands!
So, dive one of the day (dive 5 so far), took us to 60' along the right side of the bay at Whytecliff, with a quick stop along the way to allow us to quickly demonstrate a low pressure hose remove and replace for those of us finishing our dry suit specialty. Then it was off to explore and follow Dennis through a world experienced only by those lucky enough to scuba dive. Along the right edge of Whytecliff we moved towards the marker slowly drifting a little deeper, it is amazing what you can see down there, the marine life and colors you'd never think possible. Starfish and sunfish everywhere, at one point I thought the wall was moving beside me until I noticed it was hundreds if not thousands of little starfish moving across the rocks.
For our second dive, our first purely recreational dive as Certified Open Water Divers with our Dry suit specialties, we headed along the left side of Whytecliff right along side where three Harbour Seals were sunning on the rocks. Unfortunately they chose not to swim with us today but i was very surprised to see how close we were able to get to them. They are so cute!! There were a few minutes I thought Virpi was going to climb out of the water so she could touch their bellies and play with them.. lol. So down we went, again to 60' (I actually reached about 62' at one point, but shhh, don't tell anyone... lol). Again the wildlife was amazing and I have attached some photos of some of the things we saw, (no these are not my photos, these are borrowed from the internet).
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| Harbour Seal |
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| Harbour Seal |
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| Kelp Greenling |
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| Kelp Greenling |
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Lingcod |
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| Painted Greenling |
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| Painted Greenling |
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| Plumous Anemone |
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| Plumous Anemone |
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| Red Rock Crab |
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| Red Rock Crab |
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| Rockfish |
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| Rockfish |
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| Sea Cucumber |
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| Sea Cucumber |
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| Tube Worm |
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| Tube Worm |
On our surface swim back in, Virpi let us know that if we were interested and knew which specialties we wanted to try, she would help us arrange to do our Advanced course with her coming up. We will just have to get it arranged with the shop. Now it's just a matter of me figuring out what equipment I will buy now, and what I will wait a while for. Plus I need to get into the shop and pay for my next classes... I never thought i would be this excited to be back in school, the kids don't seem anywhere near as excited as me that they are going back... I just don't get it...
As this concludes my Open Water course, I want to thank my classmates, you know who you are, for making this an experience of a lifetime. It was an amazing experience getting to know all of you, and I look forward to diving with each of you as we progress further into this amazing activity. For those who were unable to finish the program with us, HURRY UP!!... no, I mean, it was a pleasure getting to know you as well and I can't wait until you are back in the water as well. Thank you especially to Ocean Pro Divers, their owner Shannon Kozak, the shop staff Ashley Graham and Stewart Hoyt, my instructor Virpi Kangas, and the amazing Dive Masters I have had the opportunity of meeting and diving with, Dennis Chow, Ward Conley, Michael Klaver, and Matt Mendes you are all such amazing individuals, instructors, mentors and friends, I look forward to many more adventures as you take me "In Over My Head..."
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Seals to Emergencies
Today marked one of my most exciting days of diving to date, our schedule today was meet at Whytecliffe Park, check out the site, discuss our dives, gear-up and hit the water. Upon arrival we were greeted by a smiling face saying "You must be Andrew?", with surprise and a little trepidation I agreed and laughing and obviously realizing my surprise, Ward Conley (again another in the long line of amazing staff and DM's from Ocean Pro) introduced himself and advised that he was just speaking with Virpi and had had noticed us and Virpi figured it was me. Once our whole team arrived, we geared up and headed out for our first dive of the day. Our morning dive was fan-freakin-tastic! The wildlife we saw on our tour with Dennis including nudibranchs, crabs, jelly fish and a few of our team even saw (and a couple swam with) a seal.. of course I didn't see it... some partners they turned out to be... lol. We moved through our skills, complete mask removal and replace, and our open water C.E.S.A. (Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent) finishing the ascent by manually inflating our BCD's to maintain buoyancy. We finished our morning moving into shallower water for our weight belt removal and recovery and then our BCD removal and recovery. Weight belts are much harder to replace in open water, with current and waves from the ferries banging into you, plus the additional weight in the BCD makes it hard to lift to get the weight belt secured above the hips. I was able to finish the weight belt and move on to my BCD, now this would have been a viral YouTube video if someone had caught it... here I am trying to squirm my way out of my floating wet, vest while battling current and waves... OH, HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY!!! I probably looked like a hippo having a seizure... lol. Now it pays to note at this point in time, especially for family and friends who read this and are going to ban me from diving... lol, there are releases on the shoulders of the BCD that I could have released and would in an emergency, but given that I knew I had to put this back on... and not wanting to have to wrestle with getting the clips back together, I chose the seizing hippo method.
Now with the BCD off, and me trying not to sink.. lol, it is time to show Virpi it is off and then... get it back on. YEAH ME, more hippo imitations! Actually truth be known, getting it back on wasn't nearly as hard as it was in the pool, I went one step at a time, pushed my tank down, sat on it, spun it around behind me, put my arms in the straps and slid off letting the tank and BCD rise to my back... bing, bang, boom... straps done up and I was done... and then.. oh yeah.. the words I have been wanting to hear... Virpi looks me in the eyes, shakes my hand and says, "Congratulations on becoming a certified open water diver." YEEHAW!! I'm sure I was smiling from ear to ear when I got out of the water and headed up to switch tanks and grab a snack and water before kitting up for my last open water dive and my Dry suit certification.
The afternoon was not what any of us were expecting, we managed our trek up the hill with our empty tanks and back down with our incredibly heavy full tanks, got them attached to our BCD's, regs fitted, pressure on, gauges checked and ready to dawn our kits and gear for our last Open Water dive and the final step in our Dry suit certification, when the worst sound you can ever hear crossed the bay and reached our ears....
HELP!!
The details of what happened to cause the emergency are unclear, and not mine to share even if they were not. What details have been made public, and the most accurate account out of all the reports I have seen so far of what happened can be read in the Vancouver Province's article ~ Woman critical after West Van scuba diving accident. What I will say though, and I hope this is apparent in my writing, I am SO proud to be a part (however small) of Ocean Pro Diving. The reactions and selfless actions of Ward and Dennis (our Dive masters for the day) who went in the water to assist with just masks and fins, of Virpi who co-ordianated our team (her students) on the beach in seconds sending one for the first-aid kit and emergency air, while another to phone 911 and me to assist at the shore as divers came in and to relay messages. I applaud the efforts and actions of the men and woman of the Police, Fire and Rescue, Ambulance Service and Coast Guard, I was honored to see how tight the dive community is, and how it pulls together to help a diver in need, I was proud to see how quickly my dive family responded, I was excited to see the rescue boat and hovercraft and BC Ambulance helicopter and if I never see any of it again..... it'll be too soon!
I have been asked a couple times since the incident, "How are you doing?" and "Are you still going to Dive?". The answers to those are, "I don't know" and most resoundingly "YES!." This incident this weekend has shaken me, in my life and various work I have seen far too many people hurt, injured, dying and in many cases gone, but despite this it does not desensitize you but only further reminds you of the reality that we are only mortal and accidents can happen. The Ocean Pro staff did an amazing job debriefing everyone after the incident and Shannon has even phoned to ensure everyone is ok. Dennis was able to point out that in his 15+ years of diving and over 1500 logged dives he has only seen the Ambulance Helicopter called in 4 times. So all things considered I don't see diving as any more dangerous now than I did when I started my course, it is an amazing world down there, but like most amazing things in this world it must be approached with the respect and preperation it deserves. I will continue to dive, hopefully for many, many, many years and hope I am never in a situation like I was this weekend again. But I will be prepared! This is why, despite any other decisions or courses to take, i will be completing my EFR (Emergency First Response), Rescue and Emergency O2 Provider courses as soon as possible.
Stay tuned for the continuing adventures on diving... after all.... I still need to log my final Dry suit dive for my Dry suit certification...
Now with the BCD off, and me trying not to sink.. lol, it is time to show Virpi it is off and then... get it back on. YEAH ME, more hippo imitations! Actually truth be known, getting it back on wasn't nearly as hard as it was in the pool, I went one step at a time, pushed my tank down, sat on it, spun it around behind me, put my arms in the straps and slid off letting the tank and BCD rise to my back... bing, bang, boom... straps done up and I was done... and then.. oh yeah.. the words I have been wanting to hear... Virpi looks me in the eyes, shakes my hand and says, "Congratulations on becoming a certified open water diver." YEEHAW!! I'm sure I was smiling from ear to ear when I got out of the water and headed up to switch tanks and grab a snack and water before kitting up for my last open water dive and my Dry suit certification. The afternoon was not what any of us were expecting, we managed our trek up the hill with our empty tanks and back down with our incredibly heavy full tanks, got them attached to our BCD's, regs fitted, pressure on, gauges checked and ready to dawn our kits and gear for our last Open Water dive and the final step in our Dry suit certification, when the worst sound you can ever hear crossed the bay and reached our ears....
HELP!!
The details of what happened to cause the emergency are unclear, and not mine to share even if they were not. What details have been made public, and the most accurate account out of all the reports I have seen so far of what happened can be read in the Vancouver Province's article ~ Woman critical after West Van scuba diving accident. What I will say though, and I hope this is apparent in my writing, I am SO proud to be a part (however small) of Ocean Pro Diving. The reactions and selfless actions of Ward and Dennis (our Dive masters for the day) who went in the water to assist with just masks and fins, of Virpi who co-ordianated our team (her students) on the beach in seconds sending one for the first-aid kit and emergency air, while another to phone 911 and me to assist at the shore as divers came in and to relay messages. I applaud the efforts and actions of the men and woman of the Police, Fire and Rescue, Ambulance Service and Coast Guard, I was honored to see how tight the dive community is, and how it pulls together to help a diver in need, I was proud to see how quickly my dive family responded, I was excited to see the rescue boat and hovercraft and BC Ambulance helicopter and if I never see any of it again..... it'll be too soon!
I have been asked a couple times since the incident, "How are you doing?" and "Are you still going to Dive?". The answers to those are, "I don't know" and most resoundingly "YES!." This incident this weekend has shaken me, in my life and various work I have seen far too many people hurt, injured, dying and in many cases gone, but despite this it does not desensitize you but only further reminds you of the reality that we are only mortal and accidents can happen. The Ocean Pro staff did an amazing job debriefing everyone after the incident and Shannon has even phoned to ensure everyone is ok. Dennis was able to point out that in his 15+ years of diving and over 1500 logged dives he has only seen the Ambulance Helicopter called in 4 times. So all things considered I don't see diving as any more dangerous now than I did when I started my course, it is an amazing world down there, but like most amazing things in this world it must be approached with the respect and preperation it deserves. I will continue to dive, hopefully for many, many, many years and hope I am never in a situation like I was this weekend again. But I will be prepared! This is why, despite any other decisions or courses to take, i will be completing my EFR (Emergency First Response), Rescue and Emergency O2 Provider courses as soon as possible.
Stay tuned for the continuing adventures on diving... after all.... I still need to log my final Dry suit dive for my Dry suit certification...
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