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).

Harbour Seal

Harbour  Seal

Kelp Greenling

Kelp Greenling

Lingcod

 

Painted Greenling

Painted Greenling

Plumous Anemone

Plumous Anemone

Red Rock Crab

Red Rock Crab

Rockfish

Rockfish

Sea Cucumber

Sea Cucumber

Tube Worm

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..."

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...

The "future" and the past!

Today marked my first session of ocean dives in my Open Water certification.  We had our gear from Thursday night and after lugging all this wet gear into my house including gear bag with BCD, Regs, mask, snorkle, fins, boots, gloves and hood, my undergarments, a bag with my "dry" suit, my weight belt  and weight bag containing ankle weights, bullet weights, and my integrated weights and, last but not least 3 full air tanks. I got to carry it all back outside this morning at 7:00 so that I could load up in my dive buddy's vehicle and drive to the dive site.  I barely slept last night, excitement, nerves, all of the above... whatever it was... not a great sleep... thank goodness for Monster energy drinks...lol.  Morning was great, got lost a couple times going to the site, but we found it (good thing we left early and allowed a lot of time).  Unloaded everything, started putting together our kits and got everything lined up for ocean dive number one.  But before we can dive.. we must... da da da...

TEST!!
So, 50 questions, multiple choice, covering all 5 chapters, minimum 75% to pass... that's like, like, like.... oh man, my brain is so full of diving I can't remember my math.... what in the world is 75% of 50... this should be so easty... it's... it's... oh yeah right 37.5, thank you to all of you screaming that out for me... lol.  So, if I can manage 38 right.. I'm golden.  I'm doing OK out of the gates, "What happens to air in a balloon filled at the surface as you descend to 30 feet?" "B", "What happens when you ascend with a glass full of air?" "A",  "What are the most important features of an exposure suit?" "D, all of the above"... lol.  Then we get to the eRDPml (remember this from Tuesday "  ") Now for those of you who remember high school math where you had the word problems like "A train traveling from Chicago headed to Seattle detouring through Salt Lake City traveling at 75 miles an hour except in the mountains or during lunch on Tuesdays, leaves on Friday at 2:03, with 271 passengers 5 crew and a full luggage car.  What did they serve for lunch?" lol.. will understand what it feels like to use one of these dive calculators under pressure on a test that decides if you are diving, or just watching!.  Needless to say, I passed.. I managed a 48/50, 96% missing 2 of the dumbest questions that I should be shot for missing, on one I ended up selecting the box for the obviously wrong answer that they throw in there as a gimme...

Well, we all passed, now into the water for dive one, on dive one we will have a tour of Porteau Cove and some of the spectacular life and items under the surface, dive two is skill tests and a tour and dive three is a few more skill tests before our final tour of Porteau Cove and the swim in.

Dive one, was interesting, we make a buddy descent to approximately 20 feet, group up and follow Dennis for our initial tour of the bottom.  Now to try to achieve and maintain neutral buoyancy, not as easy as it sounds, but once this is accomplished and you take your first few kicks of open ocean diving, you have experienced a small slice of heaven!  At this point the group is more or less relaxed, no more kicking so hard we stir up sediment, less crashes into the bottom and off for our first tour of our section of the cove.  It's amazing what you can see down there, crab everywhere, fields of jellyfish, starfish running (albeit not very fast) across the bottom and when you finally get your bearings and your focus, you start noticing the little things like the sole and ling cod and the occasional green ling.  What an amazing world!

Dives two and 3 were skills, like body breathing, mask and regulator recovery, introduction to navigation and buddy navigation and other basic skills followed another tour with Dennis in the lead and Virpi bringing up the straglers.  These dives were the best, by this point most of us had sorted out buoyancy issues, and had calmed down allowing us to just float through the water and REALLY experience the life down there you don't see anywhere else like over 100 species including octopus, and plumose anemones and some items from our past that you would never imagine seeing like the Granthall (a steal hulled tug boat), the Centennial III (a steal dredger) and a 15 m ferrocement sailboat hull.

Overall, this was the final thing needed to firm up my decision to keep diving as often as possible, because again, in the words of Nathan Hale Bridger - "For beneath the surface ... Lies the Future."

Dry Suit - "It's a relative term!"

Last night brought the last and final classroom and pool sessions for my Open Water course, we were again happy to have Mathew Mendes join us in class and in the pool and the always wonderful Virpi Kangas was able to walk everyone through their questions and put everyone's minds at ease over the upcoming impending 50 question final exam!  It was a good class, again most people had their homework done and it was great to have a few minutes to discuss gear with Matt and Shannon. They were able to educate me on the downsides of buying used equipment especially regulators, especially given the cost of service and the warranty on new ones.  Case in point, (actual example) I was looking at a used Apeks XTX 200, only $400!  New, this reg is $800, that's half off!!  What Shannon was nice enough to point out though, is (1) this is your most important piece of equipment, without it, you don't breathe, (2) a used one will need to be serviced, add $150, plus any parts count on at least $100 (if not more),  plus any additional parts down the road.  A new XTX 200 comes with a lifetime parts warranty and won't need servicing for a year (all regs should get serviced every year).  Overall, used is $650+, and any parts until the end of time... a new one is $800 parts included... for $150 (or less) in difference, I'm going new.  Shannon and Matt were also great enough to walk me through how to check tanks (as this is an item Shannon says can be a great deal used), they showed me where to look for the inspection labels, hydro stickers and engraved codes required on tanks in Canada.  All things that if you didn't know about could result in spending a ton of money.... twice!  Once to buy the "Great Deal", and once to pay full price for one you can actually use.   The conversation then turned to Dry Suits (which I was learning how to dive last night) and what to look for and the different levels and costs and accessories... etc.  Bottom line, if you want to do this right... it's not cheap!

As mentioned, class was great, we reviewed our Review Questions, and took our quiz... 10/10.. yeah me!  and then watched our Dry Suit video, and then got into the discussion (this was one of our review questions) on next steps beyond Open Water certification.  These steps include, Adventure Diver, this includes a taste of a couple of specialties (typically Deep Diver and/or Wreck Diver), then Advanced Diver, this includes LOTS of specialties to chose from and you get to try out 4 or 5. Then there is the big daddy of them all, the one I am looking at, the Master Scuba Diver Challenge! In this program you get all 12 offered specialties over the course of the year, your Advanced Diver and your Rescue Diver certifications.  This is the highest level of recreational diving and the door way to Dive Master and beyond if one is interested.  You end up saving almost half the cost over what you would pay if you paid for each specialty separately.  This is an amazing deal!

Last night finished at the pool as we learned and practiced our "dry" suit training.  After practicing our Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent, righting yourself from an upside down (feet first) ascent, buddy breathing, mask recoveries (yes, again...) and practicing our Neutral Buoyancy we exited to clean up and found out that Dry is a relative term, I WAS SOAKED!!  Apparently doing aquatic acrobatics is not conducive to keeping all your seals closed...  I have been moderately assured that I shouldn't leak in the cold ocean... at least, not as much... weee!  Well, here's looking forward to an early Saturday morning, and my first of 5 Open Water ocean dives.

eRDPml... what? "All engines... full stop!", and the thing everyone likes to hear.

So last night marked the wonderful return to class, 2 chapters to review, my eRPDml to learn how to use (don't worry I had no idea what it was either... lol), 2 quizzes to take and all that before getting into the water to try out all the new skills. Soo much work.... so little time!  Of course we got it all done and under Virpi's amazing instruction, I even feel confident that I know what I am doing.

I  have, however, come to the conclusion that they have this course organized so that all the easy brain (my strong suit) and scary physical stuff comes at the beginning and the scary brain and not so difficult physical stuff comes last.  Here's why, in week one, classes 1 and 2, I managed to pull off 10/10 on both my quizzes, nailed all my Chapter Reviews and felt really good about the knowledge component (I even participated in class... imagine me talking.... never... lol). But when it came to the physical side, I was a lost cause... struggling and spitting and waiting for a priest to read me my last rights...lol.  (For more on that read through "Fitness... I don't need no stinkin' fitness" and  If it ain't broke don't fix it.... and from SORTED to super STARS.) So now we have had a week off, I even forced myself to go and redo the Fitness Test (yes.. without dying, although I think the life guards at Sungod were waiting for me to go under a few times,) and now we are back and we were to have the book finished and chapter 3 & 4 Chapter Reviews completed (some people didn't do their homework... tisk tisk..)  now it was time to review, discuss and then take our quizzes.  For the most part I did ok, most of my Chapter Review questions were done, couldn't finish the last of Review 4 on the eRDPml (I'll explain that in a second,) and scored a 9/10 on my quiz... I know there goes my 4.0 GPA, I placed the wrong number in the wrong order... I knew the right answer, just put it down wrong.... BAH.   So here is the scary brainy stuff I was referring to,  in chapter 1 we learned about buoyancy, atmospheres, and equipment, in chapter 2 we moved on to seeing and hearing underwater, more on equipment and working with your buddy.  Now we move on to chapters 3 and 4 where we learn about contaminated air, nitrogen narcosis, exhaustion, currents, tides, animal attacks and panicking divers.... at this point we have a classroom of panicking divers... ok, it might have just been me, but I just spent a week off, making sure I was working on my fitness which I thought was going to be the death of me, only to review all of the other ways I could die... yeah me!... lol.  So, we review all the questions in chapter 3, take our quiz (yes the one I only got 9/10 on) and proceed to chapter 4.  Chapter 4, as mentioned, includes more on all the ways to hurt yourself.. lol, including your pressure groups and understanding how these affect the amount of nitrogen in your body.  For this we refer to an RDP (recreational dive planner) or in our case, an eRDPml which, if I understand correctly, stands for Electronic Multi-Level Recreational Dive Planner (don't ask me why the ml comes last, it just does).  The eRDPml allows you to enter your dive information (is this your first dive of the day?, how deep are you going, how long will you be there, etc) and then will tell you what pressure group you are in, starting with A and ending in dead... I mean Z.  You can then use this letter to plan for additional dives for the day to ensure you do not exceed you maximum NDL (no decompression limit.)  You see how this starts to get scary... I'm having trouble even figuring out how to even use the eRDPml, never mind wrapping my head around the fact that this is not something you want to make mistakes with and add to that the fact that the system is built for the "average" person (whoever he or she is) and differs from person to person, often based on weight... yeah me!  Time to lose all the extra pounds I've been carrying around.   We review, and again thanks to Virpi's amazing abilities as a teacher, she breaks it down simple, and eventually gets me and my classmates through using the eRDPml and actually to the point where we were comfortable.... now off to the pool.

For anyone who has ever piloted a boat, then shut off the engine and tried to stop, you'll understand the humor behind hearing a captain say "Full Stop" or "All Engines, Full Stop" and know what it feels like to continue to drift without the ability to make a hard stop.  This is very similar in diving, or at least my diving, water is nothing like a road, if you get yourself moving too quickly (up or down), it becomes difficult to stop... at least under control.  So our goal for last night was to realize neutral buoyancy... for anyone who doesn't know what  neutral buoyancy is, picture it this way, a balloon in water will float, it is positively buoyant, a rock (or me at times.. lol) will sink, because we are negatively buoyant, but a fish that sits perfectly still in the water neither rising nor sinking, without swimming is neutrally buoyant.  It is a complex thing to think about sometimes, but the coolest thing to experience, much like being in outer space, you just sit there.  To achieve this you must learn breath control.  You ensure you are adequately weighted, with just enough air in your BCD and from there you just breathe... sounds simple... it's not.  Inhale too much, and off to the surface you go... exhale too much and prepare to meet the bottom.  This is where the "Full stop" concept comes in, if you are not careful, and inhale too much and don't exhale soon enough, you start to the surface and despite exhaling it is difficult to stop the motion, the same is true in reverse, if you exhale too much and don't inhale soon enough you start your decent and often it is too late to stop yourself from dropping to the bottom... this is a scary concept when you think about walls with 200 + foot drops below you and the problems with rising to the surface too fast .. you never want to lose control.. ever.  But once you have the concept and have practiced achieving this in a few different ways, there is little else cooler than sitting weightless in the water watching your classmates complete their skill tests as you sit, doing nothing, resting only on water, open space above and below you.  I was fortunate enough to have Matt Mendes, (again another in what seems to be a long line of amazing Dive Masters at Ocean Pro), in the water with us, signaling me to move up or down (ascend or descend) in the water while signaling for me to check and advise on air pressure, forcing me to be in constant control and alert of my gauges, instead of falling off to sleep due to the completely relaxing feeling of being weightless. Once you have this under control, and never one to want you to get too relaxed, PADI requires you learn how to breathe off a failed regulator... great... more things that can go wrong... is it too late to transfer to basket weaving as a hobby... lol.  To prepare for this and simulate a failed regulator, understanding of course that almost every time a regulator fails it fails in the open position venting air, you pull one side of the regulator out of your mouth and press the purge valve releasing tons of air and learn to "sip" air from your regulator without getting water in your mouth... it works!... I don't know how, nor do I need to, but it works and it wasn't hard.  We finish the pool time with practicing diver assistance, by pulling and pushing our partners back and forth across the pool, of course I had the wonderful assistance of Matt who, once again liking to keep you on your toes, took great delight in pulling me off course during my diver pull, forcing me to right myself and get back on course all without losing my partner who is "injured" in the water... oh the fun... lol.

So the evening ends, we clean up our gear, get it washed, packed and moved to the door, then off to change before loading the gear in the vehicles for our return to the shop.  It's on the way back from changing that it happens, words that are almost as great as the day my wife said "I do" and the times my parents said "we're proud of you", Matt looked at me and said, "You're doing really great out there" and just when I thought my day couldn't get better as I am sure I was floating all over again, Virpi echoed the comment in saying,"You're doing great out there, keep it up."

Life has it's defining moments, some are tragic events that we survive, some are memories of accomplishments past, and some are simply the kind words someone shares with you at a crossroad in life when you need to hear the thing everyone likes to hear... "Good Job."

If it ain't broke don't fix it.... and from SORTED to super STARS

I have always laughed at the people who look at skydiving and question, "why would you ever jump out of a perfectly good plane?"  I laughed that is until last night where I found myself asking "why would you ever remove a perfectly good mask or regulator?"  You see last nights pool skills were on switching from snorkel to regulator and on mask recovery. The snorkel to regulator is simple enough and is required so that you can surface swim using your snorkel, see what's below you, reach your site, and instead of coming out of the water you simply exhale slowly switch from snorkel to regulator, clear your regulator, continue to breathe (cause you never stopped!) and start your descent. You practice this by swimming across the pool on the surface switching back and forth between snorkel and regulator, makes perfect sense. The mask recover is a different story, for this you descend to the bottom of the pool, not the shallow-end mind you, where if you panicked you could just stand up... no we are 12 feet down sitting in the deep-end of the pool with Roger Fordham (who I hope to get to know better as I progress to the next levels of training) and his Rescue Diver class right above our heads.  Virpi now guides us gently to the ground ensuring we follow the "SORTED" (Signal, Orientate, Regulator, Time, Equalize and Descend) method. After most of us are seated / kneeling on the bottom Virpi kindly demostrates how you remove your mask and calmly (this is key) continue to breathe (another key ingredient for success) with your mask in your hand for a full minute.  At the end of this minute she will signal or tap you to indicate you can now put your mask on your face, clear it and carry on "calmly," sitting 12 feet underwater with the occasional weight belt dropping from above... weee.  We are able to see multiple methods for breathing through this minute, including inhale / exhale regulator and inhale regulator exhale nose, and encouraged to use the method best suited for us.  Remarkably... panic, inhale through your nose and race to the surface before you die was not an option....lol.  I must admit as I write this though, it sounds a lot harder than it is... who would have thought that this amazing creation called the human body has some natural abilities and intelligent design, like the fact that your nostrils face down... come on everyone... think back to being a kid and flipping a cup over in the sink or a bucket in the pool.. that's right air gets trapped... same thing with your nose, as long as you remain calm (go figure) your nose will keep air trapped and the water does not rush in!  So here I am, 12 feet down, mask off, eyes closed, remaining calm, and waiting for that reassuring tap on the arm to say, "Hey Andrew, you didn't die, put your mask back on."  The tap comes, mask on, cleared and still breathing smoothly, give Virpi the "ok" sign get my congratulatory pat on the arm and hand shake that makes you feel like you really might be able to do this and then relax with the classmates who have finished and watch the rest of the class try not to panic as their turn arrives. It is later explained that you learn this skill in case your partner accidentally knocks your mask off.... I'm liking partners less an less... first their taking my air... now knocking my mask off...lol, of course I'm thinking, Lord help anyone who knocks my mask off, they might find themselves doing a "full kit" recovery... lol.  So here is hoping that I never need to do a mask recovery but at least I know I can do it if I need to... the key there is need... lol.  So time runs out and we end our night ascending to the surface under Virpi's direction as diving super STARS (Signal, Time, Air, Reach, Survey).

So for those of you who had a good laugh at my Fitness test, you will enjoy the conversation I had with Michael Klaver (another of Ocean Pros amazing Dive Masters and soon to be Open Water Instructor).  Michael served as Dive Master for last nights class and was present when, during the book part of class, Virpi advised, much to my relief, that they would be no fitness test, and with a smile on her face and just to poke a little fun at me said  "But maybe we'll have Andrew tread water for a few minutes."  Michael was quick to catch on that this was not my favorite part of the course so far and pointed out what it required to qualify for Dive Master.  For  those of you who are squeamish or physically unfit like me.. you might want to turn away.. this is not for younger audiences... physically fit supervision highly recommended....lol. Apparently  to qualify for Dive Master you have to pass a multi-part test including laps beyond what I can count never mind swim, and a 15 minute tread with the last of it spent with your arms in the air.. not an easy feat.  There are also injured diver swims, and a whole array of other things that made my head spin and then to top the whole thing off with a bright red bow and a cherry on top, you have to complete the whole thing within an aggressive time limit!  I'm thinking the only part of that I could do at this point in time is the injured diver swim and only then as the injured diver... lol.

Who knows what the pool holds for my next visit, 3 chapters to review, 1 more set of review questions to complete and section 5 of the DVD all before the 17th when next I venture to class, gear up and join my class as we follow Virpi and our Dive Master of the night to explore new skills and new adventures... to boldly go where hundreds have gone before... the bottom of the pool!.

"Fitness... I don't need no stinkin' fitness"

For anyone who has ever completed the fitness requirement to start diving, you know how untrue that title is... but I'll get to that later.

So here's the story of my first night of diving.  I was more excited than a child on Christmas morning, Jenn (my wife) is watching me bounce off the walls, I'm packed for class with my swim shorts on, I've double and triple checked my homework, ensured I haven't missed anything on my student folder and even reread some of the highlighted areas of my dive manual and I still don't get to leave for nearly 2 hours!

So the grueling 2 hours go by, I make the quick drive from Delta to White Rock to get to Ocean Pro and head on in.  At first I thought I was late, Shannon is standing in front of a class teaching... oh no... did I get the time wrong, did I miss something.. could Ashley have written it down wrong... impossible.  Shannon see's me coming in and confirms I am there for the Open Water Course and upon confirmation she lets me know she is just finishing up with another class, lots happening tonight. (Apparently I am not the only one that realizes how great this shop is.)  Shannon then points me into the shop and encourages me to look around... muhahaha... this is like opening the candy store for a child and telling him to look around to see if there is anything he wants... I WANT IT ALL!!

After playing with some weights, and trying on gloves, and looking at accessory after accessory, I am introduced to, what I will later learn is one of the best instructors around, my instructor Virpi Kangas. She lets me know we'll be starting in a few minutes and to... you guessed it... have a look around... lol.

By the time class starts (and I've only been in the store 15 minutes) I'm researching having my paychecks direct deposited to the store so that I can buy one or two of everything. Not that I'm greedy, but it all looks so much fun!

So class starts, there are 6 in my class including me, Virpi introduces herself, says her name once and I realize... I'm gonna need options.  Such a beautiful name and the way she says it adds that extra something to it, I start saying it in my head and I realize we have a problem...lol. Fortunately Virpi advises we can call her Virpi (can you see the difference, one has a fancy roll to it and the other, not so much... lol) or we can call her V.  Without the roll I'm ok and I feel less worried that I'm going to kill someones name.  We all get out our folders and Virpi reviews to ensure everything is complete.. and who is the superstar who has everything completed... you guessed it.. ME!  (Thanks to Ashley not letting me leave the shop the Thursday before until after I had completed most of it and she had walked me through the rest putting a star * beside everything that needed completing.)  So after folders are done, we start to go through the units 1 & 2, most of us have our homework done and we review question by question, then on to Quiz #1.... 10 out of 10, yeah me, this diving stuff is easy... lol.  Boy was I wrong.. now we were off to the pool....

Here is where the title fits in and my thoughts on the physical requirements go out the window, now the weight of the equipment was, as expected, not a problem for me.  My problem came with the announcement of a Fitness test.  Not a "Hey can you comfortably lift a BCD, tank attached and support it while your partner gets in"... this was a, swim 8 lengths (4 laps) of the pool, no stopping or you start again. So off we go... I'm on length 3/8 (1.5 of my required 4 laps) when the thought hits me... "I'm out of shape"... by length 5/8  (2.5 of my required 4 laps) I'm praying "God strike me dead, I'm not gonna make it"... at the end of 6/8 (3 of my 4 laps down) I am swimming on my back (and have been for a bit) and look up to see Virpi cheering me on from the side, "Only one more to go!"  Ok, great, now I can't quit, I've got a cheering section... lol.  So we finish the swim, I get out, and I am feeling muscles in my legs I didn't know existed and remembering joints that were hurt so long ago I can barely remember how I hurt them.  I'm not feeling so much the superstar at this point... I'd have given up my 10 / 10 on the quiz and being all done my worksheets and folder for a slightly easier time with the swim... at this point I want to die.  We are now fortunate enough to have a break, a few minutes while Virpi shows us the equipment set-up, how to get the tank attached to the BCD, attaching regulators, clipping in hoses, etc.  I'm getting excited again... then the announcement... "Ok, now on to our 10 minute tread..."  Good news!... now I get to tread water with already sore muscles for longer than I have ever tried before, without touching the sides and not drowning....  I won't walk through the gory details but that 10 minutes seemed like 20 and by 20 I mean hours!  ~ note to self: FITNESS IS IMPORTANT ~

So 10 minutes is up, out of the pool we get, muscles are sore, breathing is off and I'm thinking I'm going to die before this night is over....  I think I did.  Died and went to heaven that is!  Under the supervision of Virpi and Dennis Chow (one of the shops most highly qualified and trained Dive Masters and Instructors), we start to build our kits, dawn our wetsuits and boots and then assist our partners into their gear.  Then grabbing masks, snorkels and fins (never call them flippers, Flipper's a Dolphin, Divers have fins!!), we head off to the shallow end of the pool, climb into the pool, put on our fins and masks and upon instruction lower into the water and breathe for the first time.. under water!  What an AMAZING experience!

I won't go through all the details of the skills we covered, aside from saying watching the video and reading the required chapters does help, but most important of all, is having a great instructional team and paying very close attention to what they tell you and show you.

Is my life any different after one class, you bet it is.  I learned to breathe under water, communicate under water, recover my regulator, clear my mask and even share air with my partner if it was needed... what did you do Tuesday night?

My only question at this point... outside of tank changes, why does anyone ever surface? I love this new world. Thursday can't come quick enough, and who knows what the deep end of the pool holds.

I can't wait to dive again, but I won't hold my breath... cause that breaks rule #1 of diving "NEVER HOLD YOUR BREATH!"