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!!
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
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.
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