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!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
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!
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