Ok, so those that have been following along know that I had to really work this last weekend to get my ears to clear because of this stupid cold I've got in my sinus'. Well today i went to see my family doctor because it felt like I had a blockage or build-up in my ear, nothing too serious, I've had it before and the doctor just rinses the ear with warm water and presto everything is good. So I went to see him today to get my ear flushed to have him let me know that in fact, I had no blockage, the reason my ear feels funny is that I have a collapsed ear drum!
Apparently when I was pushing to clear my ears under water I moved the "gunk" (big medical term) through my sinuses and into my ear canal (no idea how everything in there connects but somehow apparently it does) and when my eardrums collapsed to equalize the pressure of being under water, the one stuck in place. So even when i had ascended and dried off and returned home, my ear never re-equalized leaving me unable to hear in one ear for a while.
According to the doctor, my ear should clear itself in about 2 - 4 weeks, if it doesn't then an ENT specialist will need to insert tubes which will take me out of diving for another 8 - 10 weeks. Let's just all hope and pray my ears get better and no tubes are needed. Plus I have Search and Recovery coming up in a couple weeks.
Fingers crossed!
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Diving the Marker and Experiencing The Cut!
Ok.. so you remember my "little" problem yesterday with getting me ears to clear? Well, it happened again today!
Much like yesterday this day started out amazing, it was a cool crisp morning, still some snow on the ground, but not enough to make driving or gearing up an issue. We met early as usual and proceeded to get our kits put together. A short discussion on today's dive to 130 feet (the deepest I have ever been) and the few skills we will review at depth. Suits on, kits fastened up, gear clipped in place and we were off to the water. Whytecliff is a great place to dive for the many different levels of divers due to it's gradual bottom, mixed ocean life, walls and last but not least depth! But for us to fully enjoy the depth we must be out far enough, which means a good surface swim. Today for dive one, we headed to the day marker. Now for those of you who have been following my blog and have read Seals to Emergencies you will understand why I am a little apprehensive about being out at the day marker on Whitecliff and even more so when the plan is to descend down to beyond where she was brought up from. Needless to say I am writing this now so I made it... yeah me!...lol. So after grouping on the surface, not an easy task with the waves and surf pushing you all over the place, we started our descent, and once again on hitting around the 20 foot mark, the ear just wouldn't clear. So a short ascent up a few feet and a few more, some pushing and struggling and presto the slow relief of my ear starting to pressurize for the dive. Yeah, time to catch up with Roger and my dive partner, hit our 130 mark and begin to review a few navigation skills and a short tour. To finish today's dive Roger has us practicing a new skill, this is where as you approach or hit your 15 foot safety stop, you release your surface marker (attached to your reel) so that it hits the surface an notifies (typically your dive boat) that you are in your 3 minute safety stop. This is particularly useful as mentioned for boat dives, as you are able to give the boat a 3 minute heads up of where you are going to be surfacing so that they can be there to pick you up. This is not a difficult skill, just one that is good to practice, you don't want your line held too tight as it can actually pull you to the surface if you are not careful, and you don't want to leave the line spooling after it reaches the surface or you'll end up having the line drop below you or the marker drift away from your actual ascent point. Ours comes off without a hitch and we make our final ascent, and our surface swim back to enjoy some beverages, and food during our 90 minute surface interval required for our deep dives.
Bellies full, hands warmed up and kits strapped back into place it's time for dive number 4 and our last one required for certification as a Deep Diver. For this dive Roger and my dive partner are going to show me "The Cut". There is a decent hike to get to the cut and as we found when we got to the waters edge, there is also a lot of debris to get past before you can move into the water. This is only further complicated by the surf that comes in to the very narrow "Cut" and makes it difficult to get your fins on. So... after carrying all our gear along what could laughably be referred to as a goat path and climbing over trees and debris on the shore and fighting to get our fins on while time the waves, we are finally ready to get started. It takes only a few steps before you are well over your head in the sudden drop of the cut and we start our descent only to again have my ears give me issues.... So back over to the wall, raise up a bit, a couple good pushes and one big whoosh and my ear is clear. Pushing off the wall and following Roger and my dive partner down through the cut we are signaled by another diver just below us. Dropping to see him, Roger signals back and forth and then signals for us to drop to the same level as this new diver who points out that there is an octopus, more closely described as a crack-topus, as you can only see an arm and part of an eye in the crack it calls home. Turning away from the octopus and working along the wall led by my Dive Partner we make the slow swim along the hidden edge opposite of the bay I am used to diving in and around the point to enter the bay covering the area that you don't normally see when you descend in the bay. Unfortunately my air consumption being what it is the dive is short as usual and we are unable to reach our initially planned objective of swimming all the way into the bay eliminating the long surface swim. So, alternatively we choose to surface swim back into the cut and climb back out that way, taking the hike and climbing over the long surface swim. The walks not too bad, even came across a dog that was not too happy to see three grown men dripping wet and dressed in dark rubbery material. So once again we were back at the vehicles, stripping off gear and packing it away. Looking forward to the next time the open water calls, and we are there to answer!
Much like yesterday this day started out amazing, it was a cool crisp morning, still some snow on the ground, but not enough to make driving or gearing up an issue. We met early as usual and proceeded to get our kits put together. A short discussion on today's dive to 130 feet (the deepest I have ever been) and the few skills we will review at depth. Suits on, kits fastened up, gear clipped in place and we were off to the water. Whytecliff is a great place to dive for the many different levels of divers due to it's gradual bottom, mixed ocean life, walls and last but not least depth! But for us to fully enjoy the depth we must be out far enough, which means a good surface swim. Today for dive one, we headed to the day marker. Now for those of you who have been following my blog and have read Seals to Emergencies you will understand why I am a little apprehensive about being out at the day marker on Whitecliff and even more so when the plan is to descend down to beyond where she was brought up from. Needless to say I am writing this now so I made it... yeah me!...lol. So after grouping on the surface, not an easy task with the waves and surf pushing you all over the place, we started our descent, and once again on hitting around the 20 foot mark, the ear just wouldn't clear. So a short ascent up a few feet and a few more, some pushing and struggling and presto the slow relief of my ear starting to pressurize for the dive. Yeah, time to catch up with Roger and my dive partner, hit our 130 mark and begin to review a few navigation skills and a short tour. To finish today's dive Roger has us practicing a new skill, this is where as you approach or hit your 15 foot safety stop, you release your surface marker (attached to your reel) so that it hits the surface an notifies (typically your dive boat) that you are in your 3 minute safety stop. This is particularly useful as mentioned for boat dives, as you are able to give the boat a 3 minute heads up of where you are going to be surfacing so that they can be there to pick you up. This is not a difficult skill, just one that is good to practice, you don't want your line held too tight as it can actually pull you to the surface if you are not careful, and you don't want to leave the line spooling after it reaches the surface or you'll end up having the line drop below you or the marker drift away from your actual ascent point. Ours comes off without a hitch and we make our final ascent, and our surface swim back to enjoy some beverages, and food during our 90 minute surface interval required for our deep dives.
Bellies full, hands warmed up and kits strapped back into place it's time for dive number 4 and our last one required for certification as a Deep Diver. For this dive Roger and my dive partner are going to show me "The Cut". There is a decent hike to get to the cut and as we found when we got to the waters edge, there is also a lot of debris to get past before you can move into the water. This is only further complicated by the surf that comes in to the very narrow "Cut" and makes it difficult to get your fins on. So... after carrying all our gear along what could laughably be referred to as a goat path and climbing over trees and debris on the shore and fighting to get our fins on while time the waves, we are finally ready to get started. It takes only a few steps before you are well over your head in the sudden drop of the cut and we start our descent only to again have my ears give me issues.... So back over to the wall, raise up a bit, a couple good pushes and one big whoosh and my ear is clear. Pushing off the wall and following Roger and my dive partner down through the cut we are signaled by another diver just below us. Dropping to see him, Roger signals back and forth and then signals for us to drop to the same level as this new diver who points out that there is an octopus, more closely described as a crack-topus, as you can only see an arm and part of an eye in the crack it calls home. Turning away from the octopus and working along the wall led by my Dive Partner we make the slow swim along the hidden edge opposite of the bay I am used to diving in and around the point to enter the bay covering the area that you don't normally see when you descend in the bay. Unfortunately my air consumption being what it is the dive is short as usual and we are unable to reach our initially planned objective of swimming all the way into the bay eliminating the long surface swim. So, alternatively we choose to surface swim back into the cut and climb back out that way, taking the hike and climbing over the long surface swim. The walks not too bad, even came across a dog that was not too happy to see three grown men dripping wet and dressed in dark rubbery material. So once again we were back at the vehicles, stripping off gear and packing it away. Looking forward to the next time the open water calls, and we are there to answer!
Saturday, November 20, 2010
"I'm Diving in the Snow, Just Diving in the Snow, What a Glorious Feeling, I'm Happy Again!"
My apologies to Mr Gene Kelly for killing his song but this is what I was up to earlier today. Last night brought in a few inches of snow and this morning we were scheduled for day one of Deep Diving with Mr Roger K.L. Fordham, Master Scuba Diver Trainer with Ocean Pro Divers. Last night he had messaged to advise that much like the postal service we were going regardless of weather, so when my alarm rang just after 5:00 am and I managed to crawl out of bed I knew it was going to be an interesting day. Grabbing my gear, lunch and a coffee and dressed in warm undergarments it was time to make my way through the snow and clear the van for my drive up to Whytecliff.Park.
Fortunately my dive partner and Roger are like me and like to get going early in the morning so that you can enjoy your dives and still get home at a reasonable time and still have your afternoon free. So by just after 7:00 am the three of us were gearing up and reviewing the dives for the day. By shortly after 8:00 we are headed to the water and excited about the first of our Deep Dives.
Dive one was a simple navigation objective, swim out, signal, descend, find a place on the wall roughly 100 feet down and then with my dive partner swim away from the wall in a straight line maintaining 100 feet for 20 kick cycles, stop, turn and return on the same path back to where Roger is waiting for us. Process sounds simple enough, only issue, I apparently developed a cold, not usually a problem if you are sitting at home wrapped up drinking tea and eating soup... but when you're intending on diving beyond 15 to 20 feet you need for your ears to be able to clear... mine were not so willing....lol I managed to get a little equalization during the first part of the descent but by the time I had hit around the 25 - 30 foot mark my ear was having none of it. Signaling to my partner and Roger, I ascended a few feet and a few feet more trying to get my ear to clear, nothing! After a few more tries Roger signaled me over to the rock face where I was able to hold on and with the rest of my body immobile and with a final attempt my ears did what they were supposed to and with a very satisfying feeling my ear cleared and equalized with the wonderful sound only a clearing ear can make...lol. With my ear cleared we pushed off the wall and proceeded with our decent to 100 feet. Man I love diving! So much to see! So much to do! So after a nice gentle decent to 100 feet we continue as planned, Roger in his spot on the face of the wall, my dive buddy and I hovering at 100 feet, take a compass bearing, and swim directly away from the wall. Out 20 kick cycles, counted by my buddy, turn and shift into position so i can count cycles while he leads the return swim back to Roger and we are right on the money. With this dives skill component completed it's time for some fun, Roger pulls out of his bag what was once a normal empty 2 liter pop bottle, it is now compressed like it was run over by a truck, all of the air is condensed and pulled the sides of the bottle in on itself. Next we look at some pieces of Neoprene, on the surface some are significantly thicker than others, but down at 100 feet they all appear to be almost exactly the same thickness, lastly Roger grabs an egg from his bag, a little tap tap with his dive knife, opens the shell and out floats a perfect yellow ball. After a few minutes of playing with the egg it's time to leave it for the fish and head off, then after a little exploring, some pictures, a little video we arrive back at 15 feet for our 3 minute safety stop.
After a short surface swim back in and a walk up to the vehicles, it's time to take off our kits, switch tanks and get some food in us while we review the plan for dive 2 and kill the balance of the hour and a half required surface interval to get all the excess nitrogen out of our system.
With the surface interval drawing to an end, Roger gets out his preschool shape sorter...
What a great toy... this little square with individual shapes teaches children to recognize shapes and then focus on finding the similar hole and then coordinate their motor skills to fit the piece in the hole! This has been used for decades with preschoolers, children with autism and now, Deep Divers!
You see, all gases have a narcotic effect to them and as you descend to 100+ feet nitrogen can build up and cause what is know as Nitrogen Narcosis, or you become what is usually called Narced. Being Narced is like being intoxicated, your motor skills suffer, you can get tunnel vision, have focusing issues, etc. So we try the shape sorter on the surface, then at 10 feet and then again at 100+ feet to see what the time difference is and see how bad, (if at all) we get Narced.
Once again, we put on our kits, make the walk to the beach and start our surface swim out to our first descent point. Sitting in about 10 - 12 feet of water we start attempt number one after just over a minute I am done and all pieces are in the cube. After my dive buddy finishes his turn it's time to head out to the depths. When we reach decent point 2 we exchange a signal and start our relaxed descent back down to 100 feet clearing and equalizing the whole way. This time is much easier and taking it really slow my ear stays clear and equalizes with only minor work. Once on the bottom it's time to play with the shape sorter again, Roger passes me the sorter, signals, starts the time and opens the bag, one after another the pieces come out of the bag, into my hand and flipping the sorter around each piece finds its home in under a minute. As it turns out, I am apparently faster at 100 feet then I am at 10 feet... wonder if that would work for my office stuff too...hmm...lol. After my partner has his turn, the toys are put away and it's off for a bit of a swim before heading back towards shore, our safety stop, surface swim, gear down and drive home. Another successful day of dive adventures, and half way to being a certified Deep Diver.
Fortunately my dive partner and Roger are like me and like to get going early in the morning so that you can enjoy your dives and still get home at a reasonable time and still have your afternoon free. So by just after 7:00 am the three of us were gearing up and reviewing the dives for the day. By shortly after 8:00 we are headed to the water and excited about the first of our Deep Dives.
Dive one was a simple navigation objective, swim out, signal, descend, find a place on the wall roughly 100 feet down and then with my dive partner swim away from the wall in a straight line maintaining 100 feet for 20 kick cycles, stop, turn and return on the same path back to where Roger is waiting for us. Process sounds simple enough, only issue, I apparently developed a cold, not usually a problem if you are sitting at home wrapped up drinking tea and eating soup... but when you're intending on diving beyond 15 to 20 feet you need for your ears to be able to clear... mine were not so willing....lol I managed to get a little equalization during the first part of the descent but by the time I had hit around the 25 - 30 foot mark my ear was having none of it. Signaling to my partner and Roger, I ascended a few feet and a few feet more trying to get my ear to clear, nothing! After a few more tries Roger signaled me over to the rock face where I was able to hold on and with the rest of my body immobile and with a final attempt my ears did what they were supposed to and with a very satisfying feeling my ear cleared and equalized with the wonderful sound only a clearing ear can make...lol. With my ear cleared we pushed off the wall and proceeded with our decent to 100 feet. Man I love diving! So much to see! So much to do! So after a nice gentle decent to 100 feet we continue as planned, Roger in his spot on the face of the wall, my dive buddy and I hovering at 100 feet, take a compass bearing, and swim directly away from the wall. Out 20 kick cycles, counted by my buddy, turn and shift into position so i can count cycles while he leads the return swim back to Roger and we are right on the money. With this dives skill component completed it's time for some fun, Roger pulls out of his bag what was once a normal empty 2 liter pop bottle, it is now compressed like it was run over by a truck, all of the air is condensed and pulled the sides of the bottle in on itself. Next we look at some pieces of Neoprene, on the surface some are significantly thicker than others, but down at 100 feet they all appear to be almost exactly the same thickness, lastly Roger grabs an egg from his bag, a little tap tap with his dive knife, opens the shell and out floats a perfect yellow ball. After a few minutes of playing with the egg it's time to leave it for the fish and head off, then after a little exploring, some pictures, a little video we arrive back at 15 feet for our 3 minute safety stop.
After a short surface swim back in and a walk up to the vehicles, it's time to take off our kits, switch tanks and get some food in us while we review the plan for dive 2 and kill the balance of the hour and a half required surface interval to get all the excess nitrogen out of our system.
With the surface interval drawing to an end, Roger gets out his preschool shape sorter...What a great toy... this little square with individual shapes teaches children to recognize shapes and then focus on finding the similar hole and then coordinate their motor skills to fit the piece in the hole! This has been used for decades with preschoolers, children with autism and now, Deep Divers!
You see, all gases have a narcotic effect to them and as you descend to 100+ feet nitrogen can build up and cause what is know as Nitrogen Narcosis, or you become what is usually called Narced. Being Narced is like being intoxicated, your motor skills suffer, you can get tunnel vision, have focusing issues, etc. So we try the shape sorter on the surface, then at 10 feet and then again at 100+ feet to see what the time difference is and see how bad, (if at all) we get Narced.
Once again, we put on our kits, make the walk to the beach and start our surface swim out to our first descent point. Sitting in about 10 - 12 feet of water we start attempt number one after just over a minute I am done and all pieces are in the cube. After my dive buddy finishes his turn it's time to head out to the depths. When we reach decent point 2 we exchange a signal and start our relaxed descent back down to 100 feet clearing and equalizing the whole way. This time is much easier and taking it really slow my ear stays clear and equalizes with only minor work. Once on the bottom it's time to play with the shape sorter again, Roger passes me the sorter, signals, starts the time and opens the bag, one after another the pieces come out of the bag, into my hand and flipping the sorter around each piece finds its home in under a minute. As it turns out, I am apparently faster at 100 feet then I am at 10 feet... wonder if that would work for my office stuff too...hmm...lol. After my partner has his turn, the toys are put away and it's off for a bit of a swim before heading back towards shore, our safety stop, surface swim, gear down and drive home. Another successful day of dive adventures, and half way to being a certified Deep Diver.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Checking Homework and Planning Dives
This will end up being a short addition to the blog posted earlier talking about my first recreational dive without instructor supervision. After our dive for the day we headed back to my place to move all the rental equipment from Scott's car to my van so that I could drive it out to the shop to return it and meet up with Master Scuba Diver Trainer Roger K.L. Fordham hoah! Every time I see Roger I feel like saluting, which as I later found out wouldn't be to far off as he serves in the military. I had met Roger previously and as mentioned in If it ain't broke don't fix it.... and from SORTED to super STARS and Shooting Pumpkins and Making Squares.....I had seen him at work as an instructor. Today, though would be my first day to actually start training under his supervision, I was excited and rightfully so. Roger was quick to get into the chapter reviews and alternating between me and my dive partner for this specialty we reviewed all the answers, made any corrections necessary (not that I had any errors..lol) and answered any questions anyone had. Next we moved on to planning our dives. Seeing as both my dive buddy and I had recently completed our Advanced Certification and on that you end up completing one of your required dives for your Deep Certification we only really had to complete 3 dives. But seeing as we were already going to be at the site, why not bring the second tank on both days and enjoy the extra dive. Roger, being very detailed, like a briefing prior to a military operation, walked us through the initial plan for when and where we were meeting, the planned dive profile for each of the 4 dives, and the skills required to complete the specialty. Needless to say I was excited to be prepping for these dives and can't believe that in less than a week I will be 130 feet deep in the open ocean. Apparently we get to play with kids toys and crack an egg under water... can't wait to see what that is like. Maybe I'll see if I can get a camera and try to capture some shots of what I see. Anyway, time to get back to the family, can't wait to let you all know what it's like at 130 feet, I'm sure it will be an experience.
Look Mommy, no hands!
I can remember thinking back to being a kid riding your bike or in the backyard on the swing, one of the biggest enjoyments (and sometimes scariest times) was when you did things on your own. You let go of Mom or Dad's hand, and stepped out to try something without them being right there. It was a nervous time but also one of realization that you have been taught well and will be ok. It was that way yesterday when Scott, the close friend of mine who got me into diving, was finally medically cleared to dive and as a result we headed up to Porteau Cove for a day of diving without instructors, my first ever.
Upon arrival, it was site check as usual, confirm water height, surface visibility, look for visible debris that would affect entry or surface swim, etc. Then discuss the dive plan, decide on our objective, review safety procedures and discuss signals. Then back to the vehicle to put together our kits, suit up, safety check (BWRAF) and then off to the water. Once in the water it's a gentle surface swim out to the Grant Hall marker and then time to descend.
This was the first time Scott and I got a chance to dive together and my first time with out the "training wheels." Our descent was almost picture perfect, per our plan visually follow the chain from the surface marker to the subsurface marker, then from there straight down to the deck of the Grant Hall. A short stop to look at the deck of the steel tug boat, scuttled in March of 1992 and fast approaching 20 years under water, then a quick signal and descend beside the tug to explore under the wreck. A calm swim around the bottom gives us a great view of the ship and and some of the amazing life that now calls this ship home. No octopus out, nor even signs that he had been around recently but lots of cracks and burrows under the ship that would make for some excellent dens. After completing our circle of the underside of the ship we ascended to take a little tour of the deck and exposed hold looking at the Sunstars and Decorator crabs that occupy the walls. Finishing our tour and having some air in reserve we decided to tour over towards the Centennial III, a steel dredge, and do a short explore of that wreck before a slow ascent, our safety stop and our final ascent to the surface.
It proved to be an amazing dive, great communication, good buoyancy control and perfectly safe. The only complication came when reaching the surface. You see as my computer switched over to count down my safety stop apparently it stopped communicating with my pressure transmitter so that when the safety stop time expired I had no indication as to what my remaining pressure was. Now this turned out not to be an issue as we were surfacing anyways, but this could have been a major issue had this happened at any kind of depth or during this upcoming weekends Deep Dive certification dives. Unfortunately what it did mean though is Scott and I had to call it a day after only one dive. It was a good dive and a great day and I can't wait to get back in the water with Scott again.
Upon arrival, it was site check as usual, confirm water height, surface visibility, look for visible debris that would affect entry or surface swim, etc. Then discuss the dive plan, decide on our objective, review safety procedures and discuss signals. Then back to the vehicle to put together our kits, suit up, safety check (BWRAF) and then off to the water. Once in the water it's a gentle surface swim out to the Grant Hall marker and then time to descend.
This was the first time Scott and I got a chance to dive together and my first time with out the "training wheels." Our descent was almost picture perfect, per our plan visually follow the chain from the surface marker to the subsurface marker, then from there straight down to the deck of the Grant Hall. A short stop to look at the deck of the steel tug boat, scuttled in March of 1992 and fast approaching 20 years under water, then a quick signal and descend beside the tug to explore under the wreck. A calm swim around the bottom gives us a great view of the ship and and some of the amazing life that now calls this ship home. No octopus out, nor even signs that he had been around recently but lots of cracks and burrows under the ship that would make for some excellent dens. After completing our circle of the underside of the ship we ascended to take a little tour of the deck and exposed hold looking at the Sunstars and Decorator crabs that occupy the walls. Finishing our tour and having some air in reserve we decided to tour over towards the Centennial III, a steel dredge, and do a short explore of that wreck before a slow ascent, our safety stop and our final ascent to the surface.
It proved to be an amazing dive, great communication, good buoyancy control and perfectly safe. The only complication came when reaching the surface. You see as my computer switched over to count down my safety stop apparently it stopped communicating with my pressure transmitter so that when the safety stop time expired I had no indication as to what my remaining pressure was. Now this turned out not to be an issue as we were surfacing anyways, but this could have been a major issue had this happened at any kind of depth or during this upcoming weekends Deep Dive certification dives. Unfortunately what it did mean though is Scott and I had to call it a day after only one dive. It was a good dive and a great day and I can't wait to get back in the water with Scott again.
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