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.
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