Gimme eight....

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!

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.

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.