Cuts, Records and Bad Buddies.....

Woke up this morning still feeling a little tired from yesterday with Ward but still totally jacked up about putting in another 2 dives.  For today (thanks to Chloe at Ocean Pro Divers) I had been invited to join Allen Kyte and his advanced class as they ventured into the waters at Wytecliff Park to complete their Deep and their Naturalist dives.  Armed with gear and camera I arrived at the shop (early as always) and waited to see who was up to what today.  Sure enough shortly after arriving Shannon and Chloe arrived, followed shortly by Michael Klaver and Steve Dunn.  Apparently today was instructor training day and some in the class were meeting at the shop before heading to the site.  My first few minutes at the shop were spent chasing Shannon and Steve down to hit them up for signatures in my dive log for my Emergency O2 course and EFR courses followed by catching up with Michael and Chloe and then greeting the people I had never met and being introduced to Allen.  As it turned out the gentleman who was supposed to be in the course today had suffered some bad luck last night with his vehicle and as a result was not going to be able to join us.  This reduced our group down to Allen as instructor, one student and me tagging along behind.  Almost as quick as the shop got busy, it was emptied out again leaving our group to finish loading and head out to Whytecliff Park.

Upon arriving at Whytecliff it was the same ritual as always, take a look at the water, thank God I am lucky enough to have this kind of beauty in my back yard, and grab my gear to get it prepped.  With everything unloaded and kits being assembled it was time to start planning out our day.  The plan was to do our deep dive on what is called the "Cut".  Now the cut is exactly what it sounds like, it looks like someone plunged a knife into the rock of Whytecliff park and drew a line back into the bay.  Once in the water it drops very fast and runs off to the right to incredible depths and on the left you have the wall.  Since this was the deep dive for the advanced certification, depth was the goal.  The plan was quite simple, I would buddy up with the student and swim to her right with Allen just back and to the left.  We would swim out staying along the wall and slowly make our way to a depth of 90 feet and then see how everyone was doing to see if we would go a little further.  Then once in the bay we would circle around the point and head back into the bay making our exit easier....simple!

So with gear on and group together we headed towards the entry and down the rocky path and stairs.  In the water, fins on, masks on, regs in, and down.  It was almost as if we had been diving together a bunch of times, we descended as a group and in perfect position headed out along the wall.  Then with a little signal the student my "buddy" pointed out to the right a bit and we angled a little away from the wall and into deeper water.  With almost perfect control of our buoyancy we moved almost as one unit slowly descending and moving through the cut.  Now I think it was the relaxed atmosphere or my intermittent ADD that caused it but I saw a fish and thought "Oooh shiny" and stopped to take a picture.. then kicked back to the group only to see another thing to take a picture of and another and another and another... Next thing you know I was swimming back of the group with Allen beside my buddy and me busy taking pictures.  This was pretty much how the dive finished, Allen and student together with me bringing up the rear.  At 1500 psi, as discussed, we headed up a bit to 50 feet and continued, by this time, further into the bay until about 900 when we ascended to safety stop depth and swam in further before surfacing and kicking in.

Now, in between dives (good class dives especially) during your surface interval, you debrief and discuss the dive.  What went good, what was not so good, what went according to plan, what went sideways and what would we do different next time.  Allen (much like Ward in Row, Row, Row Your Boat Gently Into The Rolling Waves.... Merrily Merrily Off To See The Circus...)  was great about reviewing the dive with his student and then, bum bum bum, with me....  You see, I broke one of the cardinal rules of diving (and of Top Gun) I left my buddy!  My job was to stay to her right side and I decided to drop off to take pictures (hand slap time...ouch!)

Now for dive number 2, our Naturalist / Navigation dive, the plan for this one was quite simple.  Gear-up, head into the water, finish the "navigational square" that had been incomplete in their dives the day before, and then proceed out along the wall looking for critters.  Not a very involved dive and by keeping shallow and moving slow, this could be a good long dive... boy was I right...lol.  For this dive, being a Naturalist one I elected (with Allen's permission) to just be the tag along photographer and not "dive buddy," this allows for me to take LOTS of pictures of all of the wonderful little creatures we find along the way.  Everything for this dive went as planned, I once again dropped more weight bringing me down to 22 lbs of weight from the original 42 lbs I started with, and was feeling better than ever about my buoyancy.  Down the hill we went and into the water, out to about 10 or 12 feet of water and descend to make a square, ascending upon completion brought us back almost to where we started, always a good start!  Then back down again and over to the wall to do a very slow, swim along the wall looking at all the plants and creatures along the way.  I must admit after about 20 minutes of our floating along I got concerned when I looked at my air and still had over 2000psi, then at 40 minutes with more than 1500psi left.  Now my rational brain didn't take long to figure out that we were shallow and we weren't really kicking, more floating with the current and surge of the tide, so we we're breathing all that much.  By about the 50 minute mark we had already started to head back and not going below 30 feet we didn't need a safety stop so we had time, but the most interesting thing started to happen... I got cold!  Looking around I realized that I was not the only one, Allen and his student both looked cold too, which was funny because as soon as I looked at Allen, he gave me the "cold" signal to which I responded "cold" and we started moving in closer to shore and closer to the surface.

All in I ended dive 2 with close on 1400 psi left in my tank, still enough for another dive...lol, and we had been in the water for 59.6 minutes, a new record for me smashing my old record and nearly breaking 1hr of dive time!

The walk to the vehicles was a quick one, the wind was kicking up and we were already cold.  Up to the cars, gear stripped off, sweatshirts and toques on and something warm in the stomach I was feeling loads better.  Then to pack all the gear, fit it in totes and load it into the van.  All done, it was time to sit and chat a few about the dive, make sure everyone was happy and everything accomplished.  Time for Allen to sign off on the books and forms and then it was time to load up and head home.

Today marked dives 34 and 35, meaning once my Rescue courses are completed later this month (hopefully) and 15 more dives are done (hopefully soon) I will be qualified to receive my Master Scuba Diver designation.  As exciting as that is, it is still a scary fact that according to the industry standards I will be recognized (regardless of association) as a Master Scuba Diver.  That seems to me to be a whole lot of responsibility.  I know it doesn't hold the same qualification or clout and Dive Master but to me it still seems BIG!!  lol.  Well, until the next time I get my nose wet and take my gear for a tour of the ocean, stay safe and I'll update you all soon... Photography is coming up!!!

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!

"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.

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.

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.

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.