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!

If it ain't broke don't fix it.... and from SORTED to super STARS

I have always laughed at the people who look at skydiving and question, "why would you ever jump out of a perfectly good plane?"  I laughed that is until last night where I found myself asking "why would you ever remove a perfectly good mask or regulator?"  You see last nights pool skills were on switching from snorkel to regulator and on mask recovery. The snorkel to regulator is simple enough and is required so that you can surface swim using your snorkel, see what's below you, reach your site, and instead of coming out of the water you simply exhale slowly switch from snorkel to regulator, clear your regulator, continue to breathe (cause you never stopped!) and start your descent. You practice this by swimming across the pool on the surface switching back and forth between snorkel and regulator, makes perfect sense. The mask recover is a different story, for this you descend to the bottom of the pool, not the shallow-end mind you, where if you panicked you could just stand up... no we are 12 feet down sitting in the deep-end of the pool with Roger Fordham (who I hope to get to know better as I progress to the next levels of training) and his Rescue Diver class right above our heads.  Virpi now guides us gently to the ground ensuring we follow the "SORTED" (Signal, Orientate, Regulator, Time, Equalize and Descend) method. After most of us are seated / kneeling on the bottom Virpi kindly demostrates how you remove your mask and calmly (this is key) continue to breathe (another key ingredient for success) with your mask in your hand for a full minute.  At the end of this minute she will signal or tap you to indicate you can now put your mask on your face, clear it and carry on "calmly," sitting 12 feet underwater with the occasional weight belt dropping from above... weee.  We are able to see multiple methods for breathing through this minute, including inhale / exhale regulator and inhale regulator exhale nose, and encouraged to use the method best suited for us.  Remarkably... panic, inhale through your nose and race to the surface before you die was not an option....lol.  I must admit as I write this though, it sounds a lot harder than it is... who would have thought that this amazing creation called the human body has some natural abilities and intelligent design, like the fact that your nostrils face down... come on everyone... think back to being a kid and flipping a cup over in the sink or a bucket in the pool.. that's right air gets trapped... same thing with your nose, as long as you remain calm (go figure) your nose will keep air trapped and the water does not rush in!  So here I am, 12 feet down, mask off, eyes closed, remaining calm, and waiting for that reassuring tap on the arm to say, "Hey Andrew, you didn't die, put your mask back on."  The tap comes, mask on, cleared and still breathing smoothly, give Virpi the "ok" sign get my congratulatory pat on the arm and hand shake that makes you feel like you really might be able to do this and then relax with the classmates who have finished and watch the rest of the class try not to panic as their turn arrives. It is later explained that you learn this skill in case your partner accidentally knocks your mask off.... I'm liking partners less an less... first their taking my air... now knocking my mask off...lol, of course I'm thinking, Lord help anyone who knocks my mask off, they might find themselves doing a "full kit" recovery... lol.  So here is hoping that I never need to do a mask recovery but at least I know I can do it if I need to... the key there is need... lol.  So time runs out and we end our night ascending to the surface under Virpi's direction as diving super STARS (Signal, Time, Air, Reach, Survey).

So for those of you who had a good laugh at my Fitness test, you will enjoy the conversation I had with Michael Klaver (another of Ocean Pros amazing Dive Masters and soon to be Open Water Instructor).  Michael served as Dive Master for last nights class and was present when, during the book part of class, Virpi advised, much to my relief, that they would be no fitness test, and with a smile on her face and just to poke a little fun at me said  "But maybe we'll have Andrew tread water for a few minutes."  Michael was quick to catch on that this was not my favorite part of the course so far and pointed out what it required to qualify for Dive Master.  For  those of you who are squeamish or physically unfit like me.. you might want to turn away.. this is not for younger audiences... physically fit supervision highly recommended....lol. Apparently  to qualify for Dive Master you have to pass a multi-part test including laps beyond what I can count never mind swim, and a 15 minute tread with the last of it spent with your arms in the air.. not an easy feat.  There are also injured diver swims, and a whole array of other things that made my head spin and then to top the whole thing off with a bright red bow and a cherry on top, you have to complete the whole thing within an aggressive time limit!  I'm thinking the only part of that I could do at this point in time is the injured diver swim and only then as the injured diver... lol.

Who knows what the pool holds for my next visit, 3 chapters to review, 1 more set of review questions to complete and section 5 of the DVD all before the 17th when next I venture to class, gear up and join my class as we follow Virpi and our Dive Master of the night to explore new skills and new adventures... to boldly go where hundreds have gone before... the bottom of the pool!.