Enjoying the view before gearing up to explore the wonders beneath!

Saturday afternoon while the Vancouver Canucks were preparing to dish out their punishment on the Boston Bruins, I was meeting up with a few friends at our cabin up at Porteau Cove.  The plan for the evening would see us completing 2 dives before calling it a night, catching some sleep and then joining Ocean Pro Divers in the morning for their monthly BBQ and dive day!!

By the time I had arrived at the cabin, my buddy for the night had just arrived and the Canucks were going into OT tied 2 - 2.  After grabbing my over-night gear and throwing it on the couch and flipping on the TV, we were just in time to see the puck drop and Alex Burrows suck Thomas out of the net, out skate Chara, and wrap around the net depositing the puck in the back of the net taking game 2 sending the Boston "ruins" back home to lick their wounds.

Shortly after the game, the third member of our group arrived and started preparing his dinner while I walked down towards the shore to look and see what the tides were looking like for the evening and was met with this wonderful view:

The water was so calm, only a few clouds in the air, conditions we dream about!

After my walk, the last of our team had arrived for the night and we loaded our gear and headed for the shore.  Taking our time to discuss the plans for the night and review any concerns we geared up and decended the stairs to start our first dive of the evening.

Surface swimming out to the first marker, the plan was to descend to the bottom, group up and move out along the fire hose exploring the darkened ocean floor.  Upon reaching the bottom and forming up in our buddy teams we headed out across the bottom.  Unfortunately the other group of divers turned out to be determined to move as quick as possible and since my buddy and I were looking to actually explore the under-sea world instead of watch it blast by while setting a record for how fast we could swim.  It did not take long for the other group to pull well ahead of us as we watched their lights dim into the distance.  Signalling to my buddy we slowed down to a complete stop, checked air, confirmed depth and started a slow patrol of the bottom moving in the general direction of the second marker.  After slowly exploring and capturing a few photos we started our slow return back towards the stairs watching as the fish dashed in and out of our beams of light.  Before we knew it, nearly 40 minutes had passed and we were watching as the bottom angled up and our depth drew down.  By 45 minutes we were back at the base of the stairs, regs out, fins off and then the short walk back to the vehicles to switch tanks and head back.

As it turned out, the first group had returned before us and had already stripped down their gear and packed it away.  One of the divers had decided to wear a wet-suit for the night, so after dive one he was uncomfortably cold and his buddy had decided one dive was enough for the night.  My partner and I, however, couldn't wait to get back in the water so while our friends headed back to the cabin we headed back out into the water, this time with a slightly different plan.

With me taking the lead we surface swam out just far enough to have about 10 feet of water below us before we descended.  Upon reaching bottom, we checked for neutral buoyancy, confirmed air and direction and then completely relaxed, slowly kicked and let the water move us slowly across the bottom while watching the world move around us.  As we approached half air we made a slow turn and moved back towards the stairs enjoying the underwater world and the wonderful life that it revealed to us along with some interesting looking animals that I had never seen before and will have to see if I can find someone to identify.

After finding and photographing our little buddy here we made our way to the stairs and up to the vehicles to strip down our gear and head for the cabin.  Back at the cabin we spread out the gear that would be needed for the following morning to allow it to dry a bit before being needed again and headed inside to join the rest of our party. 

As it turned out it wasn't much of a party... inside the cabin our other two divers had already found their sleeping bags and were working on catching their zzz's.  Quickly grabbing a snack and something warm to drink I headed to bed to snore away my night and dream of what the next day might bring.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat Gently Into The Rolling Waves.... Merrily Merrily Off To See The Circus...

As crazy as this sounds this is exactly what I was up to on Sunday.  The day started with all sorts of confusion (which should have been a sign), Ward was still sick and as such would be unable to dive.  He was still coming to the site as the instructor and to make sure the day went well but since he wasn't going to be in the water we were being joined by Chloe Boone as the Dive Master for the day and another friend of the shop who would be assisting in the water.  The boats were at the shop, unfortunately  we couldn't find pumps... Finally we got a hold of two of the divers who were already on their way to the site and found out they had a manual pump from the shop and also had an electric pump for air mattresses.  So it was just a matter of throwing all the gear in vehicles, mounting up and heading out to the site.

Once on site it was evident it was going to be an interesting day,  as we pulled up we could see the white caps on the waves rolling into shore and feel the wind and see it bending the branches.  Now if you've ever been kayaking or in an inflatable boat in waves you know that going up and over and crashing into the waves is not the easiest thing when attempting to move a fair distance and secure to a buoy.

As mentioned fortunately one of the divers had his electric pump along which aided greatly in the inflation of the boats and then the manual pump was used to top up the boats.  A tank attached to an adapter was used to inflate the back-rests and with a little "chain gang" process all of the boats were completed and ready for use.  The next step was getting kits built, it was at this time that it turned out one of the divers had forgotten to check his gear and was missing his fins... normally an issue but ta da... I had a rental set and my force fins which meant I could loan out my rentals and we were back on track.  Now, with all the kits built and accessories gathered up it was time for the briefing.  Standing at the top of the stairs and viewing the water we went through our plan and groups for the first dive.  The plan, originally, was that Chloe as lead would be with me and my typical team and the other DM joining us for the day would dive with the father / son team. The whole group of us would stay together as a soft team but each of us had our hard team partner that we were not to get separated from.   With the plan in place as far as which buoy we were tying to, and how best to stow, release and don your gear, we headed off to grab our boats and start moving gear down to the beach.

Now once your gear is strapped in and you have waded out far enough and then jumped onto your boat and grabbed your oar and started paddling you can easily see who has done this before and who was not so experienced...lol.  I spent so much time trying to get the boat through the waves and pointed in the right direction I could feel myself getting tired long before reaching the buoy.  Meanwhile one of my typical dive team and my direct partner for this dive was able to pull far ahead of the group and easily reach the buoy before the balance of the group.  Now to add humor to the day my partner, the first one to the buoy, the one who was supposed to get us tied to the buoy, was also the diver on my Search and Recovery dives who had some issues with tying the knots, so as you can imagine this just added to the confusion and entertainment.

What we looked like from shore I can only imagine... six boats and seven divers all trying to stay clustered together around a buoy while scrambling to tie the boats together and tie one end onto the buoy.... Needless to say, despite the added excitement, we ended up tied together and secured to the buoy.  With that step completed it was time to get our gear on... the idea for this is to unstrap your kit and (after ensuring air is in your BCD) slide it into the water and tie it, clip it, hold it, close to your boat while, with your fins on, you slip into the water and put your kit on.  Now for a few people on Sunday this turned into quite the spectacle and was even worrisome for me, but after a deep breath and with flashbacks to my days with Virpi in my open water class (Seals to Emergencies) "I went one step at a time, pushed my tank down, sat on it, spun it around behind me, put my arms in the straps and slid off letting the tank and BCD rise to my back... bing, bang, boom... straps done up and I was done..."  Smiling probably almost as much as I did the first time I put my BCD back on in the water, I  established buoyancy, secured my accessories and headed over to where Chloe was getting the group all together.  With my team in place, and group two assembled (wow, starts to sound like a military operation...lol) we signal to descend and meet at the bottom.  After a beautiful slow and relaxing descent with eyes on my partner we settle in just above the bottom and wait.... and wait.... and wait... after a few minutes we conclude that the rest of our group is not joining us and must have had an issue so we start our very slow and relaxed ascent... back up to the surface.   On the surface is where all of the real excitement was happening.  Apparently with the switch from Neoprene suits to the Bare Nexgen suits and from steel tanks to aluminum tanks, two of the divers had dropped too much weight and were now not heavy enough to get down.  So, with the aid of our guest DM who stripped his weights and split them up amongst the under-weighted divers so that they were be heavy enough.  Of course without his weight his dives were done for the day so he became the surface manager, and the two divers that were supposed to be with him, now more heavily weighted, got to join up with the rest of us as one big group.  Now to try it again...  Descent attempt number two... after a bit of a struggle with fins, which were switched out with our guest DM's, as he wouldn't be needing them, we managed to get down a fair way towards the bottom, but unfortunately due to a couple more issues one of our previously under weighted divers returned to the surface and needed to call off that dive.  So down a diver and a DM it was off for the third attempt of dive number one...lol.  (Welcome to the circus) Now that we were all (with the exception of the two on the surface) making our descent to the bottom together the dive had officially begun.  Descending down to 80 feet and swimming just a short distance off the bottom we started looking for the sunken Sailboat the Nakaya, it took only a few minutes to find it and start our swim around it.  We had discussed some of the dangers of the Nakaya while on the surface and decided to make a hard rule about no one closer than 10 feet to the boat, it's rickety condition did not bode well for any kind of in depth exploration nor the safety of any diver who tried.  I did manage to get off a few pictures but the water was pretty murky and I'm still not very good with the lighting underwater.   But before I could get off too many shots we got to the next phase of "fun,"as I rounded the corner of the sailboat, my main focus on capturing a picture while my partner was just ahead and to the right of me, when something caught my eye.  One of our divers was almost right upside down facing towards the bottom with Chloe holding him down and trying to reach something in her pocket.  Quickly dropping my camera to my side I cut down beside her along with one of our other divers and at her indication, forced open her pocket (by the way neoprene sucks under water, it condenses with the pressure and makes neoprene pockets next to impossible to open.)  With my hand wedged into Chloe's pocket I managed to pull lose the weight she had stowed in there and pass it to her to be secured to the diver in issue.  Unfortunately with all the activity I had burned through more air than I planned to and needed to signal to ascend.  As I signaled it became apparent that the additional weight added was still not enough and the diver with Chloe close behind slowing his ascent went straight to the surface.  With only the three of us still down at depth (my usual team that I have been diving with for a while) we each signaled and very slowly and collectively made our way to our three minute safety stop then on to the surface to end dive number one.  Once on the surface confirmation was received from Chloe that everyone was fine just a quicker trip to the surface than they would have wanted to.  Now with the dive complete, it was time to strip off our kits, ensuring air still in the BCD (I can only imagine the results of forgetting to do that and dropping your tank and fully weighted BCD into the water...lol. Guess I'd be making good use of my search and recovery skills learned in Hide and Seek! and Arrrr' We be searching for yer burried treasure! then...lol).  With kits off and floating in the water close to your boat, it's again time to practice skills from Open Water to use fin kits to assist with getting back on board your boat.  Then haul up your kit, secure it in place and head for shore.


Now before anyone gets the wrong idea, yes this day could have gone better, but it also could have gone WAY worse... I learned a lot on these dives and felt so much more confident as a diver after the day.  You see unlike many of the dives before where much of it could be done without thinking, today really made me pay attention to not only myself, and my buddy, but also learn to pay close attention to what other divers are doing around me as I experienced in dive 2.

Now with Ward sick and unable to dive, one DM without weight and fins (loaned out to one of the under-weighted divers) and Chloe having just made a quicker than planned ascent, we were without staff divers looking at one more dive on the day.  This is when the true skills of the OPD staff shone through and why I will always be proud to say I am an Ocean Pro Diver (maybe even one day honored enough to join the elite divers pictured on their website).  While enjoying our surface interval Ward posed the question and challenge in saying: "Ok, you're all Open Water certified so you don't need in water supervision, you are here to learn and practice the use of the boats and the staff will be present for that but for the actual dive you don't need us with you so tell me what your plan is."  and at that he just looked at us.  Though it took only a second, I saw divers grow in confidence ten fold.  Suddenly we were responsible for the dive, we had signed up for Boat Diving lessons and were getting everything we paid for.  We were learning how to load and secure gear and dive off boats, that's Boat Diving, but we were also learning so much more.  We were divers, we didn't need our hands held, we knew how to dive, it was the boat part they were there to supervise.  So after that quick second (and some prompting from Ward) it was decided to do the fire hose, a simple dive, fairly close in and not very deep.  This would allow us a short row, conserved energy and due to the delays on the first dive this would help us recover a little time so that we could be out of the water and on our way back before dark.  The second thing that happened that absolutely made my weekend, was when Chloe pulled me aside and asked if I would partner up with the diver who had experienced some challenges on his first dive and perhaps as a result could be feeling a little more stressed than normal.  Well... this shot my confidence (and my ego...lol) up about 14 notches... a Dive Master... and Ocean Pro Dive Master... was asking me, to keep an eye on one of her students.  WHAT A DAY!!!

Well... I have discovered the fastest way to take a guy (me) who over-thinks everything and make him a better diver... give him someone else to worry about...lol.  On dive two we rowed out the short distance to the first buoy, now practiced with our tying techniques we were tied up and ready to don gear in just a few minutes.  With gear in the water and all of us functioning as a team we all got our kits on, gathered around the buoy, partnered up, signaled and descended.  Now I don't know whether it was because I was so intent on not letting anything happen to my team or what it was, but I seemed to have no issues with anything.  My descent was perfect, just before bottom I added a short puff of air to my suit, and slowed to an almost dead stop.  My buddy... not so lucky... he decided to take a close (VERY CLOSE) look at the ocean floor...lol, no problems with being under-weighted this time...lol.  Readjusting his buoyancy and finding his "hover" we were ready to go.  With the other two divers in the lead, my partner just in front and to the right of me and me bringing up the rear, we headed out along the fire hose at a very relaxed pace enjoying the scenery.  With our plan in place to turn back at 2000 psi, my buddy signaled me, and with a quick signal to the divers up front, we circled and headed back to the ascent line, back to the boats, kits off, resecured and paddle back to shore. to stow the gear and head back to the shop.

Now some people will read this and see the issues on the day, or comment on the potential dangers of diving.  But those who see it from my stand point, those that understand and accept that no course just like no dive, is ever perfect.  It's not about perfection... at least not for me.  If you learn Navigation in 30 feet of water with 40+ feet of clear visibility, did you really learn to navigate or did you practice opening your eyes and swimming...lol.  For those of my long time readers you will have noticed that nothing ever goes exactly as planned and that is when the "real" learning happens.  We finished the night with Ward having us go around thr room to list off what we learned in the day, not surprisingly, no one mentioned learning to dive from a boat.... everyone learned something else whether it was to always check your weighting, or always check your gear before leaving for the site or in my case, ways to be better prepared to tie up the boats... everyone learned something... and that is what made it such a success!

Arrrr' We be searching for yer burried treasure!

Ok, so I suck as a pirate, especially a pirate diver... the parrot keeps drowning...lol.  I know, bad joke.  But this was in fact how we spent last Sunday afternoon.  Saturday was my Emergency First Responder course, which as you can see from  I Can Save Your Life... I Just Don't Want To!.  was kind of an intense course.  But Sunday was fun in the sun!  Ok, it wasn't sunny, more rainy, but it was still a ton of fun.  For Sunday, as a continuation to last weeks Hide and Seek! class, in dive number one we had a large object (several weight belts in a milk crate) "lost" by Dennis Chow in Whytecliffe Park in a general direction. Additionally a "treasure" was deposited out in the bay as well for dive number 2 for the day (dive number 4 in the course).  Our objective, using the Jackstay search pattern, cover 40,000 square feet of a search grid, find the "lost" item, secure it using the knots learned and practiced in previous dives and with a lift bag, recover the object.


In my class was myself and two fellow students.  Between the three of us we sorted out who was carrying reels, and who was carrying our pegs.  With that established it was on to planning our search and mapping our grid.  Now with the Jackstay search pattern (pictured below) you create a base line, for us it was 100 feet long, staked at both ends.

Now attaching your second line to a post on your base line you swim directly away in the direction of search using your compass to remain perpendicular to your base line.  While swimming with your partner(s) one navigating, and one running your second line attached back on the base line, you swim out 100 feet.  At the 100 foot mark you secure your reel to a post in the ground and you have created your search axis.  Within that 100 x 100 foot section or 10,000 sq feet should be your "lost" item, if it is not you return to your base line and form a new axis using the other 270 degrees off the base, covering 40,000 sq feet, or the size of a decent warehouse, strewn with rocks, debris and  tree stumps and covered in silt.  By following back along your newly created axis fanned out to search more area you look for your lost item, upon reaching your base line you pull up your axis post move it along your base line a predetermined distance re-secure the post and follow the line back to the past at the other end.  Pull this post, move the predetermined distance, re-secure and swim it again.  This goes on until the item is found or you have covered the entire base line and move on to the next 90 degree search grid.

 
After completing a few runs along our search grid we were able to locate our "lost" item and using our knot skills tied up to the crate, secured the lift bag and added, in short bursts, enough air to get the bag off the ground.  Then with crate in tow, moved back to collect our reels and pegs, stow them and then float our recovered lost item to the surface and move it in to shore.  Now, as with every course I take, there are always moments of particular humor or surprise or both, and Sundays dive one was no exception.  You see to start with, during about pass three or four, we swam over and located our "treasure" that we were to recover in dive two on the day, so we all tried to make note of it's location while Dennis laughed at us.  Then to make our recovery a little more interesting, Dennis' lift bag has a few small leaks so once full and lifting a large weight, it starts to lose air and then sinks.  We did not notice this at first and lifted, as we are trained, using a reel attached to the object so that should it slip loose you can re-recover.  We also, following the rules, ascended out from under the crate to keep from having it, or anything else fall on our heads.  Well, it was a good thing we followed the rules and part of me still wonders if we got this lift bag to test us, but sure enough after we reached the surface and prepared to tow in our recovered object, it was no longer on the surface... a quick glance under the surface allowed one of my partners and I to watch as our crate slowly descended to the bottom of the bay again.  Some quick signals right out of our open water course allowed us to, without removing our regs, signal all was good and descend.  Working together again as a team, my partner and I were able to quickly descend the 20+ feet to the crate and with my partner in charge of the reel, I was able to fully inflate the lift bag and together, my partner, the crate and I all ascended to the surface to join back with our other team mate and Dennis and with my partner towing I swam behind using my snorkel, and with my alternate in hand, fed air into the bag when needed to keep it afloat.  With shore not far off it was a quick swim, lift out our "lost" item and head up to the parking lot for some hot chocolate and food before heading out to "re"locate our treasure. Snacks were in the bellies quick, followed by a touch of hot, hot chocolate and then it was time to gear up and head back to the water.

There is definitely something to be said for over-confidence in a water environment, and obviously our fearless captain was well aware of this as my team of three completed our safety checks on each other and then started our surface swim to where we believed our treasure would be laying in wait.  Shortly before leaving Dennis asked how long we thought we would be, with a large measure of confidence we informed him we would surface in 5 - 10 minutes, if it even took us that long...lol.  During our surface swim we discussed our plan, it was decided that based on our general confidence that we should be able to drop right down on it we decided an expanding square pattern would be best and knowing that our depth at the time of sighting was less than 30 feet we knew that any leg of our search that took us deeper could be cut short.  We had a plan, we had confidence, we were a team.... we were wrong!!  lol... We swam to where we figured we should be right above it and descended figuring we should land right on top of it, then be able to grab it and surface and be the fasted class in the history of this course for finding their "treasure". (Not that anyone actually tracks who the fastest team is).  But as mentioned, upon reaching the bottom, our "treasure" was not there.  A slow rotation in the water as one might do during separation on a night dive, led us no closer to finding our object.  So it was time to get serious, with a quick look at the compass and a few signals between the team we set off as practiced and started our expanding square, noting land-marks (which all look the same by the way), we had a lot of "Oh, look, a rock, let's see if it's behind that one..."  which under water sounds more like "mmm mmm (point point) mm mmm mmm  (bubble bubble) mmm m mmm mmmmm"...lol.  Fortunately we followed our training and instead of doing a random swim after every rock or object that looked like it could be our object, we stuck to our squares, avoiding going deeper than necessary, our shape was more of an expanding rectangle, but sure enough after 10 minutes, we had still not found it....  So on we went, fifteen minutes and still nothing, (good thing I am on bigger tanks, on AL80's I was only getting 20 minutes), then or turn four, the magical turn four, where Cole Trickle passed Russ Wheeler to win Daytona in Days of Thunder.... no sorry... wrong turn four... on our turn four or fourth square, there where we should have looked first, was a rock, like every other rock, except this one had our mesh bag sitting beside it, and inside our mesh bag... our treasure!

Seeing as our treasure was very light it was simple enough to swim to and have one of my team members tie it off to her belt, a gentle ascent to the surface, a quick wave to Dennis to advise we were all good and complete with treasure in had at 18 minutes.  With the confirmation wave from Dennis on shore, we gave each other that satisfying grin, knowing that we had once again, as a team completed our task and it was now time for some fun.  With quick signals and pressure checks, down we went and with one partner in the lead just off my left shoulder and my other partner just off my right we moved out along the bay at a relaxed pace to just enjoy the surroundings, the quietness and the company.

After a good search, a clean recovery and then the return from our recreational / tour portion of the day it was time to return to the vehicles, strip off our gear, pack up our vehicles and then open our mesh bag, and with deliberate and careful hands pass around our prize, one for each of us, a nice, very cold (thank you ocean refrigeration) Granville Island beer.  With another course complete, our prizes enjoyed, and the gear stowed safely away, it was once again, time to call it a day and head home till next the ocean called, and with gear and friends in place we respond.  Of course I happen to know it's gonna be calling about the same time next Sunday, when my same team returns to complete another course and become... Team Naturalist!

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!

Doing it with your eyes closed....

Take any basic task you do, walking, running, even eating... now do it with your eyes closed.   Whole different experience isn't it... did you feel the nerves?  Especially if you try running, normally you'll run or walk at a casual pace, you won't think about where you put your feet, or what you're doing with your hands.  You may even be talking with someone or listening to them.  But with your eyes closed you are very careful where you put your feet, your hands are generally feeling around in front of you or around you and typically you want it quiet so you can hear whats going on around you and focus.  Now if you were smart about it, you went slow, I had a young man at my house in the summer who learned this lesson the hard way by running with his eyes closed, misjudged his location and ran into a fence, face first.... split his tongue in two (looked like a snake) and chipped teeth... that's one trip to the ER neither he nor his mother will soon forget...lol.  So why is it so much harder to do our day to day activities with our eyes closed?  It's because our eyes are like the scanner on your computer, it's how the information gets to the brain, sure you can type it all, or use a mouse to click one character at a time, but to put a whole page of information, or several, into a computer quickly the best most accurate route is a scanner.  Take eating, you eat without really thinking about it, (this also leads to why more than 60 - 80 % of the population of North America is obese, but that's another blog), you hold your fork in your one hand, knife in the other, cut your food, pick it up, place it in your mouth... simple.  With your eyes closed, you need to really focus to make sure you know where your food is, the placement of your fork, how big a piece are you cutting, finding that piece, picking it up and then carrying it to your mouth... all these tasks... SOOOO much harder with your eyes closed.


Why all this talk about eyes closed.... because Tuesday I was fortunate enough to join Dennis Chow and a fellow student for our classroom portion of our Night Dive certification.  Now this is not my first night dive, for the story about that adventure see It's Dark... Very, Very Dark...., but for this I will not just be doing one night dive as before, I will be doing three over the course of this weekend, one Friday and two on Saturday night.  Each of these three dives will have skills that must be demonstrated including Navigation (yeah my favorite....lol), Buoyancy, Orientation, etc.  Alone most of these skills are no issue and many of them are very natural after you have completed a number of dives.  BUT... much like basic stuff on the surface with your eyes closed, doing all these skills at night on a dive is much harder than in the day.  Under the water at night you only see what your light touches, and unlike in the open air, light does not travel very far under water,  leaving you with a very narrow field of vision.  At night, much like daytime activities with your eyes closed, you spend much of your time "feeling" for your gear as opposed to looking for it.  You need to know where your light, b/u light, compass, knife, BCD inflator, Drysuit inflator, gauges, etc all is, and be able to get it by touch and not by sight.  This adds an interesting dynamic and further emphasizes that you must be familiar with your gear, and must streamline your equipment as much as possible.  Now by streamlining, I do not mean under any circumstances that you want to avoid back-up items or safety equipment, etc, but until one is comfortable with night dives, it's probably a good idea to leave the cameras at home...lol.  With streamlining, you want to eliminate gear that you should not be taking with you (stick to your dive plan), if you're training for night, dive your night dive, don't load up on camera or video equipment.  Try not to have endless amounts of clips and cords all jumbled together, on the surface or even on some day dives you may be able to look to see which item is which and where cords attach, but in the dark, keep things simple and easy to remember, clip your main light in one location, easy to reach and control, simple enough to turn on with one hand and easy to recover should it be dropped (ie, clipped where you can follow the cord to pull back to your hand.)  Your b/u (and you must have at least one) needs to, again, be somewhere easy to locate, especially in the dark as this is used if your main goes out, but is secured where it is not dangling in the way or wrapping around other items and equally if not more important, not dragging where it will disturb, disrupt or injure any sea life.  Make sure your compass can be easily reached and used and that you can access your gauges and/or dive computer easily and read them all in the dark.  For me this has taken some practice, so despite looking like an idiot, I have geared up a couple times and hidden in a dark room to make sure I can find my compass, reach my lights, and control my computer... so far so good.  We'll see what Friday night brings and I'll let you know all about the adventures that await me in the dark, when once again I get "In Over My Head..."

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.