So last night marked the first two of our five Adventure dives, needless to say I was a wee bit excited. The shop had given me new gear to try, this time using a neoprene dry suit. So after calculating the additional weight required to account for the new buoyancy of the suit, I was all good to go. So with Virpi as our guide we geared up and descended into the depths. Our first of two adventure dives on the night was our Wreck dive, after a surface swim (I hate surface swims.. lol) to the Grant Hall marker, we grouped, signaled and descended to set foot, for the first time, on the deck of a boat that has been serving as a natural reef for years. Once grouped at the bottom we made a slow search around the wreck both down where it was buried in the silt and along it's upper surfaces. With our lights on and a careful scan of the underbelly of the ship we were able to discover an octopus den, not sure if our friend was at home or not, but you could tell he had been eating well, by all the crab shells outside of his house. A beautiful kite fish caught our attention as it skirted along the bottom of the ship but staying just long enough for us all to have a good look. Along the upper surfaces of the Grant Hall we were able to meet up with a Decorator Crab, no, not Martha Stewart, this is an actual crustacean who uses bits of seaweed, sponges and debris and sticks it to itself as a disguise, I didn't see him until Virpi pointed him out and disturbed the water nearby so that he moved a bit. Then out of the corner of my eye I caught what surely have been a shark or a barracuda or some other man-eating creature of the deep. It ducked down inside a crevice between a holding tank and the bulkhead, (ok, obviously not a shark...) so me being inquisitive (and a little dumb) I moved in on the crevice to take a closer look and with the help of my dive light, found myself face to face with one of the largest Ling Cod I have ever seen. He must have been about 12 feet long and at least a thousand pounds... ok, maybe 4 feet long, but the menacing look he gave me was really scary.. lol. After a quick once more over the surface of the boat we found ourselves back at the chain and ready for our ascent to the surface... and another surface swim in and back out for our next dive, our last dive of the night, our Night Dive!
So after a quick break, a Nutrigrain bar and a tank change, no that's not code for bathroom break, although it would work, this was an actually tank change, we headed back down the stairs of Porteau. After some trouble with my fins, which should have been a sign that this was not going to be my night, we made our surface swim out the the marker buoy, fortunately not as far this time as the Grant Hall, and prepared for our decent. I'll stop here so you can get a idea of what this looks like, it's after 8:00pm (closer to 9:00), it's dark, darker than dark. Here in the city, night is spoiled by light pollution, street lights, neighbors, headlights, etc. up at Porteau we have a couple parking lot lights and the lights in the distance on the opposite shore... it's DARK! Add to that the fact that we are now going to drop down 30+ feet below the surface loosing color, light and visibility more and more the deeper we go... it's REALLY REALLY DARK!
Here is where life gets interesting or mildly more dramatic, unfortunately I was already having issues with my buoyancy by this point, neoprene is more buoyant so it takes more weight and a slightly different approach to obtain and maintain neutral buoyancy. Little did I know I was already coming down with a cold and my lungs were already working harder than they should, add the fact that my jaw (a long standing medical issue I've been dealing with for years) decided to act up after nearly 9 months of no issues. So lets condense, we have me 30+ feet under water, pitch black except for my (and my groups) dive lights, body already tired and sore, lungs already working over-time, and a dry suit that wants to make an ascent to the surface with or without me...lol. So we are going to practice our Navigation swim, again not a skill I am fond of but one that is essential. My job is to swim in the direction Virpi points, keep my needle in the marks, and my partner counts kick cycles, hit 15 cycles, turn around and swim back keeping the needle in the reverse position and after 15 kick cycles we should be back where we started. Sounds simple, and I am sure for those with a decent sense of direction or even me under normal circumstances it would have been ok. Now remember, I'm already having issues, so here is roughly what happened, my partner and I started to swim, I can't see bottom, all I can see is my compass and all I can feel is my partners hand on my arm. I am struggling for some reason to keep the needle in the marks and my partner is pulling at my arm, not knowing what he was trying to tell me I turn to see him giving me the thumbs up, which in diving means ascend, so I turn to ascend and grab my low pressure inflator for my BCD to prepare for my ascent, look at my partner and break the surface... completely disoriented, I thought we were still right along the bottom, apparently the pulling at my arm was my partner realizing I was ascending the whole time and he was trying to signal that I was going up. After getting my bearings and swimming back to the marker buoy with my partner we started our re-decent and that is when the "fun" started. The hood i was wearing was too big for me so when I looked down on my decent and exhaled, the air caught in my hood, sliding my hood back and pulled my regulator out of my mouth. Unfortunately I was inhaling at the time and took water down my throat. It's funny though, looking back, how fast your training, if you are trained by good instructors, kicks in automatically. Upon hitting the surface and knowing buoyancy was my first and only concern, I reached for my BCD low pressure inflator, unfortunately my gauges were still over my shoulder from the navigation swim so I couldn't find the inflator, so I did the next best thing, I inflated my drysuit, giving me enough buoyancy to take a breathe or two, take my gauges back off my shoulder grab the low pressure inflator for my BCD and add air to my BCD. Now that I was floating safely, it was time to kick back to the marker so that I was centralized for when my group surfaced, engage my lights in the possibility that in the dark my group may see the light above and realize I was still on the surface. Sure enough, after only a minute (seems longer when you're waiting) my group surfaced, checked on me, we got regrouped and descended for a tour of the dark bottom and a surface swim back to the vehicles and on our way back to the shop to switch out tanks then home to rest. After-all, we'll be back in the water today.
Showing posts with label Regulator. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Regulator. Show all posts
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
The "future" and the past!
Today marked my first session of ocean dives in my Open Water certification. We had our gear from Thursday night and after lugging all this wet gear into my house including gear bag with BCD, Regs, mask, snorkle, fins, boots, gloves and hood, my undergarments, a bag with my "dry" suit, my weight belt and weight bag containing ankle weights, bullet weights, and my integrated weights and, last but not least 3 full air tanks. I got to carry it all back outside this morning at 7:00 so that I could load up in my dive buddy's vehicle and drive to the dive site. I barely slept last night, excitement, nerves, all of the above... whatever it was... not a great sleep... thank goodness for Monster energy drinks...lol. Morning was great, got lost a couple times going to the site, but we found it (good thing we left early and allowed a lot of time). Unloaded everything, started putting together our kits and got everything lined up for ocean dive number one. But before we can dive.. we must... da da da...
TEST!!
So, 50 questions, multiple choice, covering all 5 chapters, minimum 75% to pass... that's like, like, like.... oh man, my brain is so full of diving I can't remember my math.... what in the world is 75% of 50... this should be so easty... it's... it's... oh yeah right 37.5, thank you to all of you screaming that out for me... lol. So, if I can manage 38 right.. I'm golden. I'm doing OK out of the gates, "What happens to air in a balloon filled at the surface as you descend to 30 feet?" "B", "What happens when you ascend with a glass full of air?" "A", "What are the most important features of an exposure suit?" "D, all of the above"... lol. Then we get to the eRDPml (remember this from Tuesday " ") Now for those of you who remember high school math where you had the word problems like "A train traveling from Chicago headed to Seattle detouring through Salt Lake City traveling at 75 miles an hour except in the mountains or during lunch on Tuesdays, leaves on Friday at 2:03, with 271 passengers 5 crew and a full luggage car. What did they serve for lunch?" lol.. will understand what it feels like to use one of these dive calculators under pressure on a test that decides if you are diving, or just watching!. Needless to say, I passed.. I managed a 48/50, 96% missing 2 of the dumbest questions that I should be shot for missing, on one I ended up selecting the box for the obviously wrong answer that they throw in there as a gimme...
Well, we all passed, now into the water for dive one, on dive one we will have a tour of Porteau Cove and some of the spectacular life and items under the surface, dive two is skill tests and a tour and dive three is a few more skill tests before our final tour of Porteau Cove and the swim in.
Dive one, was interesting, we make a buddy descent to approximately 20 feet, group up and follow Dennis for our initial tour of the bottom. Now to try to achieve and maintain neutral buoyancy, not as easy as it sounds, but once this is accomplished and you take your first few kicks of open ocean diving, you have experienced a small slice of heaven! At this point the group is more or less relaxed, no more kicking so hard we stir up sediment, less crashes into the bottom and off for our first tour of our section of the cove. It's amazing what you can see down there, crab everywhere, fields of jellyfish, starfish running (albeit not very fast) across the bottom and when you finally get your bearings and your focus, you start noticing the little things like the sole and ling cod and the occasional green ling. What an amazing world!
Dives two and 3 were skills, like body breathing, mask and regulator recovery, introduction to navigation and buddy navigation and other basic skills followed another tour with Dennis in the lead and Virpi bringing up the straglers. These dives were the best, by this point most of us had sorted out buoyancy issues, and had calmed down allowing us to just float through the water and REALLY experience the life down there you don't see anywhere else like over 100 species including octopus, and plumose anemones and some items from our past that you would never imagine seeing like the Granthall (a steal hulled tug boat), the Centennial III (a steal dredger) and a 15 m ferrocement sailboat hull.
Overall, this was the final thing needed to firm up my decision to keep diving as often as possible, because again, in the words of Nathan Hale Bridger - "For beneath the surface ... Lies the Future."
TEST!!
So, 50 questions, multiple choice, covering all 5 chapters, minimum 75% to pass... that's like, like, like.... oh man, my brain is so full of diving I can't remember my math.... what in the world is 75% of 50... this should be so easty... it's... it's... oh yeah right 37.5, thank you to all of you screaming that out for me... lol. So, if I can manage 38 right.. I'm golden. I'm doing OK out of the gates, "What happens to air in a balloon filled at the surface as you descend to 30 feet?" "B", "What happens when you ascend with a glass full of air?" "A", "What are the most important features of an exposure suit?" "D, all of the above"... lol. Then we get to the eRDPml (remember this from Tuesday " ") Now for those of you who remember high school math where you had the word problems like "A train traveling from Chicago headed to Seattle detouring through Salt Lake City traveling at 75 miles an hour except in the mountains or during lunch on Tuesdays, leaves on Friday at 2:03, with 271 passengers 5 crew and a full luggage car. What did they serve for lunch?" lol.. will understand what it feels like to use one of these dive calculators under pressure on a test that decides if you are diving, or just watching!. Needless to say, I passed.. I managed a 48/50, 96% missing 2 of the dumbest questions that I should be shot for missing, on one I ended up selecting the box for the obviously wrong answer that they throw in there as a gimme...
Well, we all passed, now into the water for dive one, on dive one we will have a tour of Porteau Cove and some of the spectacular life and items under the surface, dive two is skill tests and a tour and dive three is a few more skill tests before our final tour of Porteau Cove and the swim in.
Dives two and 3 were skills, like body breathing, mask and regulator recovery, introduction to navigation and buddy navigation and other basic skills followed another tour with Dennis in the lead and Virpi bringing up the straglers. These dives were the best, by this point most of us had sorted out buoyancy issues, and had calmed down allowing us to just float through the water and REALLY experience the life down there you don't see anywhere else like over 100 species including octopus, and plumose anemones and some items from our past that you would never imagine seeing like the Granthall (a steal hulled tug boat), the Centennial III (a steal dredger) and a 15 m ferrocement sailboat hull.
Overall, this was the final thing needed to firm up my decision to keep diving as often as possible, because again, in the words of Nathan Hale Bridger - "For beneath the surface ... Lies the Future."
Friday, August 20, 2010
Dry Suit - "It's a relative term!"
Last night brought the last and final classroom and pool sessions for my Open Water course, we were again happy to have Mathew Mendes join us in class and in the pool and the always wonderful Virpi Kangas was able to walk everyone through their questions and put everyone's minds at ease over the upcoming impending 50 question final exam! It was a good class, again most people had their homework done and it was great to have a few minutes to discuss gear with Matt and Shannon. They were able to educate me on the downsides of buying used equipment especially regulators, especially given the cost of service and the warranty on new ones. Case in point, (actual example) I was looking at a used Apeks XTX 200, only $400! New, this reg is $800, that's half off!! What Shannon was nice enough to point out though, is (1) this is your most important piece of equipment, without it, you don't breathe, (2) a used one will need to be serviced, add $150, plus any parts count on at least $100 (if not more), plus any additional parts down the road. A new XTX 200 comes with a lifetime parts warranty and won't need servicing for a year (all regs should get serviced every year). Overall, used is $650+, and any parts until the end of time... a new one is $800 parts included... for $150 (or less) in difference, I'm going new. Shannon and Matt were also great enough to walk me through how to check tanks (as this is an item Shannon says can be a great deal used), they showed me where to look for the inspection labels, hydro stickers and engraved codes required on tanks in Canada. All things that if you didn't know about could result in spending a ton of money.... twice! Once to buy the "Great Deal", and once to pay full price for one you can actually use. The conversation then turned to Dry Suits (which I was learning how to dive last night) and what to look for and the different levels and costs and accessories... etc. Bottom line, if you want to do this right... it's not cheap!
As mentioned, class was great, we reviewed our Review Questions, and took our quiz... 10/10.. yeah me! and then watched our Dry Suit video, and then got into the discussion (this was one of our review questions) on next steps beyond Open Water certification. These steps include, Adventure Diver, this includes a taste of a couple of specialties (typically Deep Diver and/or Wreck Diver), then Advanced Diver, this includes LOTS of specialties to chose from and you get to try out 4 or 5. Then there is the big daddy of them all, the one I am looking at, the Master Scuba Diver Challenge! In this program you get all 12 offered specialties over the course of the year, your Advanced Diver and your Rescue Diver certifications. This is the highest level of recreational diving and the door way to Dive Master and beyond if one is interested. You end up saving almost half the cost over what you would pay if you paid for each specialty separately. This is an amazing deal!
Last night finished at the pool as we learned and practiced our "dry" suit training. After practicing our Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent, righting yourself from an upside down (feet first) ascent, buddy breathing, mask recoveries (yes, again...) and practicing our Neutral Buoyancy we exited to clean up and found out that Dry is a relative term, I WAS SOAKED!! Apparently doing aquatic acrobatics is not conducive to keeping all your seals closed... I have been moderately assured that I shouldn't leak in the cold ocean... at least, not as much... weee! Well, here's looking forward to an early Saturday morning, and my first of 5 Open Water ocean dives.
As mentioned, class was great, we reviewed our Review Questions, and took our quiz... 10/10.. yeah me! and then watched our Dry Suit video, and then got into the discussion (this was one of our review questions) on next steps beyond Open Water certification. These steps include, Adventure Diver, this includes a taste of a couple of specialties (typically Deep Diver and/or Wreck Diver), then Advanced Diver, this includes LOTS of specialties to chose from and you get to try out 4 or 5. Then there is the big daddy of them all, the one I am looking at, the Master Scuba Diver Challenge! In this program you get all 12 offered specialties over the course of the year, your Advanced Diver and your Rescue Diver certifications. This is the highest level of recreational diving and the door way to Dive Master and beyond if one is interested. You end up saving almost half the cost over what you would pay if you paid for each specialty separately. This is an amazing deal!
Last night finished at the pool as we learned and practiced our "dry" suit training. After practicing our Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent, righting yourself from an upside down (feet first) ascent, buddy breathing, mask recoveries (yes, again...) and practicing our Neutral Buoyancy we exited to clean up and found out that Dry is a relative term, I WAS SOAKED!! Apparently doing aquatic acrobatics is not conducive to keeping all your seals closed... I have been moderately assured that I shouldn't leak in the cold ocean... at least, not as much... weee! Well, here's looking forward to an early Saturday morning, and my first of 5 Open Water ocean dives.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
eRDPml... what? "All engines... full stop!", and the thing everyone likes to hear.
So last night marked the wonderful return to class, 2 chapters to review, my eRPDml to learn how to use (don't worry I had no idea what it was either... lol), 2 quizzes to take and all that before getting into the water to try out all the new skills. Soo much work.... so little time! Of course we got it all done and under Virpi's amazing instruction, I even feel confident that I know what I am doing.
I have, however, come to the conclusion that they have this course organized so that all the easy brain (my strong suit) and scary physical stuff comes at the beginning and the scary brain and not so difficult physical stuff comes last. Here's why, in week one, classes 1 and 2, I managed to pull off 10/10 on both my quizzes, nailed all my Chapter Reviews and felt really good about the knowledge component (I even participated in class... imagine me talking.... never... lol). But when it came to the physical side, I was a lost cause... struggling and spitting and waiting for a priest to read me my last rights...lol. (For more on that read through "Fitness... I don't need no stinkin' fitness" and If it ain't broke don't fix it.... and from SORTED to super STARS.) So now we have had a week off, I even forced myself to go and redo the Fitness Test (yes.. without dying, although I think the life guards at Sungod were waiting for me to go under a few times,) and now we are back and we were to have the book finished and chapter 3 & 4 Chapter Reviews completed (some people didn't do their homework... tisk tisk..) now it was time to review, discuss and then take our quizzes. For the most part I did ok, most of my Chapter Review questions were done, couldn't finish the last of Review 4 on the eRDPml (I'll explain that in a second,) and scored a 9/10 on my quiz... I know there goes my 4.0 GPA, I placed the wrong number in the wrong order... I knew the right answer, just put it down wrong.... BAH. So here is the scary brainy stuff I was referring to, in chapter 1 we learned about buoyancy, atmospheres, and equipment, in chapter 2 we moved on to seeing and hearing underwater, more on equipment and working with your buddy. Now we move on to chapters 3 and 4 where we learn about contaminated air, nitrogen narcosis, exhaustion, currents, tides, animal attacks and panicking divers.... at this point we have a classroom of panicking divers... ok, it might have just been me, but I just spent a week off, making sure I was working on my fitness which I thought was going to be the death of me, only to review all of the other ways I could die... yeah me!... lol. So, we review all the questions in chapter 3, take our quiz (yes the one I only got 9/10 on) and proceed to chapter 4. Chapter 4, as mentioned, includes more on all the ways to hurt yourself.. lol, including your pressure groups and understanding how these affect the amount of nitrogen in your body. For this we refer to an RDP (recreational dive planner) or in our case, an eRDPml which, if I understand correctly, stands for Electronic Multi-Level Recreational Dive Planner (don't ask me why the ml comes last, it just does). The eRDPml allows you to enter your dive information (is this your first dive of the day?, how deep are you going, how long will you be there, etc) and then will tell you what pressure group you are in, starting with A and ending in dead... I mean Z. You can then use this letter to plan for additional dives for the day to ensure you do not exceed you maximum NDL (no decompression limit.) You see how this starts to get scary... I'm having trouble even figuring out how to even use the eRDPml, never mind wrapping my head around the fact that this is not something you want to make mistakes with and add to that the fact that the system is built for the "average" person (whoever he or she is) and differs from person to person, often based on weight... yeah me! Time to lose all the extra pounds I've been carrying around. We review, and again thanks to Virpi's amazing abilities as a teacher, she breaks it down simple, and eventually gets me and my classmates through using the eRDPml and actually to the point where we were comfortable.... now off to the pool.
For anyone who has ever piloted a boat, then shut off the engine and tried to stop, you'll understand the humor behind hearing a captain say "Full Stop" or "All Engines, Full Stop" and know what it feels like to continue to drift without the ability to make a hard stop. This is very similar in diving, or at least my diving, water is nothing like a road, if you get yourself moving too quickly (up or down), it becomes difficult to stop... at least under control. So our goal for last night was to realize neutral buoyancy... for anyone who doesn't know what neutral buoyancy is, picture it this way, a balloon in water will float, it is positively buoyant, a rock (or me at times.. lol) will sink, because we are negatively buoyant, but a fish that sits perfectly still in the water neither rising nor sinking, without swimming is neutrally buoyant. It is a complex thing to think about sometimes, but the coolest thing to experience, much like being in outer space, you just sit there. To achieve this you must learn breath control. You ensure you are adequately weighted, with just enough air in your BCD and from there you just breathe... sounds simple... it's not. Inhale too much, and off to the surface you go... exhale too much and prepare to meet the bottom. This is where the "Full stop" concept comes in, if you are not careful, and inhale too much and don't exhale soon enough, you start to the surface and despite exhaling it is difficult to stop the motion, the same is true in reverse, if you exhale too much and don't inhale soon enough you start your decent and often it is too late to stop yourself from dropping to the bottom... this is a scary concept when you think about walls with 200 + foot drops below you and the problems with rising to the surface too fast .. you never want to lose control.. ever. But once you have the concept and have practiced achieving this in a few different ways, there is little else cooler than sitting weightless in the water watching your classmates complete their skill tests as you sit, doing nothing, resting only on water, open space above and below you. I was fortunate enough to have Matt Mendes, (again another in what seems to be a long line of amazing Dive Masters at Ocean Pro), in the water with us, signaling me to move up or down (ascend or descend) in the water while signaling for me to check and advise on air pressure, forcing me to be in constant control and alert of my gauges, instead of falling off to sleep due to the completely relaxing feeling of being weightless. Once you have this under control, and never one to want you to get too relaxed, PADI requires you learn how to breathe off a failed regulator... great... more things that can go wrong... is it too late to transfer to basket weaving as a hobby... lol. To prepare for this and simulate a failed regulator, understanding of course that almost every time a regulator fails it fails in the open position venting air, you pull one side of the regulator out of your mouth and press the purge valve releasing tons of air and learn to "sip" air from your regulator without getting water in your mouth... it works!... I don't know how, nor do I need to, but it works and it wasn't hard. We finish the pool time with practicing diver assistance, by pulling and pushing our partners back and forth across the pool, of course I had the wonderful assistance of Matt who, once again liking to keep you on your toes, took great delight in pulling me off course during my diver pull, forcing me to right myself and get back on course all without losing my partner who is "injured" in the water... oh the fun... lol.
So the evening ends, we clean up our gear, get it washed, packed and moved to the door, then off to change before loading the gear in the vehicles for our return to the shop. It's on the way back from changing that it happens, words that are almost as great as the day my wife said "I do" and the times my parents said "we're proud of you", Matt looked at me and said, "You're doing really great out there" and just when I thought my day couldn't get better as I am sure I was floating all over again, Virpi echoed the comment in saying,"You're doing great out there, keep it up."
Life has it's defining moments, some are tragic events that we survive, some are memories of accomplishments past, and some are simply the kind words someone shares with you at a crossroad in life when you need to hear the thing everyone likes to hear... "Good Job."
I have, however, come to the conclusion that they have this course organized so that all the easy brain (my strong suit) and scary physical stuff comes at the beginning and the scary brain and not so difficult physical stuff comes last. Here's why, in week one, classes 1 and 2, I managed to pull off 10/10 on both my quizzes, nailed all my Chapter Reviews and felt really good about the knowledge component (I even participated in class... imagine me talking.... never... lol). But when it came to the physical side, I was a lost cause... struggling and spitting and waiting for a priest to read me my last rights...lol. (For more on that read through "Fitness... I don't need no stinkin' fitness" and If it ain't broke don't fix it.... and from SORTED to super STARS.) So now we have had a week off, I even forced myself to go and redo the Fitness Test (yes.. without dying, although I think the life guards at Sungod were waiting for me to go under a few times,) and now we are back and we were to have the book finished and chapter 3 & 4 Chapter Reviews completed (some people didn't do their homework... tisk tisk..) now it was time to review, discuss and then take our quizzes. For the most part I did ok, most of my Chapter Review questions were done, couldn't finish the last of Review 4 on the eRDPml (I'll explain that in a second,) and scored a 9/10 on my quiz... I know there goes my 4.0 GPA, I placed the wrong number in the wrong order... I knew the right answer, just put it down wrong.... BAH. So here is the scary brainy stuff I was referring to, in chapter 1 we learned about buoyancy, atmospheres, and equipment, in chapter 2 we moved on to seeing and hearing underwater, more on equipment and working with your buddy. Now we move on to chapters 3 and 4 where we learn about contaminated air, nitrogen narcosis, exhaustion, currents, tides, animal attacks and panicking divers.... at this point we have a classroom of panicking divers... ok, it might have just been me, but I just spent a week off, making sure I was working on my fitness which I thought was going to be the death of me, only to review all of the other ways I could die... yeah me!... lol. So, we review all the questions in chapter 3, take our quiz (yes the one I only got 9/10 on) and proceed to chapter 4. Chapter 4, as mentioned, includes more on all the ways to hurt yourself.. lol, including your pressure groups and understanding how these affect the amount of nitrogen in your body. For this we refer to an RDP (recreational dive planner) or in our case, an eRDPml which, if I understand correctly, stands for Electronic Multi-Level Recreational Dive Planner (don't ask me why the ml comes last, it just does). The eRDPml allows you to enter your dive information (is this your first dive of the day?, how deep are you going, how long will you be there, etc) and then will tell you what pressure group you are in, starting with A and ending in dead... I mean Z. You can then use this letter to plan for additional dives for the day to ensure you do not exceed you maximum NDL (no decompression limit.) You see how this starts to get scary... I'm having trouble even figuring out how to even use the eRDPml, never mind wrapping my head around the fact that this is not something you want to make mistakes with and add to that the fact that the system is built for the "average" person (whoever he or she is) and differs from person to person, often based on weight... yeah me! Time to lose all the extra pounds I've been carrying around. We review, and again thanks to Virpi's amazing abilities as a teacher, she breaks it down simple, and eventually gets me and my classmates through using the eRDPml and actually to the point where we were comfortable.... now off to the pool.
For anyone who has ever piloted a boat, then shut off the engine and tried to stop, you'll understand the humor behind hearing a captain say "Full Stop" or "All Engines, Full Stop" and know what it feels like to continue to drift without the ability to make a hard stop. This is very similar in diving, or at least my diving, water is nothing like a road, if you get yourself moving too quickly (up or down), it becomes difficult to stop... at least under control. So our goal for last night was to realize neutral buoyancy... for anyone who doesn't know what neutral buoyancy is, picture it this way, a balloon in water will float, it is positively buoyant, a rock (or me at times.. lol) will sink, because we are negatively buoyant, but a fish that sits perfectly still in the water neither rising nor sinking, without swimming is neutrally buoyant. It is a complex thing to think about sometimes, but the coolest thing to experience, much like being in outer space, you just sit there. To achieve this you must learn breath control. You ensure you are adequately weighted, with just enough air in your BCD and from there you just breathe... sounds simple... it's not. Inhale too much, and off to the surface you go... exhale too much and prepare to meet the bottom. This is where the "Full stop" concept comes in, if you are not careful, and inhale too much and don't exhale soon enough, you start to the surface and despite exhaling it is difficult to stop the motion, the same is true in reverse, if you exhale too much and don't inhale soon enough you start your decent and often it is too late to stop yourself from dropping to the bottom... this is a scary concept when you think about walls with 200 + foot drops below you and the problems with rising to the surface too fast .. you never want to lose control.. ever. But once you have the concept and have practiced achieving this in a few different ways, there is little else cooler than sitting weightless in the water watching your classmates complete their skill tests as you sit, doing nothing, resting only on water, open space above and below you. I was fortunate enough to have Matt Mendes, (again another in what seems to be a long line of amazing Dive Masters at Ocean Pro), in the water with us, signaling me to move up or down (ascend or descend) in the water while signaling for me to check and advise on air pressure, forcing me to be in constant control and alert of my gauges, instead of falling off to sleep due to the completely relaxing feeling of being weightless. Once you have this under control, and never one to want you to get too relaxed, PADI requires you learn how to breathe off a failed regulator... great... more things that can go wrong... is it too late to transfer to basket weaving as a hobby... lol. To prepare for this and simulate a failed regulator, understanding of course that almost every time a regulator fails it fails in the open position venting air, you pull one side of the regulator out of your mouth and press the purge valve releasing tons of air and learn to "sip" air from your regulator without getting water in your mouth... it works!... I don't know how, nor do I need to, but it works and it wasn't hard. We finish the pool time with practicing diver assistance, by pulling and pushing our partners back and forth across the pool, of course I had the wonderful assistance of Matt who, once again liking to keep you on your toes, took great delight in pulling me off course during my diver pull, forcing me to right myself and get back on course all without losing my partner who is "injured" in the water... oh the fun... lol.
So the evening ends, we clean up our gear, get it washed, packed and moved to the door, then off to change before loading the gear in the vehicles for our return to the shop. It's on the way back from changing that it happens, words that are almost as great as the day my wife said "I do" and the times my parents said "we're proud of you", Matt looked at me and said, "You're doing really great out there" and just when I thought my day couldn't get better as I am sure I was floating all over again, Virpi echoed the comment in saying,"You're doing great out there, keep it up."
Life has it's defining moments, some are tragic events that we survive, some are memories of accomplishments past, and some are simply the kind words someone shares with you at a crossroad in life when you need to hear the thing everyone likes to hear... "Good Job."
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
"Fitness... I don't need no stinkin' fitness"
For anyone who has ever completed the fitness requirement to start diving, you know how untrue that title is... but I'll get to that later.
So here's the story of my first night of diving. I was more excited than a child on Christmas morning, Jenn (my wife) is watching me bounce off the walls, I'm packed for class with my swim shorts on, I've double and triple checked my homework, ensured I haven't missed anything on my student folder and even reread some of the highlighted areas of my dive manual and I still don't get to leave for nearly 2 hours!
So the grueling 2 hours go by, I make the quick drive from Delta to White Rock to get to Ocean Pro and head on in. At first I thought I was late, Shannon is standing in front of a class teaching... oh no... did I get the time wrong, did I miss something.. could Ashley have written it down wrong... impossible. Shannon see's me coming in and confirms I am there for the Open Water Course and upon confirmation she lets me know she is just finishing up with another class, lots happening tonight. (Apparently I am not the only one that realizes how great this shop is.) Shannon then points me into the shop and encourages me to look around... muhahaha... this is like opening the candy store for a child and telling him to look around to see if there is anything he wants... I WANT IT ALL!!
After playing with some weights, and trying on gloves, and looking at accessory after accessory, I am introduced to, what I will later learn is one of the best instructors around, my instructor Virpi Kangas. She lets me know we'll be starting in a few minutes and to... you guessed it... have a look around... lol.
By the time class starts (and I've only been in the store 15 minutes) I'm researching having my paychecks direct deposited to the store so that I can buy one or two of everything. Not that I'm greedy, but it all looks so much fun!
So class starts, there are 6 in my class including me, Virpi introduces herself, says her name once and I realize... I'm gonna need options. Such a beautiful name and the way she says it adds that extra something to it, I start saying it in my head and I realize we have a problem...lol. Fortunately Virpi advises we can call her Virpi (can you see the difference, one has a fancy roll to it and the other, not so much... lol) or we can call her V. Without the roll I'm ok and I feel less worried that I'm going to kill someones name. We all get out our folders and Virpi reviews to ensure everything is complete.. and who is the superstar who has everything completed... you guessed it.. ME! (Thanks to Ashley not letting me leave the shop the Thursday before until after I had completed most of it and she had walked me through the rest putting a star * beside everything that needed completing.) So after folders are done, we start to go through the units 1 & 2, most of us have our homework done and we review question by question, then on to Quiz #1.... 10 out of 10, yeah me, this diving stuff is easy... lol. Boy was I wrong.. now we were off to the pool....
Here is where the title fits in and my thoughts on the physical requirements go out the window, now the weight of the equipment was, as expected, not a problem for me. My problem came with the announcement of a Fitness test. Not a "Hey can you comfortably lift a BCD, tank attached and support it while your partner gets in"... this was a, swim 8 lengths (4 laps) of the pool, no stopping or you start again. So off we go... I'm on length 3/8 (1.5 of my required 4 laps) when the thought hits me... "I'm out of shape"... by length 5/8 (2.5 of my required 4 laps) I'm praying "God strike me dead, I'm not gonna make it"... at the end of 6/8 (3 of my 4 laps down) I am swimming on my back (and have been for a bit) and look up to see Virpi cheering me on from the side, "Only one more to go!" Ok, great, now I can't quit, I've got a cheering section... lol. So we finish the swim, I get out, and I am feeling muscles in my legs I didn't know existed and remembering joints that were hurt so long ago I can barely remember how I hurt them. I'm not feeling so much the superstar at this point... I'd have given up my 10 / 10 on the quiz and being all done my worksheets and folder for a slightly easier time with the swim... at this point I want to die. We are now fortunate enough to have a break, a few minutes while Virpi shows us the equipment set-up, how to get the tank attached to the BCD, attaching regulators, clipping in hoses, etc. I'm getting excited again... then the announcement... "Ok, now on to our 10 minute tread..." Good news!... now I get to tread water with already sore muscles for longer than I have ever tried before, without touching the sides and not drowning.... I won't walk through the gory details but that 10 minutes seemed like 20 and by 20 I mean hours! ~ note to self: FITNESS IS IMPORTANT ~
So 10 minutes is up, out of the pool we get, muscles are sore, breathing is off and I'm thinking I'm going to die before this night is over.... I think I did. Died and went to heaven that is! Under the supervision of Virpi and Dennis Chow (one of the shops most highly qualified and trained Dive Masters and Instructors), we start to build our kits, dawn our wetsuits and boots and then assist our partners into their gear. Then grabbing masks, snorkels and fins (never call them flippers, Flipper's a Dolphin, Divers have fins!!), we head off to the shallow end of the pool, climb into the pool, put on our fins and masks and upon instruction lower into the water and breathe for the first time.. under water! What an AMAZING experience!
I won't go through all the details of the skills we covered, aside from saying watching the video and reading the required chapters does help, but most important of all, is having a great instructional team and paying very close attention to what they tell you and show you.
Is my life any different after one class, you bet it is. I learned to breathe under water, communicate under water, recover my regulator, clear my mask and even share air with my partner if it was needed... what did you do Tuesday night?
My only question at this point... outside of tank changes, why does anyone ever surface? I love this new world. Thursday can't come quick enough, and who knows what the deep end of the pool holds.
I can't wait to dive again, but I won't hold my breath... cause that breaks rule #1 of diving "NEVER HOLD YOUR BREATH!"
So here's the story of my first night of diving. I was more excited than a child on Christmas morning, Jenn (my wife) is watching me bounce off the walls, I'm packed for class with my swim shorts on, I've double and triple checked my homework, ensured I haven't missed anything on my student folder and even reread some of the highlighted areas of my dive manual and I still don't get to leave for nearly 2 hours!
So the grueling 2 hours go by, I make the quick drive from Delta to White Rock to get to Ocean Pro and head on in. At first I thought I was late, Shannon is standing in front of a class teaching... oh no... did I get the time wrong, did I miss something.. could Ashley have written it down wrong... impossible. Shannon see's me coming in and confirms I am there for the Open Water Course and upon confirmation she lets me know she is just finishing up with another class, lots happening tonight. (Apparently I am not the only one that realizes how great this shop is.) Shannon then points me into the shop and encourages me to look around... muhahaha... this is like opening the candy store for a child and telling him to look around to see if there is anything he wants... I WANT IT ALL!!
After playing with some weights, and trying on gloves, and looking at accessory after accessory, I am introduced to, what I will later learn is one of the best instructors around, my instructor Virpi Kangas. She lets me know we'll be starting in a few minutes and to... you guessed it... have a look around... lol.
By the time class starts (and I've only been in the store 15 minutes) I'm researching having my paychecks direct deposited to the store so that I can buy one or two of everything. Not that I'm greedy, but it all looks so much fun!
So class starts, there are 6 in my class including me, Virpi introduces herself, says her name once and I realize... I'm gonna need options. Such a beautiful name and the way she says it adds that extra something to it, I start saying it in my head and I realize we have a problem...lol. Fortunately Virpi advises we can call her Virpi (can you see the difference, one has a fancy roll to it and the other, not so much... lol) or we can call her V. Without the roll I'm ok and I feel less worried that I'm going to kill someones name. We all get out our folders and Virpi reviews to ensure everything is complete.. and who is the superstar who has everything completed... you guessed it.. ME! (Thanks to Ashley not letting me leave the shop the Thursday before until after I had completed most of it and she had walked me through the rest putting a star * beside everything that needed completing.) So after folders are done, we start to go through the units 1 & 2, most of us have our homework done and we review question by question, then on to Quiz #1.... 10 out of 10, yeah me, this diving stuff is easy... lol. Boy was I wrong.. now we were off to the pool....
Here is where the title fits in and my thoughts on the physical requirements go out the window, now the weight of the equipment was, as expected, not a problem for me. My problem came with the announcement of a Fitness test. Not a "Hey can you comfortably lift a BCD, tank attached and support it while your partner gets in"... this was a, swim 8 lengths (4 laps) of the pool, no stopping or you start again. So off we go... I'm on length 3/8 (1.5 of my required 4 laps) when the thought hits me... "I'm out of shape"... by length 5/8 (2.5 of my required 4 laps) I'm praying "God strike me dead, I'm not gonna make it"... at the end of 6/8 (3 of my 4 laps down) I am swimming on my back (and have been for a bit) and look up to see Virpi cheering me on from the side, "Only one more to go!" Ok, great, now I can't quit, I've got a cheering section... lol. So we finish the swim, I get out, and I am feeling muscles in my legs I didn't know existed and remembering joints that were hurt so long ago I can barely remember how I hurt them. I'm not feeling so much the superstar at this point... I'd have given up my 10 / 10 on the quiz and being all done my worksheets and folder for a slightly easier time with the swim... at this point I want to die. We are now fortunate enough to have a break, a few minutes while Virpi shows us the equipment set-up, how to get the tank attached to the BCD, attaching regulators, clipping in hoses, etc. I'm getting excited again... then the announcement... "Ok, now on to our 10 minute tread..." Good news!... now I get to tread water with already sore muscles for longer than I have ever tried before, without touching the sides and not drowning.... I won't walk through the gory details but that 10 minutes seemed like 20 and by 20 I mean hours! ~ note to self: FITNESS IS IMPORTANT ~
So 10 minutes is up, out of the pool we get, muscles are sore, breathing is off and I'm thinking I'm going to die before this night is over.... I think I did. Died and went to heaven that is! Under the supervision of Virpi and Dennis Chow (one of the shops most highly qualified and trained Dive Masters and Instructors), we start to build our kits, dawn our wetsuits and boots and then assist our partners into their gear. Then grabbing masks, snorkels and fins (never call them flippers, Flipper's a Dolphin, Divers have fins!!), we head off to the shallow end of the pool, climb into the pool, put on our fins and masks and upon instruction lower into the water and breathe for the first time.. under water! What an AMAZING experience!
I won't go through all the details of the skills we covered, aside from saying watching the video and reading the required chapters does help, but most important of all, is having a great instructional team and paying very close attention to what they tell you and show you.
Is my life any different after one class, you bet it is. I learned to breathe under water, communicate under water, recover my regulator, clear my mask and even share air with my partner if it was needed... what did you do Tuesday night?
My only question at this point... outside of tank changes, why does anyone ever surface? I love this new world. Thursday can't come quick enough, and who knows what the deep end of the pool holds.
I can't wait to dive again, but I won't hold my breath... cause that breaks rule #1 of diving "NEVER HOLD YOUR BREATH!"
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