Everything I know about being an Underwater Naturalist, I learned in High-School!

Last night the team and I, yes the same team from Search and Recovery, got together to start our Underwater Naturalist course and our first chance to meet Monti Richardsen.  Now Monty is a Master Instructor, so this is like getting in the water with the Yoda of Diving...lol. To fill you in on where he is in relation to me... here is the progression (sorry PADI if I miss something) as well as where some of the greats I have worked with are.   

Open Water Diver -
Adventure Diver -
Advanced Open Water Diver -
Rescue Diver -  This is where I am now, and will complete this in a few weeks (hopefully)
Master Scuba Diver -  This is my Goal for the end of the year (getting there)
Dive Master - Michael Klaver, Matt Mendes, Steve Dunn
Assistant Open Water Instructor - Stewart Hoyt
Open Water Instructor - Virpi Kangas, Ward Conley
Specialty Instructor - 
Master Scuba Diver Trainer -  Dennis Chow, Roger Fordham, Wes Kozak
IDC Staff Member - Ashley Graham (and I believe Dennis is just about here)
Master Instructor - Monti Richardsen
Course Director - Shannon Kozak (only about 1200 people World Wide hold his title)

As you can see from the list and the chart, Monti has been at this for a very long time and to hold the Master Instructor title you have to have taught a whole hoard of students.  So I was very excited when last night arrived so I could have the opportunity to meet a new instructor, catch up with my team again and prepare for what, for all intents and purposes, should be a fairly relaxed dive.  Formal class time was a brief overview of the chapter on Underwater Naturalist from the Adventures in Diving book, and then some review and discussion of some of the things we were going to look at and how to interact with them.  This is where class become a sudden flashback of high-school and I realized that "Everything I know about being an Underwater Naturalist, I learned in High-School!" You see much like being in high school the rules are the same:

• If it's really beautiful or really ugly... stay away it's probably dangerous

• The big fish will eat the little fish... but there is always a bigger fish

• Most injuries suffered are caused by provoking the wrong animal

 Can you think of any more similarities?  Add them in the comments field.

Sunday is dive day so the team and I will be out with Monti and another student to complete our dives, explore our world and hopefully come back in one piece...lol.  Talk to you soon.

Diving the Marker and Experiencing The Cut!

Ok.. so you remember my "little" problem yesterday with getting me ears to clear? Well, it happened again today!

Much like yesterday this day started out amazing, it was a cool crisp morning, still some snow on the ground, but not enough to make driving or gearing up an issue.  We met early as usual and proceeded to get our kits put together.  A short discussion on today's dive to 130 feet (the deepest I have ever been) and the few skills we will review at depth.  Suits on, kits fastened up, gear clipped in place and we were off to the water.  Whytecliff is a great place to dive for the many different levels of divers due to it's gradual bottom, mixed ocean life, walls and last but not least depth!  But for us to fully enjoy the depth we must be out far enough, which means a good surface swim.  Today for dive one, we headed to the day marker.  Now for those of you who have been following my blog and have read Seals to Emergencies you will understand why I am a little apprehensive about being out at the day marker on Whitecliff and even more so when the plan is to descend down to beyond where she was brought up from.  Needless to say I am writing this now so I made it... yeah me!...lol.  So after grouping on the surface, not an easy task with the waves and surf pushing you all over the place, we started our descent, and once again on hitting around the 20 foot mark, the ear just wouldn't clear.  So a short ascent up a few feet and a few more, some pushing and struggling and presto the slow relief of my ear starting to pressurize for the dive.  Yeah, time to catch up with Roger and my dive partner, hit our 130 mark and begin to review a few navigation skills and a short tour.  To finish today's dive Roger has us practicing a new skill, this is where as you approach or hit your 15 foot safety stop, you release your surface marker (attached to your reel) so that it hits the surface an notifies (typically your dive boat) that you are in your 3 minute safety stop.  This is particularly useful as mentioned for boat dives, as you are able to give the boat a 3 minute heads up of where you are going to be surfacing so that they can be there to pick you up.  This is not a difficult skill, just one that is good to practice, you don't want your line held too tight as it can actually pull you to the surface if you are not careful, and you don't want to leave the line spooling after it reaches the surface or you'll end up having the line drop below you or the marker drift away from your actual ascent point.  Ours comes off without a hitch and we make our final ascent, and our surface swim back to enjoy some beverages, and food during our 90 minute surface interval required for our deep dives.

Bellies full, hands warmed up and kits strapped back into place it's time for dive number 4 and our last one required for certification as a Deep Diver.  For this dive Roger and my dive partner are going to show me "The Cut".  There is a decent hike to get to the cut and as we found when we got to the waters edge, there is also a lot of debris to get past before you can move into the water.  This is only further complicated by the surf that comes in to the very narrow "Cut" and makes it difficult to get your fins on.  So... after carrying all our gear along what could laughably be referred to as a goat path and climbing over trees and debris on the shore and fighting to get our fins on while time the waves, we are finally ready to get started.  It takes only a few steps before you are well over your head in the sudden drop of the cut and we start our descent only to again have my ears give me issues....  So back over to the wall, raise up a bit, a couple good pushes and one big whoosh and my ear is clear.  Pushing off the wall and following Roger and my dive partner down through the cut we are signaled by another diver just below us.  Dropping to see him, Roger signals back and forth and then signals for us to drop to the same level as this new diver who points out that there is an octopus, more closely described as a crack-topus, as you can only see an arm and part of an eye in the crack it calls home.  Turning away from the octopus and working along the wall led by my Dive Partner we make the slow swim along the hidden edge opposite of the bay I am used to diving in and around the point to enter the bay covering the area that you don't normally see when you descend in the bay.  Unfortunately my air consumption being what it is the dive is short as usual and we are unable to reach our initially planned objective of swimming all the way into the bay eliminating the long surface swim.   So, alternatively we choose to surface swim back into the cut and climb back out that way, taking the hike and climbing over the long surface swim.  The walks not too bad, even came across a dog that was not too happy to see three grown men dripping wet and dressed in dark rubbery material.  So once again we were back at the vehicles, stripping off gear and packing it away.  Looking forward to the next time the open water calls,  and we are there to answer!

"I'm Diving in the Snow, Just Diving in the Snow, What a Glorious Feeling, I'm Happy Again!"

My apologies to Mr Gene Kelly for killing his song but this is what I was up to earlier today.  Last night brought in a few inches of snow and this morning we were scheduled for day one of Deep Diving with Mr Roger K.L. Fordham, Master Scuba Diver Trainer with Ocean Pro Divers.  Last night he had messaged to advise that much like the postal service we were going regardless of weather, so when my alarm rang just after 5:00 am and I managed to crawl out of bed I knew it was going to be an interesting day.  Grabbing my gear, lunch and a coffee and dressed in warm undergarments it was time to make my way through the snow and clear the van for my drive up to Whytecliff.Park.

Fortunately my dive partner and Roger are like me and like to get going early in the morning so that you can enjoy your dives and still get home at a reasonable time and still have your afternoon free.  So by just after 7:00 am the three of us were gearing up and reviewing the dives for the day.  By shortly after 8:00 we are headed to the water and excited about the first of our Deep Dives.

Dive one was a simple navigation objective, swim out, signal, descend, find a place on the wall roughly 100 feet down and then with my dive partner swim away from the wall in a straight line maintaining 100 feet for 20 kick cycles, stop, turn and return on the same path back to where Roger is waiting for us. Process sounds simple enough, only issue, I apparently developed a cold, not usually a problem if you are sitting at home wrapped up drinking tea and eating soup... but when you're intending on diving beyond 15 to 20 feet you need for your ears to be able to clear... mine were not so willing....lol  I managed to get a little equalization during the first part of the descent but by the time I had hit around the 25 - 30 foot mark my ear was having none of it.  Signaling to my partner and Roger, I ascended a few feet and a few feet more trying to get my ear to clear, nothing!  After a few more tries Roger signaled me over to the rock face where I was able to hold on and with the rest of my body immobile and with a final attempt my ears did what they were supposed to and with a very satisfying feeling my ear cleared and equalized with the wonderful sound only a clearing ear can make...lol.  With my ear cleared we pushed off the wall and proceeded with our decent to 100 feet.  Man I love diving!  So much to see! So much to do!  So after a nice gentle decent to 100 feet we continue as planned, Roger in his spot on the face of the wall, my dive buddy and I hovering at 100 feet, take a compass bearing, and swim directly away from the wall.  Out 20 kick cycles, counted by my buddy, turn and shift into position so i can count cycles while he leads the return swim back to Roger and we are right on the money.  With this dives skill component completed it's time for some fun, Roger pulls out of his bag what was once a normal empty 2 liter pop bottle, it is now compressed like it was run over by a truck, all of the air is condensed and pulled the sides of the bottle in on itself.  Next we look at some pieces of Neoprene, on the surface some are significantly thicker than others, but down at 100 feet they all appear to be almost exactly the same thickness, lastly Roger grabs an egg from his bag, a little tap tap with his dive knife, opens the shell and out floats a perfect yellow ball.  After a few minutes of playing with the egg it's time to leave it for the fish and head off, then after a little exploring, some pictures, a little video we arrive back at 15 feet for our 3 minute safety stop.

After a short surface swim back in and a walk up to the vehicles, it's time to take off our kits, switch tanks and get some food in us while we review the plan for dive 2 and kill the balance of the hour and a half required surface interval to get all the excess nitrogen out of our system.

With the surface interval drawing to an end, Roger gets out his preschool shape sorter...

What a great toy... this little square with individual shapes teaches children to recognize shapes and then focus on finding the similar hole and then coordinate their motor skills to fit the piece in the hole!  This has been used for decades with preschoolers, children with autism and now, Deep Divers!

You see, all gases have a narcotic effect to them and as you descend to 100+ feet nitrogen can build up and cause what is know as Nitrogen Narcosis, or you become what is usually called Narced.  Being Narced is like being intoxicated, your motor skills suffer, you can get tunnel vision, have focusing issues, etc.  So we try the shape sorter on the surface, then at 10 feet and then again at 100+ feet to see what the time difference is and see how bad, (if at all) we get Narced.

Once again, we put on our kits, make the walk to the beach and start our surface swim out to our first descent point.  Sitting in about 10 - 12 feet of water we start attempt number one after just over a minute I am done and all pieces are in the cube.  After my dive buddy finishes his turn it's time to head out to the depths.  When we reach decent point 2 we exchange a signal and start our relaxed descent back down to 100 feet clearing and equalizing the whole way.  This time is much easier and taking it really slow my ear stays clear and equalizes with only minor work.  Once on the bottom it's time to play with the shape sorter again, Roger passes me the sorter, signals, starts the time and opens the bag, one after another the pieces come out of the bag, into my hand and flipping the sorter around each piece finds its home in under a minute.  As it turns out, I am apparently faster at 100 feet then I am at 10 feet... wonder if that would work for my office stuff too...hmm...lol.  After my partner has his turn, the toys are put away and it's off for a bit of a swim before heading back towards shore, our safety stop, surface swim, gear down and drive home.  Another successful day of dive adventures, and half way to being a certified Deep Diver.

Checking Homework and Planning Dives

This will end up being a short addition to the blog posted earlier talking about my first recreational dive without instructor supervision.  After our dive for the day we headed back to my place to move all the rental equipment from Scott's car to my van so that I could drive it out to the shop to return it and meet up with Master Scuba Diver Trainer Roger K.L. Fordham hoah! Every time I see Roger I feel like saluting, which as I later found out wouldn't be to far off as he serves in the military.  I had met Roger previously and as mentioned in If it ain't broke don't fix it.... and from SORTED to super STARS and Shooting Pumpkins and Making Squares.....I had seen him at work as an instructor. Today, though would be my first day to actually start training under his supervision, I was excited and rightfully so.  Roger was quick to get into the chapter reviews and alternating between me and my dive partner for this specialty we reviewed all the answers, made any corrections necessary (not that I had any errors..lol) and answered any questions anyone had.  Next we moved on  to planning our dives.  Seeing as both my dive buddy and I had recently completed our Advanced Certification and on that you end up completing one of your required dives for your Deep Certification we only really had to complete 3 dives.  But seeing as we were already going to be at the site, why not bring the second tank on both days and enjoy the extra dive.  Roger, being very detailed, like a briefing prior to a military operation, walked us through the initial plan for when and where we were meeting, the planned dive profile for each of the 4 dives, and the skills required to complete the specialty.  Needless to say I was excited to be prepping for these dives and can't believe that in less than a week I will be 130 feet deep in the open ocean.  Apparently we get to play with kids toys and crack an egg under water... can't wait to see what that is like.  Maybe I'll see if I can get a camera and try to capture some shots of what I see.  Anyway, time to get back to the family, can't wait to let you all know what it's like at 130 feet, I'm sure it will be an experience.

Shooting Pumpkins and Making Squares.....

Yesterday marked my long awaited return to the water after being sick and having to scrub my last two dives of my Advanced Certification.  Yesterday was originally scheduled to just be a fun dive, it was Ocean Pro Divers "Underwater Pumpkin Carving Contest" and I was going to take pictures, but a couple days before the dive Virpi, my wonderful Open Water and Advanced Instructor, called to ask if I would like to use the BBQ as an opportunity to finish my Advanced dives.  Of course I was all over this and responded to let her and Ashley, OPD Dive shop manager, know that I would finish my Navigation and Peak Performance Buoyancy dives on the weekend to complete my Advanced certification.  Sunday morning arrived before I knew it and after a great sleep I packed my gear and all the rental gear into the truck and headed off to Porteau Cove.

Arriving shortly before 9:00, Ashley invited me to join a group from the shop as they headed towards the water for their dive briefing under the direction of their instructor Roger Fordham. Joining the Open Water group along with Ashley, Virpi and I for the dive briefing were many of the shop Dive Masters and Staff including Stewart Hoyt,  Dennis Chow, Ryder Heim, Kevin McEachnie, and Matt Mendes. Despite the minor disruptions from the staff  playing around at the back, Roger was able to get through his orientation with his class and get them prepared for the last of their Open Water certification dives.  It seems like just yesterday that I was standing on the edge of the water listening to my dive instructor walk me through the last of my dives and here it is 2 months later and I'm heading in for dives 10 and 11 already.

After a few more minutes of goofing around with the staff and other divers, it's time to suit up and get ready for the first dive of the day.  A quick meeting with Virpi to discuss the plan, first it's the PPB (Peak Performance Buoyancy) dive with the added challenge of testing those buoyancy skills to stop myself in the water and hover right above divers carving their pumpkins so I can shoot pictures.  This proves to be more difficult than originally planned, and much harder than it sounds.  Upon entering the water and starting our surface swim. it is discovered that the previous nights storm in the cove not only left behind several branches the size of trees floating on or just under the surface (always fun to try to avoid) but also disrupted the sediment leading to almost zero visibility.  The plan was for those carving to head out towards the tower of Porteau and spread out in that area so that after "mastering" my buoyancy, I could hover around and get photos of the pumpkins and carving in action.  What happened, is that most divers went out far enough to reach 30' in depth and went down there instead of the swim to the Tower and the one group that did go to the tower wanted to stay real close to the chain for easy ascent.... those that have been diving can see the comedic moments in motion already.  For those of you who don't see it yet here is the scenario, there is a group of 2 divers sitting at approximately 30' at the bottom of the chain, carving pumpkins.  At the top of that chain is me, not aware of where the divers are, about to descend, down the chain, through 30' of water with no visibility and try to stop without hitting bottom or the divers....lol.  Now you see the humor!

The descent wasn't too bad, I didn't crush anyone and no one got stuck with a knife, so that was a success.  My new BCD worked out amazing and was so nice to control, as soon as I saw the head move less than a foot below me I was able to quickly add air and slow my descent stopping only inches from Kevin's head.  A quick move to the left and I was able to join Virpi as she pointed to the area of the chain she wanted me to focus on, and then using only breath control (inhaling and exhaling), stay right there and then follow her light and descend and ascend up and down the chain again using only breath control.  Next was circling, for this you kick slowly to one side hovering in a circle around the chain, maintaining buoyancy and still using only breath control for adjusting height.  After practicing these skills for a bit it was off on our tour to find people, pumpkins or something to take pictures of to practice both the skill of moving in to take a picture and then back out all with only breath control.  No pumpkins or people were found on our little tour, but I did manage to take a few pictures of star fish, a sun star, a couple plumous anemone, a crab and even myself (which also happened to be the best of the photos.)  Keeping in mind that this was the first time I have taken photos under water, and the visibility and learning buoyancy... these still suck... lol, but I posted them anyway.

Plumous Anemone

Star Fish

Crab

Sun Star

ME!!

Ok, so photography under the water is going to take some time, but this is one thing I don't mind having to spend a lot of time practicing.  After our surface swim back into shore we managed to catch up with Ashley and Stewart and get photos of the pumpkins from their groups, again, not my best work, but pictures of lit pumpkins underwater are cool anyway you take them...hope you enjoy.

After my Buoyancy dive and some fun with the camera, it was time to enjoy some hot chocolate, a couple of sandwiches and a ton of fun with the other divers as we talked about the days dive and diving in general. The biggest treat was being able to talk cameras with Wes Kozak, co-owner of the shop and shop photographer, the things I will learn from him will be incredible (he is teaching my Dive Photography course in April.)  After a good surface interval and with a full tank (air and tummy) it was time to head back into the water for what is generally my least favorite skill, Navigation.  This has always been my least favorite skill primarily I think because I struggle with the compass being on the back of my gauges.  For yesterdays dives, I had my new retractable compass.  So again after a short surface swim and a briefing on the skills we are going to practice, Virpi and I descend and get to work.  Skill one, Virpi ties off her line on the chain and we swim in a straight line as she measures 50' and I count kick cycles, then on the return she winds back in her 50' of line and again I count my kick cycles, 24 kicks out, 26 kicks back, this gives me a basic unit of measure.  Assuming I kick at approximately the same on all dives I am moving about 2' per kick so if i need to go aproximatly 20' I kick 10 times, 100 feet, 25 times etc.  Skill 2 starts back at the chain and we swim in the direction or heading that Virpi points, this time I keep us on that heading through the use of my compass and Virpi counts kick cycles.  Then, on Virpi's signal, we turn and reverse our direction and, on my lead, follow the compass back to the chain.  Remembering of course that there is almost zero visibility you learn very quickly how useful this skill can be, outside of my kick count and compass reading I am completely unaware of where the chain is.  Fortunately, with the new compass we end up back close enough to our original location to find the chain... yeah me!  Skill 3 takes us to Natural Navigation, for those who have ever dove Porteau you know that there is a fire hose that leads from one marker through some of the interesting sites and ends at one of the further yellow markers.  For Natural Navigation, this is what we use, not a tough skill unless you take your eyes off the hose, in this kind of visibility it only takes a second of distraction to lose the hose in the murky bottom and be left guessing where you went wrong.  After a short tour it's on to our last skill, skill 4 making squares.  For this you take your bearing, swim till you kit your kick cycle count or your partner does and signals you, then you turn 90 degrees swim your kick cycles, turn 90, swim, turn 90, and swim.  Now if you have stayed on course and you and/or your partner have counted well, you should be back at your starting point.  If you are like me and over-shoot one side, you end up a little off course.  I was actually very fortunate in that we ended up very close to our start, apparently some people make some pretty wild shapes under water or get lost all together.  Well that ended dive 2 and finally my last 2 required courses to certify me as an Advanced Diver!

Once out of the water, and still smiling ear to ear after finishing dive #11 of my dive career, and now being Advanced certified, it was back to the tent for some much needed and very much enjoyed soup and conversation with my friends and dive family from the shop.  Tuesday will come all too fast and that will mark the start of my next journey and newest challenge and certification... NIGHT DIVING!

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

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

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

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