Scuba Newb - Learning to Breathe Underwater

The Women Divers Hall of Fame, home to such renowned divers as Dr. Sylvia Earl and Dr. Eugenie Clark, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. To commemorate the occasion, the group is awarding training grants to 20 ambitious women, enabling them to enhance their careers through scuba diving.  These $1000 grants will pay for classes and equipment, and include a complimentary one year DAN membership, as well a one year terms as a Junior WDHOF Associate. photo courtesy of Sebastian Pena Lambarri via Unsplash  The recipients of these grants come from all over the world - Croatia, Senegal, Canada, the USA, and more. These women also have a wide range of backgrounds, from marine biologists and conservationists, to underwater archaeologists. Read the full story below by tapping the link:  https://www.divenewswire.com/women-divers-hall-of-fame-awards-22-learn-to-dive-training-grants-in-2020/

originally published April 21, 2018 So. We've established that boats and I don't get along all that well. Saturday evening, I met up with Guy and we shared our dive stories du jour. His day had gone much better than mine. He got to dive The Benwood (which made me super jealous) and he was super jealous that I got to see Christ of the Abyss. He was supportive of my decision not to force myself to dive when I wasn't feeling physically able to handle it. This was something we had talked about on the way down, the "any diver can call the dive at any time" mantra.  That night, I obsessively checked the surf reports for Sunday, which were expected to be worse than Saturday. In fact, our Saturday night dive was called off due to rough conditions. I was deep in over-analyzing mode: talking to Guy, to Will, to Isabelle, to myself. Ultimately, I decided not to go out on the boat Sunday. Isabelle called me Sunday morning and I explained that I felt if I went out and s...

originally published April 14, 2018 I have a love/hate relationship with boats. When we first moved to Florida, my dad was a Dockmaster at a marina in Miami. Wow, writing that sentence gave me flashbacks. Here’s the place he used to work: When I was sick or had a holiday from school, Dad would take me to work with him. I adored hanging around in his office and on the dock, all the voices of the sea singing around me. One of the perks of the job was that some of the residents would let my dad use their boats, and he would take the family out for a day on the ocean. These were nice boats, too, big yachts. But, no matter how fancy the vessel, I would get seasick every time. And here I was again, on a boat, feeling the spritz of salt spray and the warm breath of wind on my face. I adore being on the ocean. I really wish she would return the favor once in a while. I was expending all my efforts to keep my stomach calm as the boat zipped across the shimmering Atlantic. Outwardl...

originally published April 13, 2018 Guy and I (and trusty travel mascot, Coby) headed south, stopping for Dive #1 - a sunset dive at Blue Heron Bridge in Riviera Beach. BHB is an excellent shore dive, easy access and lots of marine life to see. IF one can descend the whopping 20 feet to the bottom. This would be my first legit saltwater dive and... I couldn't sink. It. Was. Ridiculous.  My last dive had been at Blue Grotto with Will back in November, and he had commented that he felt I was over-weighted. Dropped like a rock, as he put it. So, logically, if what I wore at Blue Grotto was too much, it should be the right amount at BHB. Right? Wrong. I was bobbing like a cork. Guy took some of his weights and tucked them into my BC pockets but it didn't help much. Even with that additional two pounds, I couldn't get down further than three feet. It was frustrating but a good lesson heading down to the "real" diving. At least I would know going in that I needed...

originally published April 12, 2018 Turns out throwing up in the middle of the ocean isn't as bad as I'd expected. There I was, bobbing around in the surf, miles from shore, spewing my guts into the clear waters enveloping me. Fun fun. But... how did I get here? Let's backtrack a bit. It had been a dry few months since I'd finished my advanced open water certification, after which had come the mayhem of the holidays. It may sound sad or cruel but I really can't deal with the holidays anymore. It's just pressure and obligation and stress. All the fun has been sucked out of it these last few years. I was looking forward to getting back in the water for some peace and quiet. Lucky for me, my dive shop was hosting a weekend scuba getaway in Key Largo in the Spring. Growing up in South Florida, I'd been to the Keys, of course but I hadn't been down there in at least 20 years. I eagerly signed up for the trip, booking myself on three dives of the five...

originally published December 9, 2017 Our deep dive in the books, Will and I started going over the plan for the next, and final, phase of my Advanced Open Water certification: the night dive. He explained protocols for using my light (don't shine it in anyone's face, natch), and how to use it in place of hand signals in the dark (making a circle on the bottom with your light = okay).  During the deep dive I'd had some minor difficulty reading my gauges and Will's computer. I'm ridiculously nearsighted and wear glasses with multi-focal lenses on land. When diving, I wear single-vision contacts. While this is great for distance and I can see my PSI reading fine, it was hit or miss with other readings, especially as we'd started to lose daylight. So, I decided to pop one contact out and keep one in to see if that solved the problem.  We made one other adjustment - taking away some of my weights. Will was concerned that I had dropped like a rock dur...