Confinement

originally published May 28, 2017

 As mentioned in my “Diving 101” post, there are several confined and open water dives a new diver must progress through in order to become certified. I had done my book work, taken my tests (scored a 93% thank you very much), completed my in-class final exam. I was ready! Let’s do this!

OMG I’m so nervous. Am I crazy?!

I met with my instructor, a friend of Guy’s who owns the dive shop near where I lived, and we mapped out our plan. Most students can complete their in-water testing in a couple of days. We were to begin at DeLeon Springs, a state park about 30 miles west of Daytona Beach. Here in the clear, calm waters of the spring, we could knock out confined 1-4 and open 1 on Saturday, then move on to confined 5 and open 2-4 on Sunday. I went home armed with tanks, regulator, BCD, weights and wetsuit, wondering if I’d be able to sleep. It would be an early start the next morning.

DeLeon Springs State Park has a limited capacity and only allows a certain number of dive classes in at a time, so we had to be there before the park opened. I had to be up at 5:00 AM in order to make it to the park to meet my instructor. My GPS took me out to the boonies where I kept hearing the inevitable “GPS signal lost” every time I was in the middle of nowhere.


Nevertheless, I made it in time. My instructor (let’s call him Chris) bolstered my confidence by mentioning that the park staff does a sweep each morning to clear out any alligators. Oh. Goodie. Now...

Unload
Prep gear
Swim test (Did I mention the swim test? You have to swim 200 yards, no time limit)
Float test (tread water or float for 10 minutes, a nice respite after that 200 yards)
Suit up!
Buddy check
And we are ready to hit the water!

In my discover scuba experience (outlined in the blog post “Discovery”) I had donned my gear while already in the pool. Now I would wear my full kit for the short walk to the spring. Jesus wept, it’s heavy! I’m 5’1” so hauling a filled 80 cubic foot tank (30+ pounds) plus the 10 pounds of added weight in my BCD is a bit of a challenge - all told I’ve added about a third of my body weight to my small frame in a matter of minutes. *insert macho grunt here*

So I lurched my way to the water, awkwardly bent over to accommodate the extra poundage. We covered some simple basics, like breathing through and purging the regulator first (blowing any intruding water out), then moved on to some more daunting tasks like regulator recovery and alternate air use. When the reg in your mouth is literally life or death in the water, the thought of having to take it out of your mouth, even for a few seconds, can be little scary. But, it’s not as bad as it sounds, really. Slowly exhale a small stream of bubbles whenever you remove the reg so you don’t inadvertently get a gulp of water, the pop it back in, purge, and breathe. Easy peasy. The number one rule of scuba diving? NEVER hold your breath.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Drive South - Part 2

Image
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...
Read more

Drive South - Part 4

Image
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...
Read more

Descent into Darkness - Part 3

Image
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...
Read more