The Importance of Being Equal

originally published July 1, 2017

 So… after my experience of having struggled through most of Confined 1, I was sure to do my homework. I practiced in the pool until my eyes were on fire from chlorine overload (dang community pools always use too much), and had my mask removal down pat.

Or so I thought.

Time to get back to school! I met with Chris and picked up my rental gear. This time we were heading to his preferred training spot, Blue Grotto, near Ocala. It’s a beautiful place, geared towards divers and dive training. They have a pool for confined water training and, just a few steps away, the spring for open water diving.



Things went much smoother this time around. Chris hooked me up with a 63 cubic foot cylinder rather than an 80, which is about 5 inches shorter and a few pounds lighter. Even so, my old lady knees were not too happy with me. Climbing up and down the stairs at the pool with the full kit on was doable, with a helping hand from Chris.

In the water, I demonstrated that I could fully flood and clear my mask, and even take it off completely… as long as I was holding my nose. You’ll find out soon enough why I keep mentioning this. Patience, young (or old) padawan. We worked through several more skills in the shallow five foot depth of the pool before moving into the deeper 10 foot end.

I fully admit that I screwed up. There was so much going on at once, heading into an actual depth for the first time, I neglected to equalize. Equalizing is something scuba divers are trained to do “early and often” by pinching their nose shut and blowing out. This relieves the added pressure that is exerted on your ears, which can be quite painful and potentially harmful. Yeah, I didn’t do that.

As soon as we hit about 8 feet, I could feel the pressure building in my ears. It was quite uncomfortable, more than I imagined it could be. I tried to equalize and couldn’t get it. I signaled to Chris that something was wrong and we went up a little. SOP. When I still couldn’t equalize, we surfaced and took a short break. A second attempt resulted in a little improvement but not enough to continue.

Overall, this was a much better session than the first. Chris congratulated me on having improved greatly and said I was doing fine. His teaching philosophy is that the student should set the pace. There’s no rush, they want their students to be comfortable and well trained. After all, once they are certified and in the water for real, it’s his reputation on the line. Being a single mom with two jobs, this method jibes well with my busy life.

Thus, I was through Confined 2 and would be back in the water in a couple of days to keep moving forward... however slowly.


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