Scuba Newb - Learning to Breathe Underwater

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...

originally posted November 12, 2017 A week had come and gone. Guy had come and gone. Low level panic was setting in. Why did I have to do a deep dive?? I don't want to dive deep as a general rule. I'm not trying to be the next Sylvia Earle, for f***s sake. I just want to have fun and swim with fishies and maybe see an octopus. Maybe AOW isn't for me. Maybe I should just stop where I am and enjoy my 60 foot limits.  Yeah, I guess you could say I was a little anxious about the deep dive. Nevertheless... if you've followed me this far you'll know that I don't give up easily. I went to the shop to pick up my rental gear and found Will manning the store. After handing off my wetsuit and regulator set, he said, "okay, we'll meet up at Blue Grotto about 4:00 to get you checked in and set up our gear. We'll do the deep dive first, take a little break and, once the sun goes down, get back in the water for the night dive." "We? Not Ch...

originally published November 7, 2017 The Sunday following my drift dive excursion, I had the last of my Advanced Open Water classes scheduled. Chris and I were to meet at Blue Grotto, home to my aborted second attempt at Confined Water diving (as relayed in "The Importance of Being Equal"), for my Deep Dive and Night Dive. I had snorkeled a place called Blue Heron Bridge at night a few times so the night dive didn't really weigh on me, it was the deep dive that was making me super anxious. The thought of allllll that water over my head, and not being able to get to the surface quickly, was nerve wracking. [ photo courtesy Scotty's Action Sports Network] After getting back from Rainbow River, Chris and I went over the dive plan and he assured me we wouldn't have to go any deeper than I was comfortable with. I'd have to get below 60 feet but we wouldn't have to go all the way to the bottom, and we would take things slow. Ryan, Chris' partn...

originally published November 6, 2017 I'd made my way through the Navigation, Peak Performance Buoyancy, and Search & Recovery portions of my Advanced Open Water training. Will provided some great insight for using breath control to fine tune buoyancy, and also helped me experiment with adjusting my BC for the best fit, until we finally hit on what seemed to be the ideal setup.  I did a bit better on the Navigation than I had in my Open Water, though I still sometimes forgot to count my fin kicks (how you measure distance traveled underwater). During the Search & Recovery portion, Will had some fun with me and the other student, a county firefighter, having us to perform our knot tying skills behind our backs, under our knees, with our eyes closed.      Back at the shop after a productive day in the water, Chris mentioned they were planning a drift dive at Rainbow River in a couple of weeks. This is a popular spot for centr...

originally published October 24, 2017 This is going to be tough. A lot of crazy things have happened since I last posted and now it's time to sort them all out. Why the long absence? Well, my house was broken into and my computer was stolen. I guess I should count myself lucky that the only things taken are replaceable. I'm a sentimental sort and have things like my grandmother's china and my father's fire helmets scattered about my home. If any of these things had been taken or damaged, I would have been inconsolable. So, yeah, I was lucky.  Still, it's disconcerting knowing strangers were in your home, pawing through your personal things, disrupting your life. Not an experience I wish to repeat. It took a few weeks for me to feel back to normal. I was not only afraid to be away from my home, for fear the thieves would return, I was afraid to be in it as well. I checked and rechecked that all the doors were locked each night and slept with the lights on for ...

originally published October 11, 2017 While Irma has come and gone, the impact from her 130 MPH winds is still being felt. Big Pine and Cudjoe Keys were among the hardest hit areas in Florida. A month later, piles of debris still line the streets, evidence of the homes destroyed and despair left behind. The Lower Keys were cut off from the mainland in the wake of the storm. The only road into the chain of islands was closed pending inspection by structural engineers to ensure it was safe. Electricity was out and cell service was down. Residents wandered the blasted landscape in a daze, wondering when help would come, when they might be able to reach their loved ones to tell them they had survived.  Indicative of this close knit community, residents began to reach out to help each other in any way they could. A local radio station was still able to broadcast and spread the word about a store which had a working land line. People lined up out the door for the cha...

originally published October 3, 2017 After lashing the state for a harrowing 72 hours, Hurricane Irma finally spun her way out of Florida. She will not be missed. Churning from the Southernmost Point up to the Georgia line, the storm left no part of the state untouched - some 4.5 million people were left without electricity, homes were shredded by tornadoes, streets were flooded. For many Floridians, the storm had passed leaving only minor damage in its wake. For others, the real challenge was just beginning.  With dive boats grounded until the hurricane had safely passed, scuba divers statewide were partaking of an extended surface interval, many wondering how their favorite sites had weathered the storm. We'll talk at length about the Keys in my next post but first, let's talk about cave country. North Florida is home to dozens of underwater springs and caves that draw tec divers from all over the world, and the people in this region were find...

originally published September 11, 2017 It's 11:30 ish Sunday night, September 10, 2017. I'm so tired. This week has been madness. Right on the heels of Hurricane Harvey decimating south Texas with insane flooding, Hurricane Irma formed in the Atlantic, quickly growing into a Category 5 monster that would smash long standing meteorological records. There was talk of needing to create a Category 6 for this storm, that is how big and powerful it was.   September started off simply enough. I was planning a road trip to south Florida to meet up with a group of high school friends, still my nearest and dearest pals. We were gathering to celebrate the Bat Mitzvah of the youngest daughter of one of these friends. The only problem being that my own daughter happens to be 9 months pregnant right now. So I drove three hours away hoping I wouldn't get a frantic phone call to come back.  While I tried to work in a dive to the popular Blue Heron Bridge site while I was down...

originally published August 12, 2017 Come on. You really didn’t think you could get rid of me that easily, did you? So the ScubaNewb, despite a rocky start, managed to master the required skills and achieve her goal of becoming a legit scuba diver. Now what? Is that it? Will she just swim off into the sunset? Of course not! Yup, I’ve already signed up for my Advanced Open Water course. Open Water dive training focuses mainly on skills: learning when to expect underwater and how to deal with difficulties without panicking (or, ya know, dying). Handling your equipment and regulator, what to do if your mask comes off, maintaining good buoyancy - learning and practicing all of these skills set you up for success as a diver. Advanced Open Water is where you take your newly acquired diving tools to the next level. One of the most popular advanced classes is Nitrox certification. Nitrox, also called Enhanced Air or EAN, is a blend of oxygen and nitrogen wherein the oxygen percenta...

originally published July 18, 2017 My Confined Water days were officially behind me and I had just two dives left to complete. I was poised to make my entry into a wider world, but there were still a few obstacles to overcome. The other students arrived - a guy in his 30’s and a teenage boy - both finishing up their Open Water certifications - along with the teen’s dad, who was on hand to get a refresher. While scuba certifications are valid for a lifetime, it’s recommended that you take a refresher course if you’ve been out of the water for more than six months. While Will, Isabelle, and I took a short break (snack time!), Will reviewed the plan for the rest of the day with the whole group. The guys had a few skills to run through first, then we would all be able to move on through the rest of our training together. The menfolk hit the water, leaving Isabelle and me to hang out in the shade and gab for a bit. She is new to Florida, from a place nowhere near the ocean. The ...

originally published July 17, 2017 Well, here we are. I’ve made it as far as Confined 3/Open 1. It had been moderately exasperating. I had almost quit but Will kept me on course. Now we were in the home stretch. Will had a class coming up that I could likely slide into, depending on how the other students did on their first day. If all went according to plan, I could join their class in progress and complete the course alongside them. I was a bit anxious. Up until now, due to my schedule, it had been just me in the water with either Chris or Will. I was concerned about lagging behind and slowing the others down. But, it was do or die now. Maybe having others depending on me getting these skills locked down would motivate me to push past my apprehensions and put my trust in my training and abilities. Only one way to find out. Back to Lake Denton! Will and I were to meet about an hour before the rest of the class to get me caught up to the others. He brought along Isabe...