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I spent the weekend doing the delayed open water dive for my scuba certification, which I now have.
Yesterday we went over the basic things like getting used to 8 degree water, mask clearing and regulator recovery. We also had to do shared air ascents. One partner signals they are out of air, the other provides their spare regulator and both ascend at a safe rate together. I went first, no problems. Then we descended back and it was![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
corivax's turn to signal. And I couldn't reach my spare regulator. I tried twice, no luck. So I took a deep breath and handed over my regulator. (Being sure to keep a small stream of bubbles flowing out my mouth, so that if we happened to float upwards the air in my lungs could expand out my throat instead of through something squishy in there -- holding your breath in a variable pressure environment is a very poor idea.) I was then able to find my spare reg, but in my haste I had handed the primary reg to corvi upside down. And corvi's mask had filled with water, blocking sight. And for whatever reason, neither of us had learned that most regulators don't really work upside down. So corvi spent a couple of minutes inhaling brine with every breath, until the instructor came over and offered his spare regulator. So that's how I almost drowned corvi. Mea culpa.
The only specific skill demonstration today was the buoyancy compensator ditch-and-don: take the BC (the vest to which the tank attaches, it also has inflatable pockets for buoyancy compensation purposes) completely off in the water and put it back on, all while breathing from the regulator. Not my favorite thing to do -- my arms have never had great flexibility for reaching behind me, even when not encased in 7mm of wetsuit. Having my arms pinned behind me while the only thing keeping me breathing is a little mouthpiece trying to pull itself out -- not very fun. But the rest of the day was getting used to the practice of real dives, including one down to 55 feet which was pretty cool. As you get deeper, the air in your BC and your wetsuit compresses under the pressure, making you less buoyant. Thus you need to add more air as you descend to maintain neutral buoyancy, and let it out as your ascend. (The later is particularly important, as an uncontrolled ascent is a good way to get bent.) This was the first time I had really noticed that effect. Physics is phun! Later we went over to a small wreck which had a very impressive little forest of feathery anemones on one side. We tried to take some pictures with our little
disposable camera, but it was pretty dark and silty.
One item from life_goal_list.txt checked off! I'm not sure how frequently I'll dive -- it's very neat, and quite a bit of fun, but setup is a hassle and it's crazy expensive. I could see going a couple times a year, but this is never going to be a great passion for me. I'm mostly happy to have the skillset and competance. Bonus charcter growth: I actually can stare down expensive new hobbies on occasion.
Yesterday we went over the basic things like getting used to 8 degree water, mask clearing and regulator recovery. We also had to do shared air ascents. One partner signals they are out of air, the other provides their spare regulator and both ascend at a safe rate together. I went first, no problems. Then we descended back and it was
corivax's turn to signal. And I couldn't reach my spare regulator. I tried twice, no luck. So I took a deep breath and handed over my regulator. (Being sure to keep a small stream of bubbles flowing out my mouth, so that if we happened to float upwards the air in my lungs could expand out my throat instead of through something squishy in there -- holding your breath in a variable pressure environment is a very poor idea.) I was then able to find my spare reg, but in my haste I had handed the primary reg to corvi upside down. And corvi's mask had filled with water, blocking sight. And for whatever reason, neither of us had learned that most regulators don't really work upside down. So corvi spent a couple of minutes inhaling brine with every breath, until the instructor came over and offered his spare regulator. So that's how I almost drowned corvi. Mea culpa.The only specific skill demonstration today was the buoyancy compensator ditch-and-don: take the BC (the vest to which the tank attaches, it also has inflatable pockets for buoyancy compensation purposes) completely off in the water and put it back on, all while breathing from the regulator. Not my favorite thing to do -- my arms have never had great flexibility for reaching behind me, even when not encased in 7mm of wetsuit. Having my arms pinned behind me while the only thing keeping me breathing is a little mouthpiece trying to pull itself out -- not very fun. But the rest of the day was getting used to the practice of real dives, including one down to 55 feet which was pretty cool. As you get deeper, the air in your BC and your wetsuit compresses under the pressure, making you less buoyant. Thus you need to add more air as you descend to maintain neutral buoyancy, and let it out as your ascend. (The later is particularly important, as an uncontrolled ascent is a good way to get bent.) This was the first time I had really noticed that effect. Physics is phun! Later we went over to a small wreck which had a very impressive little forest of feathery anemones on one side. We tried to take some pictures with our little
disposable camera, but it was pretty dark and silty.
One item from life_goal_list.txt checked off! I'm not sure how frequently I'll dive -- it's very neat, and quite a bit of fun, but setup is a hassle and it's crazy expensive. I could see going a couple times a year, but this is never going to be a great passion for me. I'm mostly happy to have the skillset and competance. Bonus charcter growth: I actually can stare down expensive new hobbies on occasion.