For some reason, I have been unable to remember to take sunscreen
with me whenever I do something that requires being out in the sun for
a long time. The week end before last I burned by arms and ears riding
from the gate to Kananskis Country to Longview and then to Black
Diamond. This weekend, I burned my face, neck, and arms while sitting
around doing surface intervals. At least on Sunday I was able to steal
some sunscreen from my dive partner, so I didn't burn too much
more. So although parts of me are now a somewhat unhealthy shade of
red, I've managed to earn my PADI open water diver certification.
I was the first to arrive at the dive site on Saturday. The site
was Lake Minnewanka, at the plaque site. After everyone arrived, I
learned a little bit about altitude diving. Even though I had only
driven up from Calgary, an altitude change that I didn't think was too
large, it was enough that we had to acclimatize a bit. Actually we
didn't really have to, since we weren't really diving that deep, but
it gave us time to set up our equipment and do our briefing and learn
about a little about diving at altitude.
A 7mm wet suit is very hot when standing around in the sun. Add a
diving hood and it becomes unbearably hot and sweaty. Jumping in 11 C
water helps a lot. The visibility in Minnewanka is about 20 feet when
open water students aren't stirring up the bottom. When they are, the
visibility is nil. One student had some trouble with his equipment
(his weight belt slipped off), and the resulting commotion stirred up
the bottom so badly that I could see my hand in front of my face, or
my dive partner. We sat still and it eventually cleared up, and we
were able to complete our skills, but all that sitting around on the
bottom of the lake made me a bit cold.
I had some problems of my own. For one, I had my mask strap too
tight and too high on my head, so it didn't take much water pressure
to push the top of the mask into my forehead. No amount of blowing air
into it help, but after a few minutes on the bottom I got used to
it. I fixed that for the Sunday dives. On the first two dives I
descended too fast, which didn't help.
One of the exercises we have to do is to fill the mask with water,
and then clear it out again (and later take the mask right off and put
it back on again). During this exercise, I inhaled a bit of water,
and started coughing underwater. That was... interesting.
At one point during the dives, I found myself breathing out through
my node without realizing it. I kept filling my hood with air and
made my mask vibrate against my face. I took me a strangely long time
to figure out that I was breathing out through my nose, and to
determine what to do about it.
Now I have to do the altitude and dry suit courses, among
others... and just go diving more often!
