Anthology of Interest - SCUBA

Buoyancy control

nospam@example.com (Matt Hughes) — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 09:56:19 -0400

I went SCUBA diving this weekend with a friend from work. This was my first dive after getting my open water certification, so I'm pretty green. Fortunately my dive buddy was patient and helped me out with some buoyancy control exercises, which I really needed. One is supposed to be able to hover at a single depth, maybe plus or minus 10 cm, but I occasionally took a deep breath and started to rise at an alarming rate. By the end of the second dive, my control was improving, but it still wasn't that great. We also toured around at about 40 feet for a while, and saw a bunch of snails and a couple of fish, one of which was dead.

The water was about 14 C, which was warmer than when I did the open water dives. I was able to swim around for 49 minutes in a 7mm wet suit and didn't get cold though. Still, the next course I need to do is dry suit. I may do another dive on the blockhouse in Minnewanka before I do the dry suit course, although I've been cold that there is a sharp thermocline at about 60 feet. If I had access to a boat, I could dive on the town site too, which would be interesting.

Open Water Diver

nospam@example.com (Matt Hughes) — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 16:55:15 -0400

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!

MANTA RAYS

nospam@example.com (Matt Hughes) — Tue, 28 Mar 2006 01:54:19 -0500

I finished my last SCUBA lesson tonight. Now I just have to do the open water dives to be certified, which can be done anywhere. Some place warm would be nice. Tamara is already planning a trip to Hawaii apparently. The Big Island this time:

Subject: I'm so evil
From: Tamara Hughes
Date: 19:00

Big Island has the nicest dives.  So:

http://www.oceanecotours.com/dive.html
http://www.konacoastdivers.com/index.html
http://www.jacksdivinglocker.com/training/certupgrades.htm
http://www.wanna-dive-kona.com/take_your_classroom_and_pool_wor.htm

Tamara heard about people diving with the sea lions off of Race Rocks in Victoria. But apparently manta rays are scarier than sea lions...

Subject: HOLY SHIT
From: Tamara Hughes
Date: 19:01

This terrifies me more than the sea lions.

http://www.wanna-dive-kona.com/manta_rays.htm

So. Very. Scary.

Subject: well, I know what I'm having nightmares about tonight...
From: Tamara Hughes
Date: 19:05

MANTA RAYS.

Going to Hawaii again would be cool.... Anyway, the diving course was a lot of fun. Travis and I were the last out of the deep end today. Too bad I can't do the open water dives around here for at least a month, probably more like two or three. Besides, I want to get a bike before I start buying SCUBA gear.

Gravity and is cruel and unpredictable mistress

nospam@example.com (Matt Hughes) — Sun, 05 Mar 2006 11:57:18 -0500

The second time I went skiing to Sunshine, I took my camelback along so I could have some water without going to get my water bottle out of a locker. It worked pretty good, despite having no insulation on the tube, as long as I remembered to blow the water back into the reservoir. I decided that I was feeling confident enough that I could take my camera along and not seriously hurt myself or the camera, since I don't fall down as often or as hard anymore (pictures in the gallery).

So tempting gravity, as I was, I of course caught an edge and fell hard on my back. I didn't notice at the time, but the zipper on the water reservoir had popped open. I rode to the bottom of the run and leaned down to unstrap my bindings, and water poured out over my neck. Fortunately it didn't come inside my jacket, but I did get enough on my boots and pants that there were a few damp spots. The camera was also damp, but not soaked. The camera case seemed to have soaked up all the water, and the camera still works, fortunately.

When I was in Cuba last year, I tried out SCUBA diving at the resort, and then went on a trip to the Bay of Pigs. For Christmas this year my brother in law, who I dived with in Cuba, got a bunch of gift certificates to Adventures in SCUBA. We finally signed up for the PADI open water diver course, which started on last Monday. It is going pretty well, although the class is almost twice as large as normal. We got some pool time, where I found that I really need to work on my buoyancy control. Damn gravity. Four more weeks to go, then we'll have to find a time and place for the open water dives. Maybe when it warms up a bit.

The title is this post is courtesy of Jeremy Clarkson, in Top Gear's Winter Olympics special. It made me laugh.