PADI = Professional Association of Diving Instructors
SCUBA = Self-contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus
Flippers = beer fine (Flipper was a dolphin, divers use FINS)
Goggles = beer fine (divers use MASKS)
International OK sign underwater for “OK” = beer fine (divers use the much less cool “A-OK” sign to sign OK underwater)
Last weekend = theory. And loads of it. Haven’t studied this hard since uni! But we both passed with flying colours (one mistake on my exam, three on Lukas’ - out of 50 questions!). Last weekend also = confined water dives. Over 8 hours spent in a pool. SCUBA incredibly heavy on the surface, weighing next to nothing underwater. But 8kg of extra weight on my belt gave me a back ache. And ill-fitting fins gave me blisters on both heels. Also found out that my ankles float.
This weekend = open water. This is the stuff we’ve been waiting for! Altough scares me a little bit, I am looking forward to it.
It’s not as easy for me as I thought it would be - but I should’ve expected this, with my strong objection to diving down with a snorkel. I don’t like not being able to breathe. This showed up in the second confined water dive too. First exercise - fin pivot. Takes a while to demonstrate, as we were doing it twice: first using the low-pressure BCD inflator, then inflating the BCD orally. And I was the last one to actually do it. Which gave me plenty of time to ponder my situation, which was: 5m deep underwater, with a rubber thing in my mouth delivering my air (is it really delivering enough air? I think I’m not getting enough. No, I definately am not getting enough air. I need more air!!!!), with my mask slowly leaking water due to the vigorous air bubbles I was blowing because of the mounting panic that I wasn’t getting enough air (the size and number of the bubbles should have clued me in that I was in fact getting enough air), completely uncomfortable kneeling on the bottom, anxiousness building. But then something happened - I cleared my mask a couple of times, taking my time during each clearing and I saw the bubbles we were all blowing rising to the surface. Beautiful sight. Suddenly I was calmer, breathing slowly and deeply, my mask was still leaking but I could control it by pushing it slightly tighter to my face.
After that it was all good. And my favourite exercise was the complete removal and replacement of SCUBA on the bottom of the pool. Slow and gracious, taking the time to think about what needs to happen next. Bring on the open water!
OK, I have to share these two stories. Both should result in not just a beer fine, but a whole dozen fine for both the instructors.
First, Rob, demonstrating “out of air” and “share air” with one of the Dive Masters, Glen. Rob switches off Glen’s air at the tank. Glen breathes a few breaths then signals “out of air” to Rob (a nice throat-slashing gesture), then “share air”. Rob gives access to his octi, Glen pulls on it only to find it’s tangled in the manual release valve string of Rob’s BCD. By now he REALLY needs the air, so he puts it in his mouth anyway, while trying to untangle it. Rob tries to help him by taking the octi away and giving Glen back his regulator while he sorts it out. Glen spits out his regulator and pulls on the octi again, while Rob is trying to keep it away from him to untangle it. We’re all chuckling observing this “demonstration”, the only person who didn’t figure out what was happening was Rob. Obviously, Glen’s regulator is not delivering any air - he’s turned it off at the tank!
Secondly - Marcia, our second instructor. When the tanks are filled they get a piece of tape stuck across the valve to indentify the full ones and to prevent the o-ring from falling out. So when you put your scuba together, you need to remove the tape first, taking care not to remove the o-ring along with it. Marcia didn’t bother with the tape. She just pushed the first-stage into the tape and into the valve, ripping the tape so she could get air and didn’t notice the tape until we were done diving and dismantling our gear.
I also got a beer fine - for pushing my mask off my face and putting it on my forehead. You’re not supposed to do it because it’s really easy for any waves to push it off your head (not all masks float, so you could lose it) and it’s also a sign of a diver in distress because we do it automatically, without thinking. A diver should keep their mask on and regulator in at all times. If you want to remove your mask, push it down onto your neck, where it can’t just float away.
Did you know that you should ascend at a rate no faster than 18m/minute? Which translates into about 20s/5 metres. It’s VERY slow.