The Dolphins, the Shark, and the Evil Sea Monkeys : Part I
Posted By Todd Storey on 10 October 2006
DAY TWO
We started out in the diving well doing negative pressure dives. Fun stuff, feeling your diaphragm trying to push your lungs out of your mouth. Kirk told us that the last one would simulate a dive to over 200'/61m. I believe him. With totally empty (and then some) lungs, I couldn't equalize at the bottom. Just another thing for me to work on.
Back at the lap pool, my buddy got to finish his static apnea exercise started the day before. He hit 4:20, surfacing to a watching crowd. I was bound and determined to beat my own personal best of 3:45, so on my last hold I somehow pulled myself through it and did a new PB of 4:15. When I came up there were only a few students left holding, and Kirk was crouched right in front of me, watching me as he called the time. As I was doing my recovery breaths, he reached down, brushed my hand with his finger, and gave me a big thumbs up. I could practically feel myself glowing with pride and happiness. The classmate next to me came up around 10 seconds later, and they captured his spectacular samba on film...while the rest of us kind of stood watching, ooh-ing and aah-ing. "Look, loss of motor control, actually happening! Oooh, ahhhh...."
Das Boot
Rain lashed at us from the starboard side of the boat during the forty-minute ride out to the deep blue water of the Gulf Stream, seven miles offshore. The Captain piloted us out through the water and I stood on the bow in my wetsuit, holding tight to the railing and bending my knees as the boat dipped and rised on the waves like a giant surfboard. As each spray of salt water crashed over me, I turned my head away, grinning and almost laughing out loud as I shook the water out of my hair and turned back for the next blast. A misplaced Ohioan, I was now a creature of the sea, about to return home. By the time we got to the site the rain had stopped, but the ocean was rolling with 4'/1.5m swells. Most of my classmates were experienced spearos with plenty of experience in this kind of environment. I was used to the calm, quiet waters of Ohio quarries. This was going to be an experience.
Tuning Up
Mandy was the instructor on my line that day, and the bottom plate was set at a depth of 66'/20m. We began with free immersions, in which we were to pull down the line, hang out at around 15'/5m until our first contraction, then pull back up. In my excitement, I swam down, hung out, then swam back up. When I hit the surface, Mandy reminded me: "Remember, we're pulling down and back up for these. That was a good hold, though!" After getting used to bobbing up and down in the hills of water, I managed to calm down enough to get in a few decent dives to 30'/10m or so. My left ear was a bit sticky and it was slamming on the brakes every time I tried to get a bit deeper. "Relax, don't be upset" I told myself, "It'll be better tomorrow.". I tried to focus on technique, trying to remember each new thing as it was taught to me, and trying to implement it in each dive. However, by this point, it was pretty much like trying to ride a bicycle with a bull while teaching a duck on the handlebars to yodel while he balanced a ball on his nose. In other words, choreography. Only, this choreography was upside down. And underwater.
We finished up with a few rescue scenarios, in which I rescued Mandy. Incorrectly. At least she was out of the water. Hey, what can I say? It was all very overwhelming!
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