Scuba Diving

[lostcarpark]

Last week the fabulous madangie gave me a voucher for a scuba-diving lesson. It was a wonderful, imaginative and thoughtful present.

So today I turned up for the lesson. It was a beautiful day for it, though that didn't really matter since the pool was indoors. It was in an adventure centre in Bettystown, about fifteen minutes from our house.

After picking out the gear, I was sat down in a classroom to go through the basics. This involved the instructor, Mark, going through the pages of a flip chart. It was fairly easy to follow and took just a few minutes. I was the only person taking the introductory lesson, though there were a couple of experienced divers doing their own thing in the pool.

Next we went to the pool and got changed into togs and kitted up. The first hurdle was getting into the wet suit. I've worn wet suits for canoeing before, but I don't remember them being quite so hard to get into. Must have been skinnier then. Mark reassuringly informed me that I was wearing the largest suit he had, and he'd got people twice my size into it.

Once in the wetsuit, I was given a belt loaded down with weights. Out of the water they seemed to weigh a ton. Next we sat on the edge (the tank and regulators and stuff were already floating in the pool). I put on flippers and goggles (the goggles were a bit scary because once you have them on you can't breathe through your nose) and slid off the edge and let the weight pull me into the pool.

Now, I think it's worth saying a little bit about the pool. It was a bit different from a swimming pool. The shallow end had a depth of 1.5m, and the deep end was 3m. But instead of sloping down like a normal pool, both halves had level floors, with a ledge between them. Also instead of being tiled, the walls and floor were bare concrete, painted blue (and presumably coated with some sort of waterproofing).

So, standing in the shallow end, I was helped into a sort of jacket with had all the diving gear attached. Mark the instructor helped me to put it on, and then showed me how some of the bits worked. On the left side, there's a valve which controls the air in the jacket. By inflating this, you can balance the weights to keep you at that depth. On the right is the regulator (actually there are two, a black one for normal use and a yellow one for emergencies, but during this lesson we were only concerned with the black one). He showed me how to get it without looking (lean right, trace your hand along your side to the bottom of the tank, the sweep it around and pick up the hose with your other hand). Then I put the regulator in my mouth and blew hard to clear any water that was left in it.

And here is where a slight problem occurred. At first I found breathing from the mouthpiece very uncomfortable, and every time I tried it I couldn't stop coughing. Fortunately, I persevered, and after a few minutes the problem seemed to disappear and I was able to breathe normally. I think I genuinely scared Mark, though.

Once I was comfortable with the regulator, he got me to put my face down in the pool. It was my first experience of the diving mask underwater, and it was fantastic because everything looked so clear. The patterns the sunlight through the windows made on the bottom of the pool were gorgeous.

Once he was happy that I was comfortable with the regualtor, we dived down to the bottom of the shallow end. I practiced swimming with the flippers, and we played a game where he threw a weighted "torped" and I had to fetch it. We then did some exercises like taking the regulator out of my mouth and putting it back, and clearing any water that leaked into my goggles by exhaling through my nose while holding the top of the goggles so the air pressure forced the water out.

After that we progressed on to the deep end. This is where I had my first experience of equalising pressure. At 1.5m pressure isn't a problem, but as you descent you have to hold your nose and blow to keep the pressure in your ear channel equal, otherwise things can get very uncomfortable and cause damage to the ear drums. It was a little uncomfortable at that depth, but it felt a lot more like real diving than the shallow end. We swam around some more, and tossed the torpedo around and then returned to the shallow end.

Then we practiced some other situations. If the regulator comes out of your mouth, you have to put it back, then blow hard to force any water out before resuming breathing. But while the regulator is out, you have to slowly exhale because holding your breath could lead to damage if your depth and the pressure changed. So by the time you get it back, there mightn't be enough breasth left to blow hard. In that case, you have to use your cheek muscles to push any water out of your mouth, then manually press the release valve ont he regulator to fill your mouth with air before breathing in. This sounded somewhat scary, but was actually much easier than it sounds.

Mark also showed me what to do if you drop the regulator underwater. It can be a little unnerving taking out our only source of air and throwing it away. You then have to lean right and swing your arm back and around and pick up the tube with your other hand. Finally you clear the regulator and start breathing again.

I then practiced taking my mask off completely, then putting it back on underwater and clearing it by breathing out through my nose while holding the top of the mask and tilting my head back. It took a couple of tries to get it right, but I managed to keep calm and keep trying until the mask had no water in. It can be quite hard to remember to breathe out of the nose rather than the mouth (most of the time you breathe out through the mouth, except when you need to clear the mask).

The final thing was breathing without the mask, which is an improtant skill in case you lose it underwater (I've seen Finding Nemo, but I suspect not all fish can read). It can be a little uncomfortable as your nose fills with water. At first I tried it on the surface, putting my head below the water without goggles. The main thing to remember is to close your eyes when you breathe out or all the air bubbles will go in them. Then we tried it at the bottom of the shallow end, followed by putting the goggles back on and clearing them.

The lesson over, I took off the gear. Once the weight belt came off I felt like an astronaut on the moon. However, I quickly learned that my temporary release from gravity didn't extend to dry land, and my attempts to bounce out of the pool ended in a rather undignified scramble onto the slippery poolside, while Mark took the more elegant route of walking up the steps.

The whole thing lasted about two hours, and was a very enjoyable experience. The lesson doesn't really count towards anything, but I have a much better enderstanding of what's involved, and I can really see how people get hooked on it. Apparently to become qualified, I'd need to take a few pool lessons, followed by some shore dives before graduating to open waters. There are two variations, the shorter one qualifies you to dive to 12m under the guidance of a qualified instructor, while the higher one lets you dive to 18m as long as you've someone of the same level with you. I'm very tempted to give one a try.

If anyone has an interest or even a curiosity about diving, the introductory lesson is a very worthwile way of checking it out without investing a lot of time or money.

Will I take it further? Watch this space!

Comments

[red-cloud.livejournal.com]

I learned to scuba dive while on honeymoon in St Lucia. The experience was very much as you describe, part scary, part exhilirating (which applies equally to the diving and the honeymoon), with the extra bonus of daily 10m dives onto spectacular coral reefs being the nearest I'll ever get to exploring an alien planet. My brother-in-law is an experienced diver and wants me for a dive buddy. I definitely want to do it again, but plunging into a freezing muddy hole in Britain holds little appeal for me.