well we had our last pool class a couple weeks ago. we were at an outdoor pool as our normal place was undergoing a drain and clean (i'm guessing) for 3 weeks. i tell you the wildlife in that pool was amazing! i can honestly say i don't want to know what most of it was! anyway, that was the night we had ot do inversions. turns out there was 1 more skill we hadn't covered - removing and replacing our gear at depth.
we each did the inversion 3 times. it really wasn't as bad as i thought it might be. it was a little scary going into the handstand mode. and to be honest i'm not sure if i did it 'exactly right' as the textbook would demonstrate, but what i did worked and the instructor - we had a sub - wasn't upset. i ended up feet down/head up anyway. and as matt says - if you go inverted at 100 feet, just ascend in taht position! LOL. really, no, you don't want to do that!
as for removing the gear, it was kind of a joke. i mean we got through it to know how and what we need to do, but david was stepping on my fin as well as holding me down all the while helping me with the gear becuase there's no way i could lift it on my own, and i just didn't want to stay 'grounded'. matt had the same troubles so i didn't feel so bad. i knew i'd be wanting to float but didn't realize matt would have as much troubles with that as he did.
after that we surfaced and discussed since you can't talk underwater, and since we were both exhausted we decided to call it a night.
this past weekend on saturday we met at 8 am at alki beach in west seattle. it's a nice little rocky beach spot with great views of downtown seattle. in the pool i was carrying an aluminium cylinder and 18 lbs of weight with the drysuit. moving to salt water i had 27 lbs and then we added 3 more. plus i had a steel cylinder. much heavier than the aluminium ones. i could barely get myself down to the water it was so heavy. i was practically bent at a 90 degree angle to keep balanced from falling over backwards! then i got cold. the water was about 55f, and that's about what it was on land, too.
our 1st dive that day we actually just snorkeled out to the bouy and did a mask clearing. ok, no big deal. our 2nd dive that day was an actual dive. we went down to about 20ft in depth for about 20 minutes. about 1/2 way through this dive i started to get really cold. i was shivering. we did regulator clearing and alternate air source as well as 2 of hte mask clearing drills. simon and gary(?) were great in helping me out of the water - matt was having difficulties with something himself... i was shivering so much that after matt had all the gear up top simon actually told him to go across to the coffee shop and get me a mocha. that really helped. turns out oart of hte reason i was so cold was becuase my right wrist seal wasn't sealing - and so water had leaked into the suit. my right arm was totally soaking wet! suck!
we decided to call it a day and meet back there again on sunday morning, which was fine with all of us. so back to the shop we go to refill cylinders, rinse gear etc.
while we were at the shop we picked up a pair of drygloves for the 2 of us. that totally helped my hands. they were almost blue i was so cold that morning!
sunday we meet up out there again. matt found a spot where we could sit down and load up our gear adn not have to walk as far. unfortunately we also wore a different undergarment layer - polar fleece. so, right off the batt - add more weight. i started out with 33 lbs that day. not counting the steel cylinder! and when i tried to sink it didn't happen, so add another 3#! geez! it's bad enough that i can't fasten my bc around my waist on my own when i'm wearing a drysuit - it's actually a large so while the height is fine, the around is bulkier, and i can't fasten the stupid thing. i feel like a little child being all dressed up by their parent. anyway, we did our 1st dive about the same 20 ft for 20 mins. we did our drills, and i had a much harder time staying down at the bottom than i had in the pool. and i hadn't even put much air if any into the drysuit at that point! anyway, we did mask clear #2 drill and i had a little trouble getting it to clear the 1st time, and gut response of the body i wanted to pop up to the surface. i fought my way out of it, calmed down (realized hey, i have air so breathe!) and managed to get it cleared.
[if i had to guess i'd say thecylinder i was using weighed somewhere around 30-35 bls.]
we do 1 air sharing ascent and as we descend for the next drill i just can't get my ears to clear. neither would behave, and the pressure was pain enough that i knew i couldn't sink further without issues. so back up to the surface i go and just float around while they finished. i was really frustrated, and i know simon and isaac realized that, but it happens. i could've not said anything and gone ahead down, but that's putting myself at risk of serious injury, so better to abort and try again later than to push it now. we had some surface time between dives. our next dive was about 29 ft for 20 mins. we went up and down 2 or 3 times with no ear problems, which i was happy about. the drygloves made a huge difference, and there was no leak in my suit to get me wet.
we had to do the air share drill agian (swapping positions) since i wasn't able to do the 2nd one earlier, then we had to do mask clear #3. OMG! i didnt' like this in the pool, and i knew i wouldn't like it in the open water, but you gotta do it. i get the mask off, manage to control my breathing, and get the mask on again and cleared with a little difficulty but no panic. before i started i did gesture that simon would have to hold me down so i wouldn't pop up. not sure if he actually understood or not, ad i'm not sure if he did actually have a hold on me, but we got through that drill. did the air share ok, then had to do the CESA. that's an emergency ascent where you prepare to drop weights if needed and try to surface in only 1 breath. got through that ok. and then we went and just swam around a little bit at the bottom and saw fishies. there were lots of flatfish - i had said sole, but probably flounder becuase these were way too small to eat, crab, some other fishies, lots of kelp and plankton, and a few starfish. oh we also saw some sort of pipefish.
overall i was really not happy with my dives on sunday. i had lots of problems. i never got both knees on the ground, and seemed to keep wanting to surface. but i can't add more weight! i mean, i was carrying over 50 lbs on my back as it was! simon weighs about twice me and he dives with 20 lbs he says. maybe it was 25, but still! he did have a thinner undergarment, but hey, they can't add that much bouyancy, can they? everytime i let go of matt's hand i kept wanting to pop up. it was really frustrating. and i felt so out of control which didn't help. there were times i was crying in my mask about how i didn't like this and i wanted to surface adn nothing was working. matt knew i was having some problems but until after we were done and talking about it he admitted he hadn't realized exactly what was going on or he would've tried to help. now he knows, so he said he'll try and watch and help if it happens again. i admit while we were swimming around it was really cool. but i need to figure out how to maneuver wtih the weight better, and how to eliminate some of hte weight! i think part of my fighting body positions was related to all teh weight on my back. i surfaced a little earlier than planned becuase that's what my body wanted to do. i thought i'd just go ahead, then descend again after resting a few minutes. but simon and matt surfaced with me. i was so upset at that point i was crying. luckily the mask hid everything. when simon asked what was wrong i just slapped the water and said i was being a child. i told him about the surfacign issue - he was like 'well let's think about it, as we were swimmign the direction we were headed, we were actually ascending very slowly. and when you ascend you need to reduce the air in your suit because you do become more bouyant. ok, i get that, but i had opened the valve on my suit all the way earlier and had so little air in it to start with, it amazes me how much i just want ot float. man, get me out into open water and tell me i have to hang out in the water for several hours no problem. i'm just a floater. never hated it before, but it's really not a desired thing in diving.
so next sunday we have a boat dive. it's the last thing we need for certification. but before we get on that boat we need to figure out something for weighting. there's no way i can do a giant stride entry with what i had on last sunday. on this entry you are supposed to look straight ahead, otherwise the body tends to 'fall' instead of 'step' into the water. besides you get back onto the boat with gear on, and i don't know how i'm going to climb the boat's ladder if i can't stand up on my own! i'm hoping that since drills, if any, will be minimal, that i'll be able to just swim around, more as a fun dive, and stuff like that, and get used to being in open water. also the water at alki is so murky. there's a lot of activity in that area, and the bottom's really sandy so every move down that low stirred up nothing but silt.
afterwards, later in the month we'll go up to edwards' underwater park and dive up there for fun, we hope.
while i totally didn't like this past weekend, i did get through it. everytime i was asked if i was ready to try again i said yes. i haven't given up.
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