3/6/2010 cycling

today was a great day for a bike ride. 60 and sun. hardly a cloud in the sky.

now that we're home my allergies are driving me crazy - all that pollen floating around and being out in it for 3.5 hours this afternoon.

we drove down to tukwila where we pick up the start of the green river trail and rode down to pick up the interurban trail to auburn, eat, and return.

at least that was the plan. we did see a couple huge hawks, as well as some eagles both in teh car both directions and from the bike. but there was something else we saw today on the trail. and there were a lot of them.

like over a million! - ok, definitely in the upper thousands anyway.

 

  

yup, that's right SANDBAGS! on *both* sides of the green river. they start at the 405 bridge and continue south of auburn. there were a few signs of 'trail closed' but nothing that said why. just before we actually got on the trail where i took these pics we ran into some bikers who had come north.

we asked them if they knew how far south these went, and they said you could ride carefully a bit, then you have to get off and go through an office park (big deal, we had to do that to get to this point) and then you end up on a road.  ok, we're game. let's give it a go.

as it turns out we got the next bridge where we can cross, which we know we want at some point. we've gotten off the bike to cross the bridge and again a couple bikes come north so we asked them, too. she was surprised we didn't know anything about them. turns out there's a dam on teh green river about 20 or so miles upstream, and last fall they noticed some small (?) leaks. prudent minds thinking ahead said to the county 'we should put up sandbags JIC the dam breaks if we have heavy rains this winter.' and that's just what they did. tukwila, kent, auburn, and 1 other got together and filled oodles of bags and lined the river, which means took up the bike path. i guess it's entirely possible these could be here all season until the low point of hte water when they might be able to repair/do whatever with the dam.

anyway, we squeeze through a small opening in the bags and cross the bridge, meet a guy on the other side who says it might be easier to ride on the side we just came from, but it is passable on 'this' side for a bit. so why not, we kept going.

just before the break for the golf course the sandbags actually cut across the trail and we had to stop. it was either that, crash into the sandbag wall or fall over the levee into the green river. with not too many choices that were actually viable, matt hoisted the bike up on top of the bags and climbed over. once he had the bike off the wall i climbed up and over myself. (wish i had thought to get a pic of that!) it wasn't too bad the wall was only about 4ft tall and 3ft wide.

so it was city streets into kent and then we headed east to pick up the interurban trail a little sooner than we had planned. turns out it was only about 1/2 mile away. maybe a mile. really it wasn't too far by that time.

so it was the IUT the rest of the way, unimpeded, to the diner in auburn where we loaded up on carbs.

it was an easy choice to decide and stay on the IUT all the way back to just north of 405. then we picked up the green river trail again and made it back to the car.

it was a great ride.

2/7/10

today was the first bike ride of the season for us. we met some friends at marymoore park and rode around lake sammamish. i'm guessing it took us about 90 minutes. that's a little off our normal time, but not by much. however, if you consider matt hasn't been on a bike since start of november, and i've only been on a stationary at the gym, we are feeling pretty darn good about the ride.

we chose to go clockwise from marymoore which is opposite how we usually go. by doing this we have a pretty significant hill on the south end of the lake. in the past, no matter how much we've biked it's just worn us out. but today i was really pleased. yes it was tough, but absolutely nothing like it's been in the past.

cold and upper 40s, almost all clouds i thought we were going to be racing the rain, but it held off, thank you very much! saw several hawks, a couple eagles.

6/20/09 Tour De Blast

wow. i can now say "Been there, done that"!

This entry i plan on incorporating some of the info we obtained from the Rotary Club (our hosts) as well as our own experiences and photos i managed to take. one of the items we received was a 'newspaper' for the ride. i wish they had mailed these to us, even if we had to pick up the remainder of the rider packets at the start line. looking through this on sunday morning, the day *after* the ride, i'm thinking "why couldn't they have given us this info a week earlier?" oh well. it'll make for a few laughs as i regale you with stories from our ride. :-)

2009 Tour De Blast saw 1600 registered riders (there were a few day of ride sign-ups).
only 2500 riders allowed per forest service permits.
yesterday's ride saw cyclists from as far away as MA, Virgin Islands and Bulgaria.
the youngest solo rider was olivia, age 12.

if/when anyone comes up to me and tells me they're thinking of doing this ride my 1st piece of advice is to overdress. i don't care what the weather forecast calls for, what the temperature is supposed to be, overdress! we have a complete head-to-toe outfit from assos (www.assos.com) that's rated 'cold weather rider' meaning it'll keep us warm and dry down to temps in the 30s. with the exception of the 1st 15 miles i so wanted it!

forecast was for 66 in toutle, our start/finish line. what i didn't take into consideration was that at 6am it was only mid 50s! plus, for every 1000 feet of elevation you drop 4 degrees on average.
even if you're working on the way up and don't need as much to keep yourself warm, there are significant downhills on 'the way up' not to mention 1/2 of the ride is the descent! we reached speeds up to 30mph on the downhills, and people were passing us! the windchill we created, not to mention the fact that there was a decent wind blowing. we were starting to feel like a sail being caught so we didn't open it up as much as we might've otherwise.

i had packed warm and mid-weight for us. this is what we had:
matt - shorts, wool socks, jersey, the paper warm-up jacket from the STP2009, a gore jacket, and a hood thing (think wetsuit hood or ski hood) - it covers the neck all the way to the top of your head with a cutout for the face, and his mid-weight gloves - waterproof, full-finger gloves.
libby - shorts, socks, shoe covers, rain pants, jersey, gore jacket, light weight gloves (fingerless) and mid-weight gloves, my STP2009 warm-up jacket, and ear warmer headband thing. i left the
stp jacket in the car because the gore jacket usually does the job. and as it appeared we were going to miss the rain i left the shoe covers in the car. BIG! HUGE! mistake! my feet were ice cubes, i had both pairs of gloves on my hands, and matt gave me his STP jacket 1/2 way up the mountain. i was still cold.

we saw bits of fog, sun, wind, rain, and sleet - and snow, although this was in packs along the road. there was a moment when we both, unknown to each other, considered bringing up the idea of just turning around!

the newspaper has a nice article on this: Good gear paves the way for a great ride. by M Bartlett MD.

Anyone who has ridden the Tour De Blast knows the weather variations we experience. what the elevation changes and locale, we have ridden through sun, fog, sleet, rain, snow and slush. The ride starts at about 500 feet and winds up at 4200 feet. however, if you complete the entire ride, you will have covered an elevation change of over 8,000 vertical feet. june temperature, of course, vary with the conditions, but they usually range between the low 40s and 60-70s in the sunshine. The 1st bit of advice is to prepare ahead for the weather...check the forecast the morning of. Secondly, determine the type of rider you are. clothing choices and accessories may be different if you're a casual social rider who does not intend to ride the entire Tour. on the other hand, for the "roadie" who wants to set the Tour Record, your gear will be light and scant. ... For the new riders, a rule of thumb for cycling states, "don't overheat yourself." you want to be a little cold just before the ride starts. if comfortably warm at the start, you'll roast on the ride. another rule involves the concept of 'layered clothing'...layering allows you to add or subtract layers before you get to cold/hot. ... inner layer, closest to skin For this layer you want wicking material which takes the moisture off of your skin and transfers it to the middle layer. avoid cotton. for cold, wet rides consider a long-sleeved version with a turtle-neck/zipper. ... outer layer This is a critical layer because there are multiple functions involved. you need material that is windproof, breathable, lightweight and rainproof. ... head We can lose large amounts of heat through our head. for extra warmth add one of these under your helmet: cycling cap, ear bands, earmuffs or a lylra headband. you can even get gortex helmet covers that fit right over your helmet. ... hands All cyclists should wear biking gloves. they save your hands in a fall, offer a quick clean of your tires if you ride through glass and provide critical warmth when needed. for cold weather use silk glove liners under full-fingered gloves. pack some 'hot short' finger warmers for the descent or extreme windy rides. be careful to allow for good grip on the handlebars. descents can make fingers extremely cold, decreasing response time.

looking back on my clothing choices to pack i'd still take what i did, but here's what i would take in addition.
matt- heavy-weight gloves, 'warm hat', shoe covers, long pants - if he didn't want the assos legs i'd pack his heaviest weight cycling pants. he could unzip the ankles and roll them up to knee-length if he wanted to be a little cooler. a long-sleeve base layer and his assos jacket.
me- heavy-weight gloves, 'warm hat', shoe covers, my assos pants. long pants with the rain pants over top would not have kept me warm enough, and the assos doesn't keep me warm if it's really windy, so assos and rain pants for me it is. my long-sleeve base layer instead of the gore jacket and my assos jacket - if i get too warm i could take it off or just unzip. i'd wear the shoe covers even if it wasn't raining next time - my feet got really cold long before they got wet.

the newspaper also has a mile-by-mile guide to the TDB. if it's written as i hope it is i'll inject our thoughts, experience and pics as we go.

here's the route we rode. be sure to click the 'view elevation' button near the top right corner! it'll show the grades of the road we had to climb.



mile 0:
Toutle Lake High School. registration, showers, pasta (after), and parking.
turn east onto state route 504 and start your climb. we left the school at 6:45am, not long after keith colburn (deadliest catch captain of the wizard) had taken off. we saw him standing in line for his rider number.

mile 3ish:
TDB photographer
ah. this is easy! what's the big deal?? LOL ok pic. great of matt, you can just see a portion of my face, but great shot of my waving hand! LOL. they just don't know how to take pics of tandems! rule 1: be on the opposing side of the road so you get less 'head on' view! oh well. i've learned to wave when matt says 'photographer'!

mile 5:
edge of the blast zone and the toutle river runs alongside the road. so peaceful! the river had rapids and was running pretty fast and furious.

 mile 10:





during the blast.
you begin to feel the pull of gravity on your legs now as the road turns upward toward your destination. you are on a new hwy as SR504 were destroyed. i think this is probably where we pulled over and i rolled up my rain pants to the knees and matt took off his gore jacket for the stp jacket. we were feeling pretty warm already and figured we overdressed.




mile 11:
view the Corps of Engineers' earthern dam across the north fork of the toutle river. it's 1800' x 165' tall in 1989 to slow the river and allow the sediment from the mountain snow melts to drop out of suspension behind the dam.

mile 15:

(actually mp16) hoffstadt bluffs visitor center. the rides' 1st pit stop. plenty of food, water and energy beverages. have to admit as far as the organized rides we've been on go, this had the best food. 4 different types of brownies, bananas, oranges, 3 types of sandwiches, and a few other goodies! we were feeling pretty good at this point. it was about 8am when we arrived.

mile 19:

hoffstadt creek bridge you will enter the blast zone. the bridge is spectacular in its own right as it rises 370' above the valley floor and extends for more than 3000 lineal feet. it gets very breezy here so consider adding another layer of clothing to ward off the chill and use caution as teh gusts can get exciting. we felt the wind but were lucky to avoid the awful gusts. quite a view of the valley however!


 

mile 20:
now you're really feeling the burn in your legs. soon you will have risen 1500' since the start of the ride. your next goal should be to make it to elk rock viewpoint at mp27.

the fog looms..

mile 27:

here you can again get off your bike and enjoy a respite and fuel up. the vistas are incredible again here as they crater is now only 10 miles away. be cautious not to cool down too much as the next phase is perhaps the most challenging and the temperature has been known to drop 20 or more degrees between elk rock and johnston ridge.
we hit fog long before here. at least it seemed like forever. it had to be at least 30 minutes on the clock and probably only about 3 miles LOL! this was a pretty grueling part of the ride. a very long uphill you just had to keep the pedals going. it had gotten really cold with the fog. we weren't too cold because we were working so hard, but once we stopped you could really feel it! i rolled down my pants to the ankles and fastened them up. after we got our food (same as the last stop) we wandered over to a tent one of the volunteers had set up. it covered a fire pit that had a nice hot roaring fire surrounded by chairs. people, including us, took off shoes and had our feet up as close as we dared. matt took out and put on his blue gore jacket and gave me his STP jacket. i put on my mid-weight gloves *over* my summer gloves.
while we were here it started to drizzle. i'm standing in line for the portaloo and thinking to myself 'this is going to be cold. i'm freezing. i will be miserable. maybe we should turn around. well, it's not really raining yet. maybe we start out and if it starts to come down we can turn around then.
it was about 10 when we reached this point. 6:45-10am = 3hrs, 15 mins to go 27miles. there was a sign posted that read "the 1st rider arrived at 8:23am"! man that rider was really moving!

 

mile 30:
you are now entering the 'heartbreak zone'. yes, the grade is mostly downhill for a six mile reach, but you know in your mind the going down into coldwater lake at the valley floor simply means you have to gut it out on the return.

the fog was still with us, precipitation was more than just that moisture stuff you get with fog. it even sleeted for a few minutes. i learned later that it was here matt was thinking about turning around. but we had already given up almost all that elevation and if we turned around it meant we had to start climbing again! so we forged ahead, we hit our top speed of the day during this downhill; 37mph.

mile 32:

you encounter the coldwater ridge visitor center at 3,200'. coast down the hill to coldwater lake and enjoy the leg rest along the way. the hwy changes direction often so check brake action and watch the speed. having enjoyed the rest in th coast to the valley floor you need to reengage the muscles and tough out the steep 1800' climb to your destination at the johnston ridge visitor center and the eastern terminus of SR 504.
it was during our climb out of this valley we saw keith making his descent.





















mile 42:

you made it! you can take a much deserved rest and refueling from the team of friendly rotarians present. on a clear day, my words will be woefully inadequate to describe the close-up of the mountain and its crater. in your fatigue and exhilaration to have conquered the mountain, you will be struggling for words and emotional control. throw a snowball at a friend and start back down...often the grade is 6% down, the steepest slope allowed by the washington state department of highways.
i tell you, this last 6 miles were a lot like the climb into volterra - a cat1 hill, only worse since we had been climbing for the past (almost) 36 miles! there were a couple times i really didn't think i was going to be able to keep 'putting 1 foot in front of the other'. matt was great at encouraging, and a lot of riders who passed us at this point did give encouraging or at least friendly conversation, even if it was just 'good morning'. in the last couple hundred feet we saw packs of snow still collecting dirt and grime alongside the road. we arrived about 12.10. matt had predicted noon. we had said before we started if we weren't there by 2pm, that no matter where we were on the route we were turning around. it was actually warmer here than at the 2nd food stop. the fog had lifted and there was no precipitation coming from the sky. but it was very cloudy and windy. there was no mountain to view! oh well.

mile 50ish:

we're cruising back and the wind really started blowing from the side. on a tandem we're a much larger profile and we get hit like a sail taking a full gust, so we had to slow our descent. we still were able to maintain close to 30mph on the downhills. we planned and were able to do the descent in 1, not stopping except for photo ops on the way.

mile 70ish:
the rain started. thankfully these last miles were mostly flat or had very little climbing so we could open up and just pedal, pedal, pedal to the finish. the thought of the pasta i think really loomed like that carrot. on the way during the rainy bits we ended up attracting a line. the guy immediately on our wheel announced his presence which was nice, and shortly after that he told us there were 3-5 people in line behind him.


mile 83 finish line:

once again you return to Toutle High School. thoroughly spent, power up with as much pasta buffet and ice cream as you want. rehydrate and kick back with rotarians and discuss the ride. your entry fee and the revenue from sponsors allow the longview rotary club to fund many worthwhile charitable endeavors, from fresh water systems in africa and latin america to scholarships for promising students often unable to fund their own post-high school education.
matt enjoyed the ride so much he wanted to add some miles, as he totally overshot the driveway into the school where we were parked! OOPS! LOL.












according to our garmin we spent:

8:40 total time for the ride
7:03 actual bike time for the ride
6:12 average pace
9.6mph average speed
83.23 miles total distance
6700 calories burned

2/14/09 scuba

matt and spent valentine's day in a more un-normal way. he signed us up for a boat dive day through the scuba shop. so we were up at 6am adn headed south to tacoma and bandito charters for the day. there were 3 couples and then 2 friends, 2 crew and 1 dive leader. it was an interesting day. it started out a little cloudy and cold. our 1st dive was a little sun but we were in teh shade, our 2nd dive was actually sunny, and then it started to rain as we were workign our way through the marina to the dock on the return. we went out to point defiance, a dive spot known as 'the north wall'. we jumped (giant stride) out onto a shelf about 15' down, then you go over a cliff and down a wall to another shelf about 30' down, then you go over a cliff... get the idea? you can go abot 80' deep here, deeper if you have good lights. but they say the best stuff is around 50-60'. matt and i (and mattW the dive leader) were the last off hte boat. i was really nervous. i was more nervous thani was on the 1st boat dive! i know a good part of it was the simple fact that we hadn't been on any dive since the start of october, and probably a ittle bit of the thoughts of Art were in the back of my mind, too.

well, i get into the water just fine and i feel ok. some of the nerves were gone instantly. the 3 of us started to descend and i felt ok. the ears were clearing no problem. then i get to about 20' or so and i have this shooting pain in my right ear. like someone took an icepick and stabbed through my ear into my skull. talk about the pain! i just shot up to the surface. it wasn't like a little pressure, wait it out and then keep going. i get to the top and let matt and mattW know what happened, gave it a few minutes then tried again. i tried to go down slowly, but to be honest i have no idea what my pace was. we got to the shelf ok. saw a few decorator crabs, lots of starfish and anemone type stuffs. i guess the visibility or 'vis' was 15-20'. there was a bit of sediment being kicked up by us too. we make it to the edge of the shelf and start to go over the edge of the wall and i get the pain in the ear again. so up we go. turns out the 1st couple in the water had managed to go through their air by now, and one of the others had a wave of nausea so up they came. her partner and matt went down as a team and i got back on board. so it was short and sweet for me. but the nerves were erase. so that was good.

we went about antoehr 45 mins or so south to a place called Zee's Reef. this was a shelf about 30' down and then antoehr wall you could go down some more. we droped the anchor line and mat was paired up with jeremy while mattW went down the anchor line with me. that allowed me to go down at a steady pace and stay at whatever depth i was at if i had ear issues. well i got to the shelf with no problems. we started looking around. a few fish, lots of huge white starfish - i can't find a picture of them! - there was one i swear had to have been 5' across! and lots of crabs - hermit and decorator. we're moving along, or i should say mattW's moving along, i'm kind of bobbing up and down off the ocean floor. i just couldn't get up into a swimming position of any kind. i had put quite a bit of air into my drysuit - for the 1st time i really experienced how wam they can get! and i was starting to put air into my BC, which they say you shouldn't use for bouyancy. i'm trying to be a goo sport and enjy myself. it was cool looking at stuff. i guess the vis was about 20' and we had filtered sunlight as well since the sun was out! then we get to the edge of the shelf and i look over the wall. i just had 1 thought: "F*** this. if i go over this shelf i'm going to plummet to the bottom." so i just shook my head and signaled i wanted to go up. without having a slate to write down why mattW just followed and made sure i didn't go up too fast. we weren't too deep so we didn't really have to do a safety stop. when we surface i let him know i was having a very hard time staying up off the floor and i wanted to drop a couple pounds of shot. he pulls out a 4lb weight and we start again. this time we we're descending and my left ear is not clearing. we stopped and hung out a bit then went a little further and hung out a bit but my left ear just wouldn't clear. i was really pissed. i don't know how long we waited at 1 point but i looked at my guage and i had used 600psi and i'd only been 'diving' for about 10-15 mins. the rest was up and down bits. i admit i gave up at this point and just surfaced. screw it. at that point i wasn't having much fun i was so frustrated with myself.

over all we saw 3 eagles - 1 was even carrying a fish in its talons. 4 or 5 harbor seals, cormorants, muirs, a white swan, and some other bird - maybe an auk (aulk? sp??)

so it was a mixed bag for diving - i learne i hadn't forgotten as much as i thought i had, i also learned i can drop a few pounds of weight and still get under the water. we got everything offloaded from the boat and were in the truck on the way home at 2.30. got home a little after 3 i think.

matt ran me a very nice and hot, bubble bath. then he brought in champagne and sat on the floor and we talked and drank the champagne. afterwards we got a pizza and by 7.30 we're both totally crashed out on the couch. matt's snoring, i'm drifting, so we go up to bed and slept for 13 hours!


hermit crab


harbor seal


double crested cormorant


bald eagle

10/31/08 scuba

so we are officially certified. we went into the shop on thurs about the 17th and finished filling out papers et al. we can now legaly rent air. yay! while we were at the shop we saw art who was picking up gear for his weekend dive. it was kind of sad he wasn't able to join us on our boat dives, but he had this trip planned for a while. he was going to palau in november and after i was all healed from surgery and ready to go in he was going to join us on a few dives up in edmonds. some of you may have picked up my switch in tense to past. yes, it was a sad weekend. we found out monday night after rehearsal. art had died on his diving trip on saturday afternoon.

here's a copy of an email after matt spoke with another trombone person who also dives.
- - -

seems matt and i are of the few who actually knew art was wreck diving off nanaimo last weekend. the 3 of us saw each other at the dive shop last thurs while we were doing paperwork he was picking up gear. we had hoped he'd be able to go on the boat dive with us last sunday, but he had already committed to the bc trip. art was not a novice diver - he knew what he was doing, and the shop is really good about preaching 'check your gear', 'safety' and all the things that can cause you major problems if you don't do something even 1 time. they were diving a wreck that sits about 100ft below the surface. although we do not know how deep art was when he started his ascent. was he at 100ft or shallower? we'll have to wait for the computer in to his gear to find out. dave, who matt spoke with today, was on the dive with art. dave had already surfaced (not sure if he was already on the boat or not) when art surfaced and gave the signal 'hey, come get me now i'm in trouble!' to the boat.
on his way to the surface they know he missed his safety stop. - when diving below 20ft you ascend no faster than 30ft/minute to prevent decompression sickness. you *also* stop at 15ft depth for no less than 3 mins. we do not know how fast he surfaced - a 'rapid ascent' or a 'safe ascent', only that he knew he was in enough trouble he had to risk missing the 3min safety stop. actually a safe ascent implies the safety stop. but did he just ditch hs weights and surface (CESA) or did he just propell himself upwards with no safety stop? as the boat was headed over to get him they yelled to him to get his regulator into his mouth (air source) which he did. by the time the boat reached him and they pulled him aboard he was unconscious. but the regulator was in his mouth and there was no water that they could detect in his lungs. they started cpr but he never revived consciousness, and was pronounced dead at the hospital. we can probably rule out:1. ran out of air. 1-he would be with a buddy and could've done a safe ascent with buddy and 2-he would've been keeping an eye on his air reserves and knows when to start surfacing based on the readings.2. an equipment malfunction. 1-he would've been with a buddy...same answer as above3. a total 'rookie move' or lack of judgment on something he tried to do while diving. those who knew art know while he had a wonderful passion for adventurem he loved life and wouldn't risk his life on a stupid decision if there was a safe way of doing it. what makes sense - but of course we have to wait for autopsy to confirm:he didn't die immediately, and his airways were clear.
he needed to surface and get attention immediately. so up he goes, skipping his safety stop. any serious issues he may have received or caused to his self due to the ascent would be secondary to the main COD which is what made him surface in the 1st place.he probably had a heart attack, or some other physical 'badness' that freaked him out enough (ok who wouldn't be freaked out by a heart attack, especially 100ft down in the ocean?). or he could've suffered from a brain anurism which burst - he'd have had a momentary bit of confusion or some weirdness as the brain bled and put pressure between the brain and skull which could've been what got him to surface, and would also cause his comatose state before death.

either way, it hit hard. maybe in part because we had just seen him. maybe in part becuase we had plans in the near future. maybe in part becuase no one expected this to happen.

when i stopped by the shop the following friday to return the wrist seals isaac was there. he said he wanted to tell me but he couldn't. partly becuase store policy - you don't want to advertise that one of your clients died with your gear. i can understand that. i know he knew on monday when i had stopped into the store and returned the tanks and dipped the gear. maybe he knew on sunday before we even went out. maybe that's why he tried so hard to keep me from surfacing during our 1st dive.

so let's get onto happier topics. our boat dive.
we had to be in tacoma by 8.30am adn hve all our gear ready to load aboard. so that wasn't really so bad. it turned out to be a pretty nice day! we get there and find that dave, who was on our edmonds dive trip was with us adn isaac, and that 2 others had joined the group for the day. they have a lot more experience with diving but said htey'd tag along with us as they were unfamiliar with these waters. isaac had requested calm waters, so we learned after that meant a tradeoff for seeing life. meaning mostly likely no octopus or wolf eels. oh well. as it turns out it was a good call as i was still having a few bouyancy issues.

we travel north of tacoma about an hour to KVI Towers (or something like that) for our 1st dive. the dive master was great. she and the captain helped everyone on with their rigs and weights, helped us onto the boat's dive platform, and after the dives we'd line up 1 by 1 stick up our feet and she'd grab adn remove our fins. we thought we might have to have me remove my rig in the waer and hand it up since i had yet to climb a ladder in full weight. and n one would've been surprised seeing as i had so much trouble just walking with the stuff on teh beaches!

anyway, i need to back up.
we get to the dive site and take our turns doing the 'giant stride' entrance. i get in fine - jaquie (dive master) and captain george (i think) were informed this was matt and my 1st boat dive ever. the plan was to sink to about 60ft and swim around. i started down just fine. slowly at first it seemed like the surface wouldn't leave my sight. when i looked down i couldn't see anything. the water was pretty durn murky and it was kinda hard to see the others even! then all of a sudden there's the ocean floor. no problem with the ears or anything. when we looked at our computer we were at 60ft! wow that went fast! we swam around a little bit. saw a big orangy-red sea cucumber, lots of anemones, small fishies. no ling cod here though. crabs, flatfish, and lots of animals i couldn't begin to name. starfish, sea stars... you get the idea. anyway, we're swimming around, and i'm real happy - i'm actually 'floating' in teh water - almost able to 'hang' suspended at any point water - teh total idea behind neutral bouyancy! yay! isaac and matt saw so i know i wasn't imagining things. i look at my guage and i'm down to about 1/2 my air - already! man it went fast! i was really sucking it down. i knewi was breathing pretty quickly, and was trying to slow it down, but i wasn't having much luck with that at the time. anyway, i get isaac's attention and let him know my air, and we swim a little bit more, and then i start to feel it. i work (and i mean it was work) my way over and down to matt and try to signal that i'm about to float. a few more breaths of air and i start to float up. isaac's managed to come over and is trying to find otu what's happening - which didn't take long becuase for some reason matt and i dropped hands and up i start... isaac grabbed at my fin and held it a little, but there was no way around it. i was now 'bob'. up i went. the last depth i checked on my computer said 40 something feet. isaac said he was abut 30 something when he dropped my fin so he thinks i was in the low 30ft depth. so not great to surface from there with no safety stop. and i didn't think i went up that fast, but isaac told me later that i did indeed go up at a pretty quick rate. big surprise - i was the 1st of our party to surface. jaquie (jacky?) was a little surprised to see me and asked if everythign was ok. i gave her the 'ok' signal and made my way towards the boat. i checked my guage and saw i was actually down to about 700psi so i would've been on my way to the surface in 2 mintues or less anyway since i have to include that 3 minute safety stop. before i was on the boat matt surfaced. within 5 minutes everyone else was up too so while i was really pissed at myself becuase of how i surfaced, and that the rest didn't continue without me - which turned out to be moot after looking at the air reserves. but i was still pissed about becoming bob. after getting rid of my fins i work my way over to the ladder. i wanted to try and climb out before just ditching everything in the water. adn you know what, i did it! they had me sit on teh platform to remove my rig since it was so weighted down, so i took a little longer than the otehrs to get back aboard, but oh well.

as soon as we get out of our rigs and everythign's secured, captain heads the boat north again. during this run we ate our lunch - hot chicken noodle soup, that pilsbury pop the canister and make bread sticks stuff, as well as stuff for sandwiches. there was also hot tea, coffee, cocoa and cold water. the second dive site was across from west seattle not far off the coast of the next island over. called somethign like maury island barges. we anchored between a couple of pilings - called dolphins i've learned. although i don't quite get it. anyway, again i need to back up.

while we were having lunch everyone was great and trying to offer ideas on why i surface against my will. it took me a while to calm down and get over being upset. along the way jacky took isaac over and wondered if my BC was really expelling all the air - it was bunched up real tight near the bottom by bungies - maybe i'd start upwards, and when i get to that specific depth teh few bubbles of air trapped would expand just enough that i couldn't control the force of bouyancy and up i'd go. so he moved the bungies on both matt and my BC for the next dive.

we get to the next site and i'm the last in teh water. no problem. we start to descend, only i'm realizing i'm sinking way fast, and i can't keep up with my ears, i start to feel pressure, so i start to kick up to the surface. let's try that again. jacky wasstill at the side of the boat watchign us and made sure i was ok. i let her know yes, i was, i just needed tolearn teh correct compensation for hte bc now that i might actually be getting rid of all the air in it (as opposed to before where i thought i was getting all the air out becuase nothing else was comign out). so i tried again. i got about 15 ft down and while the rate was much better, my right ear wouldn't clear and i had troubles 'hanging' in place until i could clear it, so i started back up. we did this again. after that attempt jacky threw a line over the side of hte boat for me to use so i could hang onto that and not be struggling to go up or down while clearing my ears. by this time the others were about 30 feet out and 40 ft down. i knew theiry heading, and i startedmy descent. thisok me a bit to get to the ocean floor but i did it. i guess i was at about 48ft at the bottom of hte line. i had no light, and while i knew where i'd seen everyone last, if htey had moved a little bit, or if i was off just a little bit i'd miss them since the water was so murky. so i decided to stay close to teh boat and pilings. it was ok with me. i got to the bottom wich was important. without that i wouldn't have gotten the drysuit cert. anyway, on my way down when everyone else was already ahead of me, i saw a jellyfish. it was big and white and fluffy - not a moon jelly which are so common in aquariums, including ours here in seattle. it kind of looked like the one pictured on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_nettle but i'm not conviced that's it. no one else saw it. so that was kinda neat. i had my own little private moment. matt comes back over and gets my attention - he signalled he had to go up. i knew i had been down about 20 minutes and while i ws basically just 'hanging out' and actually not sucking down air too quicky, h is my buddy adn i could tell something was up, so i followed him to the surface, including the 3minute saftey stop. when we surface he tells me he was down to about 300psi. again i climbed aboard the boat 1st, and matt was close behind. while he was getting out of his gear the others shoed up and came over. talk about service, i was barely out of my rig when the cap'n shoved a staming hot mug of cocoa into my hands, and said the chocolate chip cookies were hot. boy did they hit the spot!

so i was thrilled with myself for my perserverence on teh 2nd dive, and while i was bummed to a point about not getting to swim around, i did the safe thing. overall it was a good day. when we got back to tacoma isaac, dave matt and i hit the pub for a brew and food.


*not totally conviced the sea nettle is what i saw, but i haven't found an img yet. maybe i'll see what the library has for 'field guides to teh pacific jellyfish' haha.

10/4/08 scuba

today we went out to alki in west seattle for a dive. simon had a group of people, brian was there with a group of people, and leif was there for vlad, matt and me. the goal was to figure out the bouyancy issues and then swim around a little bit and have fun.

knowing what i had last time was way too much, we started me out with 30# of weights (+3# of ankle weights). we paddled out to the bouy on our backs, and managed with help to get all the air out of my drysuit - which everyone agrees is really a little large for me, but the next size down has boots that are too small! i was able to descend with very little problems after that. so the main consensus is that with a larger suit i have extra fabric = no good, and i have more pockets for air to get trapped and keep me floating = no good. we get down fine, no issues with ears, and swim around for a little bit. about 25 minutes or so into the dive we're starting to work our way up the ocean floor (yeah, we're in a sound, but technically it's the pacific ocean) and i started to float. i stopped and exhaled big, but was still drifting up a little. so i try to reach over to dump air (i had put some into my suit to keep me warm) but was unable to reach easily, and the more i tried to reach and dump and squish the air out of the suit, the faster i started to ascend. after going about 1/2 way to the surface i just stopped, shrugged my shoulders and said 'ok, i'm going up so let's go up. don't fight it.' so up i go. leif, matt and vlad follow soon after. we discuss what might have happened, what i might have been able to do with it etc, then decide to go back down, swim underwater back to the bouy, and then climb the bouy line and paddle back to shore. well, i get about 10 feet down, my right ear wn't clear, and i get his real vertigo feeling. so back up i go, but it doesn't go away, so i chose to surface. after giving it a few mintues and the dizzyness passed i tried again. same thing! dam! so not wanting to fight that, and knowing that if i continue to have those problems and force myself to depth it could be bad, i decided to just give it up and paddle back to shore.

we took a little over an hours break and had a mocha, sat in the rain, discussed stuff, and planned for hte next dive.

this time we paddled out to some pilings leftover from something before sinking. no problem with my ears or vertigo that time. i get to the floor just fine. and this time, man i had a hard time getting up off the floor to swim around! i'd go a couple kicks, then sink back down to catch my breath. leif kept asking if i was ok. i did have a weird little thing. i was a little colder the 2nd dive. you know how when you have ice cream sometimes 1 tooth just shoots out in pain from the cold? i had that happen! so weird! no idea how or why, but oh well. it dissipated on its own, but it was weird. after about 20 minutes i knew i wouldn't have much longer before becoming really cold, so i let him know i needed to start back to the surface soon. this dive, while exhausting, was really cool.

we saw a lot of crabs, a sea slug, some nudibranches, more fish, lots of starfish, and sea anemones were all over the pilings.

after we had everything packed up simon, leif, the 3 of us and some of hte other students went down to teh tavern for berr and burgers. it hit teh spot but i could've eaten more!

we figured part of my lack of getting off the floor was becuase i was already pretty tired out from the 1st dive. so the more we practice the better i'll get in strength and stamina.

simon wants us to go out tomorrow to edmonds' underwater park with them and do basically the same thing as we did today. not sure if we'll make it. 1 - there's a chance we'll have a power outage due to teh windstorm we have happening right now, and the alram won't wake us up. and 2 - matt pulled somethign in his back today adn dependign on how it feels he won't want to carry his rig.

so we'll see what happens.

on a totally unrelated subject: 4 more days until my birthday. i'll be 42.

9/7/08 scuba

i'm a little bummed. i talked to simon on thursday afternoon. it pretty much went as i thought it would, but that doesn't mean i wouldn't be a little disappointed.
basically he's leading the boat dive, so it's not like he can spend unknown quantities of time with matt or myself trying to work on bouyancy. it was a full boat, which means 8 - 10 people. so we put off getting certified yet again. the plan is to go back to alki at some point in september - probably a weekday with 1 or 2 of guys from the shop who've done a lot more teaching and diving than simon and see what ideas they have, or knowledge they can impart for the situation.

we figured out on sunday i was carring 39 lbs of weights, and the cylinder (full) weighs between 35-40 lbs. so i had between 75-80 lbs of weight on my back, and i only weigh 105!

what we'll do is go out 1 at a time (or like matt'll paddle around on the surface while the guys work with me, they'll weight me with about 20-25 lbs ( i dive with 12 lbs in teh pool) and just work until i can get down to the bottom and stay down there. then i can paddle around while htey do the same with matt.

it's like 3pm now, probably about the time we'd be getting back on the boat getting ready to return to the shore after a day of diving. but we're not there.

9/2/08 scuba

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.

7/26/08 scuba

well bummer. turns out simon had car trouble and couldn't get into town (he lives out in northbend i think) for our lesson. that means we couldn't do our open water dives this weekend. that means we can't do our open water dives until the end of august.

there's a slim chance we might be able to pull them off before then, but it is very slim.

while i was still feeling a little aprehensive about our lesson, just like all the others, i was looking forward to it. i knew what i wanted to accomplish and i had a plan.

oh well. this means we get 3-4 more practice sessions. they won't be wasted. i'll use 1 for wetsuit and another i'll use for drysuit - to practice and i WILL achieve neutral bouyancy before the end of those nights!

7/24/08 scuba

tueday night was our 1st night for drysuit practice. i'm glad we started a day early.
the class portion went fine, although i was a little nervous and not looking forward to the fact that we had to take a test and i had barely spent any time with the text. but i passed - only missed 1.

so drysuits fit a little loose and as soon as they get wet they glom(?) up to your body like when you use one of those space bags. you know, you use the vacuum to remove hte air and it gets tight and crinkly up next to the clothes? a lot like that. a little uncomfortable it was, but not too bad - until we started trying to work!

we didnt' have socks so 1 of my big problems was my feet. 50% of my issue was the boots turned out to be a little small so when the suit contracted in the water it squeezed my already sore toes and caused some major pain and the other 50% of my feet was i couldn't get my legs to move with ankle weights on them! once we removed the weights i was at least able to move around.

we did have a little bouyancy issue. ended up with 10#8 lbs of weight. think i want to try a little less tonight and see if now i have an idea of what i'm doing if i really need all of the weight i started with or not. i did have a problem with my neutral bouyancy skill. i can 'drop' on the exhale, but i don't really 'rise' on inhale very well. same issue in the wetsuit - i hadn't really mastered the skill.

all we did last tuesday was swim around in the shallow end and we did finally get to the deep end for a few minutes. but i did have issues. most of it was the feet. tonight we'll be taking socks, as well as something undergarment wise to wear under hte suit other than just the swimsuit. it'll make the drysuit more comfy cause it won't stick to the skin - the underwear layer acts as a barrier for that. but last tues we didn't have it so we had to deal. i really had a hard time enjoying the experience. at one point i stood up and was just crying. i don't remember starting to cry. i don't remember thinking 'i got to get out of here' it wasn't really a panic, it was just 'i don't like this' and that my feet hurt so bad i didn't want to move my legs anymore. simon was really good. matt was too far away to see how upset i was. he let me have my minute and calm down, and adjusted the weights a little bit and it helped. after swimming around a few more times he asked if i wanted to try the deep end and we started over there. i had gotten over the edge of the dropoff and was turning around to hang onto the wall to descend, and i started rolling over. i tried to right myself but just kept wanting to roll. next i know i'm at the surface. at least i'm laughing this time when simon comes up and asks me what's happening. between giggles i was like 'i don't know, i was going to ask you what i did wrong!' we can only guess that i had a bit of air trapped into 1 arm of my suit and it was enough to throw me off and i haven't learned well enough to 'shake it off and right myself' yet.

overall i wasn't too unhappy with the night. i was proud i managed to get to the bottom of the deep end. however when we wanted to ascend i couldn't get off the bottom and i had this 'uh, i don't know what i'm supposed to do here' moment. i was supposed to add a little air into my suit - get tht neutral buoyancy thing happening that i wasn't quite getting earlier.

anyway, tonight is night #2. we need to get through the skills for drysuits tonight. if we succeed and i feel ok then simon wants us to do our open water dives starting this weekend. if that happens i'll probably suggest the folks go to the museums on saturday on their own. sunday - well, we'll talk about that later.

anyway, i'm a little nervous about 1 of skills. we have to go inverted. get ourselves into a handstand position, simon will get us 'hanging' in teh water, and we're supposed to sweep our arms and get ourselves into a standing position. i think i'm nervous becuase i've never been able to do a flipturn or somersault in the swimming pool ever, as well as the fact i haven't mastered the neutral buoyancy issue yet. but i'm ready to tackle it!

7/20/08 scuba

3 stories to get caught up on. have to admit i haven't had much opportunity this week nor have i have the strength. matt's mom was in town for a visit the past 2 weeks, left today, and my parents show up for an 8-day stay on tuesday.

last tues's class was pretty good. got to the bottom of the pool right off the bat but something just didn't feel right, so i surfaced and checked and did it again. we had a guest again that night - don't remember her name. anyway, we went through all the drills again. matt ran his air down to 500 about 20 mins or so before the end of class so he got to 'leave early'. simon and i went and layed down on thepool floor and worked on my becoming neutrally bouyant. i almost got it.

the plan is to meet this tues, get a few more bits of gear, and get to the pool to work out any bouyoncy issues with the drysuits, as well as just swim around the shallow end with them - more if we're lucky.

before then we have to watch a dvd and read some if not all of a book.

7/13/08 scuba

we've had 2 lessons in the pool since i last managed to write.
2 weeks ago we met up with simon and his wife hillary joined us again. she pretty much just swam around and went up and down while we did our thing. in the shallow pool we went over the air-sharing drill and a few other things, then we went over to the deep end. actually, we started with a giant stride into the deep end, then swam to the shallow, then back to the deep. i got down to the bottom of the pool and we swam around, then worked some drills. simon wanted us to walk through the drill in the shallow once, to show us the final bit, so up we swim. we didn't actually ascend to the surface and then over, but went up into the shallow at an angle. i hit the wall before i was shallow enough to get over the step into the shallow, so the little extra push i did gave me a wee bit of vertigo. it was just a quick spi of 'whoa, that wasn't fun' and then it was over. we walked through it and then descended back to the depths. after everythign simon said i was a little slow on the descent, but it was good i was able to get down to the bottom. anyway, matt was the guinea pig who runs out of air and i get to save him. anyway, the drill's going well. he swims over 'in a panic' i give him my regulator after taking my spare, we hang onto each other and start to ascend. we get to the surface and the room starts spinning. and it doesn't stop. and then everything goes quiet. not sure if i closed my eyes or if everything also went black for a fraction of a second. it seemed like a couple minutes to me but in reality it probably wasn't. anyway, when the room kept spinning and i felt like i wasn't in control of anything anymore - and i didn't have my BC inflated since we had just ascended, i started to paw at matt. i tried to say 'get me to the shallow' but that just wasn't happening. simon realized something was up and swapped my secondary for my primary air supply which helped a little bit (it's harder to get air from the secondary). they helped me over to the shallow where i could stand up on my own and then i was able to tell them what happened. i got a few minutes to recover, and then we tried to descend again but i was not able to clear my ears this time.

last week we had bill, the sub, again. we met at the store and talked over what we were going to be doing in the pool. he offered a few suggestions for ear clearing to me. we get everything over to the pool and get the gear on and do a giant stride into the pool. i've done it 3 times now, and it still seems a little scary! but i can do it just fine. even in the shallow i've noticed it's a little scary 'dropping down' under water. i think it's a psychological thing about how it's not natural to breathe underwater. once i'm under i'm fine. but that initial 'get your head under the water' bit still trips me up a little. bill had brought a buoy where simon hadn't so i got ot hang onto the line as i descended this time. it was a little slow getting down compared to the guys, but i got down there faster than the week before i think. we swam around, did a few drills, tried to find my neutral bouyancy and the next thing i know i'm surfacing! oh well. bill follows me up thinking there's somethign wrong. i'm laughing and tell him i hadn't intended to surface, but it's good in teh fact that it gives me practice going up and down. think i just put a little too much air in the BC to get me off the ground. so back down we go, swim around, do some drills, then come back up slowly. actually bill wanted us to swim upwards watching our guage and keeping the bars at zero or 1 on teh ascent rate meter. i was doing great until about 1/2 way when i had to turn a corner or hit a wall then my meter just shot up to like the 'slow down!' area. bill even was waving at me to slow down. i really don't know what happened, but i managed to stop ascending, get a little lower again, and then tried again. when i hit the wall this time i jsut held on for a minute, then turned around and continued swiming up. it was great! 3 times and no vertigo! then we go back down to try the air-share drill. this time i'm out of air. we're doing a controled ascent and doing fine. i look up and can see the surface getting closer. then it hits. the pool starts spinning and doesn't stop. and it doesn't stop. everything goes quiet and again, maybe i closed my eyes but everything went black for a second as well. i manage to keep it together, but i was not liking it. after the drill i was able to report the strong vertigo, and bill said we id climb a little faster than we had ascended previously. so that slight difference might be all i need to not be too well. the good thing is i was ablet o descend again after this. i think i got down and up 5 times total within 90 minutes of class. i was really proud of myself. matt said bill told him it was like 'night and day' this night compared to the 1st night he taught us.

next week is pool night as well. then the following week i believe is tues=dry suit training 1 and thurs=dry suit training 2. thurs is the normal day, but becuase we expect i'll have some bouyancy issues, and since i seem to take a little longer to adapt to my environs, he wants to start on tues, get the weights figured and have me work out most of the kinks, and hten thurs we can really concentrate on the drills and stuff.

6/24/08 scuba

we have the night off this week. i did so well last week simon rewarded us. in reality, even if we were scheduled to dive tonight in the pool i'd be cancelling it. i'm fighting (and thinking i might as well just submit) to an allergy attack. at least it held off until today to be the worst (concert last night), but man, i don't see how anyone could consider diving or swimming when feeling like this! i never would. but apparantly there are those who would, coz teh diving doc drilled it into me i wasn't to go close to the water if i felt like this!

so no new story on scuba this week. not sure the dates for our open water dives.

6/20/08 scuba

well last week went much better. so much so in fact, that we've been given this next tuesday off!

i'm adjusting slowly - about 1/2 the speed of matt. you know the troubles i had 2 weeks ago with the sub. as bad as that week went, last tuesday was fantastic!

i never popped up to the surface, even when i swallowed a bunch of pool water. i managed to get to the bottom of the deep end. i went through all the drills - regulator, alternate air source, and mask clearing in both the shallow and deep ends. i swam around all over, and we had a toy. simon had brought a torpedo toy. looks like a nerf toy, but it's heavy so it actually sinks. his wife also joined us, and the 4 of us 'played toss' underwater - both in shallow and deep ends. just before we get out, i guess we had 10-15 minutes left, simon tells us we have to sink (shallow end), take off the mask, hand it to our buddy, and then swim 1 lap of the pool. basically it's to make sure that if our mask falls off underwater we're able to swim after it (hopefully it'll always float!) or at least be able to ascend without drowning or holding our breath. holding your breath is bad. it causes bubbles and bubbles are bad. i had to take a few minutes to psych myself up for it, its so painful to open my eyes underwater. matt did a great job. and he flew! i think i crawled! i knew i'd be able to breathe - simon had me takign the snorkel into the tub and sticking my face underwater without the mask and practice breathing. but i went real slow because i was running my hand along the lane tiles. keeping a finger in teh groutline between tiles and 'stucco' pool bottom i knew i was going straight and could keep my eyes closed. i did have to open them a little. just enough to see the color variation of the lane stripe and the space where that ends and the pool wall is so i could turn around. i was really proud of myself after last tuesday night. if the rest of hte sessions go like that P-shaw, piece of cake! but i'm not getting too over-confident. i expect there is a place where things just 'click' but i don't know how much left i have to learn or what they are, so i'm not going to get hubrous (sp??? huberous????) as soon as i do i'll be voted off the island! anyway, we did indeed push back the open water and dry suit training until next month. that's fine with me. as cold as it's been this month the sound is pretty cold!

6/11/08 scuba

"Courage is the mastery of fear"
i saw that in a movie i watched today. yes, today. went to sleep around 1.30/2am, woke up at 3.30am and haven't been back to sleep yet. part of it is my left ear is still clogged. part of it is this dang sleep thing, and part of it is i felt a little nauseus.

we had week 3 of scuba class last night. substitute teacher. classroom went pretty well. i kept wanting to add in a 'safety factor' into the dive tables for some reason. but as far as errors go, the one i was making would save a life as opposed to actually drowning someone due to me miscalculating the amount of bottom time (amount of time spent on a dive) they have.

i had a moment there in the pool last night where i was just all of a sudden overcome with sensory overload. that's the best way to describe it. i just felt this wave of overwhelmingness (if that wasn't a word it is now) and had to surface and take a minute. felt really silly, but i tell you, letting a few tears escape and a few deep breaths and it can do wonders for the psyche.

let's see if anyone's reading this...small tangent, sorta related sorta not. i guess we'll see if anyone leaves a msg on my message board, eh? as you know we're taking scuba so we can see more/do more in palau, which is definitely on for jan-feb 2009. matt and i have been talking about few other trips between now and our New Zealand bike trip in 2011. 1 is the trans-america trail on the tandem, if we can find someone willing to drive the truck for our support vehicle. 2 is the mongol rally. but what has me excited is 3-yesterday matt signed us up and paid registration fees for us to do the rickshaw run. 2 weeks of driving across india (yes, the country of india) and nepal in a 3-wheeled tuk-tuk. www.theadventurists.com. we were thinking of doing the summer run in june 2009, but this week they sent out a newsletter tellign of the addition of an easter run, and the moving of june back to sept. so next feb we're in palau, and for easter we'll be driving across india! planning on taking the route thru nepal and visit kathmandu for 1, see the giant stuppa, over and cross the ganges (hopefully this time i won't get strep!) on to agra for the taj mahal, then upwards towards delhi and on up to the north somewhere where the finish line is yet to be determined.

anyway, i was really proud of myself last night. i managed to kneel on the floor of the deep end of the pool. we actually started there as well. learned how to take the 'giant stride' entrance into the pool. as soon as we feel we won't be infringing on class time we'll take a camera with us and get some pics of us all decked out in gear and underwater. we have 1 more classroom/pool session before drysuit training and open water classes start. i made the decision last night that we're going to push them back a month.

i was proud of myself last night because i did it. i was a little nervous (ok, small panic attack when i couldn't hang onto the step between the shallow and deep but still couldn't quite touch the bottom of the pool, but B___ can't remember his name was there and reached out a hand to help steady me. meanwhile matt's just swimming all around the deep like a fish. :-) yay for him. but i did get down there! had to ascend a little once for my ears, but was able to equalize the pressure pretty good. did have a few moments a few times where i wasn't sure about my ears as we spent what seemed to me like hours down there. i'm still having bouyancy issues. as long as i'm swimming i seem to be able to maintain 'altitude'. just checking. 'depth' is more accurate. anyway, sorry, maybe the lack of sleep and no coffee or breakfast yet this am is getting to me. where was i? oh yeah, i tend to follow my head. when i look 'up' to see in front of me my body follows. so i was pretty constantly adjusting to stay down. if i emptied my bc i was too heavy, if i added i was too light. i never did find quite the right balance last night. that, and the fact that i had to struggle to stay put when kneeling, and the fact that i don't know how many times i said to myself ' i just want to surface and get out' last night tells me i'm not ready for open water. i told matt last night before we even got out of the pool that i wanted another night like last night before learning anything new. he says it's ok.

also not entirely sure my physiology will allow me to dive comfortably yet. while i did get down to the floor of the deep end, the fact that i do have problems clearing my ears can stop me from descending. if i'm stuffed up with sinus stuff i'm not going to dive. the last 24 hours before flying home (or to a destination) diving is off-limits. it's strongly encouraged to not dive 24 hours before flying for anyone due to all the pressure changes. even if you surface just fine, when the plane descends on approach you can get bent! and with lymphodema being uh what's the word. not caused by, aggravated by, pressure changes, i have that much more incentive to keep that rule strictly enforced! now i've been out of the pool 10 hours and my left ear is still plugged and i still feel a little queasy in the tummy... not sure how much of that is actual verses psychological. so we'll see.

i think i'll know after that if i'm still having the 'get me out of the pool' thoughts if i want to continue to dive. monetarily it kinda sucks. but there's also good. i've learned how to do something i never thought i would do. i put myself in a totally different element than i'm comfortable with and survived. (like what was cancer????) we'll still go to palau only do more snorkeling. i'm a stronger person for doing this. and all that. but as far as stuff we've purchased, the only gear we've bought which we can't return is the BC - mainly becuase it was custome made to fit our body and we 'spared no expense' and had them monogramed. why not, right? but i can use the BC as a snorkel vest, so that's not a total loss. and even though we've paid for the drysuit training and open water dives we can return them if we decide not to go through with them.

did i have fun last night?
no.
did i have more fun last night than i did last week?
no.

not this time.