Sink or Swim

I wore my new Angler Fish charm on this weekends dives in Monterey.



















For the last three weekends, Art, John and I have been taking a PADI scuba dive certification class from Adventure Sports in Santa Cruz. We travel to many exotic places with warm water and breathtakingly beautiful coral reefs. Last June, we snorkeled off beaches in the Komodo Islands and in Flores, Indonesia, but were not certified to scuba dive the incredible reefs. Getting certified has been on our "bucket" list.

I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Images of gracefully and effortlessly gliding through kelp forests and hovering above underwater reefs have been shattered. I imagined that tonight, I would be posting photos of the giant kelp, undulating and golden from the sunlight shining down from above. I expected to have photos of the tiny flounders darting along the sandy bottom and the rocky pinnacle walls, hot pink, carpeted by thousands of tiny velvety sea anemones.

We did manage to pass the class, along with Klem, a local tattoo artist, but it was extremely challenging and often times grueling. Check out his finger tattoos!

http://www.oreillystattoo.com/





































































Art, Dennis (our instructor) and Klem.

For those of you who want to know more, here is the saga. The first two weekend classes were held in Adventure Sports pool and classroom. The three of us each dutifully purchased the 260 page book, required for the class. I powered through the first three chapters but then we came to the charts and the math. I don't aspire to dive to great depths and residual nitrogen is something that I have never thought to worry about; but take scuba diving and residual nitrogen becomes the enemy. One cannot have too much of it and each dive must be graphed and figured accordingly. Should you wish to take a second dive, you have to figure out how much nitrogen remains in your body to know how long and how deep subsequent dives can be. Art, John and Klem caught on immediately, but I was humbled.

Putting the charts and calculations aside, there is the challenge of getting suited up. The pacific ocean is cold and Adventure Sports rents the necessary wet suits, but just choosing one that fits is overwhelming. Following this, one must get fitted with the BCD, (Buoyancy Control Device) all important if you are not born with gills. An "Octopus" (suitably named) equipped with 4 hoses, two regulators, a computer/compass to record depth, time, remaining air and to chart your route and location connects to the pressure air tank and the BCD. One must also buy fins and booties and gloves and a snorkel and mask to fit. The dreaded math comes into play again when one assembles the weight belt, all important in making the descent. How else to offset layers of fat and buoyant neoprene?

For two weekends we practiced procedures in the pool; inflating and deflating our BCD to achieve neutral buoyancy, emergency ascents, buddy breathing accents, flooded mask and snorkel procedures, rescue towing etc.

This weekend we put it all into practice taking 4 dives in the Monterey Bay, required for our certification. The weather this weekend was glorious and the two dives on Saturday went surprisingly well. John loved every minute of dive time, gliding effortlessly underwater inspecting the strange creatures encrusting the underwater pinnacles. He played gently with decorator crabs and immense sea slugs. Tiny flounders shuffled off as he swam along the sandy ocean bottom, 50 feet below the surface. John swam like a fish, just slightly embarrassed by his awkward parents. We were all delighted with the playful seal that swam circles around us, by the psychedelic purple and orange seaweeds and by camouflaged sculpin that would dart from the rock crevices. Huge white metridium anemones, some as large as 18" diameter, blossomed off rocky walls and towering columns of kelp swayed in the surge. On our drive home, we congratulated each other on successfully completing both dives.

Unfortunately, our two dives today, Sunday, were not so successful. Exhausted from yesterdays exertion and sleep deprived we arrived at the Monterey Dock at 7:45 A.M. Slipping into cold and slimy wet suits and lugging heavy air tanks and gear onto the boat was tough, but I still felt empowered and optimistic. My first dive of the day went badly. I successfully completed the required compass navigation test but I swallowed an unpleasant amount of sea water which compromised my stamina. My next test was an emergency ascent from 20 feet, but upon descent, I sank 40 feet, landed on a pinnacle and lost a fin. Disoriented, I overcompensated and added too much air to my BCD and I shot to the surface. My instructor was displeased and had me try it again. My mask flooded and I lost both fins on the second try, and my ascent was still too fast resulting in painful pressure in my ear, and probably a few too many nitrogen bubbles in my body. I called it quits and swam to the boat, exhausted and defeated. Our instructor swam away to test Art and to take him on the required dive. The crew back on the boat were very nurturing and supportive and encouraged me to try again. 20 minutes later, I took another big step off the back of the boat accompanied by a different dive instructor and completed the tests. One of my least favorite tests, counter intuitive to survival, was to remove my mask under 50 feet of water, replace it and clear it.

I surfaced triumphant to find Art a shade of green and sea sick and John approaching hypothermia. We had an hour to recoup before our second dive for the day, but the stamina of our family was at a low. After chumming the fish with the mornings breakfast burrito, Art slowly recovered, and after two hot showers, filling his wet suit with steaming hot water, John warmed up. Art and John took the second dive with Jim, the alternate dive master and I went alone with Dennis. Apprehensive, but determined, I descended with a borrowed mask that fit snugly. Accustom to my own mask that continually seeped water, thus relieving depth pressure, I was unprepared for the mask squeeze that nearly sucked my eyeballs from their sockets. I tried unsuccessfully to convey my discomfort and pain to Dennis but continued to descend, eventually managing to equalize the pressure. I hear there was a Seinfeld episode where he went diving and had this same issue. I must rent this.

After the dive, we met with Dennis and Klem, at the Whole Enchilada in Moss Landing. We filled out the days dive logs (more math) and toasted to successfully completing our PADI dive certification.

P.S. I was shocked to see the woman in the mirror this Monday morning. The blood vessels in the corners of my eyes have burst, and I have two black eyes. Art reminds me that some Goth Girls go to extreme lengths to achieve this look.