I want to learn to dive.
I know I decided against it 18 years ago, but I'm willing to make the investment, and put myself on the line now.
I went for a try dive at the Wycombe SAC on 22 August. I didn't feel wonderfully comfortable or relaxed, but there were a few moments where I stopped thinking about all the things I was supposed to be doing, which felt good, and I took away the satisfaction of not panicking, and also learning a couple of things in the drills (yes, I can duck dive with a snorkel and not drown, and I can take the regulator out of my mouth and put it back while underwater and not drown), and even swimming better than I thought I could. We did a breathing exercise lying on the bottom, where we took deep breaths in, and rose up, and breathed out and sank down. It was a bit of a revelation as far as buoyancy physics went. We did a lot of swimming around and around the pit, but I was rocking around a lot from side to side, and my buoyancy was awful (Len was in charge of inflating and deflating my BCD). So I was happy with what I did, and took away some positives, and was keen to have another go. One of the biggest problems was my ears. When I got near three metres deep, my ears blocked, in a rather uncomfortable way, and I couldn't unblock them. It didn't hurt, but the pressure was unpleasant.
A week later I had my left ear syringed (the right didn't need it), and could suddenly hear an awful lot better, and so was ready to try another dive to see how my ears would behave.
My second try dive was 5 September. Len didn't need me to do the swimming again. He got me in snorkelling gear to try a stride entry first. Once I'd practised and got it right, I put on the dive gear and tried it again. A slightly alarming thing to do, but I managed it. Once in the water, Len put me in charge of my buoyancy, so I was to inflate and deflate my BCD. He said that after having deflated it to go down, I had to inflate it again to stop hitting the bottom, but I couldn't get the hang of that (and got sore knees). We did some more swimming around and around near the bottom again, and some more of the lying on the bottom drill. He even had me doing a somersault underwater - it was difficult, and so I had to kick myself around. My ears blocked again, and I made a superhuman effort to clear them. Grabbing my nose and blowing out just doesn't work. I realised that swallowing was the answer, but that seems to destabilise my mask seal because of movement through my nose. We did more reg changes underwater, including dropping it, and twisting yourself wildly to make sure you were scooping up the hose with your arm. We did some buoyancy control exercises using the lines of tiles on the pool wall, which again I wasn't great at, but by the end of it, I was much better at making small changes by just using my breathing. At the end we did some mask clearing drills. I was fine until he had me break my mask seal to let water in. I somehow ended up with it straight up my nose, and so shot to the surface to cough and splutter. I'd had enough by then anyway.
I felt like I hadn't done very well immediately after the session, but after a while I realised it wasn't that bad. I'd managed most of the drills, still not panicked (apart from the nose full of water thing), and had been brave enough to try the mask clearing. I was also rocking from side to side a lot less. I didn't really think about my trim, so no idea how rubbish that was. Anyway, I was sure enough that my ears would be OK.
I found that my ears were a bit reluctant to clear on the flight we had to Malta, but that by the end of the flight home, they were much better.
I had another pool session last night, 19 September. Christian took his twinset to do some drills, and I planned to swim and snorkel. I started with a swim, and surprised myself by doing 200m in 7.33 (though I was worn out), meaning that I could probably do the GUE 275m within 14 minutes with practice. I then got my mask and snorkel and followed Christian around on the surface. It was a fun thing to do - feeling the bubbles hit me, and grabbing them with my hands. I did a few duck dives, trying to get right to the bottom. My ears blocked up, but unblocked quickly. Christian said that that was because I wasn't breathing underwater. The other guys said I should swim down to him and give him an 'out-of-air' signal so he'd give me one of his regulators. He was too deep for me to do it comfortably, and it turns out it could have been quite dangerous. We tried it when he was in a more shallow bit, but without weights on, I couldn't stay submerged for long enough. I should have left my lungs empty, but I didn't think of that at the time. I swam around a bit more, and then tried a breath hold underwater with my mask on. I managed to do the length of the short shelf of the pool, which I think was probably 10 metres. It's a start. At least I know how it feels to desperately need to breathe and have to stop yourself. My lungs were expanding and contracting, despite not taking in any air. That seemed to help. Anyway, I'll keep up the practice like that and hopefully I'll get stronger and better.
The next challenge is working out what to do with my actual training. The best way would be to do GUE training intensively in Malta with John, but Christian found out recently that the training alone would cost £750. With transport and accommodation and food, that figure will probably double, just for me. So we're now thinking that BSAC through Wycombe might be better, but if John gets other takers for the course, the price might drop. Not sure what to do. Wait and see for now.
I know I decided against it 18 years ago, but I'm willing to make the investment, and put myself on the line now.
I went for a try dive at the Wycombe SAC on 22 August. I didn't feel wonderfully comfortable or relaxed, but there were a few moments where I stopped thinking about all the things I was supposed to be doing, which felt good, and I took away the satisfaction of not panicking, and also learning a couple of things in the drills (yes, I can duck dive with a snorkel and not drown, and I can take the regulator out of my mouth and put it back while underwater and not drown), and even swimming better than I thought I could. We did a breathing exercise lying on the bottom, where we took deep breaths in, and rose up, and breathed out and sank down. It was a bit of a revelation as far as buoyancy physics went. We did a lot of swimming around and around the pit, but I was rocking around a lot from side to side, and my buoyancy was awful (Len was in charge of inflating and deflating my BCD). So I was happy with what I did, and took away some positives, and was keen to have another go. One of the biggest problems was my ears. When I got near three metres deep, my ears blocked, in a rather uncomfortable way, and I couldn't unblock them. It didn't hurt, but the pressure was unpleasant.
A week later I had my left ear syringed (the right didn't need it), and could suddenly hear an awful lot better, and so was ready to try another dive to see how my ears would behave.
I felt like I hadn't done very well immediately after the session, but after a while I realised it wasn't that bad. I'd managed most of the drills, still not panicked (apart from the nose full of water thing), and had been brave enough to try the mask clearing. I was also rocking from side to side a lot less. I didn't really think about my trim, so no idea how rubbish that was. Anyway, I was sure enough that my ears would be OK.
I found that my ears were a bit reluctant to clear on the flight we had to Malta, but that by the end of the flight home, they were much better.
I had another pool session last night, 19 September. Christian took his twinset to do some drills, and I planned to swim and snorkel. I started with a swim, and surprised myself by doing 200m in 7.33 (though I was worn out), meaning that I could probably do the GUE 275m within 14 minutes with practice. I then got my mask and snorkel and followed Christian around on the surface. It was a fun thing to do - feeling the bubbles hit me, and grabbing them with my hands. I did a few duck dives, trying to get right to the bottom. My ears blocked up, but unblocked quickly. Christian said that that was because I wasn't breathing underwater. The other guys said I should swim down to him and give him an 'out-of-air' signal so he'd give me one of his regulators. He was too deep for me to do it comfortably, and it turns out it could have been quite dangerous. We tried it when he was in a more shallow bit, but without weights on, I couldn't stay submerged for long enough. I should have left my lungs empty, but I didn't think of that at the time. I swam around a bit more, and then tried a breath hold underwater with my mask on. I managed to do the length of the short shelf of the pool, which I think was probably 10 metres. It's a start. At least I know how it feels to desperately need to breathe and have to stop yourself. My lungs were expanding and contracting, despite not taking in any air. That seemed to help. Anyway, I'll keep up the practice like that and hopefully I'll get stronger and better.
The next challenge is working out what to do with my actual training. The best way would be to do GUE training intensively in Malta with John, but Christian found out recently that the training alone would cost £750. With transport and accommodation and food, that figure will probably double, just for me. So we're now thinking that BSAC through Wycombe might be better, but if John gets other takers for the course, the price might drop. Not sure what to do. Wait and see for now.
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