Today, most of the Commercial Divers in training will test their orientation skills in the open water, out in the ocean. I however am banned from the water due to my cold and the trouble I had equalising yesterday. Ronan has to sit this one out as well. He’s hurt his back lifting one of the 18L tanks the wrong way. Luckily the two of us, already certified scuba divers, went for a fun-dive with Toffy last weekend to the same spot. We already had a chance to show Tato that we can find our way back to the boat, despite the slight current. It’s a cool dive-site and I really want to go in the water. “But Tato, I think I can equalise fine today”, I plead with him as the others get ready. “No! You had enough trouble to stop the exercise yesterday. Out of the water today!” Fine, I’ll annoy everyone with my camera in their faces then. And perhaps persuade Gautier to take the GoPro with him on the dive.

… VIDEO COMING SOON …

Toni had to take care of some paperwork in the morning and only made it in time to jump on the boat in his street clothes.  The three of us considered “dead” for the day and the rest of the team has to load equipment and get ready by themselves.

Once we’re out of the port (and pretty much stopped), Tato lets me steer the boat for a bit. It’s not quite as cool as being under water, but I have to say it’s pretty awesome. This is the biggest boat I’ve ever gotten to “take for a spin”.

Photo: Toni, Camera: iPhone 6s

I really like this boat, it has charm and feels comfortable, and with Capitán Tato behind the wheel my fantasy takes my right back to those childhood stories and daring sea-captains.

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First Aid, Oxygen and Accidents

In the afternoon it’s time to get to know the oxygen kit and how and when to use it. It’s part of the mandatory equipment for every dive. After a thorough explanation and revision of first aid procedures we go straight into diving accidents. It’s not necessarily the most pleasant of topics to think about. But should something ever happen, we better know how to react, otherwise it’s our life on the line, or that of our colleagues.

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Being a catholic country, tomorrow’s Day of Immaculate Conception is a public holiday in Spain. We get the day off because Tato’s presence is required at the annual naval parade, where some of his alumni of navy-divers will be performing.

Three day weekend, I’ll have some time to rest up and study, and hopefully I’m back in the water next week.

The ones who haven’t had a chance to try the mask yesterday are giving it a go today and have all brought their regulators in for Tato to change them over.

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All of us will be busy trying to find our way in zero visibility water, to increasingly difficult targets.

I’m paired up with Juan Carlos today and it’s nice to change it up a little every once in a while. He’s really comfortable underwater and nails the orientation exercise the first try. My turn to find the target. I’m having some trouble equalising as we descend and I ask Juan Carlos to stop and go slow. Ok, it’s working. down we go, that’s the way. My ears are bothering me again, I lift my head equalise and hear the familiar “beeeeeep” that signals congestion. “Damn it”, I think and lift my head a bit higher to take some pressure off and try again. It worked, but I might have lost my bearing a little bit. Hang on, look at the compass, that’s the way. We go a bit further and I can start to feel the pressure build up on my ears again. Equalising is getting harder and harder and I decide to stop. I signal Juan Carlos that I’m having trouble with my ears and begin our ascent. As we slowly swim to the surface I have to blow my nose into my mask a few times, to relieve the pressure now pushing from the inside. I signal Cesar on the pier that I’m having problems with my ears and he orders me out of the water. I feel bad that Juan Carlos can’t continue with the exercise, but relieved that I’m done for the day. My sinuses could use some rest.

… VIDEO COMING SOON …

Still Theory

Like every day the fun, underwater part isn’t everything. We have started calculating partial pressures, tabulating decompression and altitude dives and studying the physiological impacts of diving with its potential accidents. It’s all quite intense and Tato goes through the topics at a steady pace. Remembering all the new vocabulary in Spanish will be a challenge.

When we arrive in the classroom this morning we each get handed a compass. Today we’re going to practise underwater orientation. The dock is great place for that, considering you can barely see the hand in front of your eyes, which makes it hard to use underwater landmarks to “cheat”.
I always liked that exercise during my Divemaster training and am looking forward to giving it a try in zero visibility.
Once everyone has a compass we start out with a literal dry run, first in the classroom, then in the parking lot.

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It’s pretty straight forward and everyone gets the hang of it quickly, on the surface at least.

When we’re done with our exercise, Tato asks Gautier to bring down the full-face masks and I can barely contain my excitement. Finally, I can’t wait to try.

Ronan and I are paired up and since we already have experience in underwater orientation, we get to try out the masks first.
We each get our regulators and Tato carefully removes the second stage in his workshop, so we can attach it to the masks.
I watch intently as he takes my breathing apparatus apart and attaches it to a crazy looking thing I’ve never used before.
The technical aspect of diving is incredibly fascinating to me. The second stage and mouthpiece of m y regulator are replaced with the AGA mask, which contains within its large outer shell, a smaller rubber mask, covering mouth and nose, a bit like a hospital oxygen mask. Without it, too much CO2 from exhalation would accumulate in the mask and sooner or later render the diver unconscious. Inside it are two small rubber stubs to block your nose for equalisation. I admit, before this course I already googled and “youtubed” full-face masks and how to use them and feel confident that I’ll be able to use it right.

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We get all our kit ready and make our way to the dock, compasses at the ready.
The instructors and Gautier help us get our masks on while, just like every day, the first buddy-team positions the buoy signalling diver’s at work and restricting boat traffic in the area.

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Tanks are open, masks are on. “Prepare! Ready? WATER!” we jump in, nice and synchronized, the “OK” to the pier and down we go. We got our bearings for the target on the surface and are meant to hit it in a straight line. “This is nice” I think to myself on the surface. For the first time can’t feel the icy cold water that usually has me shivering within the first 15 minutes. This thing is covering even tiniest gaps in my suit.

But as we descend the mask soon becomes less comfortable. Both Ronan and I realise that the masks seem to give some more positive buoyancy and at first we struggle a bit to go down. Once on the bottom, my mask seems to blow a lot more than I thought it would. It’s hard to equalise, there’s a lot of pressure on my nose and sinuses and the slight cold that’s slowly been creeping its way into my respiratory system is not helping the matter. I lift my head up a bit, equalise again, there it is, that’s better. Still, this heavy blowing is quite uncomfortable.

The orientation exercise is going really well and we hit our targets spot on. But with both our masks on continuous flow, a mechanism designed for use in contaminated waters, we go through our air-supply pretty quickly. Two rounds of orientation and we’re on reserve. “Done! Out of the water!” Cesar tells us from the pier.

… VIDEO COMING SOON …

By the time I’ve climbed up the ladder to the pier, my congested sinuses and the tight mask on my face are hurting quite a bit. And when Tato stops me to explain the demand and continuous flow button, I can’t handle it any more. I rip the mask off “Tato, please! I need to take it off! It hurts!” I guess my cold was worse than I thought.
I wash the mask and carefully put it back in the box, before rinsing off the rest of my equipment. With the others still taking turns trying out the masks and doing orientation exercises, I finally get a chance to take some pictures.

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The weekend has passed and it’s time to review everything we’ve learned and trained last week.
There’s wood cutting, lift-bag floating, mooring-inspections and flanges all over the place.
After the flange, we get to do the lift-bag again and I open the release valve too far. Damn! The weight pulls the bag down and it drops to the bottom, fast and hard. We descend to continue the exercise but Cesar stops us. “Start Over!”. My fault, I’ll go again. I give it another try, slow and easy this time. Phew, it worked.

… VIDEO COMING SOON …

It’s a nice and sunny day out and the spirits are high, at least until the theory part of the day comes around.

Physics, Math, Physiology and some more Physics

Calculations of air consumption, the partial pressure of oxygen and nitrogen or determining the pressure of scuba tanks after filling fill our afternoon.

“You will need to be able to calculate these things for the exam,” Tato warns us “they will give you problems to solve.”
Concerning the physics I might be at a slight advantage here. There’s only one problem, will I understand the question?