Diving Diaries (Part 3)
In this new series Scubaverse blogger, Isobel Fairbairn, keeps a diary as she learns to dive with her university BSAC club (Salford University Diving Society or SUDS for short). Follow her progress as she heads underwater for the very first time.
My third week of my dive training and so far, I’d argue my hardest.
Our theory this week consisted of all the “what happens if?” questions and answers, all the terrifying dangers that come with diving if proper safety is not ensured.
Of course, some of it feels like common sense, paying attention to your surroundings, always making sure to check on your buddy, but some of it really isn’t common sense, and I came away with a head full of new information (and anxieties) that I wish I’d left in the classroom. But of course wishes don’t often come true and I am well aware of the fact all of this information is to make sure we are all practicing proper procedure and therefore at our safest, so all of this information won’t be leaving my brain anytime in the future.
This week we learnt about DCI; the symptoms, preventions and treatment. We were informed on the importance of anticipating problems, being prepared and how prevention is better than a cure! We were presented with the “incident pit”, the pit of horrors type diagram and how its significance holds great importance as one thing can lead to another and suddenly you can be out of your depth, both literally and metaphorically.
We were also shown the importance of having proper gas canister checks and the issues that can come with contaminated breathing gas, oxygen toxicity and Nitrogen narcosis.
Onto the practical session of the evening:
Backwards rolling into the pool to begin with ended up being quite enjoyable, it was our first time trying it out and as nervous as I was when I stood with my back to the water with my feet on the edge of the pool, it went a lot smoother than I expected. I’ll be brutally honest I think I almost fell in backwards anyway, so I just went with it without giving myself too much time to overthink it. Following a backwards descent into the water me and my buddy then did a swim around the pool, monitored by our instructor where we used the hand signals we had learnt so far in practice on our own i.e. “I’m the leader”, “you’re the leader”, “are you okay?” “gas check?” this was fun, it was exciting to be able to freely swim around and use the information I’d learned (and realised it had stuck and I was getting better each week!)
Next up came the bit I’d like to now tell readers I’m STILL working on, if anyone has any miracles for how to do this easily, someone, please, enlighten me, my mermaid dreams felt like they were slipping from my grasp during this task.
We had to perform a mask removal underwater and reapply the mask after we had removed it. Now I’m sat, on my knees, underwater watching my buddy do this procedure, she completes it, very well might I add, and during every single one of those painstaking minutes watching her, my sense of dread is just slowly increasing, next thing I know my instructor is Infront of me asking me to now perform the mask removal so what do I do? Obviously I take my mask off! And then I panic, I bottle it. I come up to the surface, gasping for air a little bit, even though I’ve had my reg in the whole time, I’m still panicking at this point and I’m very aware that I just don’t think I’ll be getting this done this session.
My instructor, who is a very lovely man tells me to just take time off and we can get it done next time and not to worry, but, of course I spend the next two hours worrying, listening to my already qualified friend Jamie tell me to “just practice in the bath, it’ll be fine” much to my amusement, but I actually may take this as serious advice. So, to my mother, if you’re reading this now, please don’t be surprised if you catch me snorkelling in the bath when I’m home for easter.
