SCUBA Hurling Episode 2: The Whining Continues

After getting off the boat 2 weeks ago, I was convinced that my scuba career was over. But, once I was feeling better, I mentally committed to trying it again.

This time, I took two Dramamine before going to bed the night before, then two Triptone in the morning. Surely this onslaught of meds would be enough to overwhelm my otherwise untainted system and prevent the dreaded sea sickness.

Wrong. The fact is, I was going diving no matter what. It was just a matter of controlling how sick I would be leading up to it. And, while it wasn’t a pleasant experience, it wasn’t nearly as bad as last time.

I made a point of standing up as we headed out to the site. I wasn’t feeling great, but tried to ignore it as much as I could. When it came time to put the gear on, though… it started to get bad. The wetsuit fits tight, and the weight belt weighs 16 pounds. All of that pressure on my delicate innards wasn’t working to my advantage. At the site, the master diver determined the currents were too strong there, so in the interest of safety we were going to another site 5 minutes away. I opened up the wet suite and loosened the weight belt, and felt immediately better.

I did spend a little time hanging over the side of the boat retching, but I’m not sure if it was before the first dive or not. I can’t say for sure, but I think I made it into the water without incident. When it was time to dive, my internal instinct was “are you nuts?”, but did so anyway. Once again, I enjoyed the sensation that I plunged a couple feet below the water and kept breathing unhindered. It was more natural this time.

I made it this far the last time before failing, so no real success yet. When we started to descend, I had the same questions running through my head as last time, but I felt much better this time so could concentrate on the answers. An important point that was clarified is that it doesn’t matter how fast you’re descending, as long as you can equalize. My concern last time is that I didn’t know how fast I was dropping, so maybe it was too fast. But, I was equalizing fine, so it was ok. Also, I was able to move my head and look at the gauges without incident, so I tried to get used to that. But, more importantly, I trusted the people I was with. It didn’t matter if I didn’t know what was going on, because they did.

This time, we descended along a rope that the first driver unraveled as he descended.  I was instructed to use it as a guide, but used it as a hand hold more than once. It occurred to me later that the guy unraveling the rope was probably wondering “who’s the idiot trying to pull this out of my hand?!” The descent really was a lot of fun. It was weird to look down and see the other divers progressing. Due the currents, etc, they weren’t descending straight down; it was at a pretty good angle and winded a bit. At last, I was enjoying diving.

At some point, the instructor started giving me some hand signals that I didn’t grasp. It turns out we were about to hit the bottom. Surprise! I guess I stopped paying attention at some point, and there suddenly was the ground.

Visibility seemed decent to me, but it’s my first real dive, so what do I know? People skin appeared to be completely white; I had to remind myself that the color wasn’t right; if it was, then it would’ve meant that everyone was simultaneously bleeding out, which would be weird.

Once on the bottom, we just swam around. We saw a turtle and an eel, a lot of those fish fellas, some coral, etc. Good stuff. It was a lot of fun.

I was using my arms to swim, which I shouldn’t have had to do. I was later advised that maybe I was slightly negatively buoyant when I should’ve been neutral. That makes sense, but also, I wasn’t really swimming with my legs correctly. I was using mostly just foot instead of leg, which limited me. But, all things considered, I think it went pretty well. I obviously need a lot more practice, but it was a good first go.

The guy that was holding the rope ran into a problem. His tank fell off his back. Go figure. Apparently someone didn’t tighten up enough. The instructor went over to help him. He was having a hard time standing still because he was holding the rope, so I grabbed it for him. I figure that automatically should’ve made me an expert. A rescue mission on my first dive, even if I was only rescuing some rope. Someone had to.

Then came the ascent. I’m probably confusing one ascent with the other, so this might not be accurate, but this isn’t an official historical document so a certain margin of timeline inaccuracies is acceptable. Actually, now that I think about it, I think it was the second ascent which means the first ascent wasn’t memorable…

The point of recreational diving is that you don’t have to stop while ascending; it’s a non-decompression dive. But, still, it doesn’t hurt to hang out at about –15 feet and let some nitrogen leave your body. We did that for about 3 minutes. This is the tricky part that I’ll have to work on; just hovering at the same level and keep track of not going up or down. It looks like a more manageable task when you have the wrist computer rather than the maneuvering the gauge hanging off the tank. Once again, I just trusted the instructor and hung out until he said go. Looking up, though, it was neat to see the sun shining through the water’s surface.

Fun fact: on the first ascent, I screwed up and hit the DEFLATE instead of INFLATE button. Whoops. But, I swam straight up anyway and didn’t realize what I did until I’d broken the surface.

The waters were rough. Hanging out at the surface wasn’t a lot of fun. You should be able to inflate the BCD and relax, but I kept tipping forward instead of backwards. I still had the regulator, so being face down wasn’t a problem, but it wasn’t the ideal position.

The boat came up to us. The illogical part of my brain thought it was going to run me over. The logical part, though, kept its wits and prevailed.

You’re supposed to take your fins off and hand them to the dive master, then climb on to the ladder. They suggested deflating the BCD a bit so  you don’t bounce around as much in the process. But, there was a lot of bouncing. Taking off the fins while not getting hit in the face with a boat isn’t as easy as it sounds, at least not for a land bloke such as myself.

As for “climbing the ladder”… my implementation of that is far less elegant. At that point, I was getting dizzy and nauseous again, so it was more like “barely drag yourself out of the water without cracking your skull”. Dang sea sickness.

I secured my own gear this time, which was an improvement, but then immediately had to lay down. I wasn’t really sick, but I could feel it coming, so it was preventive more than anything. Two weeks prior, I was laying down because I didn’t have a choice. This time, it was damage control. The instructor helped me out in a huge way by setting up my gear for the next dive. When we got close to the next sight, he confirmed that I was going again. Rafael told me he didn’t think I would. But, as long as I was laying there, I didn’t feel too bad. Even if I did get sick, I was committed to going again. The dive part was fun; just had to get off the boat.

When it was time, we did go pretty quick. I got up, got the gear on, headed to the back of the boat, hurled over the side, then jumped in.

The big difference with this dive is that I had to do stuff for the certification; the first dive was just looking at the fish and getting comfortable. The second one involved some work.

Here’s the crazy thing; they expect you to flood your mask and clear it without drowning?!?!? This is supposed to become a natural thing, but it’s not yet. I ended up with some water up my nose and in my mouth. I had to try it two or three times before getting it somewhat right. It’s the “not drowning” part that makes it challenging. Flooding the mask is easy.

The current at the bottom was great. We tried to get situated on the ground to do our things, and it kept pushing us away. It was fun. We got separated from the others just because we went where the current brought us. I was wondering how that was going to resolve itself, but somehow we ended up regrouping. We ascended a bit before the others; I was burning through my air a little quick.

This time, on the surface, they changed strategies. They instructed us to remove our fins before moving to the ladder. That helped; once at the ladder, I only had to drag myself on to the boat.

Once again, I secured my gear then laid down. There was more round of retching, but I’m pretty sure that was later. I made it a point to not lay down any longer than I had to; I have to start getting used to this.

Being sea sick isn’t any fun, but the diving part is. Hopefully I can find the balance. There were two people on the boat who were worse off than I was last time; they never even got in the water. One guy was completely down for the count for the entire trip; that was me two weeks ago. He couldn’t even lean over the side to take care of business; the stench wafted across the deck, and I thought of the scene from STAND BY ME where everyone got sick. Fortunately, that didn’t happen.

I have two more dives to go before I can be certified. Now that I’ve corrected the travesty of 2 weeks ago, I’m not in a big rush for it, though I would like to get it done so that I can put it behind me and be ready for a purely recreational trip. I’m perfectly content to wait until after Ellie arrives, and things settle down (including the seas). Alternatively, though, I can see about finishing up during the week when dad-duties are less demanding.

Despite all my whining and moaning, I now see the fun of SCUBA diving and I cautiously look forward to next time. I’m not a fish. I watch TV and play video games. The depths of the ocean is not my natural habitat. While it’s great fun in the water. It’s negative fun on the boat. Unfortunately, you’re on the boat more than you’re in the water.

Congrats to Dave to getting his certification. He too hurled-a-plenty, but came out with the certification regardless.