Melondy Phillips
Staff Writer
Scuba diving is just another way to submerge one’s self into the mystifying world around us.
SCUBA is an acronym for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus. It gives someone the ability to stay underwater for long periods of time while still allowing them to freely interact with their surroundings.
Scuba equipment contains items such as a mask, snorkel and fins, but unlike snorkeling, there are many other parts to complete the set-up. A tank filled with compressed air provides the diver with oxygen. The air pressure is controlled by a regulator which is held in the diver’s mouth. A mask to see by, fins to move around with, a weight belt to control buoyancy, compass to track location, snorkel for surface swimming, knife or cutting tool for entanglement, a light, and a compression or depth gauge are some of the equipment that is necessary for safe scuba diving.
During my senior year of school, I signed up for a scuba diving class that was being offered by the local YMCA. The classes consisted of classroom work and hands-on training in the pool. The class was not limited to what SCUBA meant and what all the gear was used for, it also covered relative information about things such as surface markers and diver down flags, coral reefs, nitrogen narcosis, and even several types of sharks you might encounter, their personalities, and how to handle them.
The in-pool training was fun, but a bit scary at times. One of the first steps was figuring out how much weight to add to the weight belt for correct buoyancy. It can be difficult finding the correct weight to add around the waist when your muscle mass is not evenly distributed throughout the body. Part of this was also learning to balance the BCD (or Buoyancy Control Device); a type of vest with air pockets which can be filled with air from the tank or manually inflated by breathing into a tube.
Next, we learned how to retrieve the regulator in case it was dropped. We removed the regulator from our mouths and let it freely descend and settle by our side. After about 30 seconds, we went through the instructed set of motions to retrieve, clear and use the regulator once again – including how to prevent inhaling the bit of water left in it. Clearing and retrieving masks was interesting. The first thing to do after the mask was removed was to try and locate it. Hopefully it was nearby. We then replaced the water filled mask over our eyes and nose. Blowing air into the mask forced the water out but we had to be careful not to inhale the little bit of water left right under our nose. It sometimes needed a second breath to force the rest of the water out. Learning how to close off breathing through the nose is an important skill in scuba diving.
What happens if you run out of air or the hose gets a hole in it while deep under water? We then learned the buddy system for sharing a single tank and regulator, as well as an abundance of other very useful skills.
For the open water test, we went to a nearby river. Part of the test was to submerge to the bottom of the stream, swim a set number of stokes downstream, proceed to swim in a square, and then reemerge in the same place you went down in. Sounds simple, right? If the water was peaceful and clear it would have been, but the opposite was true. This was a fast flowing stream with silt and debris. Whizzing down steam took little effort. We had to pay attention to how fast and far we were moving with each flip of the fins while keeping an eye on our compass and depth gauge. Making the first 90-degree turn was a bit of a challenge as I had to fight the water current from pushing me downstream. On the return trip, I had to pay attention to how far I traveled with each leg stoke and calculate how many more it took for the same distance as downstream (i.e. one stoke down equals the same distance as 15 strokes back). The water current’s tenacity met me once again on my final 90-degree turn to return to my starting point. Popping back up about five to seven feet from the original location was a thrill to this novice, as well as a passing grade.
Several months, and more than 20 recorded dives later, I enrolled in the advanced class. As the title suggests, the book work and “wet work” were both much more in depth, literally. One of the water tests involved an extended deep dive (more than 70 feet down). Two students at a time went with the test instructor. As we approached the depths of the old Crater Lake, vivid colors slowly turned into a gloomy ambience. The faint glow from out lights quickly blackened when our fins stirred up the silt on the bottom. The thick muck enveloped us so profoundly that even the light from our flashlights could not be seen in front of us. Hovering in the weightless umbra, with no evidence of escaping bubbles or other visual perceptions, I could not even tell which way was up. We had to remain as still as possible while waiting for the sediment to clear – about ten minutes.
I had the opportunity to go to Maui about a year after getting my advanced SCUBA Certificate. For people who had dive certifications, night-dive tours were available to explore Black Rock, so I signed up. In addition to the tour guide and me, there was only one other guy on the dive tour. A few feet out from where we submerged, just past the breaking waves, the guide signaled for us to turn off our lights. We hovered there for awhile, watching the mystifying bioluminescent specks gracefully dancing all around us. But there was still a lot more to see.
We swam out a bit and made a turn around the end of the rock face. The night life under the sea is so very different than the day life. Rock fish, eels, lobsters, puffer fish and Spanish dancers seemed as curious about us as we were about them. One of the Spanish dancers fluttered all around my hand, leaving behind the sensation of soft, silky velvet. Many other mystifying sea creatures peeked out from behind rocks and from under the sand watching us as we slowly drifted by.
The two hours I spent in the weightless domain, exploring all the captivating sights of my first night dive, was an experience I will never forget.