Mike's Journal: SCUBA Diving

Let's Get Wet

After a few classroom sessions, looking at video tapes and reading manuals, we finally got an opportunity to get wet. Our dive shop borrowed the swimming pool of an area country club - and we donned wet suits and practiced various skills: basic swimming, treading water, using a mask, snorkle and fins, etc. After a few nights of practicing the various water skills, we were ready for the final exam and check-out dive.

I scored a 96 on my exam - not bad considering I actually read the last chapter of my study guide in the same room minutes before the exam. I basically sat at one table, with the test on the other; finished reading the book, then jumped over to the other table and took the test. I have to admit that reading about scuba diving is much like having someone tell you about music. You really need to get wet; get in the water, and while it is interesting to note all the information on the sport, the only way you really learn is by diving. And even now, I readily admit that I need more dive experience - it takes a lot of time in the water for a person to completely feel comfortable.

The check-out dive

Unfortunately, while New Orleans is virtually surrounded by water, there's no suitable diving spots anywhere nearby. This is due to factors such as pollution and

Is that a party house or what?

the Mississippi river emptying muddy freshwater into the Gulf. There is no place where underwater visibility would be suitable for diving. This is really a drag. It's a good 5-6 hour trip to the nearest place for decent diving - which means Florida.

Our trip was scheduled to Destin, and one reason why I chose this particular shop, was that they rented their own beach house - rather than simply give class members the names of a few area hotels. We could all get to hang out with each other and talk shop and be social. I particularly liked that idea. And this place was awesome. Three stories, something like 3-4 bathrooms, plenty of room, huge kitchen (and the instructor even cooked us breakfast). It was a very nice place. I'd go again, just to hang out in one of these condos - and the people on the trip were the best part of all. The other students were all interesting and lot of fun to hang out with.

Our class scheduled to go to a place called Vortex Springs in Florida, about 40 or so miles North from Destin. This is basically a plot of land that happens to be the

It looks like a pond, but it's Florida's drinking water, and the premier location for scuba dive training

spot where a huge freshwater aquafer is exposed. From one perspective it's a magnificant natural wonder: 76 degree, crystal-clear water year round; then again it looks like a small pond - a hole in the ground. Why do so many people come here?

This little hole reaches depths below 100 feet, and visibility is awesome. There are also lots of fish and caverns. The place has been set up as an ideal locale for practicing diving skills and conducting various check-out dives for scuba classes. From what I understand a lot of cave diving and underwater diving classes are conducted here. I wish I had some pictures under the water, but I didn't have a waterproof camera -- sorry.

While this might seem like a little pond, it is the entrance to a complex series

Crystal clear water - see the fish in the upper left corner?

of caves. In fact, the actual entrance to the caverns is only a fraction of the diameter of the pond's surface. Underneath the water are a number of interesting structures including air pockets and man-made enclosures to swim through. At the bottom is the famous PADI "Danger" sign emblazoned with the image of a skeletal merchant of death - venturing into underwater caves is definitely not for the amateur.

Rumors were abound prior to the dive that you'd freeze your ass off in the freshwater springs. They had us wearing 6mm wetsuits and were tight-lipped about the temperature and comfort factor (the instructor claimed he was only using a drysuit because he would be in the water twice as long as everybody else - not because of the temperature - hehehe). In any case, when we got there, it indeed was COLD! And there were a few of the

Let's Dive!

ladies who almost constantly shivered - I think it was more due to improperly fitting wetsuits than anything else. I rented a suit from the dive shop at the spring and it fit fairly well - but I wasn't really bothered that much by the water temperature. Once you got in and swam around, it wasn't bad at all. The only real problem was that we had to sit and wait underwater while the instructor tested each person in the group individually - when you're very new to diving and not fully-familiar with proper boyancy control, it can be difficult to stay in one place.

In fact, it was downright hilarious at times. They had these platforms at 15 and 30 feet below the surface where we would sit and wait. If you lost your balance, all hell would break loose. A few times people would hover while kicking their fins and all of a sudden the visibility would drop to zero - and the person kicking up the silt from the bottom was more often than not, completely ignorant of what the cause was.

Unlike most of the people there, I actually couldn't stay in the water long enough, and even though at that point I wasn't officially "certified" and wasn't allowed to venture off and explore, I preferred to swim around in the spring, and ended up diving with both groups of students. The feeling of swimming and breathing underwater was incredible! It truly is like being in another world, and the freshwater springs were so calm and tranquil. I had a small taste of what it must have been like to step foot out on the moon or in space: to venture into an unknown world with different properties and environmental conditions.

Diving the Gulf of Mexico

As part of the trip, I signed up for an optional "2-tank boat dive" in the Gulf. At this point, about half the group decided to go on the trip; we were all certified so this was strictly for fun. We were to meet the captain of the Sea Hawk dive boat in Destin for 3:00pm where we would load up and head offshore to visit some wrecks. The boat was a little bit late showing up at the docks - apparently delayed by the dive trip earlier in the day - I didn't hear if there was any incident - it didn't seem so. The captain of the boat was a female, and she really knew her stuff - nobody had any doubts that she was in charge and more than capable of taking care of whatever might happen.

We headed out for a wreck in approximately 80 feet of water. It was an old "Liberty class" ship - perhaps 40-50 years old - a rather large vessel that

Into the wild blue yonder!

had been gutted and sunk as an artificial reef. Ironically, when we arrived, there were about three boats fishing around the wreck. When the dive boat showed up, it was obvious their party was spoiled - normally from what I was told, we would go to another wreck and not bother the fishermen, but it was late in the day and the Captain, as a favor to us, dropped anchor in defiance of the fishing boats and scared them off. At the time, I was wondering if they were going to leave or whether or not we'd be scuba diving in water some fisherman just chummed. Your mind tends to wander in these types of situations.

We received two briefings on the dive. One from the boat captain and one from our instructor who was familiar with the site. We would be doing an 80 foot dive, a 90-foot dive profile. The ship was actually a shell and in the center it was 85 feet. We were instructed to begin our ascent with 1500 pounds of air in our tanks (starting out with 3000). The captain dropped the anchor right next to the boat. One by one we jumped into the water, made our way to the anchor line and began our descent.

It was at this point when we all begin to realize this was a completely different environment than what we had been used to. While the water was warmer, it was also more choppy and the visibility was questionable. As we began to descend on the anchor line, you could tell everyone was getting more and more anxious - the first 20-30 feet were fine, but there was no bottom - nothing that you could see, and the line just sunk down into nothingness, yet we kept going down, farther and farther... 40 feet, 50 feet, 60 feet - it was at this point that I started to wonder where the bottom was. As I was descending, there was so much tiny debris in the water that I felt like I was in some sort of liquid windstorm. I couldn't feel any movement

We're briefed by the instructor on the dive site

but I could see millions of particles sweeping by me in a specific direction - I really felt as if I was hanging on to a rope in the middle of a tornado in slow motion. And then, every once in awhile, a huge white blob would appear out of nowhere - a large jellyfish, and it would be slowly moving right towards the anchor line. It was like being in the middle of a 3-D video game. You had to anticipate at which point the jellyfish was going to cross your path and determine whether you should wait, or ascend very quickly.

As I started farther down and my anxiety level continued to rise, at first I'm thinking, "Ok, this isn't like the springs - I'm not sure if I like this", about 20 feet later, "Ok, I'm certain I don't like this - sitting on my couch watching Wheel of Fortune is starting to sound very appealing!" I was starting to seriously relate to how Nelson Mandella felt - kissing the ground when he got out of that African prison - I was just praying that something didn't go wrong - because we all were down very deep, and none of us had practiced any skills in salt water, and the visibility was lousy. Then, I saw the bottom - and felt a little bit more at ease, until I looked at my depth gauge and noted it was indeed 80 feet below the surface - I was a long way from home. Seeing the

Hey! Anybody know where Kansas is??

bottom however, has desolate as it appeared, was at least a bit more comforting.

At this point I dropped to the floor and immediately did a fin pivot to set my boyancy - you'd think I was the teacher's pet, but actually it was something to do to keep from dwelling on the reality that I was underneath about a million tons of water. Then, one of the girls in the group starts to freak out, giving that universal hand gesture indicating, "I'm getting the fuck out of here!" that I doubt any of us would have misinterpreted - we were all thinking the same thing - I think we subconciously elected her our spokesperson, at which point we could all sit around and act cool - as if we were perfectly comfortable - "Hey look at the girl! She's scared. We're not." Yea right.

The instructor, had just finished retrieving another young lady who had lost control of her boyancy and was starting to rise, only to deal with this other girl - and I don't mean to pick on the women - I think everyone was feeling the same. There were many more women on this trip than men, and let's face it, women are much more apt to express their fear than men. Of course, I was real close to breaking that tradition myself. This environment was nothing like what any of us expected; we learned Spanish - what

Part of our class

are we doing in Russia?!? Nonetheless, the instructor was very cool and calm - this was child's play to him - I figured he really got off on being confronted with these kinds of situations. He pulled out an underwater tablet and took his time writing a message to her - we later learned it said something like, "The wreck is right here - relax." Of course, I couldn't see any wreck - we were supposedly right next to it - and then I looked at my pressure gauge and it said 1500 psi. Oh Shit! I had used half of my air already just on the descent! I tried to get the instructors attention and finally indicated my pressure status to him. He acknowledged and then swam onward - I wasn't about to argue - I guess he knew what he was doing - he claimed the wreck was right ther so we moved forward about 10 feet and suddenly it materialized...

It was like coming out of the forest and seeing a huge castle. Out of the murkiness emerged this HUGE wall - probably at least 30 feet high - I turned back and couldn't see the anchor line - that's how bad the visibility was, somewhere between 10 and 20 feet. But there was this monsterous structure, and we obediently followed the instructor as he swam up the side and to the top. We were all in a little cluster, afraid to go very far - I was mainly concerned with not having someone kick off my mask so I stayed back a bit. We make it over the top and there are little fish here and there and except for the shell of this ship, there's not much to see. As we turned the edge of the ship and entered the center, I notice a flash in the distance - and then it's gone. And then much closer another flash - it's a huge wall of fish that see us and instantly change direction in unison - quite an impressive show of synchronized swimming!

Now I look at my pressure gauge and notice that I only have 1350psi. Less than half my air is available - I signal the instructor. It's time for us to head back - in the mean time, I had picked up a brick from the ocean floor - apparently part of the old ship's boiler room, as a souveneir. We make our way back to the anchor line and begin our ascent. I was keeping a close eye on my air gauge - especially noting that we had a safety stop to make at 15 feet. Ultimately, I ended up stepping into the boat with approximately 100psi in my tank - a very close call. Ironically I was not wasteful with my air supply. I inquired about this later and the instructor said this was normal for a first dive - needless to say I was slightly concerned.

For our second dive, I was the last one in for this and followed everybody. This dive was to 80 feet as well, another wreck - a large barge, and this time we decended

Was that supposed to be a night dive?

more quickly and spent more time on the bottom. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the bottom, the visibility was even worse. Our instructor produced a large spotlight and directed us onward. At this time, we observed a lot more marine life - including flounder, starfish, large schools of fish swimming by, a nurse shark and other varieties of life - very interesting. We were even more huddled together this time because the visibility was probably less than 10 feet - this second dive was apparently closer to shore - I expected it to be in a more shallow area but it wasn't. However, we all handled the second dive without incident - I think we kept hoping for some wonderous burst of clear water to crash upon us at any time - but it didn't. I couldn't help but think most of the class would never be in this kind of environment - they probably just wanted to dive in 30 feet in Cancun or something - they got more than they bargained for. When we got to the surface, surprise! The sun had gone down.

By the end of the dive, we all were a lot quieter on deck. Practicing our skills in the springs didn't completely prepare us for the environment we experienced here. I understand the visibility was unusually bad for this trip. It took me a few weeks to contemplate the significance of everything. I certainly enjoyed it - and I don't think I was ever in any danger, but there was something about it that made me feel a bit uneasy. Perhaps I would have preferred to acclimate myself more slowly to that type of environment? I don't think most people that complete a basic open water certification end up in 80 feet of water at 15 foot visibility a few hours after achieving their certification. Nonetheless, it was quite an informative experience - I'm now looking forward to a bit more laid back diving before I move onward to some advanced stuff like rig diving and spear fishing - hopefully I'll have some great pics of those experiences in the future -- stay tuned!

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