TheBanyanTree: Sun, 26 May 1996 SCUBA anyone?

[Mike Pingleton]

wow - great story!  I've only done scuba in a pool, but that was enough to
understand the attraction.  You're a cool cookie under pressure (pun
intended) Laura!
-Mike

On Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 7:23 PM, Laura Hicks <wolfljsh at gmail.com> wrote:

> (by special request, this is a piece I wrote just after I got my Advanced
> Open Water certificate, way back when in 1996)
>
>
> I got my Advanced Open Water (I'm PADI trained) at a limestone quarry,
> abandoned when they hit a fresh water spring which promptly filled the
> quarry with water and which has been turned into a diver's retreat.  They
> have even sunk some old wrecks, boats and trucks, and stocked some fish so
> you'll have something to look at.  The only problem with diving there is
> that if you go below about 20 feet there is a *killer* thermocline. The
> water temp drops to about 50.  A bit too cold for my tastes, even in a 1/8"
> wet suit!  They have an old boat sunk in about 70 feet of water which is
> pretty interesting, but I couldn't stand to stay under the thermocline for
> long enough to look around.  We probably stayed down for 8 minutes or so,
> and when we surfaced, my fingernails were blue.  Too damn cold.
>
>
>
> My Open Water I got at West Palm Beach down there in good ol' Flahdeeda.
> 'Course there was a hurricane about 300 miles offshore, and by the end of
> the day the water was just about like swimming in oatmeal, but we got two
> good dives in.  It was quite an exhilarating boat ride, too! There were 4 -
> 6 foot seas, and absolutely *everyone* on board was chumming for sharks.
> Everyone except me, my instructor, the capt'n, and the divemaster.  So, my
> instructor, the divemaster, and I went diving while everyone else prayed to
> die.  I had a few problems that day, all from the strong surge and low
> visibility.
>
>
>
> As I held onto the anchorline during the first dive of the day, the surge
> slammed me into a nice healthy patch of fire coral.  I finished the dive,
> and we surfaced, clinging to the anchorline all the way up. At the surface,
> I had a bit of trouble entering the boat.  The waves would toss me up over
> the stern, and then drop me way down below it.  I don't have enough upper
> body strength to hold on during that kind of pounding. So, my instructor
> managed to get aboard and haul me up one handed and dump me rather
> unceremoniously onto the deck.  After getting my gear off, rinsed, and
> stored (you *don't* want air tanks rolling around the deck loose!), we
> dared to look at my leg.  It was stinging like hell, and looked like it
> too.  A bright red patch the size of a softball right in the middle of my
> calf.  My instructor treated it with vinegar (I think), and it did feel
> some better.  I forgot about it during the rest of the day.
>
>
>
> The second spot of trouble I had that day was during the second dive of the
> day.  We submerged, did the required exercises, and ascended to do the
> surface work.  That consisted of restoring positive bouyancy (inflating my
> vest), dropping my weight belt (a nylon web belt carrying about 8 pounds of
> lead weights), and removing my gear.  Then I had to put it all back on.
> The problem came while I was trying to remove it. My *very* long hair had
> been braided back tightly when we started the day, but during our rough
> boat ride and one dive, a great deal of it had come loose.  Sometime during
> my second dive, quite a lot of it had managed to wrap itself around my
> first stage regulator (the bit that sits on top of your air tank).  I
> didn't realize it until I had my gear more than halfway off. I stopped to
> try to untangle it, but that's pretty hard to do when it's behind you, and
> you have to keep a mouthpiece attached to a hose attached to your tank in
> your mouth to keep from drowning.  I was not having much luck, and my
> instructor didn't understand what the trouble was.  He thought that I was
> tired, and couldn't get the gear off of my back, so he reached over and
> grabbed my tank to help.  Just at that moment, another wave passed us, and
> he went up as I went down.  He still had hold of my tank, and when he went
> up, so did my gear.  It yanked my entire body around 180 degrees, and tore
> a huge hunk of hair right out of my scalp. When I say huge, I mean a 1 inch
> diameter circle of hair.  Do I need to tell you that it hurt like hell?  It
> also pulled my mouthpiece, and consequently my air, out of my mouth.
> Fortunately I am an excellent swimmer, and not at all afraid of the water.
> I took a breath, turned myself around, and took two strokes back to my
> instructor, who was looking in horror at the large handful of hair still
> attached to my regulator.  I retrieved my gear, popped my mouthpiece in,
> purged it, and got a breath.  Then I put my gear back on.  He had already
> tossed my weight belt on deck, so I didn't have to fool with that, thank
> God. We had to go through the one armed re-entry again to get me back
> aboard.  We treated my oozing scalp with antibiotic ointment, and sat down
> to rest. By this time, I was getting *really, REALLY* tired, but we decided
> to try to do a final dive.
>
>
>
> When we got to our last dive site, the divemaster almost decided against
> letting us go.  The water was murky, the seas were high, and the surge was
> very, very strong.  This dive was a simple one however, and he decided that
> if we would maintain contact with the anchorline at all times, we could
> go.  We did giant step entries instead of sitting entries because of the
> waves, and when I hit the water my mask slipped, even with my hand on it.
> I readjusted it - no problem.  The divemaster submerged first, one hand on
> the anchorline.  Then my instructor, then me.  The water was so full of
> sand that we literally could not see more than 10 inches in front of our
> faces.  The deeper we got, the murkier it got.  Suddenly, something hit my
> face, and my mask strap snapped.  I was blind.  I managed to catch my mask,
> how I don't know.  I quickly tucked the strap end into the octopus (that's
> the extra mouthpiece you carry - all the hoses hanging off make you look
> like a multi-armed creature) loop on my vest, and then grabbed for my
> instructor's leg.  What I got was a fin in the face.  I never saw it.  Just
> after it hit me, I grabbed it and yanked.  My instructor (he told me later,
> I couldn't see it) grabbed at the divemaster, stopped him, and turned
> around.  I gave him the thumbs up sign that I wanted to surface, pointing
> to my bare face, and the broken strap hanging from my vest.  He took my arm
> and all three of us surfaced as fast as we safely could.  I decided that
> *that* was going to be *it* for the day!  As it turned out, it was the last
> dive of the week.  The water never got clear enough to dive in the rest of
> the week we were there.  I got my Open Water certificate even though we
> never finished that third dive - he said that anyone who could handle
> themselves the way I did during that second dive would *not* be a saftey
> risk!  By the way, just for the record, I did do the third dive
> successfully later at a lake, so I am "official".  So at the end of a hard
> day at sea, I had an itchy leg, a sore head, and a pretty certificate to
> hang on the wall.  It was worth every minute!  I haven't been diving in a
> few years, it's hard to make the time and money commitments with two little
> boys, but someday I plan to go again.  After a refresher course,
> naturally.  Preferably *not* at West Palm Beach!! :-)
>
>
> (I no longer have two little boys, they are now 20 and 19, but I do still
> want to dive again, preferably in shallow, warm water. <grin>)
>
> --
> Wolfie
> aka
> Laura
> wolfljsh at gmail.com
>