58 replies to this topic

[twisted_ophelia]

Thought I'd post an update on my diving. I'm doing my first two open water dives this Monday and I'm totally excited!! I'm doing the third and fourth dives on the second weekend in September. After that I'll be fully certified for open water. My dive buddy and I also want to do our Advanced Open Water certification this year which includes deep diving, underwater nav, wreck diving and two other specialities so that we can ice dive this Winter. The dive shop where I am learning (Scuba2000) is AMAZING and have been so helpful. I'll put up pics of my dives on my blog after the dives are done (an underwater photographer has offered to join me on my dives!). I'm thinking of potentially turning my experience learning how to become an advanced diver into a short documentary, if I can get the right people involved in making it. So excited!

[wheeels]

Make sure you do a drysuit cert with your advanced if you plan on doing any ice diving. That is unless you really really like to be cold.

[twisted_ophelia]

wheeels, on Aug 27 2009, 11:20 AM, said:

Make sure you do a drysuit cert with your advanced if you plan on doing any ice diving. That is unless you really really like to be cold.

Yeah I was having the drysuit discussion with someone the other day. I currently have a 7mm Henderson wetsuit which quite a few people use to ice dive locally. If I was diving in colder regions, I would invest in a drysuit but apparently people have had no issues wearing just 7mm suits here in southern Ontario. Unfortunately, dry suits are expensive and I have not found a place that rents them are they are so customized to the wearer. It's an investment I will make in the future but for now, my instructor suggested just putting some kind of double layer over my 7mm.

[wheeels]

Oh lack of rental would be a big problem, yes they are expensive. I live in Calgary and everyone rents them so that is what I dive in I like to be warm and dry. I also found it easier to swim around in as they are not as restrictive.

Good luck with the diving, and make sure you do a dive vacation some where warm and tropical its a whole new experience.

[twisted_ophelia]

wheeels, on Aug 27 2009, 01:55 PM, said:

Oh lack of rental would be a big problem, yes they are expensive. I live in Calgary and everyone rents them so that is what I dive in I like to be warm and dry. I also found it easier to swim around in as they are not as restrictive.

Good luck with the diving, and make sure you do a dive vacation some where warm and tropical its a whole new experience.

Where do you guys dive in the Calgary area? Lakes nearby? I'm doing my first open water dive this monday at site where there is actually a sunken ship that went down in 1857 and we're going to go out and see it. I can't wait! I'm a history buff. I'm also hoping to drive down to the Florida Keys maybe after Christmas and spend some time diving down there. There are so many tropical places I'm wanting to dive--Mexico, various Caribbean islands, the Galapagos, Fiji. I'm surprised at how many good deals there are out there for dive vacations, I guess because the economy sucks right now. I don't mind getting wet while diving in cool water (a lot of people probably don't realize how WET you get in a wetsuit ) but I certainly don't want to freeze so if we dive further up north in the future, a dry suit will be something that I will have no choice but to buy.

Do you wear ankle weights when you dive? In my confined dives, I've tried wearing and not wearing ankle weights and find that they really hinder me when I'm swimming but make being at the surface less awkward (they have a tendency to float up without weights and make me go off kilter at the surface with my BCD inflated). My confined dives have been in a salt water pool, wearing a 5mm wetsuit, and I only need 6lbs of weight but fresh open water is an entirely different scenario, plus I'll be wearing a 7mm which adds buoyancy. My legs have a total mind of their own underwater and sometimes float and sometimes sink.

Edited by twisted_ophelia, 28 August 2009 - 04:57 AM.

[wheeels]

I dive in local lakes, most open water testing is done in some man made lakes about 20 feet in depth.
The more interesting diving is up in the mountain lakes but its cooler and have to adjust for altitude.
Here is a link to a local dive shop that has some dive info about the area Alberta Dive Sites

My favorite diving was in Australia spent 7 days on a live aboard boat, another cool and easy place to dive is Cozumel as its mostly drift diving so less swimming, they drop you at one point on the wall you drop 70 feet or so then drift along he wall when get picked up at the other end.

I wear ankle weights when I use a dry suit, when diving in warm water I have not been wearing a wet suit at all so no need for weights. I also do triathlons and wear a wet suit for them due to the buoyancy that I get in the legs.

You will need less weight in fresh water but you will have time to figure that out.

Enjoy the diving it can become additive.

[greybeard]

This may be of interest to you water babies. Scuba Trust - Tenerife
http://news.bbc.co.u...lth/8118995.stm

Edited by greybeard, 30 August 2009 - 04:47 PM.

[twisted_ophelia]

Did my first two open water dives! Full story and lots of details, and some photos, are on my blog http://mimimachine.blogspot.com We had a videographer present with us who will hopefully soon post some clips of the dive on his Vimeo channel!

[SnoFl]

greybeard, on Aug 30 2009, 11:47 AM, said:

This may be of interest to you water babies. Scuba Trust - Tenerife
http://news.bbc.co.u...lth/8118995.stm

twisted_ophelia, on Sep 2 2009, 01:58 AM, said:

Did my first two open water dives! Full story and lots of details, and some photos, are on my blog http://mimimachine.blogspot.com We had a videographer present with us who will hopefully soon post some clips of the dive on his Vimeo channel!

Both of these are great sites! When I read your stories and I see your pictures, I feel like you take me to another world. it is wonderful.

Edited by SnoFl, 02 September 2009 - 07:17 AM.

[twisted_ophelia]

SnoFl, on Sep 2 2009, 03:17 AM, said:

twisted_ophelia, on Sep 2 2009, 01:58 AM, said:

Did my first two open water dives! Full story and lots of details, and some photos, are on my blog http://mimimachine.blogspot.com We had a videographer present with us who will hopefully soon post some clips of the dive on his Vimeo channel!

Both of these are great sites! When I read your stories and I see your pictures, I feel like you take me to another world. it is wonderful.

Thank you! David White (our videographer) has some stunning images captured in his underwater films. I'm very happy he has offered to become involved in my documentary project.

My dive buddy and I are planning to do our Advanced Open Water certification in October which includes a deep dive to 100ft. Have any of you guys experienced doing a deep dive? My deepest on Monday was approx. 25 feet and I felt just fine with the pressure (though 25 ft isn't that deep, lol).

On a side note, I bought a Catalina tank on Monday at a dive shop that I don't normally go to by the beach we went to, about an hour away from my home. The tanks were on sale for a really good deal, and I need a tank so I thought 'why not?'. Well,aAt 6 am Tuesday morning, I was woken up by an incredible loud gushing sound. The tank had been filled by the dive shop to 3000 psi and I had it in my hallway. It was GUSHING AIR. A scuba tank gushing air is very very loud and it was scary as hell because I didn't know what was going on or what to do about it. It leaked for a few HOURS. I called the dive shop, of course, and they tried to tell me the valve must have gotten loose in transport but I knew that wasn't really possible because my dive buddy packed all our tanks and gear into my truck and he secured everything perfectly. I took it to Scuba2000 (my usual dive shop where I've been doing my certification) and they told me that it had a burst disc and a messed up o ring and the reason that happened was because it was overfilled. There's no way it could have been that damaged during car transport. The tank was completely defective and I'm taking it back to the other dive shop to get a refund tomorrow. Scary stuff. Thankfully it happened here on land and there wasn't some of kind of underwater emergency.

[Beautiful]

Just have to say it again:

JEALOUS! I am glad you're able to experience all this though

But that is scary about the tank. So lucky it happened before you had to use it!

[greybeard]

twisted_ophelia, on Sep 3 2009, 06:17 AM, said:

Scary stuff. Thankfully it happened here on land and there wasn't some of kind of underwater emergency.

Nah! That would have just added to your excitement! You being into every sort of scary stuff you can find.


Loads of lovely clean free air up here. What the hell do you want to go and suck on some stale old stuff out of a tube 100 feet under water for? Death wish - just like I said.

[twisted_ophelia]

Beautiful, on Sep 3 2009, 09:32 AM, said:

Just have to say it again:

JEALOUS! I am glad you're able to experience all this though

But that is scary about the tank. So lucky it happened before you had to use it!

Thanks! You could definitely learn to scuba as well. Do you swim?

greybeard, on Sep 3 2009, 10:17 AM, said:

Nah! That would have just added to your excitement! You being into every sort of scary stuff you can find.


Loads of lovely clean free air up here. What the hell do you want to go and suck on some stale old stuff out of a tube 100 feet under water for? Death wish - just like I said.

Oh, G, you do realize it is now my mission to come to England get you to scuba dive with me, right?

I'm heading back up to Barrie today to return that defective tank. What a pain in the ass, having to trek back up there. I'm getting a refund on that thing. I don't want them to fix it, I just want to get rid of it. Even if they fixed it, I wouldn't trust that tank.

[wheeels]

I have been down to over 100feet, you will notice the pressure but its not that bad I find the first 25-30 feet the toughest with equalization and such. You will notice it gets dark and cold.

I also find that air goes fast for me faster then anyone around.

Good luck with the tank, now you know why there are on sale

[greybeard]

twisted_ophelia, on Sep 3 2009, 04:29 PM, said:

greybeard, on Sep 3 2009, 10:17 AM, said:

Nah! That would have just added to your excitement! You being into every sort of scary stuff you can find.


Loads of lovely clean free air up here. What the hell do you want to go and suck on some stale old stuff out of a tube 100 feet under water for? Death wish - just like I said.

Oh, G, you do realize it is now my mission to come to England get you to scuba dive with me, right?

Sorry mate. Whatever the reward on offer, it wouldn't be enough to tempt me. Just chicken, me.

I intend that my pension will set the world record for the length of time they'll have to pay it. I'm doing nothing to save the b%*tards' money for them.

[twisted_ophelia]

wheeels, on Sep 3 2009, 11:29 AM, said:

I have been down to over 100feet, you will notice the pressure but its not that bad I find the first 25-30 feet the toughest with equalization and such. You will notice it gets dark and cold.

I also find that air goes fast for me faster then anyone around.

Good luck with the tank, now you know why there are on sale

I'm definitely prepared for the dark and cold factor but it's the pressure that I was wondering about and any adverse effects specific to those of us with spinal cord injury and lung injures (both my lungs were punctured in my accident but are now healed--it's been over 11 years). I found that during my open water dives, I felt the biggest equalizing issues at 10-15ft. After equalizing, I would be able to head down to 25-30 feet (the bottom where we were) and was fine. We hit a few thermoclines that I found I was cold in until we passed through them depsite me wearing a 7mm 1-piece wet suit, hood, booties and half-fingered webbed gloves. We use more air because we exert ourselves more, btw. It's much harder for us to swim underwater with our gear than it is for an able-bodied diver who is finning. I actually was surprised that I had really good air consumption on my second dive. We were down at 25 feet, 70 degree water, for about half an hour. I went down with 3000 psi in my tank and came up with 1800 psi. Not too bad!

Speaking of tanks, I returned my defective tank today. They don't do store refunds there which really sucked. They also didn't have any more 63 size tanks in stock so I couldn't get a new tank. I didn't want to have to dive up there AGAIN and waste all that time and gas to pick up a new tank when they came in stock. I instead had to accumulate $225 worth of dive gear that I need but was not a priority to buy. I would rather have had my own tank than all the stuff I bought (Akona dive bag and beach bag, a Henderson titanium hood) but today at my regular dive shop, Scuba2000, I bought my own reg! Exciting!! I went with the Sherwood Blizzard which is best in cold water. Thankfully they're letting me pay for it in installments. Oh, and I am doing my Advanced Open Water cert October 24-25

greybeard, on Sep 3 2009, 11:46 AM, said:

Sorry mate. Whatever the reward on offer, it wouldn't be enough to tempt me. Just chicken, me.

I intend that my pension will set the world record for the length of time they'll have to pay it. I'm doing nothing to save the b%*tards' money for them.

Just wait. Wait and see. I'll get you to scuba dive someday

[Beautiful]

Oh yea. I have an indoor pool that goes down to six feet, and whenever I go on vacations I always swim in the pools.

[wheeels]

Wow you are accumulating a lot of gear fast that is so awesome, and a blizzard reg great choice.

My biggest pet peeves about diving are that we use more air and its tough to keep up to others using just the arms. Thats one reason I like drift diving as it requires less swimming.

I would like one day move into a DPV but they are quite expensive and supper heavy to carry around.

If you are fine around 30feet you will be fine too 100feet you will get a little more pressure and feel the temperature difference, you will notice your breathing rate will change so just watch for that, I find that focusing on keeping my berating rate slow and steady helps.

Oh about the tank usually that the last thing you need I feel as its not that much to rent, you dint have to maintain it and if you travel its not worth taking with you.

[Trinity]

wheeels, on Sep 4 2009, 05:11 AM, said:

My biggest pet peeves about diving are that we use more air.

I find that interesting, I figured you would use less air than everyone else coz you were not using half your muscles, I have found since sci i can swim further underwater than I could pre sci which I put down to none of my leg muscles requiring oxygen to fuel them.

Sorry for the mini hijack, I know nothing about scuba diving!

[wheeels]

I am not an expert but I feel that part of the issue with air and scuba is that when you are swimming you have no equipment on with scuba you have your wetsuit, BCD, regulators and a tank that all add drag though the water.

Swimming with your arms is not as efficient as using your legs and flippers so you end up using more air to go the same distance.

Metabolically we should use less air with less muscle mass, but we loose this advantage due to inefficiency of using our arms and not being as streamlined.

[twisted_ophelia]

wheeels, on Sep 4 2009, 12:11 AM, said:

Wow you are accumulating a lot of gear fast that is so awesome, and a blizzard reg great choice.

My biggest pet peeves about diving are that we use more air and its tough to keep up to others using just the arms. Thats one reason I like drift diving as it requires less swimming.

I would like one day move into a DPV but they are quite expensive and supper heavy to carry around.

If you are fine around 30feet you will be fine too 100feet you will get a little more pressure and feel the temperature difference, you will notice your breathing rate will change so just watch for that, I find that focusing on keeping my berating rate slow and steady helps.

Oh about the tank usually that the last thing you need I feel as its not that much to rent, you dint have to maintain it and if you travel its not worth taking with you.

I'm actually going to do the Enriched Air course in October so I can dive using Nitrox. I think that should help with air consumption. Drift diving is on my list of things to do. I've heard it is tons of fun! There are few places locally here in Ontario, like Big Bay Point, where people drift dive and I'm excited to give it a try when I have a little more experience.

On our next dive trip, for my 3 and 4th cert dives, we're also being joined by a professional underwater photographer who, depending on whether he gets the 'perfect' shot of me diving, will be submitting the photo to some scuba mags. Yay! He also happens to have a DPV that he will be bringing for me to try which I'm really excited about. He mentioned that it is a pain and heavy on land but underwater is virtually weightless. I forget what kind it is, he sent me the link to it, I'll have to get into my email and post it here.

So, at 100feet, do you find you start to breathe faster and shallower? I've done well so far with the slow and steady breathing and I find that I don't start to really suck air as long as I focus on gliding between arm strokes. I think that's why I came up with 1800psi on Monday.

trinity, on Sep 4 2009, 04:24 AM, said:

wheeels, on Sep 4 2009, 05:11 AM, said:

My biggest pet peeves about diving are that we use more air.

I find that interesting, I figured you would use less air than everyone else coz you were not using half your muscles, I have found since sci i can swim further underwater than I could pre sci which I put down to none of my leg muscles requiring oxygen to fuel them.

Sorry for the mini hijack, I know nothing about scuba diving!

Nope, you're not taking into account that they have fins on which makes them much more efficient and scuba divers wear a lot of gear. We're wearing BCDs, tanks, weights, etc. Gear is heavy. Ever tried to lift a scuba tank? It weighs a ton. For me, anyway. I can't lift my own tanks so my dive buddy has to help with set up. Unless I roll it along the ground, which I've done. Surface swimming with gear on is incredibly difficult for me whereas underwater it becomes much lighter.

wheeels, on Sep 4 2009, 11:52 AM, said:

I am not an expert but I feel that part of the issue with air and scuba is that when you are swimming you have no equipment on with scuba you have your wetsuit, BCD, regulators and a tank that all add drag though the water.

Swimming with your arms is not as efficient as using your legs and flippers so you end up using more air to go the same distance.

Metabolically we should use less air with less muscle mass, but we loose this advantage due to inefficiency of using our arms and not being as streamlined.

Yep, exactly. But swimming with the webbed hand gloves made me so much more efficient. And we can't streamline ourselves like AB divers do (a good AB scuba diver swims ONLY with his/her fins, hands/arms should be down at their sides) so we create drag underwater.

[wheeels]

Enriched Air!! Ah so jealous.....

With the deep dives I found as you get deeper the breathing gets shallower but I think thats just a reaction to the chagne in environment and the ability to slow it down comes with time.

I also think that the more you dive the better you will get with breathing in general and that will help conserve air, I have found on a multi day dive trip that my air seemed to last longer the more I did.

[twisted_ophelia]

wheeels, on Sep 5 2009, 10:49 PM, said:

Enriched Air!! Ah so jealous.....

With the deep dives I found as you get deeper the breathing gets shallower but I think thats just a reaction to the chagne in environment and the ability to slow it down comes with time.

I also think that the more you dive the better you will get with breathing in general and that will help conserve air, I have found on a multi day dive trip that my air seemed to last longer the more I did.

Do you have a dive shop in your area that offers the Enriched Air course? Another guy I know with SCI who dives told me it makes a BIG difference for us to dive with Nitrox. I think I will be okay going down to 100 feet. I have an awesome dive buddy who will be doing the Advanced course with me and he quite literally makes me feel very safe down there. It's funny how some people have that effect on others! Anyway, I'm excited to do more wreck diving with actual overhead environments. I'm such a history nerd and old ship wrecks are so amazing and creepy. If you can make a trip to Ontario, you should come and dive with us!

I posted these pics in another thread (and there are more on my blog) but I will repost them here! They are from our dive on Monday. We were down at the Morrison wreck but the vis was crappy so you can't actually SEE the Morrison behind us

Me!




Me, my dive buddy and the 'invisible' Morrison wreck behind us.

Edited by twisted_ophelia, 06 September 2009 - 04:07 PM.

[wheeels]

Yup I have a few dive shops that offer Enriched Air, I just don't dive enough to make it worth at this time.

I have a goal to one day get my dive masters, but I will need way more time before that happens.

Good luck and keep us posted

[twisted_ophelia]

wheeels, on Sep 7 2009, 09:33 PM, said:

Yup I have a few dive shops that offer Enriched Air, I just don't dive enough to make it worth at this time.

I have a goal to one day get my dive masters, but I will need way more time before that happens.

Good luck and keep us posted

I was talking to my instructor about becoming a divemaster. I thought that the Rescue Diving course is a requirement though, isn't it? As much as I hate to admit I probably can't do something, I don't think I'd be able to become a rescue diver. One of the required skills is carrying people up boat ladders and such and I don't think this is a feasible possibility for me, lol. Some people are able to become divemasters in a couple years, depending on how much diving you do.

I actually got invited today by Freedom At Depth, an adaptive diving organization, to go out to Bonaire with them in January. I was texting with my dive buddy/friend about it tonight and depending on details, we may go. The trip is not expenses paid, I think we have to pay for own flights but the diving expenses are covered. So I'm considering it if the flight isn't ridiculously expensive. Going to Bonaire to dive would be beyond incredible. I talked to Hubert from FaD about diving deep and he said he's never had an issue taking someone with SCI down to 100 ft but recommends a slower descent/ascent, instead of 1 foot per second, doing half a foot per second because of circulatory issues, scar tissue on our spinal cords, different muscle mass from atrophy, etc. He also recommended doing the Nitrox course. So I'm definitely feeling significantly more comfortable about doing my first deep dive in October.

[wheeels]

If all you have to cover is airfare then go or you will regret it, Bonaire would be great.

Yup would have to do the rescue diver, but from talking to the folks around here they are willing to adapt the program for me if I do it, The dragging of a person out of the water with full dive gear would be impossible.

[twisted_ophelia]

wheeels, on Sep 8 2009, 11:11 AM, said:

If all you have to cover is airfare then go or you will regret it, Bonaire would be great.

Yup would have to do the rescue diver, but from talking to the folks around here they are willing to adapt the program for me if I do it, The dragging of a person out of the water with full dive gear would be impossible.

If you do the rescue diver course, please keep me posted because I would love to become a divemaster. Other than my SCI, I'm a pretty small female (though I'm strong) but I do know some small women divers (who are able-bodied) who have done the course no problem including the stuff where you have to pick people up. I can barely get MYSELF out of the water with gear on so I'm pretty sure that I would not be able to drag someone with gear on out of the water. On our dives, I was taking off my gear and my dive buddy was pulling it all up on shore then carrying me out of the water. We haven't done a boat dive yet but we have a few ideas about how I'll get back on the boat (most involve grabbing me by the gear and pulling me on board, lol). I know PADI is really good about letting people adapt skills. How did they say you can adapt the dragging-person-with-gear skill? Take their gear off them, maybe? I even find it difficult to do the buddy tow. When I did the skill for my open water cert dives, I was all impressed with myself because we were moving so much faster than I had moved in the pool and I was all excited. Then my dive buddy tells me he was helping me by finning a little bit and that he was a "tired buddy" not a "a dead buddy" hahahaha. Oh well, I know that I CAN tow someone if needed, it just takes a while.

I've contacted the lady who arranges the travel stuff for the Bonaire trip and she is going to speak with the organization a bit more to see what they can do, I guess. I think even just a flight to Bonaire is out of my price range right now but if I can find a way to get down there in January, I'll do it for sure. I've heard the diving is out of this world.

Edited by twisted_ophelia, 08 September 2009 - 04:11 PM.

[twisted_ophelia]

I am finished up my open water certification dives today! Yay! After this afternoon, I will be all certified and I'm very excited. I bought the Henderson Hot Skins (nylons/UV shield) to wear under my wetsuit as I've been told it makes putting wet suits on MUCH easier. I'm also going to be using a DPV for the first time today which I'm excited to try, see if it makes a big difference. We've got a videographer and underwater photographer joining us again so I should hopefully have some really great shot of us underwater to show you guys soon. We are thinking of heading up to Penetang, Ontario for our next dive to see the Maple Dawn wreck, apparently it's very cool!

[brokent10]

Twisted, glad you made it into diving and welcome to the diving family. I'm a T10 complete and I've been diving for close to four years and have almost two hundred dives logged. I am certified through SSI and am a Master Diver. I have taken the Rescue Course and it is all about adaptation. I am also dry suit certified and Nitrox. I dont dive to much nitrox as air is cheaper and Nitrox (in my opinion) is only good if you are doing repeated dives such as a live aboard situation or multiple (3-4) dives in one day.
Air consuption gets better with your skill level once you sort out your kit and become comfortable in the water. I dive in Ohio so its cold and deep, 140 feet at 34 degrees. Going deep will increase your air consuption because of the pressure xerted on your lungs by the outside water pressure. One breath at 100 feet is equal to 4 on land.
I've dove quarries, Lake Erie, St. Lawrence seaway, Florida Keys and Dominican Republic. So I am exprienced in getting on and off boats, salt, fresh and some cave/cavern diving in Florida. I dont use a DPV but rather swimmer's handpaddles because I can wear heavy weight gloves or dry gloves with them and they swing out of the way when I need them to. I recently switched to diving a side mount set up and am more comfortable than a single on the back and I carry more gas.
P.S. if you decide to buy another tank buy a steel becasue you dont need as much weight when diving in a wetsuit or dry suit as a dry suit requires almost double the weight and they dont become positively bouyant as air is consumed!
If you had questions or want advice or want to see pics of me diving look me up on Facebook, Evan Graver. Good luck and happy diving!