NAUI Certification - Day 3 - I'm Out of Air!

Tonight started off much better than Day 2. I got to the pool early, grabbed my favorite gear, suited up, and even had time to snap a few pics to make this article a bit more interesting. This is my pile of gear before I put it all on. You'll see the regulator (the tube looking thing) isn't attached to the tank yet. I made sure to have a buddy check out my gear before I put it on to make sure everything was okay. Being that the only other time I put my gear together was step-by-step under the watchful eye of an instructor, I felt very apprehensive about everything being correct on my own. We learned a new way to enter the pool tonight that was called the forward roll entry. You literally squat down, tuck your face in a bit and do a forward somersault into the pool. Essentially doing a 360º turn in the water. When in the water, there was a marked improvement of how much better I felt in the gear tonight. The first task we were taught was called a "fin push" with a buddy. Where you're on your stomach and your buddy can't swim for whatever reason. He lays on his back with his fin tips pointed in the air, you put your shoulders to his heels and push him to safety. We did a few laps around the pool like that and then we were given the instructions to descend and work on all the skills we learned yesterday with flooding the mask, mask removal, and also regulator retrieval. My buddy and I give the okay sign to each other and the thumbs down to make a decent into the deep end and we worked on those skills together. Giving an okay sign between each set. I'll tell you one thing, I'm looking forward to a hood or some kind of neoprene sleeve over the back of the face mask because getting your mask to go back over a pony tail holder full of long hair underwater is a pain in the rear end. It took me longer than I would have liked to get my mask back on, but that's okay! I had plenty of more times to try it again! (Yes that is sarcastic enthusiasm you're picking up there. I don't think there is anything I dislike more than having to remove my mask underwater.) Our next task was to flood the mask and wait to be tapped on the head by the instructor to clear it. Wouldn't you know, I somehow sucked in water through my nose and started coughing and taking in water more! UGH!! What a horrible feeling!!! It is really scary and I'm not going to lie, the first desire that popped into my head was to surface take all that stuff off my face and just breathe regularly. I knew that wasn't an option so I allowed myself to sit for a minute and swallow some of the water and spit out the rest. It took two tries to clear my mask but I did it without freaking out...visibly at least. I knew the next task was to remove the mask completely and sit there breathing for a bit until I felt a tap on the head, so I took the time to breathe deep and calm myself down between tasks. I did much better on the mask removal because I just accepted the fact that water was going to get in my nose at some point and I'd have to suck it up...literally.

Next we surfaced and were told about "out of air emergencies" and how to deal with them. The first one was sharing air with your buddy. So back under we went and play acted out the scene. I had to remove my regulator and swim to my buddy and signal to him that I was out of air and I wanted to share his. He then took hold of my shoulder straps (because at this point you're assuming the buddy will be going spastic) and gave me his regulator and grabbed his backup. Then he'd ask me if I was ready to ascend and we'd ascend slowly and he would help hoist me above water so I could orally inflate my BC, and only then would I drop his regulator to signal to him that I was okay. It was reassuring to know that everyone gets this training because it would be the scariest moment ever running out of air underwater. Especially since we've been warned about all the bad things that can happen to you when you ascend too quickly. The second procedure is if you're further away from your buddy than you are from the surface. It's called the swimming ascent, where you have to exhale the whole time you're ascending SLOOOOWLY to the surface. Hoping that you'll have enough air to get there. Not fun. I practically ran out of air in 15 ft. So If I'm down 50-60ft and have to do this, I'm so screwed. I am going to have to practice holding my breath longer, or I'm going to be stuck to my buddy like white on rice for a little while when I start diving for real.

We went over how to remove our gear and get back in it at the surface, as the very last thing before we got out of the pool. I removed all my gear and freshwater dipped it before I hung it up and I grabbed my gym bag to head to the locker room. I made sure I had everything this time. I don't think I mentioned it, but last night, I forgot my pants on the pool deck. So, I had to run out of the locker room half dressed with a towel wrapped around my waist, through the very active gym, to the pool deck to retrieve my forgotten pants and flip flops. :/

Class was good. We learned about all the effects of indirect pressure. One of my favorites being Nitrogen Narcosis. This little gem of the deep gives you the euphoric feeling of intoxication when you get to a certain depth. And of course I kid about it being a fun thing. It can become very dangerous and affect someone's judgment underwater. Luckily, all you have to do is rise a few feet and the feeling should dissipate. We also learned how to calculate dive tables. I'm aware that dive computers nowadays make this skill practically obsolete. But, I am happy to learn something from the ground up and subsequently understand the calculations my computer is making for me later on.

All-in-all I felt so much better under the water tonight. I actually remembered to stop and smell the roses so to speak, as opposed to being terrified and over analytical the whole time. I think this is something I very well could master and enjoy at long long lengths in the near future. Tomorrow I'm going to work on being neutrally buoyant. It is not the easiest thing to accomplish.