I have fallen in love with diving so much, that I have decided to become a Divemaster.  Qualifying as a Divemaster is a professional certification, and it can open up some job opportunities for me in the future.  But for now, it’s great because it will keep me very busy and enable me to dive many times a week for free!

There are many Divemaster certification programs around the world that will allow you to complete the program in as little as 8 days, which I think is quite ambitious and a bit insane.  Diving can be safe and fun if you are follow the rules and use good judgement.  But it’s very easy to make careless mistakes, and I think I would feel really unprepared and overwhelmed to be responsible for my life and the life of other divers that I will lead by the time I am certified.  I am glad that I am training with Scubatech, because not only do they make sure that the program isn’t rushed (they won’t allow Divemaster candidates to complete the program in less than 3 weeks), but since I’m going to be working for them right after I get certified, they won’t allow me to lead any dives that they don’t think I’m not ready for.

Prior to becoming a Divemaster Candidate, I completed an Emergency First Responder Course, and a Rescue Diver Course–two courses that would be useful for any diver, even if they never planned to become a Divemaster.

To date, I have completed the following physical requirements for the course:

–400 meter timed swim, non-stop.
–15 minutes tread water, the last 2 minutes with hands held out of the water.
–800 meter timed snorkel, wearing only a swimsuit, non-stop using only your fins, (no arm strokes).
–100 meter tired diver tow wearing full scuba equipment non-stop, timed.
–Execute a simulated rescue of an unresponsive non-breathing diver at the surface

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I have also passed my first 3 exams on the Divemaster Manual, covering:

–The Role and Characteristics of a PADI Divemaster.

–Supervising general diving activities for certified divers.
–Assisting with student divers in training.
–Dive Theory introduction.
–Decompression Theory and the Recreational Dive Planner.
–Divemaster conducted programs.
–Risk management.
–The business of Diving.
–Your diving career

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And, I was successful in showing the 20 basic water skills at a level that is considered to be demonstration-quality:

–Buddy check of diving equipment
–Deep water entry – giant stride
–Five point descent from surface
–Remove and replace weight system underwater
–Fin pivot by using low pressure inflator
–Fin pivot by orally inflating BCD (Buoyancy Control Device)
–Snorkel/Regulator exchange
–Remove and replace BCD underwater
–Out of Air/Alternate Air Source use
–Clear Flooded Mask Underwater
–Mask removal and replacement (underwater)

–Breathe from Free-flowing regulator

–Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent (CESA)

–Regulator recovery

–Mask removal, swim, and mask replacement (underwater)

–Remove and replace weight system on the surface

–Remove and replace BCD on the surface

–Five point ascent

–Buddy breathing (stationary)

–Buddy breathing during underwater swim

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At times, a Divemaster is expected to assist an instructor while an Open Water Diving course is being taught (which is the basic certification for a someone who wants to be able to dive internationally, with or without direct supervision).  There are also courses that Divemasters can teach on their own, such as Skindiving, Discover Snorkelling, and Scuba Review (a brief course recommended for people who were Open Water Certified in the past, but haven’t dived in a while).  So, it’s important to be able to demonstrate skills slowly and clearly, especially because most of the work is done underwater and you can’t just vocally tell a student what they are supposed to do!

I still have a lot more studying to do on the hardest subject for me–PHYSICS.  ugh.

A Divemaster is expected to know a good deal about the effects of diving on the body, which is necessary from purely a theoretical standpoint.  But more importantly, because it’s standard in the industry for people to do 2 or even 4 dives a day, you need to understand how the body processes oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen, and how those processes change according to what depths you go to, and how many times you dive within a certain amount of time.   It’s very important to try to prevent Decompression Sickness (DCS) in yourself and the people you are responsible for, because it can turn a great day into a visit to the nearest decompression chamber.  If someone showed symptoms of DCS while diving on Grenada, they would have to be airlifted about 100 miles to Trinidad, which would be expensive and no fun at all.

I am also only a little more than halfway to the number of dives I need to be a Divemaster–I need at least 60, and I have done about 35.

The diveshop is quite busy these days, since the high tourist season in the Caribbean has begun, and will probably last until around April or May.  So when there is time between taking care of our guests before, during, and after dives, my supervisors Carsten and Jochen schedule time for us to take our written tests.  This is the least enjoyable part of my training, but it is important and must be done.  I’m going to try and do some studying this weekend so that I’ll be ready whenever the next test is scheduled.

I am going through the training with a couple of friends whose spouses are also in school down here, so every day we get to the diveshop around 8:15 am and check the schedule to see how many guests will dive with us that morning.

Remember this girl?

Each guest who dives must either rent all of the above equipment from us (except for the safety sausage/SMB, the compass, and the dive computer, which are optional) or bring their own.  So, all of the Divemasters and Divemaster Candidates prepare equipment for all of the guest and load it on the boat so that we can leave by 9 am.  Another benefit of starting to work out again, is being able to lift and carry dive gear–each air tank alone each weighs about 40 pounds.

In the morning we always go out for 2 dives, which allows us to return to the diveshop between 12:30 and 1:30pm–depending upon which dive sites we choose to go to that day.  We then load all of the gear off the boat, clean it, put it away, and break for lunch.  If we plan to take the boat back out for another dive or a snorkeling trip, then lunch is very short, since the afternoon trip usually leaves between 2-2:30pm.  But there are a good number of days when we have the afternoon off, which is nice, because those days I can still go to the gym.  When the boat goes out twice, though, I won’t leave the diveshop until 5:30 pm or so, and I’m too tired to go to the gym after that.  But, since all of my physical activity during the day burns a good deal of calories, I don’t feel TOO badly about not getting to the gym on days like that.

I hope to be finished by mid-December, right before our first round of company gets here.  Right now, I’m expected to be at the shop whenever there is diving going on, which 6 or 7 days a week during the high tourist season.  After I’m certified I plan to only work 4 days a week, though, because I don’t want the house to descend into madness as the cats and the ants and the dust and the laundry slowly take over.

So that’s the basic story of my training!  I’m going to update this space as I complete different things, and report on anything that I see or do that is especially interesting.

That reminds me!

The other day, I saw 5 Reef Squid, and they were fantastic.

11/28/08

The Bianca “C”

Brief Details

Wreck Depth: 33-50 meters/108-164 feet (Note: because I am trained as a Recreational Diver, rather than a Technical Diver, my maximum depth never exceeds 35 meters/115 feet)

Length of Wreck: 600 feet

Sunk on October 22, 1961, the Bianca “C” is also referred to as the “Titanic of the Caribbean”.  This is an extremely popular dive site, and many divers come to Grenada especially to see it.  It is the biggest shipwreck in the Caribbean.  You can go here if for a good deal more about the history of the ship itself, and the details of the day that it sank.

The Bianca was very popular among serious wreck divers who like to penetrate sunken ships and explore their interiors.  But over the last decade or so, the Bianca has experienced some serious deterioration, and is no longer as safe to dive inside as it once was.  But it is still a very deep, very challenging dive, and it is quite amazing to pass over such an enormous sunken ship.

The deeper you dive, the more quickly your air is depleted.  So the Bianca is a short dive (only about 20-35 minutes), and there wasn’t a great deal of interesting sea life there that day–although the mast was surrounded with a ton of silvery Jacks.  For me, though, it’s all about seeing as many different types of fish and coral as possible.  I’ll have to see if after some more visits there, Bianca becomes a favorite dive spot for me or not!

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11/29/08

Hema 1

Brief Details

Wreck Depth: 32 meters/105 feet

Hema 1 was a freighter bound for Trinidad that sank in 2005, about 4 miles off the coast of Grenada;  only one large piece of the wreck remains (about 25 feet in height).  Because it is located in the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean, it is normally a very challenging dive because there is a great deal of current both at the surface and around the wreck.

However, when I dove Hema this morning, there was a very manageable amount of surface current, and almost none once I descended to the wreck (I am told this rarely happens).  So it was a lovely, calm dive.  I was even able to do a free-descent, rather than hanging on to the line all the way down.

As soon as we descended, we saw an Eagle Ray circling the wreck–my first one!!  The Ray kept us company for most of the time we were there.  We also saw a number of Barracuda and Nurse Sharks.  Definitely one of the best dives I’ve experienced since I started.

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1/09/09

Hema 1 (reprise)

I’ve done a good number of dives since my last report I now have about 50), but not as many as I hoped I would by now.  During the holidays, the dive boat is (more often than not) filled with guests and equipment every day.  Since I am not yet a Divemaster, this means that my presence on the boat is optional, and after I help set up and load the boat, I may or may not get to go out on that day’s dive.  Or, if I go out, I might have to accompany snorkelers instead of diving.  So, even though I have been at the shop most every day, I don’t have as many logged dives as I might have liked by now.  No matter–I’ve been learning a lot and will get there soon enough!

Today’s dive at Hema was hands the most challenging I have ever experienced, but incredibly worth it.  It was a quiet day; just myself, 2 Divemasters, and two guests (one being Breck).

As soon as our captain (Sao) put the boat over the site, he killed the engines and we waited, watching the surface current to see its direction and how strong it was, planning how best to enter the water and, indeed, to establish if the dive could be attempted at all.  A ripping current can most times be handled, but too much can be dangerous and/or make the dive impossible.

Hema is the only site where we drop an anchor into the water; the anchor is attached by a long rope line to a surface buoy (not the boat).  This is because it’s usually impossible to attempt a descent without hanging on to a line–you’ll easily be picked up by the current and pushed far away from the wreck.  Once that happens, the dive has to be aborted, which is both annoying and disappointing.  If the current is not outrageous, it’s better just to keep a gentle, loose hold to it with your hand and use it more as a guide than an anchor, because the anchor always sits in soft sand and by pulling on it you can easily drag the whole thing away from the wreck. But on a day like today, we had to hold onto the line tightly, and the first Divemaster into the water descended and tied the bottom of the anchor line to a piece of the wreck.

Breck and I and the other Divemaster were last into the water.  Your first responsibility and primary focus at the beginning of dive like this is to GET TO THE BUOY AND GRAB THE LINE.  Which is extremely hard while the buoy is being pulled away from you (quickly) by the current.  You can swim with all your might but just never seem to catch up to it.  The buoy–somehow–ended up circling around so that the boat was between myself and the buoy, which made getting to it impossible.

Sao, our wonderful captain, saw this happening and told us to stop and wait, while he circled around and picked us up again.  We got back into the boat, he pulled it up to the buoy as closely as possible, and we entered the water again.  I caught the line fast and descended immediately.  I gripped the line hard and had to pull myself hand over hand down the line because the current was pushing me back so hard I couldn’t descend on my own.  Finally, after a long fight–during which I used up half of the air in my tank–I reached the bottom, next to the wreck, where the current was considerably more manageable.

And all of that work was completely worthwhile.  A veritable flotilla of 7 Nurse Sharks passed me on the right, and a what seemed like a wall of Barracuda was simply hanging, motionless, next to the wreck.  Above us, 5 Eagle Rays also floated, barely moving at all.  It felt magical.

Unfortunately, Breck and the second Divemaster weren’t able to make a descent, as they were blown far away from the line on their second attempt, and realized that because of the depth of the dive (you use more air on deeper dives) and the time that it took them to try and descend twice, the rest of us would soon be back to the boat.  So they would have to abort the dive and hope for better conditions another day.

I was disappointed, because Breck had planned for that to be his last dive before he started the semester, but I’m hoping to get him back out for one more shot at Hema before things get too busy for him.

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1/12/09

Physics!

I never made it past Chemistry I in High School, and I received a barely passing grade in that, as I recall.  So I was pretty unhappy when I heard that I would be responsible for knowing some basic Physics in order to receive my Divemaster certification.  I actually thought seriously a few times about abandoning the whole endeavor so that I wouldn’t have to embarrass myself with trying to learn something I couldn’t possibly  figure out.

Divemaster candidates are asked to study and understand how gas (that you breath or absorb) and atmospheric pressure affect the body, how buoyancy and volume are related, how temperature plays a role, and how to calculate all of these things with nice little formulas.

Here are some practice problems for you to work on:

1. Approximately how much water must be displaced to bring a 500KG/900 LB object to the surface if the object displaces 300 Litres/10 cubic feet?  The object lies in 40 meters/132 feet of seawater.

2. A balloon is filled with 60 litres/2 cubic feet of air at 30 meters/100 feet of seawater.  What will be the approximate volume of the balloon if it is taken to a depth of 90 meters/300 feet?

3. True or False?  A scuba tank is filled to capacity at the surface.  When this tank is used at a depth of 30 meters/99 feet in the sea, the air within the tank is four times more dense than it was at the surface?

4. A diver has an air consumption rate of 90 litres/3 cubic feet per minute at 20 meters/66 feet of seawater.  If all factors but depth remain unchanged, what will his consumption rate be at 60 meters/200 feet?

5. A 12 litre/80 cubic foot scuba tank is filled to 200 bar/3335 psig at an ambient temperature of 26 degrees Celsius/78 degrees Fareinheit.  What will the exact tank pressure be if the tank is used in water temperature of 7 degrees Celsius/44 degrees Fareinheit?  (For imperial measurement calculations, assume 1 atm= 15 psi)

6. A gas mixture is comprised of 21% oxygen, 78% nitrogen and 1% carbon dioxide.  At a depth of 24 meters/78 feet of seawater, what is the partial pressure of the oxygen?

7. Breathing from a contaminated air source, with 1.5% carbon monoxide, at a depth of 90 meters/300 feet of seawater, would have the same effect as breathing approximately what percentage of carbon monoxide at the surface?

8. A glass of water has been placed in a vacuum for several days.  It no longer contains any dissolved gas within it.  If it is then placed in a pressure pot and pressurized to 2 ata for several days, what will the gas pressure be within the liquid?  If the pressure in the pot is increased, will the pressure of the gas in the liquid increase, decrease, or stay the same?  If a vacuum is created in the pot, the pressure of the gas within the liquid increase, decrease, or stay the same?

(If anyone actually wants the answers to these questions, let me know and I will send them to you!)

I’m very happy to report that I passed my test with an 80%!

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1/15/09

The Recreational Dive Planner

Ever since I took my Open Water course, the Recreational Dive Planner (RDP) has been the bane of my diving existence.  I didn’t understand it, I couldn’t figure out how to use it, and I just wanted to forget it ever existed.

The RDP is a tool that divers used (prior to when dive computers became widely available and affordable a decade or so ago) to plan their dives, taking into account depth of a dive, dive time (aka “bottom time”), time in between multiple dives (aka “surface interval time”), and number of multiple dives (aka “repetitive diving).  By closely following the RDP and following conservative diving practices, divers have been able to safely enjoy diving and greatly decrease their chance of getting DCS.  There is never a guarantee that you won’t contract DCS, but the RDP (and all of the computers that are now based on its model) gives you the best chance of avoiding a trip to the Decompression Chamber.

At first blush, the RDP was extremely confusing to me.  Let me try to explain why by telling you how to use it:

Say, for example, you are planning 2 dives in one morning.  The first dive will be to   a depth of 75 feet for 25 minutes, and the second dive will be to 50 feet for 40 minutes.

1. Go to the top left corner of Side 1 of the RDP (the top photo in this entry).  Look where it says START.  Find the top column where it says “Depth”.  Since you are planning to dive to 75 feet–but there are only columns for 60 or 80 feet–you would round up to 80 feet and use that depth.

2. Now, go down the column under 80 feet and find the box for 25 minutes.  Then, follow that row back to the left, until you get to the letter next row.  You should be at Row N.  N is your “pressure group” (when you have taken enough time in between dives and all of the nitrogen has left your body, you will be in Pressure Group A).  The farther down you are in the alphabet, the more risudual nitrogen you potentially have in your blood.  More risidual nitrogen during multiple dives means more rules to abide by to make sure that you keep your risk of DCS low.

3. To keep things simple, let’s suppose that you are planning to take an hour break between the two dives (this way, you don’t have to figure out the minimum time for a surface interval, which starts complicating matters a bit more).  Go to the top right-hand corner of Side 1 and find where it says “Surface Interval Credit Table”.  Directly to the left, you will see the letters of the alphabet going from diagonally backward down the card.  Find the letter N (your pressure group).

4. Following the row to the right of the N from left to right, find the box that says 1:00 and 1:08, stacked on top of each other.  This stands for a surface interval anywhere from 1 hour to 1 hour and 8 minutes.

5. Now, moving down that column, follow it to the end where you will find ANOTHER LETTER.  You should be at Pressure Group D.  This means that you have dropped from Group N to Group D (in terms of nitrogen saturation) because of the credit you received for staying at the surface for 1 hour.

6.  Now go to Side 2, which is the bottom picture on this post.

7. You want your second dive to be to a depth of 50 feet for 40 minutes, remember?  Go to the left hand side of the table and find the number 50.  Then, follow this row from left to right until you are under the column for D (you are in Pressure Group D).

8. The box in the 50 feet column under the letter D has 2 numbers.  The top number (19) is the Risidual Nitrogen Time (RNT).  This has to be added to the actual dive time of your very next dive, because the excess nitrogen that is still in your blood from the last dive must be taken into account.  The bottom number (61) is your No-Decompression Limit (NDL).  This is the maximum amount of time that you can remain at 50 feet on your next dive.  If you go over this number, then you have to start following a whole mess of new procedures to try and avoid developing DCS.

9.You wanted your second dive to last for 40 minutes, so you have to add the RNT number (19) to your desired dive time: 40 + 19 = 59 minutes.  Even though you are only actually staying down for 40 minutes, the leftover nitrogen from the last dive added with the new nitrogen from the next dive has the affect of a 59 minute dive.  Since 59 minutes just gets in below the NDL set out for this dive, you can continue with what you had planned.

Now, go back to the FIRST table you used, back on Side 1.

10. Find 50 feet in the top row.  Follow that column down until you reach 60 (because there is no box for 59 minutes, so you must round up).  If you follow the row where you hit 60 back to the left, you see that you will be in Pressure Group S following your second dive.  You need to take that into account if you plan to do more dives, or even if you plan to fly any time within 6 hours following your dive.

It gets more complicated than that, but that is the very basic story of the RDP.

There’s an even more accurate RDP in the form of a wheel.  Don’t get me started on explaining how to use that.  Although, now that I actually know how to use these tools, they are quite foolproof, ingenious ways to make diving safer, and I’m completely amazed that someone figured out how to develop them.

But I’m even more happy that someone used the RDP to develop a computer I wear on my wrist while I dive, and it just tells me what to do!

I took the test today, and was pleased to pass with an 85%.

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