My Open Water Diving course - part 2 of 2

Me in diving gear

There’s nothing quite like that moment when your head bobs under the surface of a 20 metre deep lake. Your jacket deflated, you know there will an inevitable moment when you sink under. And it’s not even up to you when you come back – it’s all in the hands of the teachers. You mind is fighting it even as you sink, and you hope that it is really only a swimming pool you’re sinking into. Then the water closes right over the top of your head, and you’ve done it.

This experience was one I was determined would be a part of my personal growth, the combination of fear and the knowledge that I was going to overcome any fear that decides to take a ride on my back. As those who already follow my blog know, last week I undertook the first part of the Open Water diving course, which qualifies you to dive down to depths of 18 metres. Well, this weekend was the meaty part of the course – the actual open water section. In good old Britain that means that it was cold, it was deep and the visibility was almost nonexistent. Swim two metres from your diving buddy and you would have to come up for air before you found them again. This means that I stuck like glue to my teacher for the weekend, Bobby.

We arrived at 8am that morning (some of us having lodged over at a hotel, and others driving up in the morning), and all the kit was quickly laid out all over the grass at our chosen spot. The boxes that we had before were laid out ready. The wetsuits were actually dry for the one and only time of the whole weekend. If you know about diving then you know that this means they were an absolute bugger to put on. The first time I went to the changing room and began to gamely tug myself and my clothing about trying to contort myself into a wetsuit, I’m sure that the yoga community would have been proud of me. To make it even more interesting, there were actually two to put on, a long one and a short one. I saw another girl in the changing room who had a sleeveless wetsuit and a short jacket over the top. It made me feel very glad for what we had. In true preparation mode, 2Dive4 had actually brought along hoods and gloves for use in the water as well, which definitely felt necessary. Although the temperature on top of the water ranged from 12-15 degrees Celsius, once we had descended a few metres it felt decidedly cooler. I discovered a cool trick with my hood. It warmed up the water inside it, so when I equalised it blew open slightly and a rush of warm air swirled about my head.

The lake

After an initial briefing to let us know what we should expect from the first dive (basically, not a lot, as we just needed to get used to being in an open water environment) we were split into two groups and advised to get ready to dive! I was in the first group, along with a couple of other students. With the cylinder weighing the same as a small herd of horses (I imagine), I trudged with no small difficulty across the grass to where we were going to enter the water. The lake is pretty cool to look at. The sun shines across it, and there are a little gaggle of geese marauding around claiming their spoils of war (everyone’s sandwiches). This means that the grass in front of the lake has an abundance of goose poo to avoid as you walk. Still, I managed to avoid it all, I think, and carefully stepped down the metal steps to the entry point. I was relieved to hear that we would be doing giant stride entries all weekend, so I didn’t have to relieve the horrible backwards entry that I did last week. The thing I always forget to do as I step up to the water is inflate my BCD! It is only a matter of time before I shoot like a missile down to the bottom of whatever body of water I’m diving in.

In the water, I instantly feel the rush of the cold water, followed by a rush of panic. To check your weighting, the instructors make you dump your BCD air so that you start to descend. I had a terrible fear that I was going to just go right down, and I would be at the bottom without anyone else there. So I did quite a lot of flapping and finning and gasping before I managed to collect myself. When we descended, we went over to a rope that you can hold as you descend. This means that if you are not used to controlling your descent rate, it allows you to go slow enough to equalise your ears. Equalising is much easier in the lake! I was having difficulty at less than 2 metres in the pool. In the lake I was submerged down to 12 metres and I was fine! We each descended with our instructors, and landed on a little wooden platform that was set at 7 metres depth. I wanted to look up, but that was risky. If I panicked, then I couldn’t simply shoot straight up to the surface. So to control my fear I kept my head low, and knelt on the platform, letting all the air out of my BCD. Once everyone was down, it was time to have a little swim. And by a little swim, I mean we literally swam in a circle around the platform. I tried my hardest to keep my arms in front of me and not wave them about too much. I was making sure that I could see Bobby all the time. After we had a swim about, we floated near a horizontal rope, and practiced swimming straight holding the rope. I kept rising upwards any time I let go of the rope. Bobby later told me that it was because I was orientated diagonally and not horizontally. In the future I should stick my bum in the air to swim straight! After a short time I did dare to look up, and I could see the sunlight dappling on the surface overhead. I could see that it was actually really close. Then I relaxed a little in the water.

After some time swimming about, we made an ascent to the surface and did a couple of skills. Just as in the pool, we had to prove we could swap from regulator to snorkel and back again underwater. The second skill was the tired diver tow, in which I basically had to drag someone over the water (ever so slowly, so as not to tire yourself out) using their cylinder to grip onto. Then it was the turn of the second group, who were congregating on the edge of the entry point. As soon as I got out and had stripped down my kit, I went and got changed into my normal clothes immediately. They had told up that we would likely have about two hours between dives. Definitely enough time to make a change worthwhile. Although it meant that they had to wait for us to get back in the gear before each dive, it also meant that they didn’t have to drag us out of the water in the early stages of hypothermia. So...every cloud. I availed myself of the hot chocolate on sale. I am fairly certain I almost entirely depleted their hot chocolate stocks whilst I was there. I drank about five cups per day, and it is only a little machine. It was very nice, but whether due to reality or just due to the circumstances post dive I’m not sure. The bar inside sells food and drinks, and is right next to a cool little dive shop. Round the back of this building is an area where you can place your cylinders to be refilled. You place them in the empty section, and like magic they reappear full over the other side! Okay, well there was a slight time interval – it’s entirely possible someone just picked them up and filled them. Bah. The magic is gone now.

Getting kitted up and ready to dive!

When everyone was done we had a little dive debriefing about what we had just done, and it wasn’t long then before we were being briefed for the second dive! This one of course was not as nice as the first dive, and was the beginning of the scary underwater skills bit of the second weekend. Two of the skills that we had were the horrible mask skills. The first one is a partial flooding and clearing of your mask. I did the flooding very delicately and deliberately, and must have got about a cm of water in the bottom of each eyepiece on the mask before clearing it. Then came the full flooding. Yup, the one I freaked out over in the pool. I breathed a couple of times, and then pulled the top of my mask away. I cleared it. But Bobby didn’t give the ok signal. She gave the repeat signal. Again, I pulled my mask away and water went in. But when I cleared it the second time I realised what I was doing wrong. I wasn’t actually doing a full flood; but a wimpy half flood again. The third time with determination I yank the top of my mask, and this time there was no doubt. The whole thing filled up, and I hadn’t had the wherewithal to close my eyes beforehand this time. Argh! Closing my eyes I gave a short snuff out of my nose, but since I wasn’t pressing my mask it was to no avail! I opened my eyes expecting clear mask and it was full of water still! Blurred vision shimmered in front of me. Panic rose, and I executed a full body twitch as I could not decide whether to try and break for the surface. But no! With determination, I tried a final time to clear it, and this time I got most of it out. When I opened my eyes again I thought for a moment that I was being told to repeat it, and I shook my head, vehemently refusing. But lucky me, it wasn’t that! I was just being told to clear the remaining water.  Unfortunately I have developed an almost pathological fear of mask removal or flooding now, it was so unpleasant. But turns out I’m not the only one! One of my friends who has done the course and a girl I was chatting to in the waiting room both told me that they actually rushed to the surface during the drill as they inhaled air through their nose. After this we had a few more skills to rattle through. We had to demonstrate the buoyancy control from the pool, both raising/lowering on our knees and floating horizontally. We also had to do the out of air drill with our instructors, both ways. I was okay at giving the signal and breathing from her regulator. However, she did the signal to me a few minutes later, and I completely failed to register what she was asking! I only realised when she did it a second time. I have really got to get my brain on the ball. In a real situation of course that person would probably have taken mine from my mouth.

After the skills we got to explore the lake a little bit more! There is a short rope down from the 7 metre platform, and it leads to a submerged bus! Yup! Well, why not. There is apparently all kinds of random stuff submerged in the lake for the trainees to see (as it is a training lake). The bus is slanted diagonally, almost (but not quite) propped up on one end. We swam all the way round this bus, holding on the glassless windows of the upper deck. Little fish flitted in and out as we swam.

This was the end of the dive unfortunately, although there was a small sense of relief that I was definitely going to be alive for another day! It will take me a while to get used to being underwater and relaxing there, I think. But it will be worth it for all the amazing things you can see in the waters of the world! After a couple more hot chocolates and a debriefing, I was dropped off at my hotel to relax for the night. I went to bed at 7pm and slept for eleven hours. Man, diving is tiring! And I hadn’t finished yet!

The second day

Bright and early the next morning, we were back at the dive site and raring for more! The temperature had dropped by a couple of degrees, and there were substantiated rumours that a storm was due to arrive at some point during the day. I was just hoping that we would get all the diving done before then! A couple of the teachers had changed due to other commitments, but I was pleased to see Bobby was still there. I confided to her that I felt really scared about the upcoming mask skills. She said that I should do them in a slow and controlled manner, over about six seconds, rather than trying to rush them and getting panicked. She was due to be diving with me, so I know she would help me!

The instructors

But that wasn’t the first skill of the day. Before we got in the water, we had to turn how to navigate outbound and reciprocal headings with a compass. I have to admit I haven’t really had anything to do with compass navigation before, so this was all new to me. But it seemed fairly straightforward! You set your heading and keep the arrow in the right place, and you can’t go too far astray. We all did a practice run in the car park with a coat over our heads. I wasn’t far out from the point! We had used a different entry point today, and I noticed that a bar on the edge of it slightly jutted out. Which meant my giant stride was extra giant! Once in the water we had to do this with our heads in the water using the snorkel, and navigate to a black buoy in the distance. Then we had to set a reciprocal heading and make our way back. Next we had to descend down, but this time we weren’t allowed to use a rope to aid our descent. Using Bobby as a guide for how fast we were supposed to be going (I think the general rule is not so fast that you cannot equalise), I made it to the platform. Then we did the navigation underwater as well. It didn’t go too badly, I don’t think. Then we knelt on the platform, and let all the air out so that we were steady on our knees. I knew what was next, and I was right. I got the signal to perform another mask flood. As soon as she gave the signal, my heart starting hammering ten to the dozen, and my breaths became short. Bobby counted to six on her fingers, reminding me to control the speed of the task. I took a few slow breaths to calm myself, and then flooded the mask, fully. I wasn’t going to mess about with any more accidental half mask floods. I thought: Do it once and do it right! Head down and eyes firmly closed, I pressed the top of the mask and breathed out decisively through my nose. When I opened my eyes the water was almost entirely gone! Just a tiny bit left to clear, no problem. I got a big double okay, and an underwater dance of celebration from Bobby, which I joined in with! But I hadn’t forgotten what was coming up later – the full mask removal.

Ready to descend

We had a little bit of a swim about, as I had begun to get cold. Then we had to do a Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent (CESA), which involves swimming to the surface whilst continually breathing out. The point of it is to prevent your lungs over expanding due to the rapid ascent. You’re supposed to make an Ahhhhh sound as you ascend to control the rate the air leaves (and make sure you still have breath left up until the surface!). I imagined the Tetley tea advert (yes, I know it existed before then, but that is my reference), and sang “A lovely daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay” all the way up! Even doing this I was still about two metres under every time I completely ran out of breath. Another student later told that he didn’t think I was actually kicking with my fins! Hmmm, yes maybe that would have made a difference. Oopsy. Finally managing it, I breached the surface and immediately had to inflate my BCD orally. It took about ten puffs of air from me, and eventually I managed it, and was happily floating.



Surface skills

Then came literally the most exhausting drill of the whole weekend. We had to take off and replace our BCD on the surface. When you think that I had 6 kilograms strapped around my waist, accidentally letting go of it would mean a not so slow trip to the bottom of the lake, sans regulator. So I held it in no less than a death grip as I made various clumsy attempts to sit on it , pin it under the water and get my arms back in. It bobbed and weaved all around me for what felt like at least ten minutes. Finally, drained, I managed to get it back on and tighten all the straps. After that, the weight belt removal felt like an ice cream on a Summer’s day. I remembered almost tripping backwards as I came out of the water. I was absolutely bursting. Desperate to shed my gear, I formed a little trail of abandoned items as I emergency dashed to the toilet.

We had the same amount of time in-between the dives to recuperate. So I had had chocolate and sandwiches aplenty by the time the second (and final!) dive came. This was the dive that we really got a lot of depth, and a fair bit of swimming around and exploring! But before that was the dreaded mask removal. I’m sure that Bobby got me to do it early as she knew I just wanted to get it out of the way! She gave the signal for mask off, and I started to prepare. I thought it through. I remembered what it would feel like. I wondered if it would get stuck on my hood. I wondered if I would drop it and lose it. Thumb in the nose pocket, I remembered. Whilst all these thoughts were running through my mind, I must have taken at least another thirty breaths from my regulator. And something that I was so grateful for – I wasn’t rushed or hurried at all. She just sat and watched me and didn’t do anything. Then...BAM! Off the mask came, and the first thing was not to rush to get it back on, but to take a couple of breaths from the regulator. I wonder if my mind has forgotten it slightly to cushion me from the reality of it. But before I knew it, the mask was back on, and half cleared. An automatic response. I remember blinking through the remaining water in the mask and seeing the double okay that meant, thank fuck, I didn’t have to repeat it. Now, having talked a lot about how much I disliked the mask skills, they are extremely necessary. Imagine your first mask flood being on a recreational dive at 30 metres? Imagine panicking and trying to surface from that? I can definitely see why they are necessary. As long as your regulator is in your mouth, there is absolutely no problem.

Now for the fun stuff! We got to do loads of swimming about on this dive, so I was concentrating on my positioning and my arms. I did get an odd sort of panic attack near the end at the bus. When suddenly my brain announced “You do know you’re underwater?!” (I’m imagining a sort of upper class voice). I had to take a few breaths whilst gripping the bus and calm myself down. I imagine Bobby was a little confused as to what was happening as she kept flashing the okay sign, and I didn’t respond. Eventually I got it together and flashed okay at her. I guess that is what it is like when people have panic attacks? Just a feeling that you need a lot more extra effort to breathe. At the end of the dive we did a safety stop – at an underwater pool table! How epic. There were no pool cues anymore, but there was one very waterlogged tennis ball, and a frying pan that was a poorly chosen Frisbee substitute. After the safety stop we surfaced.



Open Water qualified!

Out of the cold water I went! Back to my dry clothes and hot chocolate. In total this weekend I spent over 2 hours underwater, and I learned a lot. Now I can’t wait to put this into practice and head out to Australia to meet my best friend. Together, we’re going to dive out there. It should be amazing! But I won’t forget the UK waters...I think I’ll just wait until they’re a bit warmer again.

Flatt7