Confinement
- May 28, 2017
- 3 min read
As mentioned in my “Diving 101” post, there are several confined and open water dives a new diver must progress through in order to become certified. I had done my book work, taken my tests (scored a 93% thank you very much), completed my in-class final exam. I was ready! Let’s do this!
OMG I’m so nervous. Am I crazy?!
I met with my instructor, a friend of Guy’s who owns the dive shop near where I lived, and we mapped out our plan. Most students can complete their in-water testing in a couple of days. We were to begin at DeLeon Springs, a state park about 30 miles west of Daytona Beach. Here in the clear, calm waters of the spring, we could knock out confined 1-4 and open 1 on Saturday, then move on to confined 5 and open 2-4 on Sunday. I went home armed with tanks, regulator, BCD, weights and wetsuit, wondering if I’d be able to sleep. It would be an early start the next morning.
DeLeon Springs State Park has a limited capacity and only allows a certain number of dive classes in at a time, so we had to be there before the park opened. I had to be up at 5:00 AM in order to make it to the park to meet my instructor. My GPS took me out to the boonies where I kept hearing the inevitable “GPS signal lost” every time I was in the middle of nowhere.
Nevertheless, I made it in time. My instructor (let’s call him Chris) bolstered my confidence by mentioning that the park staff does a sweep each morning to clear out any alligators. Oh. Goodie. Now...
Unload
Prep gear
Swim test (Did I mention the swim test? You have to swim 200 yards, no time limit)
Float test (tread water or float for 10 minutes, a nice respite after that 200 yards)
Suit up! Buddy check
And we are ready to hit the water!
In my discover scuba experience (outlined in the blog post “Discovery”) I had donned my gear while already in the pool. Now I would wear my full kit for the short walk to the spring. Jesus wept, it’s heavy! I’m 5’1” so hauling a filled 80 cubic foot tank (30+ pounds) plus the 10 pounds of added weight in my BCD is a bit of a challenge - all told I’ve added about a third of my body weight to my small frame in a matter of minutes. *insert macho grunt here*
So I lurched my way to the water, awkwardly bent over to accommodate the extra poundage. We covered some simple basics, like breathing through and purging the regulator first (blowing any intruding water out), then moved on to some more daunting tasks like regulator recovery and alternate air use. When the reg in your mouth is literally life or death in the water, the thought of having to take it out of your mouth, even for a few seconds, can be little scary. But, it’s not as bad as it sounds, really. Slowly exhale a small stream of bubbles whenever you remove the reg so you don’t inadvertently get a gulp of water, the pop it back in, purge, and breathe. Easy peasy. The number one rule of scuba diving? NEVER hold your breath.
You know what gave me the most trouble? Mask clearing. You have to break the seal on your mask, allowing water to flood about halfway in. Then, tilting your head back and blowing out through your nose, you flush the water back out. Well… I suffered a lot of unexepected anxiety with this. I was used to blasting any small leakage of water from my mask whenever I snorkeled, but this was a different ball game. I found myself having a lot of difficulty controlling my reflex to inhale through my nose. It took a long while for me to get to the point where I could flood my mask halfway then clear it, and I had to hold my nose to do it. An allowable "cheat."
After about two hours in the water, both Chris and myself were quite chilled and he was concerned about my comfort level in the water, so we exited the spring and doffed our gear. I was sorely disappointed in myself. Chris gave me a homework assignment of practicing mask clearing in the pool and getting used to having water in my face. We called it a day, having barely slogged our way through Confined 1. An inauspicious start, to say the least. #sadface
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