NEW AMERICAN TRUTH: December 2007

Live Life: SCUBA
Debra Simms

When I married my husband, some thirteen years ago, I knew he had been a scuba diver. I knew two other things as well:

1) he hadn’t been in a long time, and
2) the next time he went I wanted to be his dive buddy. Of course, back then I didn’t even know that “dive buddy” was the appropriate term. That came with dive lessons.

Like many young marriages we were financially strapped at first, and scuba diving isn’t cheap. As a comparison I would say it probably costs about as much as snow skiing if you buy your own stuff. So it took us a few years before we could afford for me to get lessons and my husband didn’t want me to do all my diving in local quarries or lakes. He seemed determined to take me to Florida or some other tropical area.

To get started I had to take the classes. Our local dive shop is certified to instruct by the Professional Association of Dive Instructors, otherwise known as PADI. The classes were a mix of classroom training and doing exercises in the pool. I was surprised that I had to take a fitness test as part of the training, but even before that I had to bring a doctor’s release to take the course. Scuba diving can be strenuous, and like everything else, if anything ever goes wrong it can be VERY stressful. You have to maintain a minimum level of fitness to be able to deal with that.

Before I even started the classes my husband told me what he felt was the most important thing ever to know about scuba diving – and it applies to many other things as well: don’t panic. Panic kills. During any new experience, or sometimes when diving new locations, divers might experience situations that are more challenging than they are used to. It’s easy to panic and stroke for the top as fast as you can. Humans, in general, don’t like feeling stressed under water. It’s not our natural environment and we don’t typically do well managing stress ABOVE the water. Hubby told me a story about a dive trip he took with his best friend “back in the day”. They were diving on a wreck in the Florida Keys and had to pull themselves down a rope to the wreck AGAINST the current. Hubby wasn’t in as good physical condition as his dive buddy but he kept up going down the rope. When he reached the deck he was breathing heavy and not feeling like he was getting enough air out of his regulator. All he wanted was OUT. His buddy sat him down on the deck – about 100 feet down – and made him relax. Then they enjoyed a leisurely exploration of the wreck. I took that lesson to heart and decided I didn’t want to experience panic underwater.

The best way to avoid panic is to train as much as you can. Good training, good practices and good experiences all help to reduce the chance of being in a situation you don’t feel in control of. The PADI Open Water Training program put me through a few things that I was uncomfortable with (like swimming underwater with no mask but breathing from a regulator) but ultimately prepared me to do the Open Water dives required to attain the certification.

So, I started the classroom training. It’s quite basic and simple information but it involves minimum levels of physics, math and record keeping; not accounting type record keeping, but just documentation of what you do where and when. The classroom training was augmented by pool sessions at the local pool. It was really fun to get in the water for the first time with my scuba gear on – after I learned how to put it together. OUT of the water it feels heavy and cumbersome. IN the water you get used to it really quick and it doesn’t weigh nearly as much.

My first time breathing underwater is an experience I’ll never forget. We spend so much of our lives breathing through our noses and NEVER underwater that to get your head underwater and suck in hard through your mouth just feels WEIRD. Your brain is screaming, “This is bad!” but the rest of you is feeling, “This is SO cool!” Once you’ve taken that first couple of breaths your brain catches up with the program and then the fun begins.

During the Open Water Certification program you learn about things like Boyle’s Law, no decompression limits, visibility, the effects of water on light and more. During your Open Water Certification dives you have to demonstrate the skills that you learned in class and demonstrated in the pool. It’s no different except that it’s not a pool. Hubby has pictures of me with my mask off about twenty-five (25) feet down in a quarry and I don’t look happy – but I did it and I’ve learned to enjoy scuba diving a lot since then.

Once I got my Open Water certification I wanted to learn more. The next step is Advanced Open Water certification. To earn that is more classroom time and then some specific dives that are rated as specialty dives by PADI. The most challenging (for me) was the “deep” dive. A deep dive, per the PADI standards, is any dive that you go deeper than sixty (60) feet. Mentally that’s a big step. I mean, here I’d been 12 feet down in a pool and about 30 feet down in the quarry, but for my deep dive I took a giant stride off a boat in the Florida Keys knowing full well that the water I was stepping into was about 90 feet deep.

I enjoyed that dive a lot though. The coral reef was beautiful; I saw a Moray eel and lots of fish I didn’t recognize. When the dive was over I looked at my depth gauge and saw that my maximum depth had been just over 80 feet. To know that I’d been that deep and HAD FUN was way cool. That trip I also completed underwater navigation dives, a night dive and others. Night dives can be a little disorienting but there are skills applicable to each specialty and if you master them then the diving is far more fun than challenging.

For our next dive trip Hubby wants to take me to Ocala, Florida to dive Crystal River and swim with the Manatees. I’m looking forward to it. Of course, there is LOTS of diving in areas all over the planet. What limits you? Your budget. But even if all you can do is go to the local quarries and dive to 40 or 50 feet, so what? Think about how many people you know who have never, and probably will never, swim underwater for 30, 45, or 60 minutes. Think about how unique the experience is and how much fun it could be. Think about what it will mean to you as you grow older and look back at what experiences you have (or haven’t) had in your life. Adding scuba diving to that list of experiences is something I’m very glad I did – and I look forward to continuing.

I highly recommend that you find your local dive shop and training center. Get the information you seek. Ask your questions. Make sure you understand everything and identify your goals before you start buying gear. And remember this too where gear is concerned: more expensive doesn’t ALWAYS mean better. Find what you’re comfortable with that suits your needs. Then get trained and start having fun!

About The Author:
Debra Simms is a stock manager for a major retail chain, mother of four and Advanced Open Water rated diver. She has attended the PADI First Responder emergency medical training and is looking forward to achieving her Rescue Diver certification in ’08.