It’s all Bobs fault, pow wow and “The Squeeze”

Scuba, such a lovely sport, one I have come to love even though I only now have 8 dives under my weight belt.  I had been looking forward to Saturday all week long, and finally it had arrived.  I had already rented my tanks the day before, and picked up my brand spanking new BCD (what a beautiful piece of gear sigh) and so the only thing we had to do was head to Dripping Springs to Chris and Melissa’s house.  Were there just in time for a fresh pot of coffee and Chris even baked breakfest.  We were due to meet Bill at Hamilton pool at 9 am , so we leave on time despite slow poke men (haha) and as we drive we see the sign notifying us that the pool was closed , we decide to drive the 5 miles to see for ourselves.  The whole time I am just hoping that the parks dept just did not change the sign.  We arrive to the closed gate and see the park ranger riding his bike to open the doors.  Due to the half inch rain the pool is in fact closed pending test results.  Bill states that we are there to scuba, so can we dive since we do not plan to put the water in our mouth?  Of course not says Mister Ranger, you cannot guarentee that you wont.  Hey it was worth a shot.  We continue to grill about when it will open and such and joking I stated “Im blogging this, its all your fault” and he tells me I dont know his name as he covers his name tag, so I say “It’s all your fault and Im naming you Bob”.  Honestly the ranger was very nice and we enjoyed our little banter.  Heres Bob speeding away…

We decide to pow wow back at the house and decide where to go to next.  I had just spent 50 bucks on rental gear and tanks, I MUST dive.  We decide to head to Mansfield Dam, hey new site, Im game.  Once there the nerves set in.  This is un-planned and anyone who knows me knows that I am to organized to accept a change of plans without feeling a bit choatic but I try to hide the nerves as I gear up.  One thing I am happy about is when setting up I did not have to “think” about it, I just knew what went where without the mental checklist.  Granted I still went through the checklist after gearing up just to make sure.  Melissa is very observant and knew I was nervous, it is nice to recieve the encouragement from a much more skilled diver who is able to pick up on symptoms of nervousness and stress.  It is a new site, so its normal.  Bill somehow is super SCUBA because he was geared up and ready to go in 3.4 seconds flat so once I was ready I went out to the water.  This was my first time with such a large group, 5 in total.  I had 26 pounds of weight but once in the water I realized I must be getting a bit better with breathing because I was literally a rock.  I ended up using 14 pounds and I feel I can go down to 10 pounds easy.  Granted I was in a proper fitting wetsuit and it was 5 mil instead of 7.  The plan was to surface swim to the white buoy and then follow the rope down to the wrecks.  The algea was in bloom and vis was not nearly as good as it was last time I was on lake travis, this created some drama in my head, while on the surface I was convinced that I was being nibbled at and touched by fish.  Thank goodness for the mask. 

Chris was being all cool like and testing his new mask, however that new mask had him using air the whole time it was on, I dont remember its name, but I do know he had no one else to talk to NEENER NEENER NEENER.  Nathan was taking forever and 2 days to get geared up so I had plenty of time to acclimate to the water temp and get to the buoy.  Bill Chris and I just sat around and bullshitted while waiting and it was comforting and I was getting really excited to see the wrecks.

Once everyone was at the spot we would decend at I went into diver mode, my nerves were relaxed a bit and I was confident it would be a great dive.  Bill was leading, so I kept my eyes on him during my decent.  Although I did often check the others , Chris was on my right, but Melissa and Nathan were slightly above.  Nathan gets “stuck” at about 10 feet , we were now two smaller groups, but per the plan we were to meet up at the platform , so me Chris and Bill continued down.  I cleared properly and often enough, and had no issue with my ears.  Once we hit 20 feet the bloom cleared up and we had what I would guesstimate borderline 20 ft visibilty.  There were not as many fish here as Windy Point but there was still some living eye candy at the platform.  We werent there very long before Nathan and Melissa showed up. 

Bill pointed out the rope and we were off, one thing I remember is I felt uncomfortable holding on the rope, it is nice to have that guide but I felt constricted and almost grounded ha ha.  Afterwards I found out I did not HAVE to stay on the rope, that it was there to guide me DUH.  Sorry folks I take the dive plan literally.  The last enjoyable experience on the dive was the spider boat.  The boat is a cruiser type vessal and was protected by SpongeBob” and a honkin huge spider.  I very much wanted to enter the cabin but knew it was not acceptable as I am unaware of added dangers entering a wreck could lead to. 

As I was going over and around the cruiser I ascended approx 5 feet, once we were all back together after viewing the boat we started to take off again, that take off included going back down 5′ to reach our depth of 58′.  It was that precise moment, starting that decent that I felt and heard a pop.  This pop was followed by pain in my left ear , extreme pain at that.  I signaled that I needed to go up a bit and me and Melissa went up a few feet.  I tried clearing, and thought I had but I was a bit out of it and signaled I was okay to try again.  Boy was I wrong, as I started to decend again I felt a sudden and sharp pain behind my left eye and in my head I was hearing all these odd sounds that were not present in previous dives.  The pain was so severe in my eye that I signaled I needed to surface.  I let Melissa know my ear and eye were bad and we started up, the pain was so severe that I felt my eye was literally going to come out of the socket.  All I could think about was the pain and that I had to ascend slowly.  I was obsessive with watching my gauge, almost panic like in the fact I was barely doing anything but watching the gauge.  I knew I needed to still make my decompression stop since I had 1500 psi of air, and to avoid any additional damage.  When I would spend to much time staring at the gauge Melissa would tap the gauge and point at her eyes and up.  I was aware she was helping me to avoid tunnel vision as well as helping me remain aware of my surroundings.  I have a high threshold for pain, Ive been on chemo and Ive had kids, yet I was crying into my mask from this pain.  I rarely cry and never in front of others as I see it as weakness.  Yet I openly cried in front of Melissa during this time.  (disclaimer- others crying is not them showing weakness, this is my feelings on me crying so all you crybabies out there no negative feedback on that comment haha )  At approx 15 to 20 feet I stop, and start the decompression, since I was not diving the computer and did not have a watch I signaled for Melissa to time.  That was the longest 3 minutes of my life.  All I could think about was the pain, which had not recieved relief in the 40 ft ascent.  I will never, EVER dive without my own watch or computer, I felt incredibly burdoned by relying on another to time our decompression.  It was not a trust issue, as I trust all Ive dived with, it was a control issue,  I did not have control over how long I had to wait, I had no refrence to the time as I was busy with the pain and found myself annoyed by the amount of times I kept asking if we could go up.  Although the pain was still there once I was clear from my wait, my training stepped in, I looked up on my ascent and although I was being held by Melissa the whole way still maintained some form of control in getting to the surface, that is until I broke through.  The need to hold my eye in place (no it was not actually out ) was so strong I just threw my mask and snorkal off.  Thank god Bill was following, and decided “Thats not good” as he watched a mask and snokel fall below.  He just saved me about 90 bucks  THANKS BILL! 

All in all it was actually a good dive,  in retrospect I did kick ass in maintaining my thought process and never once lost the regulator while under water, nor did I make a bee line for the surface.  I followed procedure as much as I could remember, and maybe exactly as I was told once the emergancy took place.  I also was able to see Melissa respond in a rescue, and because of her skill and composure the rescue was never a rescue.  Had she not been there I may have gotten tunnel vision, I may not have decompressed the right amount of time, and I may very well have screwed up more.  She was exceptional in her way of handling the situation and she should definitly feel pride for her ability to react and handle a buddy having an emergancy.  For myself I have wondered how I would handle a situation that places my life in danger in the water, and at times was scared that I would not handle it properly, but now I know otherwise…Dive 8 , yuppers I got “The Squeeze” in the sinus and the ear and I lived.  I more so then ever appreciate the training I recieved from Nik, and feel my ability to surface safely is a combination of his training of me and Melissa’s training.

The downside of the incident was my inability to stop thinking about it.  The rest of the day was spent at Melissa and Chris’s house for a bonfire and weenie roast and all I could do was jello shot the pain away and constently think about my actions and anyone who listened was told the “No shit there I was..” story in the hopes that they could give me reasons why it happened.  After research I realize it was the action around the boat the ascent and then decent of 5 feet.  I was not aware enough of my allergies and did not realize that I should not have even dived in the first place.  Today the ear is better, and well the sinus headache is still there but I am okay and in the future the lessons of this dive will always be at the forethought of my mind. 

Scuba Newb

 

SCUBA LOG

04/06/2008

 

Dive 1

Well today was the day, the day I finally got to dive since training finished in San Marcos. Since before I learned to SCUBA dive I have been unsure exactly how I feel about it. When asked if I like diving my over all response has been “It’s interesting, but I’m not sure”. I have always had a high fear of the unknown, and a fear of water. This goes to show SCUBA should not be for me. Most of the water world is a huge unknown. At the back of my mind I know that I know just enough about SCUBA diving to be dangerous. Seriously only 5 dives under my belt so in the grand scheme of this world I know nothing.

I was set to dive with Chris and Melissa, Chris had been there during my training open water dives so I knew at the very least I have a dive master to recover my remains should I die, or have a catfish bite my face off. I had yet to meet Melissa well I hadn’t realized I had, it was nice to see that she was the one who helped me look at gear from a Chicks perspective. From the day I met her she eased a few fears I had that were technically more myth then fact. So speed up to Windy Point Park, Austin Texas… just the park itself is awesome, a bit pricey for my cheap self but the parks amenities warrant the cost. We take the rickshaws down to the picnic benches and I immediately feel the nerves double in size as I watch my surroundings. First off most the more experienced divers have dry suits and I am a wimp with the cold. I had not realized that 60 degree water is no match for 7 mil yet. In my head I was picturing my blue face bobbing up and down next to the buoys and Melissa and Chris having to pry my frozen fingers off my computer. Yes yes yes I am a bit dramatic in my thoughts, and my imagination often gets the best of me in thought only. The good aspect is my ability to realize the drama and exaggeration and put it to the side.

As I am considering gearing up, I hear Chris tell Melissa “its your dive, you and Lisamarie make the plan and I will be there” and then low and behold, Melissa is by my side with a map (and by map I mean a piece of paper with numbers on it and a picture of a shark and turtle) I truly did not understand the map that much at first. Melissa starts going over the first dive plan idea and I was game. We were going to start out and just acclimate to the water temp, and also the newness as I think my fear showed and was possibly dripping out of my ears. We would start out , go see the turtle, a different platform, a shark, then go to 15 and rest for 3 minutes then surface. In hindsight it seemed complicated to me and I was a bit confused on how it was going to all come together. During training you do not have to have such an intensive navigation route so I was thinking that we would not succeed on seeing it all but was hoping. I was reminded to clear early and often and to remain calm. We went over the hand signals to make sure we were on the same wave length and also over buddy breathing techniques since I was using a BCD that had the secondary integrated.

Next thing I know we are walking over to the stairs, Melissa in front and Chris following close behind. I felt trapped, and decided I could not flake out easy because someone was covering my escape route. I grab the railing and by this time convinced myself that I was going to at least survive this dive. It took me three stairs before I felt the water slowly seep into my bootie, ohm not bad at all. So I move faster and exclaim “this isn’t cold at all” and Chris states “give it about 10 seconds” approx 5 seconds later I am stricken with a rush of bone crushing cold and I literally scream out in surprise. Melissa and Chris just laugh it off as if they KNEW this would happen. Lucky for me the cold passes fast and I am quite comfortable and relaxing a bit.

Next thing I know were starting to descend, oh shit I know there are things I am supposed to remember, yes I need to let out air, and uhhhh regulator in my mouth, yup that’s where it goes. Breathe, yes , that’s it I need to breathe. Looking at Melissa I realize I am not sinking, nope I am basically snorkeling with a regulator, not exactly what I am here for, I try for a few seconds to fight down and signal to surface, since we literally had only a inch or so to go we were up fast. I let them know I think that its more my fault and that I do not think I am under weighted. I knew I was not fully expelling the air in my lungs. So we try again and success I start to slowly descend. Using the rail to help me stay in one place. At about 15 feet we rest for a second to give me time to see the fish and the environment I just voluntarily entered. I am stunned, I had seen fish in Aquarena but I had not seen fish this big. The first big catfish I swear was a good 3 feet long and secretly was plotting to take me hostage and bite my face off, but he must have ADHD because he did not even make one attempt on my face nor my life. I felt I did fair on the dive overall, I was a bit unsure if I was staying at a safe distance from Melissa and often felt I was to close or to far. I did well at maintaining communication with her and felt that I was aware of what was needed of me and from me. Granted with time I will tune the skills a bit better but think I have a great foundation. During this first dive we worked a bit on buoyancy, which I am not horrible at but by no means am I respectable at it. Thank goodness I didn’t drag the bottom, I was worried Id be “one of those divers”.

When we were at a platform and it was obvious I was comfortable with the surroundings Chris had me practice switching to my secondary, which I am grateful for as its known Id prefer to practice my Eps before they are not for practice. I’m very comfortable with my ability to share air with another diver and hope I can continue to remind myself that it is okay to practice these as often as needed to have them become engrained in this bubble head of mine. Also got to see the turtle, when I reached 1500 psi we had to turn back. How the heck did that happen so fast? How is my dive almost over? As we were turning around I caught sight of the jet ski, dude there is a jet ski chained to the bottom, and funny enough it didn’t seem like a wasted jet ski, as a matter a fact when I surfaced I saw a boat and my thought was “they should chain that to the bottom”. Back to the dive, I did not get to explore the jet ski because we were done and heading back. We of course got to see things on the way back but we dived the plan and that means no jet ski for me.

The first amazing point for me that was really remarkable was when we reached a platform and I notice Melissa and Chris turn to almost a reclining position, so I follow suit and the moment I turn around I notice at the very least 25 fish of various types staring straight at me, as if they are the FBI and I am Jimmy Hoffa. Wow, nothing can really describe how it feels to discover you are the subject of a marine life stake out. As I sit there and just stare at the Texas Cicada I wonder what it thinks of me, does it find my nose appetizing? What makes me so interesting? Are they uncomfortable with my intrusion of their world?

Okay back to the real world, we reach the point where we get to start going to the surface, and surprising enough even that isn’t boring. At 15 ft we of course take a 3 min break and it was exactly 3 minutes because I was wearing a really cool computer that counts down to the second. When we actually surface and I take the regulator out of my mouth I just start laughing uncontrollably from shear and utter joy.

Pros of my actions

* Maintained acceptable communication with my buddy

* Maintained a calm thought pattern regardless of nerves

* Planned the dive and dived it

* Used my breathing to help maintain neutral buoyancy

* Had fun

Cons of my actions

* Felt awkward in my position in relation to my buddy

* My forward motion was taxing, must find a better way to reserve energy by letting my fins work for me. Stop fighting the gear.

* Had to actually think about breathing slow , and deep with a full exhale, must dive more and regular so this becomes automatic.

* Remember to inflate the BCD at the surface, there is no reason for me to have to tread water when my gear is fully operational.

Dive 2

After what felt like a surface interval of a lifetime we made our plan again. This time we were going to hit the tunnel of love. At least that was the plan. Although I cleared early and often I still started to feel pain and had to signal to go up a little. I found it much harder to equalize and was a bit perplexed as to the why. I assume its because it was the second dive and my body is not used to this. Although at this point I was no longer in pain I did notice big difference’s in how my ears felt and I was not entirely okay with it. Then again at this point we were at the deepest I had ever been. Since I was not in pain we continued on. At 57 feet I became a bit aware of a new fear, one I had yet to experience in this sport, I could not see the bottom of the lake, I could not see anything to reference my position, I knew up but that was hazy as no longer did I see the glistening sun with its beams riding the waves, instead I saw a light bulb, one that provided very little light in my opinion. Below me was black, I had no idea what was hiding beneath this abyss , and I truly felt a stir of chaotic fear, I am not sure if my expression portrayed this, and my actions were still controlled and not erratic but I do think because of the above combination I sucked my air down entirely to fast. We never made it to the tunnel, we had to turn back. I did however get a great laugh at the toilet, so much so I forgot I was underwater and the regulator fell out of my mouth. Funny enough I lived, all you really have to do is pop it back in your mouth, clear and breathe, Nik was right, my EP’s work.

At one point I was watching the bottom and from no where this honkin big Catfish from the planet Druidia appears and I ended up screaming at the sight, and then of course I ended up laughing at the stupidity that is me. This thing was huge, he definitely is the Top of Lake Travis and he scared me into submission, all I could do was stare in awe at his massive size and to be honest the beauty of him. I felt this spark inside as I sat and watched him slowly swim away, it was a spark of envy, he did not have to surface, he did not to peel out of a stubborn wet suit, James (that’s what I named him) got to live in paradise, he had no restraints in the water, he was not limited by the cost of gear, or training, James lived where I long to be.

At the surface we inflate to let the current float us to the stairs, and as I lay there, on this perfect day watching sailboats , and basking in the glow of two awesome dives I realize that my body may be going home but my soul rests beneath the surface waiting to reunite with me. I had so many beautiful thoughts as I floated away, and the one that got me the most was “okay where do we go next”

Pros of my actions

*Improved in communication with Melissa

*Learned a new way to clear the mask

* Remained in control despite the new fears that evolved.

Cons of my actions

*Oh at this point I am at 6 pages and there are so many things I need to learn and finely tune, all in all I did well for my experience (or lack there of) I felt safe, I felt that I was a decent buddy and that’s enough for today.