Shark Diving

I have not yet had the opportunity to dive with sharks, so photos of shark divers always struck me as odd. Scuba divers learn to be neutrally buoyant, and yet I would see photos/videos of shark divers resting on the ocean floor. Why?

So, I finally asked the question in reply to a tweet by @ScubaLuisCzm. Their reply was very informative.

First, it’s a buoyancy issue. Too many divers simply don’t have enough control to not flail their limbs and bodies about as the sharks swim nearby. Resting on the seafloor allows these divers to remain relatively motionless compared to the alternative.

Second, it’s an intimidation issue. Besides not drawing undue attention to themselves, this practice helps prevent scaring the sharks away.

The nearest place to me to dive with sharks involves observing threshers from above, so I don’t think this technique is used there. However, I hope to try it out someday, perhaps with my Twitter friends in Cozumel….

PADI’s Project AWARE Specialty

When I first learned about PADI’s Project AWARE specialty, I heard voices lamenting that it is just one more way for PADI to earn even more money off divers. After all, most of the dive professionals at my preferred dive center were already removing debris from the ocean during their fun dives (I’m not sure if they do or not when they have students).

I don’t know the dive center’s official position, but this specialty would also seem to be a potential way for the dive center and its instructors to earn a little more income.

Sadly, my preferred dive center does not yet offer this specialty. I’m not sure I would actually learn anything from taking the course, but I would love to take it for its promotional value.

That’s right, this specialty has a promotional value, whether or not it has any educational value. I would take this specialty even if only for another chance to blog, post, tweet, pin, and share the need to clean up our oceans.

That said, I do have questions. Hopefully the course would answer them. For example, sometimes debris is in precarious places. Or, sometimes debris disintegrates when you touch it. Or, sometimes marine life is firmly attached to it. I would like to make more informed decisions and less spot judgment calls.

Motion Sickness

When I first started diving, I experienced quite a bit of motion sickness. It would never be a problem before a dive, but it would be a real problem upon surfacing. I would feel nauseaus at the surface and on the boat, and the feeling would slowly fade once back on land.

I learned a few tricks to minimize motion sickness. Medication probably helped the most, but I also ate better and drank more water. I also chugged a special soda immediately before diving; the soda contains an acid that counters motion sickness.

Over time, I noticed that my motion sickness decreased. I would dive unprepared, which is to say I hadn’t taken the medication or drank the soda, but I would feel relatively well after the dive.

I still take all precautions before a dive, just in case. However, it seems that the body adapts and naturally becomes less susceptible to motion sickness over time.

Square Breathing

One of my instructors gave me a tip to improve air consumption: square breathing.

I didn’t like it.

I felt like I was following a sine wave, slowly ascending for the first 8 seconds then slowly descending for the next 8 seconds. It didn’t feel like neutral buoyancy; it felt like out-of-control buoyancy.

Also, I know what you’re thinking: NEVER hold your breath underwater!

However, based on my training, I made some logical assumptions. First, I never did a full inhale; I left space. Second, my depth only varied a meter or two during an entire cycle; although the volume of air in my lungs was changing, it was not changing much at 20-40 meters. And, third, I only tried a few cycles at a time, mostly because I didn’t like the loss of control from the buoyancy changes.

Maybe I need to practice it some more. I don’t know. But, I think I would prefer to find other ways to reduce my air consumption than to spend so much time and energy controlling my breathing.

Foreign National Keepers Network

The Foreign National Keepers Network (FNKN) is an asset of the Philippine National Police (PNP). It consists of groups of ex-pats who volunteer to be available during disasters/emergencies to help the PNP locate other ex-pats for purposes of helping the PNP confirm their statuses to their respective embassies.

FNKN members may also assist the PNP as translators when crime victims cannot speak English, Tagalog, or any local dialect. They may also help the PNP locate foreigners who need to receive urgent notifications from their home countries.

I was talking the other day to a fellow FNKN member about scuba diving. It turns out that he is one of at least 4 divers in our local group.

The group has done a variety of public outreach activities, including environmental cleanups. This got us thinking, “what about underwater cleanups?”

It is too early, at this time, to know where this conversation will lead. However, knowing that at least four active members of the group are divers, it seems hopeful that we might incorporate that somehow into our mission.

SSI Level 3 Diver

I hadn’t opened the MySSI app in a while. When I finally did, I wondered how long ago I became a Level 3 Diver.

Also, what does it really mean?

Well, like when I became a Level 2 Diver, I guess I can consider myself slightly less of a scubanoob than I was at the previous level.

fact, maybe someday I won’t consider myself a scubanoob at all!

Underwater Hand Signals

I was getting ready to dive with a scuba instructor with whom I had never dived before. Among other necessary precautions, she wanted to review underwater hand signals.

She waved her hand and pointed at her ear.

Me: “Equalization problem.”

She then waved her hand and pointed at her unadorned left ring finger.

I paused for a moment, thinking.

Me: “Marriage problem?”

She replied, “yes, I’m not married!”

We shared a laugh at that.

For the record, I don’t believe she was being flirtatious. I believe she is just lamenting being single, and probably cracks this joke all the time to break the ice with new students.

Because I didn’t have a camera out at the time, special thanks to hands model Phoebe Huang for this article’s featured image. You can contact Phoebe via Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000199901842

https://www.instagram.com/phoebe_010900/

https://www.youtube.com/add_contact?c=4WzDtvyxFEgGhfKQEM5KxKziQnJsPw

Attempted Beer Debt

Considering how alcohol and diving don’t mix, I am amazed by the frequency and volume of beer consumption that I routinely witness. In addition to drinking beer together, scuba diving professionals also incur “debts” among each other, and these debts are paid off in beer.

For example, someone is supposed to do something around the dive shop but doesn’t, that person’s “discipline” is owing someone else a beer. The debt might belong to an IT person, or a manager, or just about anyone else, it seems.

Then, one day, I was accused of not doing something. I’m not even a dive professional, but that didn’t seem to matter.

I was tasked with forming a group, and I left one person out. The group consisted of individuals who had all not done something. The one person left out, who tried to assess me a debt of one beer, was intentionally left out because she had been the only one to do what they were all supposed to do.

So, I got out of my beer debt for three reasons:

1. I didn’t forget to include her, as she had accused me of doing.

2. I had actually been given a list from someone else of people to include… blame him!

3. I don’t buy beer.

I told her, had I been guilty, that I would buy something strong enough to allow her to see through time and space, but I would never buy beer. Wild Turkey barrel stock, OK. Bacardi 151, OK. But, I’m going to get power for my pesos….

Fish Wall

This is one of my favorite underwater photos. Admittedly, however, I have many favorite underwater photos.

We were drifting along a wall in the Hilutungan Channel (between Mactan and Olango islands, Cebu Province, Central Visayas, Philippines) when a school of fish started to pass in between me and the wall. I took many photos of these fish, but this one stood out from the rest.

It wasn’t until I looked at the photo on land that I noticed the indentation in the wall, and that the fish were swimming in a manner such to fill in the groove. If you look quickly, as I did the first time, it looks as if the fish are actually part of the wall!

Seeing Red at 40 Meters (130 Feet)

One of my favorite dives was the last dive of my Deep Diving course. There wasn’t a wall at the dive site, so we swam out from the beach and headed straight out until we reached a depth of 40 meters.

Then I saw the color red.

As you can see above, this is what the color red looks like at 40 meters with a flashlight.

However, I did not have a flashlight with me.

Therefore, as you can see in the unlit image above, there is no way I saw the color red at a depth of 40 meters. That wavelength of light is absorbed by the water. Notwithstanding the impossibility of my observation, I nonetheless saw the color red at 40 meters.

I didn’t bring a camera on that dive, because I knew the available cameras would shut off at that depth. I also thought to show my instructor, but she was narced up and drifting away from me. I had no way to get her attention without sprinting over to her, which would’ve consumed alot of gas at that depth.

When we surfaced later, the first thing I told my instructor was that I had been so narced up I saw the color red at 40 meters. We both really enjoyed that dive actually. I then took the written test and completed my Deep Diving specialty.