Eclectic Echoes

One of the classes for this semester is a one credit class that will end with me being approved for and certified as an AAUS diver. I’m fortunate that the instructor is a very accomplished diver and the incoming president of the AAUS. While it’s only a one credit class, it has been in many ways my most demanding class, especially in a physical sense.

It started with the swim test, which was quite an eye opener to how out of shape I have managed to get, even with the commuting. Mom was a fish, and I sure love the water, so although I passed the test, I was surprised at how hard it had gotten. Fortunately we are planning on getting a YMCA membership to teach Johann to swim this winter. I will have to use some of the YMCA time to work on improving my own swim fitness.

I probably came into this class a little overconfident in my abilities. I have over 100 dives under my belt, and while I was not rescue or dive master certified, I am a fairly accomplished diver. It has been quite a bit since my last dive, so I requested a check out dive. Smartest thing I could have done, as my first dive in Long Island Sound (LIS) was a disaster. Except two quarry dives long ago, I hadn’t dove in water cooler than 21C (about 70F). My dive suits have generally consisted of thin abrasion suits and thin (2-3mm) exposure suits with no hood. Here in LIS, though, I need a 6mm farmer john, with a 6mm step through jacket and hood to stay warm. 12mm of torso insulation! Not a situation I am used to, and I wasn’t really prepared for either.

Of course this was the first time I have ever done this level of cold. The suit I checked out was actually too small and had disastrous results on that first dive. Since the suit was too tight and more constrictive than I predicted, it felt as though I couldn’t fill my lungs at all. On the surface I was a mess, but as soon as I got under the water I felt much much better.

The visibility was (is) pathetic! To think I used to label anything with less than 50′ visibility as poor vis! All relative I guess, but now I’m happy to have 5′ visibility. One of the AAUS requirements is Search And Rescue trainng …so on one dive we did searches for an unconscious diver under water. With visibility literally 0 feet, it was quite a chore to accomplish, but fortunately my buddy and I managed to do it within the alloted time. The area we were operating in had lots of fine silt on the bottom, which was getting all churned up with no current to carry it away. I could not at any time see what I was doing and had to do it all by feel. I could only tell if something was above me or not by the color of the soup I was swimming through.

Fortunately, over the past few weeks all the old skills have returned and I really am enjoying freezing my you-know-what off. The last dive we did was on an old P-47 wreck for more search and recovery work, along with tracking pingers under water. I had a blast even though there were some minor equipment issues. Note to self: Always always carry the EMT shears!

Those last two dives really brought it back to me how important it is to be comfortable and familiar with your gear. I had a BC I loved, but unfortunately, it seems to have shrunk, and the bladder needs to be replaced. On that BC everything had a place: knife, scissors, light, whistle, etc. I knew instinctively where each piece of gear was and how it needed to be accessed and adjusted. While the dive locker gear works well, it isn’t my gear and I can’t set it up like I like it, since it is used by a wide range of people of varying skill levels.

It looks like I will be doing a few working dives in the next weeks, as a number of labs are bringing up the fall’s experiments before the winter sets in. Soon it will be getting into dry suit weather!!! Another new experience…

Of course this last dive also had a new experience…sort of. There were many Lions Mane jellies (Cyanea capillata) in the water and someone ahead of me must have swam through one because I caught tentacles on my ear, lips, neck and arm. Those nematocycts stay viable for quite a while too — 30 minutes after the dive I got new stings on my upper arm when I was getting out of the wetsuit. Never kiss a jelly. I have done it with two species now (also a Cassiopea spp. in Belize). While it is very…um…stimulating, it’s not worth it!