Here Goes...

Ok, here goes my first diving blog post.

I actually began diving several weeks ago on 30th March but only now have I decided to get my act together and start blogging - I am learning to dive with BSAC (British Sub-Aqua Club) and am doing the Ocean Diver course which means I will be able to dive in open water up to 20m deep.

I'll quickly explain my previous lessons
March 18th - OT1. I began the course with lecture no. 1, it was basically a quick introduction to the course and what I'll have to endure over the next cope of months, did most of the paperwork and get to know each other. 

March 30th - First pool session (yay!).  Got kitted up, BC, 10 litre tank, regulator, fins, mask and snorkel (borrowing the clubs kit).  We put it all together, well the instructor did and lft it on the pool side as we got in.  For this week we put the kit on whilst in the pool to make it easier on me as it is pretty heavy.  I found out that to stop the mask steaming up you have to spit in it, great, and then rub the spit around and wash it out (you can do it with toothpate too).  We swam up and down the pool with snorkel and regulator and did a couple of fin pivots, you lie with no air in you BC on the bottom of the pool and fill it up with little spurts of air until you can control going up and down with just a breath in or out.  We finished the first lesson and did a bit of mask clearing - filling your mask partley up with water and blowing the water out by blowing hard through your nose.
For the first week I wore my swimming costume with a t-shirt over the top but I was freexing cold by the time I got out so decided to try and find a wetsuit for the next pool session. 

April 1st - Lecture - OT2.  My Dad joined my at this point as the rest of the students dropped out.  The second lecture was on diving equipment and diving signals.  We went over each part of the equipment, what it did, how to check it was working and how keep it in good condition.  We also learnt about the diving environment, mainly about air and water pressure.  The diving signals we learnt included 'OK?' or 'I am OK' - an O made with your finger and thumb and the rest of your fingers pointed up, straight.  'Go up' and  go down' - basically a thumbs up or down, pointing the way you want.  'something is wrong' - vertical hands twisting from side to side.  'stop' - hortizontal, flat palm.  'you' and 'me' - index finger pointing toward either you or someone else. 'distress' - lower part of your arm (elbow to hand) parrelel to your body mving up and down with fist clenched.  'out of gas' - like a vertical cutting movement with whole are from neck to away.  'out of breath' - hands on either side of your BC move away and back.  And the signals at the surface, 'OK' - same as OK underwater but held high in the air.  'distress' - same as underwater distress but as big as possible.

April 8th - lecture - OT3. Body and effects of diving. In this session we learnt about respiration, gas exchange in the lungs and circulation (it really helped that I was studying the exact same topic in biology just days before) We also looked at breath hold diving and hyperventiation, body temperature, bouyancy and exhaustion.

April 13th - 2nd pool session.  My Dad's first pool session so we baisically went back ovr what we did in the previous session but I aslo swam lengths of the pool alternating my breathing with snorkle and regualtor, regulator retrieval and snorkle clearing.

April 15th - Lecture - OT4. Planning to go diving.  We studied more biology of the body - mainly the effects nitrogen had on the human body - but we went back over facts and figures from previous lessons such as the air in the atmosphere and there fore the air we breath in is approx. 79% nitrogen and 21% oxygen.
Alot of the nitrogen based infomatopn was how to avoid decompression illness by nitrogen management and studying dive tables that are used for planning dives and nitrox tables to manage dives done by people diving on nitrox air (an air mix with a higher concentration of oxygen).  The most important thing I learnt as to plan the dive and dive the plan. 

April 20th - 3rd pool session.  For the first time I went into the diving pool which is 3m as opposed to the 1.95m pool that I was in before.  My normal instructor was away so I had a stand it but I stillgot much done.  We put our own kit together and did each others buddy checks with BAR - Bouyancy - air in and out, hwre dump valves are, Air - breathing using normal regulator and octopus and checking if the sir gauge fluctuates and Releases - clips and straps incase we need to dump kit in a hurry.  I was still waiting for my Dad to catch up with me in terms of what he had done and so I redid some of the activities such as regulator and snorkel chnaging but also did some new things such as air donner.  I had to do the out of air signal as if I had run out of air and then swim over to my buddy taking his octopus (a spare regulator that normally has a different coloured tube) and breathing off it, and then my buddy doing that to me so I had to donate my octopus to him.  Other than that we did more fin pivots and swam circles round the pool practising bouyancy.

My lecture due for April 22nd was cancelled but yesterday my parents and I travelled to the Blue Turtle diving shop in Baisingstoke to look at diving equipment. We spoke to the men there and I found it rathr amusing how hey spoke of BSAC divers, as my instructors speak in the same maner about PADDY divers (BSAC and PADDY are diving organisations with a clear rivalry). Most of the kit is extremely expensive and a decent 7mm semi-dry suit (which is what you need to dive late May - October in British waters) is going to me around £200.  In the end the only thing I came away with was a snorkel and mask by Typhoon and a strap cover for the mask so that my hair doesn't get caught in it..  It cost me around £35 for the snorkl and mask set and another £7 for the strap thing which was Blue Turtles own make.  We thought about getting fins as the basic equipment that all students are advised to get is snorkel, mask and fns, but the fins were around £60 + for a decent pair that I decided against it for now.

Next dive is on April 27th and lecture April 29th.