What's the difference?

Yesterday, Jason and I didn’t have to be back to the dive shop until noon, which was good because we needed the time to sleep in a bit. I woke up not feeling very well and I was worried that it could get very bad once I got on the rocking boat. Turns out after I got back on the boat I actually felt better rather than worse. Roland says I was landsick and must be part fish. Sunday’s dives included the deep dive and the peak performance buoyancy dive. The weather had turned over night and it was actually quite chilly once we got away from land and started putting on our wetsuits. Luckily the water was still 72 degrees so we looked forward to getting in as soon as possible. Also, the three foot waves of the day before had calmed down quite a bit, so there was less of the nausea going around the boat. We started with the deep dive of a wreck called the Mercedes. It is about 97 feet down and gorgeous. The middle of the boat has pretty much collapsed and the bow and stern have been twisted in opposite directions from each other by hurricanes, but it’s still a beautiful wreck. During our briefing for the dive we had to complete a task on land so we could complete the same task at depth to see the effects of nitrogen narcosis. The task we were assigned was to take in about the last three feet of line on a dive reel, and secure the loop on the end under the twist lock. It was a fairly simple task and it took me about 21 seconds to do it on land. At 97 feet it still only took me about 23 seconds and the extra time was mostly due to the gloves I had not been wearing on the boat. I was kind of interested to see what getting narced felt like, but I’m sure I’ll feel it sooner or later. After we each did our task to check reaction times we took a tour around the boat, following Rich. It was so cool to look at and there was a ton of marine life. It is definitely a dive I would do again, even if you only get a half and hour on a tank. When we returned to the line to ascend Jason suddenly grabbed my arm and began pointing. There was a huge fish. We learned later that it was a Greater Amberjack, Rich was guessing around 50-60 pounds of it. It was incredible and it swam very close to the ascent line so we were able to get a really good look at it. I was totally geeked.

After returning to the boat I tried to ignore how cold I was getting and switched out my tank. A few minutes later we arrived at our final destination, a shallower portion of the reef for our peak performance buoyancy dive. I was beginning to shiver at this point so it felt pretty good to get back in the water which was way warmer than the air at that point. I can understand why people bring hot water with them on the boat and then pour it into their wetsuits. That would have felt pretty good. We descended and gathered in a group in the sand to practice our buoyancy. Again I struggled through the whole thing and was glad when it was over. I really think I need to take the peak performance buoyancy specialty and hopefully get some more personalized attention from someone who can explain to me what it is that I’m doing wrong. Rich was too busy with the eight of us to give much one on one stuff. Plus, his advice was more along the lines of the more you dive the better it will get. Which is fine, but I really would like something more specific to work on. That would make me feel better about the possibility of improving my skills, because right now I feel they aren’t acceptable. After our skill tests were completed, we were allowed to go off in pairs for some pleasure diving. Jason and I took some time and looked at some of the reef, but I was getting colder by the second and finally had to thumb the dive. Jason told me the he was about to do the same thing, but I think he might have been trying to make me feel better. Back on the boat we scrambled to get out of our gear and warm up. One of the dive masters almost made me cry by bringing a thermos of hot water from home and some packets of hot chocolate, which he made up and gave out to us free. It tasted fine, but it felt great. I was thoroughly chilled and it was such a nice thing to do. We made it back to the dock, put our things in the car, and went up to fill out the last of the paperwork for the class. The classroom was nice and steamy, which would have been uncomfortable if we hadn’t have just been cold and wet. As it was, I could have sat there for as long as he needed. After all the paperwork was taken care of we said our farewells, and started for home. On the way we took Jason’s genius idea of stopping at a McDonalds for some more hot cocoa (sorry hot chocolate). And then he helped me pick out a new hard drive at Best Buy. Back at home we had dinner waiting for us, but that is a whole ‘nother story.