Diving again

After a few days out of the water due to bad weather (and other projects), I am back diving. Yesterday I was diving with a very good old friend who is back from Japan for a few weeks: Sumiyo, who I borrowed by 'kinky' dress from on my 50th dive, see more here. This is ONE year ago almost exactly! It is so great to see old friends suddenly show up again (as I write before about Koh Tao: You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave).

Luckily, she and her family were not affected by the pretty tough situation in Japan. And she was in New York (since she is a flight attendant) when the earthquake happened. She is now back, and it is so fun to dive with her again. She was a newly 'graduated' Dive Master when I got here as a 'novice' diver, and now the roles have partly changed.

Yesterdays diving was pretty rough. I was diving with two pretty 'new' Open Water divers. We dove into one of the easiest caves at the dive site - between a gap of two rocks near the shore. At 8 meters depth where I was the conditions were not problematic (a little bit of surge only). However, one of the divers had some problems - maybe because he was filming everything with his underwater camera - and he ended at the surface. Where the strong waves came in. He ended up in a small gap between rocks. He started panick a little bit because he was (with good reason) afraid to hit his head into the rocks due to the large waves. Yesterday I was SO happy that I had an extra dive master with me! She handled the situation perfectly and we met at the surface (away from the rocks!) again. And this dive master was Sumiyo... Thank you so much!....

Sometimes diving has risks. Yesterday I did not see or feel any risk. I was diving well below the problems. But if you - like one my divers - go to the surface near a lot of sharp and hard rocks where the waves are very rough, well then suddenly a normal safe dive can easily change to a pretty dangerous one. Newly graduated divers are specifically at risk, since they need to focus most of their energy on being perfectly boyant (not going up, not going down). Then put a camera in the hands of these divers and then suddenly you may have a potential dangerous situation...

Luckily nothing happened, and we managed to get a great 50 minutes dive (even though meeting at the surface in the middle)

One of the things you learn - and maybe the most important thing - when you become a professional diver is: See the problems before they happen. Sometimes this may be impossible, since you basically have no chance of guessing what your divers may do. You assume that they are certified professionally and that they have some control of their boyancy (=up and down). But you can never be sure. Becoming a professional diver also ruins some of the great things in diving a little bit. You start to move your focus from the beautiful fish and corals, and you start moving your focus to the people you dive with. However, there is no way back ;o)

Today, on the other hand, I had a dive with an American guy, who initially on the first dive had problems in the pretty strong current on the dive site. He e.g. used up his air in only 34 minutes (and I had to prepare my own alternate air source and hold him during the safety stop). On the second dive, after a few tips, he turned from being an open water diver to a pretty professional diver and we had a 54 minutes dive without any problems.

Diving can be so difficult. And diving can be so easy if you are able to remember the few basic rules and hints.

The trick is - like with any other skill in the world - that you need to practice: by doing.

New divers use their hands all the time to keep themself on the same level as the intructor or dive master. This will cost you energy - and hence air. Later you realise how to operate the BCD (Boyancy Control Device) to some level and divers start being confident on a specific depth. However, they may still experience problems if you take them deeper or not least to a more shallow depth. The trick is to get to 'third level', which is when you start realising that your breathing has an impact on where you go in the water (if you take a deep breath under water you will go up, and if you empty your lungs you go down).

For exerienced divers this means that you can get above obstacles (like corals, rocks etc) only by using your breathing - take a deep breath before the obstacle (there is some slack in this system) and you will move up 1-2 meters. And you can get down again 10 centimeters above the bottom after the obstacle only by breathing out deep. This is what I mean when I say that diving is like flying. This is also what I mean when I say that diving is like meditation. Because yur breathing is the the most important tool under water....

You are then not only in control of left, right, forth and back (all this you can learn to do with your fins only - you almost never use your hands), but you can become totally in control of your up and down also.... Simply by using your breathing.

When you the first time get this feeling of control, that is the time when your life will change into a very expensive life. Because you will get SO hooked on diving.... Diving basically does not have to be very expensive, but when it changes your life from a high-income life in e.g. Denmark with a fixed and high monthly salery, to an expenses-only life (like in my case) well then you should start to worry. Or maybe that is the time when you should start to truly enjoy your life...

If you ever dreamed of flying without a big bulky airplane, well then try diving. Diving is the biggest feeling of freedom for millions of users - and not least for me...

One of the most rewarding things when being a professional diver is to see people learning to master these different levels of skills. And not least their happy faces afterwards. Diving really changes people's lifes...

Wow, a long story today. So my last input is... Come and join me in your new life ;o)