Grand Day at the Pool!

Grand was the adjective of the day!... not just in our marathon skills diving day, but in the weather! Just yards from this little blue pool were the accumulating inches of heavy-Michigan snow! Just enough chill in the outdoor view to enfuse us with the energy to enjoy the small parcel of warm indoor aquatic realestate.

Frank, fellow divemaster (left), watches as Sophia signals "OK" upon a successful giant-stride entry. Rebecca (right) looks on with experienced eyes after having passed this skills test moments before...

After her successful demonstration of skills, Sophia was all smiles knowing that she'd properly performed all that was required of her for first Open Water Diver license certificate.

It was only fitting to soak the hours of practice away in the nearby hot tub!

Rebecca and Sophia did extremely well, and I have only request. I'm hoping that they'll come back and tell me about their dives that we've so diligently been preparing for! Another great class under my wing, another group of friends, and more dive buddies for our future dives!

More OWD Training

Its 8:30 in the morning, its Saturday, the shop's OPEN!, and it's time for SCUBA!...

Soon enough it was 8:30, and my Open Water Diving student came in with a confident smile. The master instructor today, Jim, took us both back into the classroom and the three of us introduced ourselves. Our student for the day, Nina, was taking her class to go diving with a friend of hers. This was going to be the first time for me to teach the classroom material for an entire Open Water Diver class, so Jim started and I jumped in and took turns explaining different material. Nina was very comfortable with the material so was a great student for me to work with. She worked in the medical field so many things were familiar to her.

Then we all packed up the gear for the afternoon in the pool...

Ironically, I also saw one of the students (Jerry, middle) at the pool again for a dry suit diving class already! I just saw him a few weeks ago in his first OWD class... he's obviously taking a liking to the water!

We had Nina set up in her gear in no time, but it was a long few hours of practice in the pool. With this being the second time through an OWD pool session, I was getting quite comfortable in remembering the demonstration-quality skills I needed to know. We were a small group so our discussions were social and grew long, but Jim kept pushing us along to keep the show on the road. At the end of the day, Nina was quite comfortable in her skills, and I had another class under my belt! This is starting to get easier and more fun every time!

Dive Master Skills Mastered

It was a small load of equipment today because the bulk of our work for the day was just some basic diver endurance performance.

We had the 400-meter swim, the 800-meter swim with snorkeling gear, 15 minute treading water, and the 100-meter tired diver tow.

Each task had its own benchmarks to judge our successes by, but I'm proud to say that all three of us (Joe, Frank, and Keith) did especially well in every skill.

Just to be sure, our task master, or Dave, or trainer extraordinaire if you will... (as us DM students call him ;-) made sure we didn't steal a single second in our timed skills... Is it just because he owns his own dive shop he thinks he can wield such power over us!? Good enough for me... ;-)


This aerial spy shot shows Dave and I that Keith may have had an unfair advantage with the use of his 3 mill. shorty in the treading water skill... the judges are going to have to take a second look at the results and get back to him. Sorry Keith. (not really. ;-)

Fun for the Reader!

This week was a little slow for the interesting stuff... in case you're interested, I did pass my remaining written tests: Decompression Theory and RDP, Dive Skills & Environment, Divemaster Conducted Programs, Supervising Certified Divers, and Supervising Students.

So the tough bookworm stuff is done for now, so I guess I have a little play time (of course my favorite ;-). The only thing left this week is some divemaster water skills, and I have one Open Water Diver Class to do on Saturday... no problems there.

So I spent a little time to dig up one of my favorite diving pictures for your entertainment (instead of the boring requirements of my recent tests). I can't say enough about this picture! And if I can't convince a non-diver to start to rethink their position about not beginning to dive after seeing it, well... I can't say enough about that type of person! ;-)

This little guy I saw in "The Cathedrals" (more pics from dive buddy Heather) just off the coast of the island of Lanai in Hawaii. The "Cathedrals" is a great dive spot! It's named for the great colors that get twisted as the sun light enters this partial cave from so many of it's "holes". It mimics seeing the inside of a grand cathedral for the first time with all of their popular colored, leaded-glass windows.

Although I never did actually name him, he is a "Spanish Dancer". Kind of ironic I suppose now that I'm dating a human Spanish Dancer (actually American, but after 10 years in Colombia, she speaks and dances with the best of them, even this gringo! ;-)

I hope you enjoyed my pic and some of the info. It's the kind of stuff that really gets me going every day!

Significant Success

I had the day off of work, so today I was going to make some progress! I was on a mission.

First I stopped by the gym to get fueled up in the cafe. Then I did a little warm up, and it was on to the pool for a little pre-selftesting on my water skills tests coming up in a couple of weeks.

Test 1: Swim 400 metres in under 14 minutes. I did a little stretch, set the timer, and off I went...


Upon surfacing after my 16 laps (in the gym's 25 metre pool), No Problem! Just over 12 minutes. I think it's my daily 20-30 miles of biking that's keeping me "afloat" or at least not negatively bouyant! ;-)


Very happy out of the pool, I was back on the bike for quick 10 mile ride to the dive shop. Three tests to take this afternoon.

Diving Physics:
1.1 - Explain why water is able to dissipate body heat faster than air, at what rate this occurs, and what effect this has upon the diver.
1.2 - Explain the behavior of light as it passes from an air/water interface and what effect this has upon the diver.
1.3 - Divine the "visual reversal" phenomenon and explain its effect upon the diver.
1.4 - Explain why sound travels faster in water than in air, by approximately how much and what effect this has upon the diver.
1.5 - State Archimedes' Principle and calculate the buoyancy required to either lift or sink an object in both fresh and seawater.
1.6 - Define the terms "absolute", "ambient", and "guage" pressure and calculate pressure at any depth as expressed by these terms in both fresh and seawater.
1.7 - Explain the relationship between pressure and volume on a flexible gas-filled container, and calculate the changes that will occur to that container as it is raised and lowered in a water column.
1.8 - Explain the relationship between depth and the density of the air a diver breathes, and calculate this relationship in increments of whole atmospheres
1.9 - Given a diver's air consumption rate at one depth, calculate how that consumption rate changes when depth changes.
1.10 - Describe how the behavior of a gas within both a flexible and inflexible container is affected by changes in pressure and tempurature.
1.11 - Given their percentages, calculate the partial pressures of gases in a mixture at any depth.
1.12 - Explain the effect of breathing contaminated air mixtures at depth and calculate the equivilent effect such contamination would have upon the diver at the surface.
1.13 - Explain what will occur to a liquid saturated with a gas at high pressure when the pressure of the gas in contact with the liquid is quickly reduced.
1.14 - Define "supersaturation" and explain what conditions are necessary for gas bubbles to form in a supersaturated liquid.

Whew! That was just the first test! Result = PASSED!

Then came Physiology (I'll spare ya the details, but similarly intense); result = PASSED! And lastly, Equipment; result = PASSED!

Very nice third week indeed!

Lucky at the Library!

"You can never pass up interesting possibilities! "

One of my favorite outlooks on life pays off again. While passing through the lobby of my library they were having an "old books" sale. Of course I tend to be more of a new media person, but I happen to see "Sports" listed on one of the walls, so I mingled over and decided to check out what they had.

Voila! I found this really cool vintage PADI Advanced Open Water Diver Manual from 1980! Very Cool! So I had to pick it up!

Check it out...

After I have a chance to browse through this little treasure, I'll let you know what I find that's interesting. Email me if your interested in this.

T-Shirt Adventures

Just for a little dose of fun, I'm sharing a few of my dive shirts I've collected throughout my (approximately) 15 year dive history... thought some of you might find them interesting.

I have to start with my favorite from the Cayman Islands (fits me a little too well sometimes! ;-)


From the island of Moorea in French Polynesia...


St. Thomas, Virgin Islands...

From Maui obviously, got my Rescue Diver license there...

Dove inside the Living Seas exhibit at Disney's Epcot Center...

Another funny favorite of mine from Cozumel...

My favorite dive place ever! Got my Advanced Open Water here... Bora Bora, French Polynesia!!!

That's it for now, the rest are wet or in the laundry... ;-)

Week Two

Week two began with a very detail-oriented discussion on the "internals" of diving... Respiration/circulation with terms like mammalian reflex, carotid sinus reflex, hypercapnia, hemoglobin, oxygen toxicity, nitrogen narcosis, and barotrauma! Whew. Starting to rediscover the value of straight-forward terms/definitions sheets from highschool!

Then after a break we turned toward equipment.

Here Bob (in back) tells Frank, me and Keith about the physical markings of a scuba cylinder. He says that he could go on for hours about recognizing a safely usable scuba cylinder (but for now I'll reserve the details for my next class).

Keith examines a fracture in a cut-away cylinder top to see what they look like from the inside.

In case you aren't a trained scuba cylinder inspector, the fracture is right there in the middle. Can't you see it? It's right there! Still can't see it? Well, just keep bringing your tanks to Bob at Great Lakes and you won't have to worry, Bob will take care of it for you!

Ending my diary for the day with this great poster in the classroom! Ahhhhh! (for now....)

Teaching Scuba - Week One!

Whew! I finally did it. I started what I think is sure to be my favorite scuba class ever!

Week One was somewhat intimidating, "you're no longer recreational divers, you are professionals!" Scary, but encouraging too as our course director, Bob, began to assure us that he's ready to help each one of us personally to tackle the material ahead of us!

After a few days of classroom work, Introductions, Divemaster Responsibilities, Dive Theory and Diving Physics, it was time to hit the pool for the first time as an instructor!

The students were very eager, and well prepared. Everyone assembled their gear and was ready to go in no time.

I did a quick giant-stride entry demonstration, the students followed suit, and we all hit the pool for some water skills.

After Jim (bottom left) instructed his class in different skill sessions I was able to help demonstrate and work one-on-one with the students to make sure their skills were proficient, and after each success came a smile and a high-five from the students!

It was really satisfying knowing that I helped out some intimidated new students knowing that they'll soon be fellow divers because of my help!

Great First Week!