Continued from Part I...
 |
| Though it's hard to know what challenges you'll face, training can increase the diver's confidence, skill level, and safety. |
Now imagine for a moment you've not necessarily only lost your air source and flow to the hat but you have instead lost the hat! You're screwed, right? Not necessarily. The pneumo hose which as previously mentioned allows the diver to shoot some air up into the void of the hat in the event of a primary gas failure can also serve as an air source all by itself. This completely sucks... There's no two ways of looking at it. The concept of ditching a hat deep underwater and slurping bubbles all the way up is not attractive as a concept and let me tell you from experience it is no song and dance in practical usage either.
 |
| Off we go! |
Our instructor asked us to descend the ladder on one of our training tanks with no hat, no scuba tank, no regulator, no easy button, basically nothing, and slurp bubbles from the pneumo as we blindly made a walk around the circumference of the training tank. When it was my turn, I prepared to submerge my head as the pneumo hose was fired up and mine was instantly a world of bubbles. Our instructor had shown us how we could more or less cup our hand around our mouths and the tip of the hose to get as much air and as little water as possible.
It works. It really does. But it will not be your favorite. I learned quickly that you can't see anyway with the water in your eyes and the bubbles and so I might as well close my eyes. Also, I made piece with the idea of swallowing a little bit of water. It's hard not to. With that done I just sort of lumbered around the tank with my free hand feeling the wall until I got all the way around the circle and back to the life giving ladder. It's hard to imagine using this technique in a real emergency but it is yet another option and each option we learn markedly increases my confidence.
We've done a fair bit of diving thus far with the band mask. They are a nice, lower cost option and very easy and comfortable to use. I even have a stupid picture of myself wearing one and doing the running man which I'll make sure makes its way into this post. To add yet another imaginary and shitty set of circumstances to overcome, I suggest the idea of a failed band mask. Imagine you're underwater wearing your band mask, working, and just doing your thing when all of the sudden it fills with water and won't clear no matter how much air you shoot into it with the steady flow. Now imagine you have a bud standing nearby on the ocean floor holding a band mask. If you can handle all that, imagine you felt compelled to ditch your mask and put on his extra! I feel like I've said this too many times but it can be done and it's about as much fun as farting loudly in a job interview.
 |
| I don't always wear a band mask, but when I do... Running man! |
When you ditch your filled, broken, no-longer-useful mask and prepare to don the other you realize it's a lot harder to put on underwater when you can't breathe. It's also a pickle to clear the mask with its relatively large internal air space but waiting patiently while holding your breath is something the class and I have become pretty handy at. It was a good experience and a sure confidence builder.
 |
| Remember, you'd always rather just breath through the regulator... |
Though some of these techniques are pretty unsavory, they serve to teach the diver to be extremely confident in the use and options associated with their life support equipment. Overcoming these obstacles also vastly improves the diver's comfort in the water and ability to shut off the panic response inherent to human beings underwater. While I dreaded these exercises at first, I look back at them fondly and and thankful for the top notch instruction I'm receiving in the coolest community college program you can find. I also feel a hell of a lot less likely to freak out underwater and shorten my life on accident, no matter what happens. It's a nice feeling.
No comments:
Post a Comment