Travel With Friends - Not all Friends Scuba Dive

OK, I was surprised that not every friend of mine knew how to dive, or had any desire to learn to dive. I can't imagine why but they are my friends and so I ask no questions I still love them. I must say I get half way through each day and wonder what the hell I'm going to do the rest of the day, now that I am relaxing in some resort beach with no nitrogen in my system to gas off. Mostly I am saved by the beach waiter who comes by just in time with an offer of some liquid libation. I tell him to surprise me with coconut and he creates some icy sweet gem with just enough kick in the pants to make a long sunny nap on the bed on the beach ma perfect option. Now I understand how pwdd (People Who Don't Dive) manage their vacations. Sun, naps, alcohol, and food in constant rotation seem to be the order of the day. And at least I managed to get some water activity, though you can't dive in the hot tub. This was Holiday Lifestyle VIP at Hacienda in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. We live like rock stars for a week. It was awesome and we are going back in May.

Dive Log or Travelogue?

Come on, really...how many dives have you logged? No, I didn't ask how many dives you have made...I asked how many you've logged. That is an entirely different question. I see divers all the time who casually wave off the logging chore...with the vague promise that they always log their dives before bedtime (or on the plane ride home, or every New Year's Day.) Right!

Logging is as simple as date, time, depth, and surface interval between dives. But far too many of us do not see the value in even this most basic of documentation. Besides the fact that dive operators may rely on your log as proof of experience, the logbook is essential to medical professionals should you have any diving related mishap. An accurate log of your recent dives may be the difference between several trips to the chamber or a diagnosis of a cold coming on.

But beyond these basics, your logbbok can be great fun years later as you revisit the excitment you enjoyed on a particular dive. Some divers use their logbook to record new fish and coral citings, others keep detailed records of air consumption, photos taken, equipment reviews or other minutiae. Whatever the info you decide to keep in your logbook, at the very minimum commit to keeping date, time, depth and surface interval.

"So...how many dives have you logged Jane?" I know that's the question you are thinking and I am embarrassed to admit that I haven't taken my own advice...at least not very consistently. Sure, I dive with a computer (and a backup computer) and it logs my dive which I then download to my laptop or PC. The problem here is that I don't usually cart my laptop around to show to dive operators. Most are willing to accept that my wallet full of instructor certifications probably means that I have adequate experience. But not having logged consistently means I really can't tell you how many dives I have done. I conservatively estimate the number at around 1500, but the cold hard truth is I really don't know.

When I am at my best and most creative I enjoy writing a travelogue or journal as my log to augment the computer generated dive particulars. In the middle of winter, when I desperately need some salt water in my regulator I go back to the log to revisit a special trip or particulary eventful dive. The following is an excerpt from my log of a trip to Egypt and the Red Sea. I hope you enjoy it!

Day 3
Up early for a 6:00am departure time (the bus got packed with luggage secured on the roof. Our divemaster for the week, Osama introduced himself and led the way as we trekked out of Cairo, under the Suez Canal and down the Sinai Peninsula towards Sharm el Sheik. We expected to make it to Sharm and get a dive or two in that day. It is a long trip and most folks sleep in between rest stops. The choice of rest stops is important in this part of the world. As the group would soon learn, not all toilets are created equal. We see everything from a hole in the floor to some hardware that would almost pass muster at a gas station on the Eastern Shore. It is hard to remember to have a pound or two to pay the attendant, hell its hard to get small change anywhere in Egypt…the loo attendants have it all! For a few pennies you get a few squares of 1 ply toilet paper and you count yourself lucky at that. We get used to keeping paper napkins in our pockets for emergencies.

After surrendering our passports and an interminable wait at the dock in Sharm (the security official had apparently gone on a walk about) we finally got clearance. It should be noted that everywhere we went was recorded with the tourist security police and we had a personal and well armed body guard at all times. We started our dive week with a very short boat ride around the point to a site called The Temple. [64 feet for 79 minutes] The night dive was also at The Temple. Hunting with the lionfish was the major sport. Shine your light on a nearby potentially tasty morsel and the grateful lionfish rewards you by stalking it, cornering it, and finally making the lunge to eat the hapless fish. John and Jane could be heard screaming encouragement through their regulators. Most of the group also saw the illusive Spanish dancer although she was too shy to put on a floorshow. No worries…we had lots of dives left to see her twirl her skirts. [61 feet for 68 minutes] We spent the night anchored at the mooring at The Temple.

Underwater Sign Language

Can you talk to your buddy underwater?

Some divers will talk into their regulators and while they may think they've told their buddy to be careful because the stone fish stings...what the buddy hears is generally something like "Blurble, glub, glub, blurbley blurbley." Right!

Sure, we can all tell our buddy we are "OK," or to go "UP," or we are "OUT OF AIR." But what if you wanted to tell your buddy to follow you into the cave and take a picture of the blue crab? Well, if you knew SeaSigns you could tell your buddy that and more.

SeaSigns is an underwater sign language system born out of the observation that deaf divers had no problems at all communicating underwater...they simply continued to talk with their hands as always. Based on American Sign Language and comprised of around 100 signs, SeaSigns is plenty of vocabulary for divers to get their point accross and some SeaSigners will even manage some expressive language.

I certified a group of divers while on a trip. One woman excitedly signed to me from accross the reef..."come, look, eel eat lobster." Well, I was sure that she had that wrong, it can't be...and I shot her the universal "OK" sign figuring I'd learn what she was getting at once we got back onboard. But she wouldn't let up, "come. look, eel eat lobster" she was emphatic and practically screaming at me. So I motored on over to her location...just in time to see lobster antennae, and legs drifting down to settle on the reef, and one big eel, gulping as he managed to swallow a huge lump down his throat. Yup "eel, eat lobster" all right and I missed it, but my buddy had managed to tell me.

The system is amazingly easy to learn and a little practice will make one quite profficient. The materials, including a DVD and eBook make self study easy and guide the diver through the proper technique for signing underwater in bulky gloves or even in mitts. SeaSigners earn a descriptive tag as their certification identifying them as underwater signers and many scuba training agencies have a specialty based on the SeaSigns program.

I'm always anxious to get more folks profficient in underwater sign language and this season Atlantic Edge Dive Center will offer an introductory seminar on June 9 at 6:30pm. The seminar will give you a chance to experience just how easy it is to learn SeaSigns. So come check us out, I'd love to teach you to Learn to Sign!

Spring Tune Up

As a diver I never take anything for granted. Sure, I've been doing this for a very long time and there are very few things about recreational scuba diving that are new to me...but I always prepare and double check my list. So its spring and dive season is fully underway and I recently spent a very cold weekend getting prepared and testing the equipment and running the dives at the local training quarry/lake. I try to do a shakedown dive at the begining of each season to iron the bugs out. Sometimes every aspect of a dive can seen like a never been done before component. Even the way I lay out my tarp and organize my gear can be strange when I haven't done it in several months. Do I make sandwiches and a thermos of coffee, or is it better to take jars of peanut butter and jelly and some bread and make lunch on the spot? Do I use the drysuit gloves or will wetsuit gloves be enough? Are my fin straps long enough to accommodate the rock boots? Are the batteries working in my lights? Can I remember how to download dives from dive computer to laptop? These are the kinds of things I have to work out every spring.



Once in the water I can take some time to get the lay of the land...do I remember how to navigate from the platform to the truck and is the pizza man still intact? I can record the temperature at the platform and check the vizability so that I can be sure to share the good news with prospective student divers. Most importantly, I can think through solutions to be ready to respond to any eventuality. I can make sure I am prepared. That's the reason for a spring tune up or a shakedown dive and I try not to miss one.



The first dive of the spring requires some preparation and thought so here's what I do:

• Lay out all the necessary gear on a tarp in the middle of my garage


• Make certain that everything is in working order with fresh batteries and solid straps and connectors. My gear is generally serviced in the fall but this is where I would make certain of that


• Thoroughly examine the contents of my tool kit and replace any missing parts


• Update the contents of my First Aid kit, making sure to throw away out of date medicine and supplies


• Make a list of things I need to buy as replacements or spare parts - buy them


• Pack my bag in reverse order of use so my bcd is on the top and my gloves are on the bottom of the bag


• Organize my garage storage of scuba gear so that I can find whatever I need and know with confidence that it is in working order

After the first dive of the season I then make a list of what worked and what didn't or what additional gear would be good to have for next time. At one particularly muddy lake I have reminded myself to bring a spare pair of shoes that I don't mind getting filthy and a plastic bin in which to store muddy things for the ride home.

So get out there and get your first dive of the season accomplished, prepare and make your list, and if you have any good tips be sure to share them with me! Cheers...jane

I'm Flying. Thank you Archimedes!

What a rush...never will I experience the sensation of flying, I mean flying like a bird, moving at will through three demensional space, quite the same way as I do when diving. I want to go up...I look up and inhale deeply, and there I go. And when it comes time to go down...or to some other place, I simply look there and exhale deeply and I move to the new place. This is the beauty of neutral buoyancy while diving. Archimedes is my hero, as his principle of buoyancy states that "any body partially or completely submerged in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the body." It was once a hard concept to imagine. But now I know that it means I am weightless in the water, that is to say perfectly balanced and neither floating nor sinking in the water column. My buoyancy is affected by my breath, changing the volume of the object (me) while not significantly changing the weight of the object (unlike the Spaghetti Carbonara I had for dinner last night.) Isn't physics wonderful?

And so I fly, supported in mid water I move at will, like a condor soaring on the currents. Free, streamlined, unencumbered and ultimately happy! Sound like fun? You can learn to dive in two weekends and you will have a sense of neutral buoyancy. You will perfect your neutral buoyancy on every dive over your entire dive career as you discover new ways to use your body and your equipment to achieve perfect weightlessness. You too will be able to fly.

I love teaching new students to dive. At some point in class they discover that they are perfectly neutrally buoyant and there is an "aha!" moment when their eyes light up and the smile is evident through their mask. Of course the excitement changes their breathing pattern and position and the perfect moment is lost but for that split second they are enthralled. Let me teach you to dive at Atlantic Edge Dive Center.

Cheers...JaneS

Fish Whisperer

I think I might be a fish whisperer. Well, really I aspire to be a fish whisperer. That is to say I strive to dive in such a way as to befriend the fish. Last October, I was diving in the Bahamas and I realized that I was getting pretty good at this fish whisperer thing. One can never chase and expect to catch up to a fish...they will always be faster than the fastest diver. But, if one moves quietly, exhales gently with no sudden moves, it is possible to get right into the middle of a school. I think the fish just consider me a big ugly distant cousin who they have to entertain for a while.

I practiced this with the french grunts and the blue stripped grunts that like to school in the shade of a coral head. They are usually facing into a current and I would line myself up at the back of the pack, barely finning, as streamlined as possible. Bit by bit I would gain on the school...with each surge of the ocean I would get a little closer until finally I could see fish in front of me and fish to my left and fish to my right and if I looked down between my legs I could see fish behind me. "Yeah, I'm in!!!" I was completely surrounded by the school and everybody seemed pretty comfortable. What a high. I later tried this with a small school of menacing looking barracuda...same thing, except every once in a while I would take the regulator out of my mouth and make an exaggerated underbite so they would know I belonged.

Next I tried it with a lone southern sting ray. This guy was swimming by just above a sandy patch, I swam along side talking to him (not out loud as that makes way too many bubbles, but in my head and with every bit of body language I could muster) "It's OK buddy I just want to visit with you, settle down, you can cover up in the sand, I won't hurt you, good buddy!" And before you know it that little ray had settled himself right down into the sand and covered himself up. Just his scutes and eyes were visible and he let me approach to within inches, watching me warily but patiently letting me watch him too. We had bonded. I'm really getting the hang of this fish whisperer thing!

Thankfully I get to practice the technique as a volunteer diver at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Every two weeks I dive with the amazing creatures in the Wings on the Water exhibit and the Atlantic Coral Reef exhibit and I talk to the fish all the time. I teach a course at the Aquarium and any certified Open Water Diver (or equivalent) can take the course through Atlantic Edge Dive Center and have the priviledge of whispering to the fishes. I'd be happy to show you how!

Cheers...JaneDiver

The Zen of Diving

I am running to keep up with the cyber age and so I will undertake this blog in the hopes that the eletronic age will not pass me by. I hope you will follow along.

I teach scuba diving. I am the Assistant Training Director at Atlantic Edge Dive Center and I have travelled the world to dive in some pretty amazing places. I will share some of these travels over time in this blog. Obviously, I love diving. If I could not see, I would still dive...I love hearing the bubbles, being neutrally buoyant and moving as abird moves in multi-dimensional space, I love that when diving I am totally consumed by the Zen of the dive. I also really enjoy teaching others to dive. Most instructors will tell you that they like sharing their passion with new divers, getting their students to get as excited about the sport, the travel, the underwater world as they are. Sure, thats a part of what I like about teaching...but honestly part of what I love is the teaching itself. I am intrigued when I have a student who is scared, or clumsy, or uncomfortable in and around water. It fascinates me to see if I can find the words to get that student to relax, to fix their kick, to trust me, and to enjoy the sensation of being underwater, breathing and blowing bubbles. Sometimes it requires every bit of creativity to get that difficult student to the point that they can enjoy the idea of diving, that they can find their Zen in the dive. Just recently I had a student in the pool whose breathing was extremely fast...I knew he was nervous and had to find a way to slow his breathing down. I asked him to lay on the bottom of the pool with me and to try to pace his breathing to mine. He did and soon he looked comfortable so I grabbed his arm, tucked it under mine and together we swam a lap around the pool. Sometimes touch underwater can make all he difference in the world. My once nervous student was happily swimming underwater looking more and more like a diver! I had managed to find a way to help him find and feel the Zen of the dive.

Cheers...JaneDiver