Diving is all about letting go.
I could probably sit cross legged and give sermons on how,
but I’m sure by the end of my experience you’ll realize to enjoy the full
pleasure scuba diving,what I foretell is actually a biological must.
Diving.
Once the idea was planted in my mind, images of me with fins
floating around, circled a deep hole in my conscious existence.
That’s how I found myself dangling over the side of a boat
masked and weighed by a cylinder full of air, and self pumped with knowledge
that volume of air is inversely proportional to pressure.
Which basically means that if you’re somehow hovering above
your group under water and were you to breathe deep in then that bubble inside
you that fills out with air, will make you rise like a phoenix and you may find
yourself bobbing along the boat that shot you down, chatting with surface men rather than the fish below,and diving is not anthropology its a part of zoology so staying down is a must
I did have a friend on the course who had much the same
affinity to the boat and deep breathing as I did to exhaling, so I was mostly
found closely examining the sand on the ocean floor and my friend was found
interacting with the boat staff.Our lovely instructor would be found somewhere
in between pointing towards the lovely Flora and Fauna,to observe, which is the
basic reason we pick this skill of under water diving.Or did you assume that I
did this heavy cylinder training under water just so I could paste a cool photo
of my self on a certain site so my friends living their mundane lives could go
green as they saw it from their desks buried under work.
To be frank most of my fish lining the script of my diary of
my 8 long dives are basically ones which I processed as my instructor said it
and I stared at him blankly for a second then went,right! and scribbled it
down.
The first time I went under water with my equipment and
weights to do training I thought I'm a professional,the sign of all Ok became
like my personal mantra.I felt like a queen ,though a queen with a bursting
bladder,on that I will just elaborate.
The feeling of royalty was systematically demolished by
nature's conspiracy. Let me explain how.
It is said that drinking water early in the morning is a great way to start your internal organs working,and I'm a huge fan of it's said.Well after
hopping on to the boat ,(which I must point out was after a halt to the
washroom),within an hour my fully functional internal organs were ready to
cleanse my body of toxins again.I felt that pressure,a small tinge and my
internal alarm went off,but I calmly smiled at my instructor who was showing me
how to drop weights and rise in water,how to signal all OK..
Basically once the feel to go takes hold then go, I must.
It being an all male crew I was looking around for some kind
of female intervention,someone to hold hands with and just swing by to the
nearest washroom,now the deal with under water is you don’t just swing by
anywhere,words used for motion in diving are stepping or back flipping off a
boat,clambering back on,and then swimming.Swinging, No. It would take an hour
minimum were we to declare emergency and cancel training and head straight
back.
The point was how to air the doubt,and that all was not OK,tell him why and still maintain the elegance,
in front a group of men.
Faced by such situations I must admit, putting on a brash
face and coming directly to the point is handy, My directness was met with a laugh by my instructor and he
gleefully informed me that I was floating in the world largest’ free to go’ place.
Curving his hand around the ocean with a proprietorial air, owning to the fact that my hair which were I repeat coiffed back in a bun,
slightly waving in the water (to my delight) were being washed around by his
processed morning water.
Horror crept up my insides,and I cannot describe how I
calmed my mind and reminded myself of all the beautiful fish in the ocean and
how cool I look in my gear, that I only go under water with my regulator in
mouth and soothingly reminded myself of buckets of shampoo standing in my room.
That we loose body heat 25% faster under water, they told us,
but what they didn't say is , its because you’re streaming jets of warmth out
of your body. At a rate faster than intake,and to my dismay a much higher
frequency too, as I was later to discover.
Years of training were up against a challenging situation
which literally had the solution ‘out of the box’
I’m sure my mother diligently drilled into me at an early
age to signal when I was ready to go and then as I grew I was pointed to the
direction of the washroom.
My training was floundering in face of the lack of proper
steps to be followed. Faced with a new area of being, had seen me first signal my
desire to go, but the direction I was being pointed to, was definitely not a
washroom I could find a door to.
So I muttered my thanks at his helpful gesture, ignored the
male calls of joy at crassly shouting about their exploits of firing jets under
water, and with a hurting tummy went in for my first dive.
I had decided not to do what men did, topping that I was
sure the women in other groups would do no such thing.
So I followed my instructor along with my bobbing friend to
see schools of fish. If my words could paint a picture you’d see in national geographic,
then that’s what I’m telling you. Picture the prettiest setting under water
with sunlight streaking through a calm wall of blue, fit some colorful rocks in,
and then leave a shoal of yellow fish in it and snap this shot as they swim by
you in a geometrically aligned wave pattern, freeze this.
This pretty scene in my eyes,was making Kodak memories.
Right about then I felt a little nibble on my ankle,(here I should tell you I
was wearing a knee length wet suit, giving access to biting fish ,corals and
yes the sun to my legs, knee below, giving me a tan which six months hence also
lovingly circles my knees in dirty contrasting rings. Never again, full
coverage next time) anyway back to the nibbling fish. Which my instructor later
informed me casually was the pretty little clown fish, whose jovial way of
looking cute and nibbling you is basically telling you to get lost and its
actually shouting at us, but his speech gets lost in inter-species translations
and the disparity in our sizes. We are the intruders here, I was told. Now that
word also didn’t go really well with my definition of what I was doing, as opposed
to my self image of an explorer.
Well an explorer with a now quite an urgent bladder.
In my mind the mantra was repeating itself lets go lets go.My mind was now effectively diverted from clown fish, insistently
nibbling or not.
But my bobbing friend suddenly found the ocean floor and was following our instructor with great interest,signaling mindlessly his best understood
signal,at odd moments.While I tailed behind forgetting I was trying to copy his
swimming style from behind. Pondering over the seriousness of my uncomfortable
situation,took on massive proportions..I toyed with the
idea of ‘why should boys have all the fun’, and then decidedly said no.
We went ahead some more,with me in a haze of my own and the
argument seemed to take hold of my mind and suddenly the side where no one
needs know was tilting the scales.
I quickly reached the decision point, and decided to let go,
But as in life, its very difficult to let go, two words that could make our
life heaven,(I should know)going against my life long potty training, was
rebelling against my insistent pressure.
But as I was taught effectively pressure is inversely
proportional to volume, as my pressure was increasing the volume had to go down.
Science. Pure Science.
I will not describe the actual process or my ritual would
loose its secrecy in male type cries, but all I’ll say is it’s warmly heaven,
and all those who have been there would connect with this release.
Well there is my handy little tip for diving coming to an
end, I am sure when I do dive again I will need to be reminded of all of Boyles
laws again, because registration is not my strong point, retention weaker still.
So I will leave the expert technical tips for now and just say that for a great
dive and a clear mind,eat less breakfast, as my bobbing friend would attest
to(I eat like a horse, but THAT is his story to tell ,this mini tip just to cover
every base),but even if you cannot control your gastro pleasures like me and it
all wants to regurgitate, do one thing promptly let go,just let go and back
flip out and for the former, jet it around.(pun intended)
