🤿 Scuba

In 2021 Hubby wanted to try a new hobby & needed a buddy… a diving buddy.
The “I do” back in ’93 leveled up.

  • From Lobster Videos on Youtube to…
    It began harmlessly enough. “Let’s go to Maine next year for the annual lobster fest.” I love me some shellfish and was immediately sold on the idea. Now to plan. Start with the official website, Maine Lobster Festival. Check out a place to stay. Watch YouTubes on how to snorkel in the Florida Gulf. Yes, down the rabbit hole we went and 4 hours later the hubby found himself immersed (pun intended) in the underwater possibility of a DIY lobster fest. From there, the ‘watch next’ led to equipment, locations, and how to snorkel.  But, snorkeling only gets you so far. Forget about the lobster, how can we better breathe underwater longer? Scuba. Now, hubby was really intrigued. A 4 hour investment with YouTube led to days and weeks of aquatic musings. Eventually, he popped the question: “Would you be my diving buddy?” Hmmm… I had already placed my life in his hands when I said, “I do”, back on November 13, 1993.  So, why not? “Sure.” A few days later we were picking out fins and setting a date for our first scuba class at Diver’s World. Somehow, I think a trip to Maine would have been easier… and possibly cheaper.  But, I’m up for a challenge and look forward to this new hobby with the hubby. PS: Did I tell you we’re in our mid-50s? Pray for me as I pray for you!
  • YMCA vs Scuba
    When I was a kid, Saturday mornings were spent at the YMCA. My brothers and I were enrolled in swim classes year round.  The tradition of hitting the pool was almost as sacred as going to Mass on Sundays. (Okay, not even close but you get the drift.) Our parents wanted to make sure we knew how to swim. Mom had a fear of water which she did not want us to inherit, and dad was an avid fisherman – read:  if we ‘fell in’ we had to save ourselves… and not disturb the other fishermen. After many years of progressing from Polliwog to Minnow then Fish to Flying Fish, the ultimate lap of the journey was Shark to Porpoise.  I’m not sure if my brothers ever made it, but reaching Porpoise was a personal goal that I’m still grateful for.  Those years in the water stripped me of any fear I might have. In the pool I found freedom, peace. A bathing suit and cap streamlined my middle school insecure body for graceful movements.  I was my only competition; what I wore didn’t matter and being underwater allowed me an escape from the world. So, when hubby asked me to be his diving buddy, my heart skipped a beat recalling those wonderful Saturday mornings at the Y.  I couldn’t wait to share this new hobby with him.  There was also a spiritual aspect to this longing, recalling the peace that I felt and hoping to pair it with the progression that I have made in my interior life. Ha! Wrong. The simple suit now replaced with a menagerie of expensive and heavy equipment which, when donned, makes it practically impossible to move about in while on land.  And breathing, which the Creator designed to be effortless, has become a unique skill to be learned. Our first class was the epitome of Murphy’s Law. Hubby and I made every mistake a newbie could make.  I won’t go into details but it was a horrible experience.  We left with bruising, bad backs, borderline hypothermia, exhaustion beyond anything we had ever experienced, and a huge sense of failure.*** Where was the freedom? What happened to graceful movements? Forget about uniting this experience with the spiritual life.  I can’t even make the physical part work! We drove away in silence. Truly, I couldn’t understand how scuba diving was appealing to anyone after what we went through.  How could I tell my hubby that this activity sucked? And then…. He looked at me and shyly said, “I’m okay if we never do that again.” I agreed and we both laughed. A few days later we went to the dive store to talk about our frustrations.  We discussed masks and rented dive suits to stay warm; the owner gave us courage to go to the next class. The entire experience reminded me of childbirth.  As painful as it is, somehow God allows the body and mind to forget just how bad it was and one gets pregnant again.  Men – trust me, this is the Master’s plan. Another sign of encouragement came from a Scuba subreddit.  It seems as if our experience is not isolated; a lot of people struggle with their first few dives. Time will tell if we stick with it; hubby and I don’t give up easily and we love a challenge.  Hopefully, these updates will continue; we’ve gotten a little old for Saturday morning pool class. Please pray for me as I pray for you! *** OUR EXPERIENCE WAS NOT THE FAULT OF OUR INSTRUCTOR AND DIVE STORE.  WE CANNOT RECOMMEND THEM MORE: DIVER’S WORLD!
  • Sticking with it
    I’m not a quitter. I don’t like to say, no. I don’t like to do anything half-arsed. Most especially, I don’t like to fail. That said, after hubby and I had two diving sessions in the pool, I was ready to give up. There’s so much to be aware of:  your breathing, buoyancy, equipment, other divers.  You need an understanding of biology, chemistry, and physics.  Most importantly one must to recognize the dangers of diving and how to avoid them… or deal with problems under the water.  And so much can go wrong. Scuba should have been included in Dumb Ways to Die. For me, I had a difficult time equalizing my ears.  I couldn’t remember which button to push to let air out or to inflate my BCD (the vest that holds the tank and keeps you buoyant.).  My mask kept fogging.  I couldn’t hear the instructor when we were above water. I couldn’t understand signals below the water.  To top it off, hubby and I missed a pool class and had to play catch up which added to my anxiety. You’ve heard of fight or flight.  I froze. Embarrassed, defeated, and frustrated, I tapped out and ended up sitting at the side of the water for the rest of the class. I was absolutely ready to quit when the owner of the dive store (where the classes are run through) took the time to talk to Jerry and me about our (my) frustrations.  He promised to pair us with a dive master who was known to be patient and make things fun. Fun? I was shooting for not dying. The following week we were back in the pool with the new diver master. He was awesome – patient and methodical, happy to repeat things if I didn’t hear him the first time, and generous with affirmations.  We ended class that night exhausted but full of a renewed sense of accomplishment and convicted that we could complete the course.  And, the fact that I dropped the 8lb weight belt on my foot never even phased me. It’s amazing how we each respond to different teaching styles.  Understanding this was a gamechanger when I was active in church ministry. I have a friend, a youth minister that I worked with for years, who has a way with teens who are ‘in the margins’. He has the patience of a saint and the charism to speak to hearts most hardened.  The teens love him; often they look to him as the father they never had.  Many live in dangerous areas of our city known for drugs and violence.  These same kids would scare the daylights out of most youth ministers.  But he loves them and that love is transformational. Each of us has a unique personality with gifts that help us to minister to specific people who God sends our way. Like my youth minister friend, our new dive master, although he has no idea, has been the face of Christ for me. Encouraging us to continue with scuba, he gave me the confidence I need so that one day we will be able to experience the underwater world that God so carefully and wonderfully created. Please pray for me, and include our instructor, dive master, and the rest of the class, as I pray for you! [In case this is ever read by any local divers, I want to be clear that our instructor is one of the best.  His knowledge and passion helped us to appreciate the science behind safe diving, for which I am grateful.  Even the phrase “blood in your sputum” no longer phases me.]
  • It’s What You Can’t See That Often Matters
    Last weekend, Hubby and I completed our first dive since being certified in open water last fall.  While I was looking forward to restarting this hobby I was not looking forward to the cold water temperature.  We live close to the Great Lakes and dive in Lake Erie – the water that day was 57° at the surface. 🥶 While it was way too cold for swimming, we were prepared with the proper cold water gear: ✔ 7mm neoprene wetsuits and hoods ✔ 5mm gloves and boots ✔ dive skin and dive socks Not to mention masks, fins, BCDs (buoyancy control device), weights, full tanks of air, and our flag & float (yellow inflatable buoy with red flag indicating to boaters that there are diver’s below). There was also mental preparation. The owner of our local dive shop, knowing that I worry about getting cold, offered advice. He warned that our bodies would be shocked at first by the water temperature; but once we began to swim, the shock would dissipate as our brains started to focus on the tasks necessary for a successful dive. Along with the physical and mental preparation we were also socially prepared. The month prior Jerry and I joined the “Blue Dolphins Skin Divers Club”; this was their Memorial Day BBQ and Dive event.  We were surrounded by experienced divers who were more than gracious to lend a hand. From checking our equipment setup, helping put on gloves and hoods, and finally walking us down to the water’s edge, their support helped curb my anxiety. Everything seemed to be spot-on for a great day! And then… a comedy of errors. When trying to put on his fins, Jerry dropped one. Without thinking, we let go of our ‘flag and float’ while I went under to retrieve the fin.  Praise God we were only in 4 feet of water.  After handing Jerry his fin and retrieving the float, we regrouped and began a surface swim out into the lake. There is an axiom in SCUBA: Plan the dive. Dive the plan. So, you may be asking yourself – what was our plan and did we follow it? Because one never dives alone, Jerry and I were buddied up. He was the leader since he wore the dive computer. I was happy to let him lead. Our plan was to swim out and locate the shallow underwater pipeline where we hoped to see fish.  Depth would be no more than 20 feet, which would allow for over two hours of dive time or until we were down to 500psi in our tanks (we started with 3,000psi). Since this was our first dive on our own, we kept our expectations to a minimum. We were happy just to test some basic skills – clearing our masks, equalizing our ears, getting comfortable breathing underwater. For safety, we planned on keeping shore support in sight along with the other ‘flag and floats’ which would indicate the location of the other divers.  We didn’t want to stray too far from the group. That was the plan. Did we dive it?   We tried. Even with all our planning and preparations we both forgot one simple thing: a 4lb weight. We were diving with 7mm neoprene suits.  Neoprene is filled with tiny bubbles that help insulate but also add buoyancy, so weight must be added to compensate. The last time we dove, the water temps were warmer and we used only 5mm suits.  Our dive logs (a journal of the dive plan, equipment, and conditions) from that dive indicated that we used 16lbs each. When we rented our 7mm suits, we didn’t consider the need for an increase in weight. We used the same 16lbs. We didn’t dive, we floated. Floating instead of diving meant that we could not see the bottom clearly.  We could not see the pipeline or any fish.  And, I appeared to be strangely weighted as I had difficulty keeping my feet behind me. There were times that I twisted, turned, and rolled just trying to keep control of my body. To make matters worse, the line from our flag and float got tangled around Jerry’s legs. After getting his attention to stop swimming, I was able to untangle the line. For someone new and poorly weighted, it wasn’t the easiest of tasks. But, we did it and began our swim again. This final leg of our journey out into the lake didn’t last long. My fingertips were getting numb; as soon as you feel the cold it’s time to ‘call the dive’. We agreed that I would lead us back to shore so that hubby could swim, mask in water, and try to see some fish. I was happy to give him the break. As he passed the flag and float line to me the slack got caught around my flashlight which was clipped to my BCD next to the inflator. As I fumbled to untangle the line, hubby, not realizing the latest predicament, swam ahead of me which pulled the line tighter and made it more difficult to loosen myself. I finally tugged hard on the part of the line he was holding which caused him to stop and gave me the slack I needed to unwind my flashlight and reset my anxiety. Freed from the line I looked up to search for our shore support. I was surprised how crowded it had become. For me, this added a new stress to the dive. Because Jerry was in front of me with his face in the water I didn’t know if he realized how crowded the beach was and that we were swimming between kayakers and paddle boarders. After what seemed like forever on the struggle bus, we finally made it to shore. Hubby exited first and I followed… but not before getting knocked to my knees by a wave. I was so tired; I couldn’t stand on my own. One of the members of the dive club […]
  • Scuba Update 🤿
    Hubby and I passed our open water tests last year. We are currently certified to dive 60 feet down into the abyss… which right now is Lake Erie. I’m trying to overlook the fact that, unless we hit the lotto, we’ll be diving locally wearing 5mm to 7mm wetsuits with hoods in murky’ish water with limited visibility just to see bass, perch, and bluegill. Caribbean blue, bathwater warm, waters must wait. Immediately after completing the open water dives we decided to move forward with two other certifications: Nitrox and Advanced. We took the in-person classes last fall and are in the process of completing the necessary dives to become certified. These courses will enable us to dive deeper, longer, and experience different specialties such as underwater photography, archeological diving, rescue diving, and more. In spite of my snarky comments about diving in the colder waters of Lake Erie, I’m actually enjoying this new sport/hobby. The experiences offered by Diver’s World, our local dive shop, and the Blue Dolphin Skin Divers Club have pushed me way beyond my comfort zone but have also left me with a great sense of accomplishment. Im hooked! Hubby and I started the summer with a shore dive. Sadly, we were both under-weighted and just swam on the top because we were too buoyant. It was still good practice putting gear together, walking with trepidation over rocks to the shore, and battling waves (albeit little ones, toddlers were splashing nearby) while putting on our fins. It’s not as easy as it looks. Our second dive as a couple (Jerry dove the following week in that same area and was able to dive properly weighted) was in a place called “Crusty’s Quarry“. Funky name but… So. Much. Fun. The quarry is filled with sunken boats, a school bus, underwater platforms for training, and even a small airplane suspended by large floats. Fish were so fun and curious. It was a good place to practice and just have fun on our own without dealing with the added stress of waves, a rocky shore, or crowded beach. Crusty’s was built for diving and the owner was super cool, showing us around and making sure we knew he was around if we needed help. Next, we did a boat dive to visit a wreck in about 58ft of water in Lake Erie. The ride out was exhilarating as was the descent down the mooring line. What did I see? A couple of big bass, a large school of fish (bluegill?), and the remains of the S.K. Martin, a wooden steamship once carrying a cargo of coal. The Martin was caught in a storm and foundered due to the boiler blowing up. Amazingly, there was no loss of life; all 12 members on board made it to safety. The ship went down on October 12, 1912. There wasn’t much to see due to limited visibility and a wooden hull encrusted with invasive zebra mussels. Grateful for the Youtubes, I found a video of a dive team surveying the wreck: “PASST Lake Erie Shipwreck Diving: S.K. Martin 2015“. Our next dive was a “Drift Dive” or “Current Dive”. I’m not going to lie… When we first started this whole “Honey will you be my dive buddy?” thing last year I had no idea what I was truly saying yes to. Had I known that diving down the Niagara River would have been a requirement one day, I would have said, “Hell No”. Isn’t it interesting how things kind of creep up on you? What should have been the easiest dive, floating with the current, turned out to be the most physically demanding. In order to take full advantage of the drift we had to swim out toward the middle and into the current. Once we were settled we could descend to the bottom then let the river do it’s job and carry us to our take out point. I thought I was in pretty good shape. The Niagara proved me wrong. Once I caught my breath and received additional weight in order to descend (a 4lb lead brick was literally shoved into the front of my wetsuit), the dive was wonderful. My favorite part was flowing with the weed beds as they danced along the river bottom with little fish darting here and there. Our world has so many hidden treasures. I was blessed to be part of a very unique ecosystem that most will only experience online through someone else’s lens. What I find most interesting is how, in only one year, hubby and I went from snorkeling in an 84° pool to scuba diving down the Niagara River. At 55 years old, I think that’s not too shabby. Next up… two dives that will complete our Advanced Adventure Certification: a night dive and a navigational dive. My prayer is that the final dive might navigate us to those tropical Caribbean blue waters with pretty fish and piña coladas. Pray for me as I pray for you! [Photo at top of post credit to Blue Dolphin Skin Diver’s Club.]