So I went diving yesterday. It was an Adventure Dive, which means that I'm with an actual instructor. There's a course part, a dive briefing, and you do the dive. It's a step to get an Advanced Open Water certification.
You must carefully monitor air consumption when diving, especially the deeper you go. Since you're under greater pressure, a lung full of air at 30 meters requires about four times the number of air molecules needed at the surface. So your air goes quickly.
I look at the guage at nine meters. We haven't been down very long, and I've used five bar out of 200. I look again once we're down to 27 meters. It hasn't moved. I hit it. Still nothing. It's not that I can't get air, it's that I don't know how much I've used. I show the gauge to the instructor, and we abort the dive.
This is the best instructor I've ever had. So I wasn't really freaked out. I knew that I would be ok. And we made it out just fine. The company gave me my money back, and gave me a free dive to give me some confidence back.
So my lessons learned... Get into diving at home, and buy my own equipment. I can then maintain it in my usual exacting manner.
And the other is a "trust you gut thing. The certifiying agency, PADI, encourages new divers to take these courses. I think of it as a way to practice skills with an instructor. But I thought that I should get more dives under my belt. It was almost as if I didn't know what to do with all of the book info that I get. Indeed, I can answer all of the instructor's questions, but don't can't instinctually apply the knowledge. So I'm taking Harry's advice, and just going to dive a lot before I think about worrying about the advanced stuff...
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2 comments:
Is there only one gauge? On our SCBA we have the gauge on the regulator, plus the gauge on the tank, plus the HUD that shows you pressure to the nearest 1/4 of a tank. Also a low air bell.
Seems like they could have given you another gauge...
But I agree with cancelling the dive.... no sense half assing it especially as a newbie.
/pbz
Only one gauge. They do have "low air bells" but most units don't have them. They have to be reset manually, and people usually forget to do so. There's no gauge on the tank. It hooks up to a primary stage regulator, and then a secondary stage regulator is off of that primary. The only gauge you have runs off of the primary. The tank is also used to inflate the vest that makes you rise/sink. So the air supply is key...
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