Blog #4

*I forgot to blog the week I did this so I am doing it now.*
The week that I started the training for the scuba certification I was nervous. When scuba diving, there are many things that you have to keep track of and there are many things and factors that can go wrong. Another factor that was nerve racking was that I was starting to come down with a sickness that week. This is problematic because it can be hard to equalize the pressure in your sinuses if they are clogged. The first day, we went to a pool to start getting familiar with the equipment involved in diving. We stayed at the 4 foot part of the pool for the whole time going over various exercises including taking off your mask underwater and taking off your buoyancy control device in the water. I felt myself getting cold during the exercises which was odd because we were in a 80 degree pool. This worried me because we were going to Monterrey Bay where the water would be 55 degrees. I figured that the wet suits that we were going to wear would trap in the heat from my body. My friends and I had no problem with the exercises on the second day, when we went to the bottom of the 12 foot pool. It is a weird feeling being at the bottom of a pool and looking up at the surface.
One thing that I have to say is that staying calm when you think you are falling over, lose your mask, or getting a cramp at the bottom of a pool ensures that you wont panic and lose you regulator(your air supply) or that you hurt yourself squirming around. Controlling your buoyancy takes practice, if you feel yourself falling over on the bottom, just increase your buoyancy by taking a deep breath and you will start to go up. After you have gained control, breath out to lower yourself back to the bottom. Make sure to never hold your breath though, if your feel your lungs expanding unintentionally, you are probably going up and the air in your lungs in expanding. This can lead to lung injuries that can be life threatening. Those are a few tips that I learned to improve your scuba diving techniques and experience. I hope this can benefit your scuba diving experiences too.