Diving Deeper: Sport Diver Course

Capernwray

Over the last six months, Chris and I have been training for our Sport Diver course with Shrewsbury Sub Aqua and BSAC. The Sport Diver qualification means that we can dive up to 35m and lead less experienced divers. It takes the knowledge we learned on our Ocean Diver course and takes it to the next level, as you probably could have guessed! It began back in January with... 

Ready to learn!

BOOT CAMP

Over the course of a weekend, back when it was faaarrrr too cold to dive in British waters without a drysuit, myself, Chris and about four or five others learned everything there was to know about Sport Diver theory. We covered six modules over the two days. It was very information intensive, but a good way to learn as we could discuss the more difficult bits with less of a time constraint than when we learned before the practical session. 

The modules were taught by members of the club, sharing their expertise and experience which makes all that we were learning feel very real. The modules took the basic premises we learned in the Ocean Diver course and applied them to deeper dives. This covered what happens at the bottom, how we consume air and store nitrogen, and how this all affects the body. They also taught us how to better prepare for dives, like working out how much air we need to take based on the average amount consumed at certain depths or how the altitude of a dive will affect the body.

It was all fascinating stuff - if a little confusing at times! But then, I think that's my tendency to balk at anything maths related. It was great getting a deeper understanding of what happens to our bodies during and after dives. I knew that a there should be a wait period before dives, but now I know why and the mechanics of it. (It's to allow the nitrogen to desaturate from our tissues by exiting the body via the lungs, if you must know.)

All of this culminated in a written exam, which everyone scored very well. (Ahem, I got 100% if you remember my instagram post.) So, all in all, a successful weekend!

Ready to kit up

DRILLS

Of course, there are some practical skills we need to perfect for the course too. One can't learn to dive from books alone. Again, these skills expand on those we learned from the Ocean Diver course. We learned on the first course how to assist in bringing a casualty to the surface and how to signal the boat there is a situation. With the Sport Diver, we learned how to deal with the situation. This includes towing the casualty to the shore and/or boat; how to properly dekit them; how to perform rescue breaths both in the water and on land; as well as some first aid. We even got to use our instructors as dummies.

We also have been covering more practical skills to use during regular dives and not just emergencies. Divers carry a Surface Marker Buoy (SMB) or Delayed Surface Marker Buoy (DSMB), depending on the dive. In the theory side of things, we learned which tool was best for which dive. In the pool, we learned how to deploy and use them. This was much harder than learning that SMBs are great for drift dives and DSMBs are useful for the boat to find surfacing divers! DSMBs are fiddly, but once you get the knack of it they aren't so bad. I have yet to successfully use an SMB in the pool. Between not being able to use the ratchet and tying up the new Ocean Divers, it's safe to say I don't have the knack for that yet.

We have also been trying out compasses, knives, torches; all the accessories which are rapidly being added to my kit wish list!

I love learning, so furthering my diving knowledge has been a fantastic experience for me. 

Everyone's favourite quarry

DIVING EXPERIENCE

Of course, the most important part of the course is getting the experience. We need to do at least five dives under different conditions to get signed off, along with demonstrating that we have mastered the new skills. The bank holiday dive trip wasn't technically a Sport Diver trip, although it was certainly a new diving condition for me! We did visit Capernwray earlier in the year, the end of March. So the water was nice and chilly. Around 5C. You say "mad", I say "dedicated".

We did two dives that day. The plan was to do three, but each dive and recovery took a little longer than anticipated. Also, this liability, but more on that later. We were aiming to dive with an SMB and then deploy a DSMB on the second dive, to get those signed off, as well as practise decompression stops and our rescue skills. I recall getting into a knot within seconds of the SMB dive. And that is not even the liability bit.

I had my first underwater panic attack. Ok, yes, I had a panic attack in my first lesson but that does not count. On the second dive, after a fussy DSMB deploy - the thing would not deploy unless my buddy stuck her arm inside the buoy - I had a bad ascent. I am rather buoyant, it's a mission to get me under the water sometimes, so when we made the ascent to 6m I suddenly started to take off like a rocket. That is quite scary in its own way because you suddenly lose all control of your body and it is hard to regain control without the help of someone grabbing your leg. This does happen to me literally every dive, so I have gotten rather good at the emergency air dump.

I managed to stabilise myself around the 2m mark. Trying to keep myself calm, I tried to descend back to the 6m level to do my deco-stop. This was a struggle. I was already feeling anxious because of the laughable DSMB deploy and then the take off, so when I could barely descend and have enough hands to clear my ears it all got a bit much for me. I was crying by this point and starting to hyperventilate. As a gas guzzler, I did not know if I had enough air to supply me for five minutes of hyperventilating. I had to call it and ascend without the stop.

My buddy Liz, who I have dived with a number of times, did a great job of helping me get calm again. She even towed me in, when I supposed to be the one towing her! It's all the experience though. Having said that, I was not keen to get back in after that. Plus, with it running late we decided to call it a day. One of these trips I will successfully dive without incident! To be fair, both dives were good - despite tying myself up physically and mentally. I always enjoy Capernwray. While it's not as exciting as going in the sea, it's filled with enough wildlife and curiosities to be more entertaining than the pool but still have that similar feeling of safety. I don't know, maybe it's just because it has walls!

Myself and Chris with our friend Beth.

I have very much enjoyed my Sport Diver course, thus far. I am looking forward to more diving trips and to getting signed off completely!

Listening to: Daily Mix