Ice Cream Headache

Some of you may know that I am an active member of the local Water Rescue Team. Today we had a training dive. Almost all of the dive team members wear dry suits, which means water rarely touches their skin. Inside the dry suit they can wear long underwear, or anything else that will keep them toasty. Being new to cold water diving (all of our lakes in Utah were geothermally heated), I still wear a 7mm wetsuit.

Diving with the rescue team is not your typical scuba diving experience. Most of the dives are in fairly cold water, poor visibility, and shorter then your average sightseeing dive.

Today would not disappoint me by breaking any of the above factors.

The air temperature was a balmy 41-degrees Fahrenheit, and the water was warmer at 44-degrees. In addition to the lovely temperatures, it was raining on us as well. Great weather for the snow skiers because the mountains were getting dumped on. For scuba diving, it was a great day to be under water.

Since I’m still one of the new guys on the team, some of the others planned to bring me into a scenario instantly. One of the more seasoned rescue divers was working a search pattern with one of our support people while I was suited up and sitting on the dock as the safety diver.

Suddenly, I see multiple tugs on the line heading to the rope tender, which indicates the diver was in trouble. Everyone alerted the nearby team members as I placed my mask on my faced and tried to pull the strap over my head. Since I rarely dive with as thick of a hood then what I had on, the mask strap would not go over, and as a safety diver you need to get into the water ASAP.

I yanked my hood back off my head, pulled the mask on and jumped in the water immediately heading down the rope toward the distressed diver. As I descended I was glad to discover that the psuedophed I had taken was working, and I could drop rapidly. I’m one of the lucky ones that hardly ever have any ear troubles while diving. I can normally freefall as deep as I need to and as quickly as I need to at any given moment.

My ears were not an issue during the descent, but the temperature of the water woke me right up. Ever have an ice-cream headache? Picture one of those surrounding your entire head and ears and coming on instantaneously. My adrenaline had fortunately kicked in as well and I focused on the task at hand, determining the cause of the divers problem and performing a rescue.

Visibility was about 6 feet today so as I approached the diver I could see him lying on the bottom with his regulator still in his mouth, and with him apparently still breathing. He was wearing a dry suit, so I tapped his inflator and made him a little more buoyant. He was still a tad heavy, and I didn’t want to ditch his weight belt before trying one last thing. A few taps on his buoyancy compensator (BC) was all it took to get him and me heading to the surface.

Once we broke the surface I flipped him on his back, inflated his BC all the way to keep his mouth out of the water, and headed for shore. At the shore the support personnel were waiting to help remove him from the water and to provide additional aide if necessary.

This was only a drill, but since I was not in on the plan it felt like it was a real rescue until we were at shore. I will admit that I suspected it was just an exercise, since he was very experienced, was only down for a short time, fairly shallow, and was breathing through his regulator when I approached him. Knowing that it was an exercise did not change any of the actions that were performed however.

After the rescue it was my turn to perform the search pattern, and practice scouring the nasty, muddy, thickly weeded, bottom for evidence of the made up crime. You can’t imagine all of the junk at the bottom of a lake, especially near a dock or popular spot on shore.

Why would anyone jump into 40-degree water willingly you may wonder? Well, I love to dive, and I have always wanted to be on a search and rescue (SAR) team. I was starting the process of joining the Rocky Mountain SAR team but was soon transferred by the Air Force to Alaska. The local scuba SAR in Colorado had to be an employee of the ambulance service to cover liability.

In everything I do I seem to require a purpose. I love writing computer programs, but only do so when I have a need of a particular program. Scuba diving isn’t any different. If I lived near a gorgeous reef I may do more diving for fun. Until that happens, looks like my reason to dive here will be for SAR missions. One day I will become a scuba diving instructor, and perhaps my purpose may shift then.

Diving on the Water Rescue Team not only gives me a reason to dive into cold lakes, but also allows me to use a rare skill up here in the Pacific Northwest to help others and to contribute something to the community in the process. You don’t realize how great a hot shower feels until you’ve been swimming in 40-degree water.

Don't Panic!

Literally, these are words to live by. In many situations where people die, or become injured, panic is often a factor. Those who can remain calm under stressful situations seem to have a better chance at survival then those who “freak out” at the drop of a hat.

Scuba diving is a sport better survived by those people who can remain calm during times of stress. Many diving accident victims are actually found with plenty of air in their tank, and no known malfunction of their equipment. The conclusion then, is that the person simply panicked and the result was deadly.

That being said, studies show that the sport of diving is equivalent in safety to bowling. I believe this is attributed to the fact that divers must take a course to learn the proper way to do the sport, and become certified before they can go it alone.

Here is an excerpt from my dive logbook from October 8th, 1981 at which time I found myself in a potentially bad predicament.

“Comments: This was my first combination night dive and lobster hunt. It was great. I got a 3# or 4# lobster, but during the measuring process it got loose. Oh well. My second catch was too tiny so I didn’t even try. My new light (Super QXL-Lite, by Underwater Kinetics) worked really well. This dive demonstrated the need for the diver training exercises you learn in class. At 35 feet down, the entire class was watching our instructor measure a lobster. When it was done, everyone turned one direction to continue on and my dive buddy, Tracy, accidentally fin-kicked me in the face. This knocked my mask loose and my regulator out of my mouth. Without being able to see, I reached around and got my regulator back with the sweeping movement that was taught in class. Now that I could breathe, I then began to reposition my mask and clear it of the water that had completely filled it up. After all of that, it took me a little while to locate, and catch up to, the rest of the class. After all, it was pitch black under the water. The way I located them was to turn off my light and look for the glow of someone else’s light. The dive ended well, but the potential for a panicked ascent was high. Remember, keep calm, regain breathing, then fix other problems...”

Last night I had another experience that those with claustrophobia may not wish to read about.

We were doing darkness and entanglement training at a local lake. Even though the visibility was about 6 inches to begin with, we also placed black covers over our masks to ensure we could not see a thing. My turn came, and I was headed out on the simulated search. When I arrived at a certain point, a safety diver “entangled” me in a rope. And I’ll have to admit, he did a great job getting me tied up!

Next, I gave the signal on the line that I needed assistance, and another diver (also blacked out) came down the line to assist. There the two of us remained, in the dark, and untangling the rope strictly by feeling where our equipment was, and where the rope was tangled up. Time seems like it goes by slowly when you’re trapped in the bottom of a lake in the dark.

Since I am here to relate the story, you know everything went well. I have been a part of training many dive students that this would have just sent them to a rubber room if they lived to tell about it. Night diving is not for everyone, and plenty of fun can be had diving in the daylight, in fairly shallow water with supervision. This is the type of diving you get on vacation at a resort for example.

As we go through life we rarely get to experience situations that call for us to summon our mental strength to survive. So far I am doing pretty well, but I try not to be overly confident because you never know when your limits will be stretched to the breaking point no matter who you are.

When someone has reached theirs, I hope the Water Rescue Team will be there to make sure they live to tell the tale to their grandkids!

Peace

Tonight I will know peace. Well, not total silence. The bubbles from my exhaust ports will be waffling past my ears as they make there way to the surface. Tonight will be a scuba dive into a local lake. Although this dive will be more work then relaxation, it will be bliss for me.

I am a member of a water rescue team, and tonight we’re doing darkness and entanglement training. It’s been too long since I have been under water, and I’m looking forward to once again slipping beneath the surface and leaving the rest of the world behind.

My dream has always been to go into space, and scuba diving is as close as I will probably ever come. Scuba diving lets you float weightless, but has so much more to offer then space. While under the water there are many things to see and do. Life is all around you, and you can watch fish, and other critters as they go about their lives wondering what the heck this big bubble-blowing monstrosity is watching them.

If you’ve never had the pleasure I would like to encourage you to go to your local PADI dive shop and ask for a small quickie class called, “Discover Scuba”. For one session you learn a little about scuba diving and get to breath under water in a pool. Trust me, even if you think it will be scary, or you’re not too comfortable in the water, it’s an experience you’ll always remember. You’re not signing up to become a certified diver, there are no dangerous fish in the pool, and it’s not very deep. Just go, and enjoy.

Diving at night is not for the faint of heart. There is no moon, or starlight under water to give you a little vision. When you turn off your light, it’s as dark as being in a room with no windows and no other light source. You cannot see your hand in front of your face! Why do it? Because it’s fun. There are few things in life that you can still do that a million other people aren’t doing right next to you. Night diving is one of those. Heck, diving in a lake in the Northwest is one of those…

So tonight I will know peace. I will enjoy my short time under the cool water listening to the bubbles, and letting the pressures of the surface drain away from me. When I surface once again, I will be refreshed, and ready to face another day.