Whaaa!! A shark :)

Fears

Today I am writing about a completely different topic. Claustrophobia, Agoraphobia, Selachophobia (fear of sharks) and Bathophobia (fear of depth), all kinds of fears that have to do with scuba-diving. I decided to write this post about fears because everyone asks me: aren’t you afraid? When I tell fantastic stories about my scuba-diving experiences. For example the one last week: I was telling about my boss who is currently cave-diving in Mexico. I was asked whether it wasn’t claustrophobic and wouldn’t he run out of oxygen or get stuck?

DTD cave-diving (absolutely awesome)

A gorgeous mantaray, one of the beautiful things in the oceans

 It does not matter how often I people try to tell that diving is absolutely save. Things can happen, but these are always human errors. Poorly serviced materials or bad decisions cause accidents. As a result of this, most diving associations educate people about how to act when there is an emergency and how to keep your materials in a perfect state. These courses are repeated often to keep skills up to date and that scuba-divers handle on auto-pilot, which is essential because one does not think clearly in an emergency or a dangerous situation. Emergency ascends are practiced for if one runs out of air or divers are taught to calm their partner down in a stress situation. Also, divers are taught not to be ashamed of fears and tell other people about it.

Despite these great attempts to educate people about the dangers and how to act when an emergency situation occurs, accidents happen. That is why every dive centre or boat needs at least one rescue diver, who is educated how to treat the victim with specific symptoms. This results in a safe environment, in which safety is key.

Furthermore, people panic. All kinds of phobia, fear of sharks, depths, small and large rooms cause stress, which is, besides poor decisions and faulty equipment, one of the main causes of accidents. These fears are caused by ignorance. Scuba-diving associations offer courses to teach people what to do and how to act in the presence of, for example, sharks.

100% oxygen safety kit

However, what about the cave diving for example? It depends on the circumstances. People are trained and have to be extremely experienced before they are even allowed to enter a cave. Caves are most of the time already explored and declared safe, but lots of things are dangerous. That is why, for example, cave divers use lines with so called “arrows” to find the exit when they are lost or the lamps stop working. Personally I think cave diving is an extraordinary experience. Exploring the unexplored seems awesome to me! But that’s me, I totally understand people who do not dare to enter a cave. If you want to know anything about cave diving, or diving in general, I will be pleased to tell you everything about it. 

This is a full list of SSI specialty courses. It points out, how trained a diver can be (Only Ice-diving is not included)

specialty programms SSI

 I hope I appeased in some way! Please ask any questions about fears, please don’t be afraid to do so.(: Don’t be ashamed of your fears and if you don’t feel well, abort the dive. Some people did not do this in the past, which resulted in very bad experiences. I had one last year. It was a cold day in January, but the water was very clear. Two men went diving, which is absolutely doable! Drysuits and thermo-clothing are very suitable in cold weather. However, the diver was tired and did not say he was. This resulted in hypothermia. Luckily we knew

what to do. The only solution to hypothermia is a warm bath and dry clothes. A few hours later, the man was “cured” and had learned his lesson. This points out how important it is for people to know what to do in such situations.I hope you enjoyed reading!

Sidemount-diving, the new kind of cave diving. Your air supply is not mounted on your back, which makes you more suitable for cave or deep diving.

Still descending

Nemo 33 Brussel

Even though it is not even February jet, I am looking forward to a great diving experience which happens to occur every year.  You might ask yourself: “What is he talking about!?”, well, I am talking about Nemo 33 in Brussel. Nemo 33(photo 1) is used as a training facility for starting and experienced deep-divers and even the Dutch military divers (de Kikvorsmannen) and the “genie duikers”, who usually dive in the new diving tower in Den Helder (photo2) sometimes train in Nemo 33. Of course I know all about them due to the magazine “duiken” (photo3).

My "Duiken" magazines. On the left the Genie duikers and on the right the Kikvorsmannen, entering a submarine

My SSI deep diving certificate

Nemo 33 is the deepest diving tower in the world and is used to train inexperienced deep-divers under controllable circumstances.  However, even experienced divers train here to keep their skills up to date. Its deepest point is located at 34.5 meters and the temperature is a comfortable 30 degrees Celsius. Everything is available at the side; whether you are hungry or you need some suitable deep-diving equipment, it doesn’t matter. 

Last February I have been there for my deep-diving specialty. It was an unique experience to be at the deepest point in the deepest pool in the world. I enjoyed the dive itself and the preparation that had to be done.  Furthermore, I experienced the effects that depth has on your body. There is no need to get nervous or scared! I shall explain this.

Nemo33

If everything is prepared in a responsible and correct way it is very safe to dive. You should have enough oxygen to both descend and ascent and you should pay attention to your safety stops. And if all else fails, there is a buddy you can rely on. However, there is a mean element called nitrogen. The deeper you go, the faster nitrogen builds up in your blood. If those safety stops are ignored, the nitrogen cannot get out of your bloodstream and will gather at places which are not improving your healthiness. This however, does not happen often and even severe cases can be treated in a decompression tank when fast enough. Furthermore, your air supply is limited. At a depth of three meters I can almost breathe for over 3 hours, but at a depth of 30 meters, the air is compressed, either in your lungs and your cylinder. This makes you run out of air faster. It is crucial to consider this when deep-diving.  There are some other illnesses, but these are not as severe as nitrogen-poisoning. 

Location Nemo 33

Moreover, Nitrogen at depths makes one think and act slower. This is what I experienced. We had to solve a simple sum, like 7+3/5 x 6. At the surface, this was done very quickly, however at depth it took me a while longer to solve the sum. These effects disappear when you ascend. These symptoms should not scare you. When you stick to the rules and regulations and triple check everything, it is nearly impossible for one to die.

                                                                           I really hope I did not scare you. Deep-diving is not a goal, it is a method to dive to greater depths to see wrecks or such awesome things. I am looking forward to February and if any questions, feel free to ask. 

I have also got an awesome video about Den Helder which I cannot upload :( I'll add the link. These proffesional divers are training an emergency ascend. Pretty cool right? 

Den Helder proffesional divers emergency ascend

Set your priorities

Set your priorities

Air temperature: 0 degrees Celsius, time: 20.55, a regular Wednesday evening.  My dad and I are driving to the local pool in Tiel. Actually, I am supposed to do my homework, instead I am trying to predict the exercises which we are going to do. 

Prior to the dive, I am supposed to prepare my gear and get ready for the briefing. The group was going to form two circles, an inner-circle and an outer-circle. The inner-circle would turn every time they heard the whistle, which caused a change of buddy’s. Every time the whistle whistled, we were supposed to do another exercise which we learned in our Open Water course.

When we had all finished our “warming up”, which consisted of a few laps, some faster than the others, we descended. We formed the formation and started our exercises. I was stunned because of the lack of knowledge and skills some people had. Luckily, I am trained to perform these kind of exercises without any problems, which enabled me to clearly explain their mistakes. That is the ultimate goal of this lovely Wednesday evening: to keep your skills up to date. A few exercises were: Mask off, “vintip” one and two (two different ways of controlling your buoyancy) and emergency ascend. When we had all finished our exercises, we had some time left for a game. Everyone had to put their sets on the bottom of the pool. When the whistle whistled, everybody had to swim to the other side of the pool. However, it is not as easy as it sounds, because every time an instructor lifted one set. In the end, there was one set left, and the “survivors” were treated. I was thrilled to bits when I was the winner.

When you are having fun, the time is going fast! Before I knew it, we had to get out of the pool, and clean everything. Then, like we always do, we chatted in the bar and left. Wednesday evenings are always amazing and educational. Despite the weather, which is horrible, I am looking forward to the next Wednesday evening!

Knit-picking instructors :)

 As you might remember, a few weeks ago, I completed my Search and Recovery course. Well, the videos are online! Unfortunately I am not the one being filmed. These are my friends lifting the object with the liftbag and one photo.

And one movie of them trying to lift the object correctly.

Since I cannot upload the video, I'll put a link below:

http://doubledutchdivers.nl/photo/photo_one.php?name=4d414830303037382e4d5034&dir=4f7073706f72656e20656e2062657267656e