Alright, post-cert & night dive AAR time!!!
So, final 2 dives to finish the cert were pretty standard. I was really trying to concentrate on my buoyancy and I did pretty well. My SAC rate was pretty much in line with how it’s been so I was pleased. Generally the skills were all pretty easy. Nailed the buddha at 12m because of the orally inflated BCD I mentioned earlier. Wore a 5mm suit for both dives today as I got a couple chills the other day. BIG MISTAKE. Had to add more weight and the extra thickness was far more limiting than the 3mm I had worn the day before. I was concerned as the book mentioned being cold, but I realized as I was fighting the wetsuit that it wasn’t really enough that I had to swap suits.
Safety stop was far better both dives than prior. Started ascent by dumping my BCD with the overflow valve and I think that probably helped prevent a more runaway ascent. It’s a little disconcerting sticking around for 3 minutes surrounded by jellyfish however.
That was about it, pretty standard last 2 dives. Saw lots of fish, morays, lionfish and stonefish, etc.
One thing I neglected to mention before, and something I hadn’t considered until it made my life a pain, snorkels with crappy purge valves suck balls, specifically salt watery balls right into your lungs when you’re doing the surface swim. Boat pitched us off and we had to swim to shore. Halfway I had to stop and tread water while I recovered as the purge valve purged the wrong way and I sucked salt water big time. No harm no foul, but if you’re gonna use a snorkel, don’t use a crappy one.
More gear talk then onto the rest. I was supposed to dive with a computer for the night dive. I did not. The other two divers had done two deep dives earlier in the day and had computers, the instructor did as well. Despite the course calling for it, because I had done only Open Water, a course in which a computer was not provided, we made the decision that, due to the other divers already under more nitrogen load than myself, and of course diving off the most conservative computer, whomever that might be, I was well within safety margins as far as executing the dive sans computer. Considering that my lack of computer during the first two dives of the day (albeit with an 8 hour surface interval in between last OW and the night) any computer I would wear would have incorrect deco limits anyway as it was not used for the first two dives. Ultimately it was my decision to ok the dive as far as I was personally concerned, I weighed the risks and felt they were well within reason so I went ahead, despite the small deviation from the course requirement. No more gear talk, aside from the torch nothing else changed.
By far the best experience so far has been the night dive. They needed one more person to fill the minimum to do a night dive and since I’m doing advanced right away, it worked out that I could do the night dive as my first. They tell you it’s stressful, but I really didn’t have any trouble with anxiety. I figure if I’m gonna get eaten by something big and hungry it’s probably best not to see it as it bites me in half so I just went with it.
First thing was adjusting to paying attention to your buoyancy. Personally I think the night dive helped me as I was able to focus on my buoyancy and my torch and that was it. I was able to divide my attention to both well enough that I could easily control my body position and still see stuff. I’m not sure the other buddy pair was as focused on this as I was as the one younger kid was all over the place, and while I tried to maintain my position about 1m up and 1m right of the guide, I was constantly fighting not to kick the kid in the face. I maintained my position relative to the instructor but on more than one occasion I felt my fin hit something of his, and several times he’d either ascend right into my legs or descend on top of me. It was frustrating but fortunately didn’t distract from the dive in any big way.
Wildlife at night is a whole other deal. Saw a lobster darting about, would have liked to have caught it, it looked delicious. Saw quite a few other little critters, shrimp, tiny fish, etc. The instructor snuck up behind a sleeping puffer fish and hit his tank banger and the fish got all puffy so that was fun to see. I doubt it’s anyway in line with PADI guidelines but it was entertaining nonetheless. One of the highlights was playing with an octopus, or rather, it playing with us. Instructor spotted it and pointed with his light. The two guys who were off behind were jockeying for position to see so I stuck my finger out to point. Well, the octopus grabbed right on and played around for a bit before hopping onto a piece of coral and changing color to camouflage itself.
There are also some pretty stupid fish. I don’t remember the name but it was swimming away and I happened to turn my light on it. It turned directly to face me, only instead of darting away, it apparently blinded itself as it ran straight into my face no less than three times before I managed to move my head. There’s no telling how many times it would have played battering ram with my mask had I not moved. Interesting experience to say the least.
Another cool visual was watching how one of the eels hunts. The thing was buried in the sand with nothing but it’s head poking out. The instructor pointed it out and at first it was hard to tell what it was, from where I was at it just looked like a shell, until he poked the sand about 2 feet back and a meter and a half long eel shot out of the sand and swam up the face of the coral and out of sight. It really was pretty amazing to see how different species interact on the bottom.
The only exercise we did was an out and back night navigation. Again I did very well and it was pretty easy and took all of about a minute.
I’m saving the best for last because it’s still sort of hard for me to put into words. I can describe what I saw, but it doesn’t really capture the feeling of what was going on and what it was like to be in the middle of it.
We kneeled down on the bottom at about 9m. We turned off our flashlights, at this point I figured the instructor was going to mess with us a bit, but au contraire mon frere! He started waving his hands then got us to join in. What we saw was like visual sex beamed right into your eyeballs. MILLIONS of bioluminescent plankton were EVERYWHERE, all around us, sparkling in and out with blue light. It was like being in a starfield, except they were moving and swirling about all around us. At one point we all just sort of paused our breathing and it was absolutely dead quiet with nothing but blue stars everywhere you could see.
This is as close a representation as I could find online, but down at 9m it isn’t a wave, it’s literally surrounding you. It really is breathtaking, and if I could have laid down on the bottom and not had to wave my arms to see it I would have spent the entire time just laying there watching it.
After that we were out of bottom time and had to ascend. Again I was far more in control of my buoyancy during the night dive, I think again because I was so focused on it without any distractions.
Here’s a picture right before our ascent on our final OW dive. My coworker is doing what she’s supposed to, I however, am clearly having more fun.
And last, it seems one critter migrated south from the Jersey Shore. I swear I heard it yelling “COME AT ME BRO!!!”
