Learning to Scuba Dive

Remember Sea Hunt, where on a moment's notice Lloyd Bridges would don scuba gear to do battle
in the depths, fighting off bad guys near ship wrecks or rescuing some unfortunate entangled in sea
grass?

I hadn't given a thought to Lloyd and his undersea adventures for many a decade, but I have long wondered what it would be like to experience the world from the ocean bottom up. I've also been pushed in the direction of the deep by my children, who are demanding that we spend some winter vacations in locations where ski boots and face warmers are not mandatory.

Some weeks ago I decided to learn how to scuba dive, and determined that before this winter's
vacation to destinations warm and sunny I would be able to do something other than swim laps in a
pool or fry in the sun. Unlike many sports or avocations, the underwater world offers an entirely new
dimension, where sights, sounds, and of course even the elementary act of breathing are different
from those experienced on terra firma.

My first task was to determine where to learn to dive. In order to rent equipment, a prospective diver must be certified by one of the recognized training and licensing groups -- PADI [Professional Association of Dive Instructors] and NAUI [National Association of Underwater Instructors] are two of the largest. The course in open water diving offered by someone certified by one of these organizations is recognized by reputable dive shops and resorts throughout the world. The PADI web page for example, lists affiliated members from Sharm el Sheik to Cancun.

I decided to get my certification at a local dive shop rather than take a course offered at my travel
destination. Many of these resorts offer only a "quickie" course which aims at getting you under water
as quickly, not as safely, as possible. While on his honeymoon, my neighbor enrolled in one of these
courses. He put on his equipment, took a couple of breaths in ten feet of water, and then followed his
"instructor" and two experienced divers into some caves 60 feet down! He had no idea of what he
was doing, a scary and potentially life-threatening situation in an underwater environment.

There are of course top notch certification courses offered at many locales. For example The Small
Hope Bay Lodge in Bahamas, a mecca for divers where I plan to travel in December, offers a PADI
course. I decided that I wanted to spend my vacation diving, rather than leaning how to dive. There is
so much to learn, so many skills to practice and evaluate. Why spend at least 3 or four full days of
what is supposed to be a stress-free vacation studying the finer points of buoyancy control,
decompression sickness [the bends], and exhausting yourself underwater in all manner of simulated
emergency situations? And to top it off, at between $300-$500, its no cheaper to learn in the
Caribbean.

There are numerous certification options available in the DC metro area. Most dive shops and the YMCA offer entry level certification courses. Classes meet two evenings per week for three weeks, with time spent between pool and class work. Two full days are scheduled for open water dives needed to complete the course. Many shops offer the option to make the open water dives at a resort destination.

I decided to take an intensive PADI course offered by Atlantic Edge Scuba in Gaithersburg, offered
over two consecutive weekends in October.

Like most area shops, Atlantic Edge certifies about 130 divers each year in courses which run
between February and November. The total cost for the course, which includes the purchase of
mask, fins, snorkel, weight belt, and boots is between $500-$700, depending on the quality of
equipment purchased.

In order to assure that the course work could be completed in the shorter classroom time, I was
responsible for reading the 200 plus page manual before the course.

Class began on Saturday at 8 am sharp in the Quince Orchard Swim and Tennis Club Pool.
Surprisingly, scuba diving does not have much in common with swimming. Feeling comfortable in the
water is more important than swimming ability. The minimal swimming qualifications include the ability
to swim twelve pool lengths [no time limit] and to tread water for ten minutes.

During the morning, my instructor Dave and I raced through various scuba skills. I marveled at his
underwater karma as I struggled to find my underwater equilibrium. Among other tasks, I learned
how to breath underwater, to make a controlled emergency ascent in the event my air supply is
interrupted, and to retrieve and refasten my weight belt. I was lucky to have Dave all to myself. No
one else had signed up for the intensive course.

Lloyd Bridges would be in for a real surprise if he saw what has become standard issue for today's
divers. Lloyd was content to pop on a tank with one regulator to breath through, swing a weight belt
around his waist, take a glance at his wristwatch and PLOP, fall backwards into the water. Those
were the good old days ... when more than a fair share of divers died or were injured.

Today, an emergency regulator, a bulky jacket that inflates to control buoyancy under water, and
dials measuring depth and air tank capacity are standard issue. There's a lot more stuff to contend
with than Lloyd ever dreamt, but it makes scuba a safe, and far more accessible sport.

I made my open water dives the following weekend at the Millbrook Quarry at Haymarket, Virginia,
about an hour's drive from Gaithersburg. The former quarry, now over 90 feet deep in places, boasts
a small, uninspired assortment of blue gills, and small mouth bass fish, a bus, and even an airplane
hovering 60 feet below the surface. I'd see them all in the course of four dives, each lasting about 30
minutes, over the next two days.

The open water certification dives are not about exploring, however, but about reviewing the skills
learned in a pool in a genuine underwater environment. For example, when my air was turned off
[well we pretended it was turned off] at thirty feet, I really did have to make it to the surface without
inhaling [unless I wanted to do it again]. And like I was told, as I ascended the air in my lungs did
expand, giving me just enough to keep exhaling until I reached the surface.

Only on the last dive, after I had finished removing my mask and replacing it underwater and plunged
to the cold, eerie depth of 60 feet to view the sunken airplane, did I begin to feel like a scuba diver. I
followed my divemaster Andy on a short tour around the quarry. There were no skills to practice, no
hurdles to overcome ... just cruising under the water, exploring the sites, checking out the fish, and at
times, forgetting that all of this was taking place underwater.