My precious Gara 3000 (2)

Yesterday I tried these fins and they are amazing - 6 dolphin kicks is enough for a 25m pool!!!

One funny thing - the lifeguards were very upset when they saw me with the fins. They told me to let them know before doing more than one pool length uderwater. It turned out later that one of them was involved in a freediver drowning accident at Warszawianka aqua park.

My precious Gara 3000

A photo of Seemann Sub XDrive, Mares Tropic, Mares Avanti X3 (in that order) compared to Cressi Sub Gara 3000 fins. The Garas are, ofcourse, the longest ones:)

Diving Xmas gifts

Whole year of talking about diving took effect - no stupid 'what shall I do with this crap' Christmas presents:) We (me and Magda) got lots of books on diving, including 'Last dive' by Bernie Chowdhury, 'Wreck Diving' and some others. I got a Suunto SK-7 diving compass and Magda got a Suunto Vyper diving computer. I also got new fins, not just fins but brand new Cressi Sub's Gara 3000 - they especially made for freediving and are twice as long as normal fins. Can't wait to try them at the swimming pool (it was closed for Christmas)...

Retro diving

A few days ago I've found a photo from a diving summer camp. It was 12 (I think) years ago but I still can remember the equipment we used, and these aren't pleasant memories. It was crap, especially when you compare it to the things that people use nowadays.



My exposure suit was too small and it had some kind of a crotch strap so you can imagine how I felt... I haven't seen such a device since then.

We didn't have BCDs of any kind, even the horsecollar type ones, I didn't even know that there exists something like the BCD. The flashlight I had wasn't very good too: at 5m water pressure was high enought to turn it on or off, depending on its previous state. I was leaking to, however the water didn't seem to change its performance:).

The majority of the regulators we used had mechanical reserve valves instead of pressure gauges. There were also the twin-hose ones (Kajman type).

Almost all the diving we did was in a murky lake with visibility reaching 0.5m, sometimes (when I was the first person I the water that day), 0.7m. Our instructors didn't see what was happening uderwater so they used rope to control us and pull us out in the case of emergency. At the end of, however, the camp we could dive in another lake, with clear water, and up to 10m(!!!) of visibility:)

This was my firts encounter with SCUBA diving, so despite the crappy equipment, I was extremely happy as diving has always been my dream.

Then I stopped diving for 10 years, and when I started it again all was different:)

On Nitrox

So, now that I've become a nitrox diver I can reveal some secret nitrox knowledge:). Below goes an executive summary of nitrox diving. You can find a more detailed description on Wiki (wiki EAN).

Nitrox is a mix of nitrogen and oxygen. Usually nitrox contains more oxygen than air (>21%) and in such case it's called Enriched Air Nitrox or EAN. Some call any mixture of these two gases nitrox. For recreational diving a blend of up to 40% of oxygen is used, however technical divers use hotter (containig >40% oxygen) nitroxes to accelerate decompression. The two most popular mixes are EANx32 and EANx36 containing respectively 32% and 36% of oxygen.

Nitrox diving has become popular because because of the advantages this breathing mix offers. The main advantage is that because of lower nitrogen level divers body absorbs less nitrogen and thus the No Decompression Limits (NDLs) are longer. That means one can spend more time underwater or increase the seafty margin by using nitrox and staying withing air NDLs. Some people also report feeling less tired after a nitrox dive compared to an air dive. Previously people thought that breathing nitrox reduces effects of nitrogen narosis, however this turned out to be untrue because oxygen's narcotic potential is even higher:)

There are some dangers when it comes to diving with EAN and these are: oxygen toxicity and risk of fire/explosion. Both of these come from the increased level of oxygen in the mix and are easily avoided.

Fire may be caused when oxygen rich breathing mix comes into contact with materials that are not oxygen compatible or not oxygen clean, meaning that they simply start to burn in contact with such mix. To avoid this simply use oxygen clean and compatible equipment when diving with nitrox.

There are two types of oxygen toxicity: central nervous system oxygen toxicity (CNS) and pulmonary oxygen toxicity. The cause of CNS is still unknown, it is observed when the partial pressure of oxygen in the breathing mix is above 1.4 ata. CNS may result in convulsions (the most severe case), which may be lethal to a diver. Pulmonary oxygen toxicity is caused by prolonged exposure to higher than normal oxygen levels and results in lung inflamantion, coughing and decreased lung volume. These symptoms usually recede. To avoid oxygen toxicity you must monitor your oxygen exposure and maximum operating depth (MOD). MOD is the depth at which oxygen partial pressure reaches the maximum safe level (1.4 ata). Modern diving computers can usually track both of these parameters and alert the diver when he is reaching the limits. This feature does not mean you don't have to plan your dive.

Diving cylinders used with nitrox should be specially marked and have the MOD for the mix that they contain written on them. To mark cylinders usually a sticker is used, just like the one below:

EAN can be obtained by different methods. Generally you can add some oxygen to air or remove some nitrogen from it. Adding oxygen is done in partial pressure mixing or continuous blending mixing and oxygen removal is performed by using a special membrane in gas separation mixing
Wikipedia has a fairly good article on gas blending

EAN Done :)

Passed the exam, which was fairly easy. In fact all the PADI certification exams I passed so far were not too hard. I mean, of course the theoretical part, because the Rescue Diver diving part was a killer. Especially the 'climb the ladder with your buddy sitting on your knee' part. We almost failed that...
Anyways, we are now certified EAN divers, which isn't a big progress towards becoming a DM, but during the course we got to talk to some divemasters at our center. That gave us some insight into prospects of divemastering here, in Poland, and they weren't very bright, though they weren't very pessimistic either.
And apart from all of the above the first step towards tec diving has also been made:D

C-Card deck

A deck of cards that is bound to grow...

PADI loves you...

...PADI wil organize some training for you. Why? Because PADI loves when you take new courses. Even if they're the tiny little ones, like the Enriched Air Diving or Equipment Specialist specialties. Each time you sign up, you pay PADI for the book (you have to buy it) and the C-Card (if you don't buy it then what's the point in doing the speciality?). Ofcourse you also pay for the training, but that's OK - instructors have to earn their living. For simple specialties the cost of the certificate and the book can be equal to the cost of the training:/ That's why PADI likes when you develop your skills.
And after the course you end up with a deck of C-Cards you should carry with you when you go diving...
This problem is less annoying when it comes to more complex courses, like Rescue Diver or Divemaster. The cost of handbook and C-Card is not so big compared to the overall cost of this courses, and they take you to a next level of your diving career (and you can discard your previous ccards :) ).

Oh, and there are also the "Crewpacks" - you can get, for example, an original Rescue Diver badge:>

I'm not against C-Cards, but when you have several specialties they get troublesome. And sometimes you just HAVE TO learn new ways to dive. Ie.: Dry Suits (water is cold in Poland, for me two longer dives a day is much), Deep Diver (some things ARE deep down, and I'm thinking about Tec Deep Diver), Ice Diver (to dive in winter), Wreck Diver, etc.
For each of these specialties I will get a card, so it`ll be about 10 cards to carry... It would be nice if I just had one card for all specialties and get a hologram sticker from my instructor each time I pass a new exam. The diving center would report my specialties to PADI HQ (like they do now) so there would be record of my training. PADI people, think about that....

Rich Air

Funny little specialty. No dives necessary, just theory, about 6 hours. The Enriched Air Diving coursebook has only 100 pages, most of which are pictures (as usual). So today we've learned about Equivalent Air Depth, CNS, POT and some other things. Got some new tables, though they are almost the same as standard RDP. Next class is going to be more fun as we are going to use oxygen analyzers and, of course, write the exam.

And so it begins

Not a typical DM training start - we've signed up for Padi Enriched Air Diver specialty course, only to do something connected with diving while waiting for the course to begin.
As for the DM - the diving center has been chosen months ago, the date set two weeks ago. We start in mid january.