Archive for May, 2002
May 27th, 2002 by Eshin
I’ve finally made it! I am now a fully qualified Advanced Open Water Diver! It feels great to have achieved something worthwhile for me again. I know that some people manage to do the certification in two days diving, but I think that managing to do it in a month while I’m not on holiday (and thus have other commitments!) is pretty good.
I’m pretty tired as it is while I write this, so please forgive the additional spelling mistakes on top of the usual ones. It’s probably best to start at the beginning.
I managed to get up at 0630 this morning despite only having one and a half hours sleep last night. The reason being that I had to go to a birthday party and in typical HK fashion made new friends. Short of that story is, I probably had a little too much to drink to be going diving the next day and I didn’t see my bed until 0500.
After procrastinating about whether to go (should I call in sick?!), I decided I should (not really a choice). So managed to get my ass out of bed and into a taxi for Central MTR in the space of about half an hour. The great thing about diving is that it doesn’t really matter if you do your hair or stink to high heaven.
I arrived at the Yau Ma Tai MTR at about 0715. I will never get used to how quick the transport and distances are in this place. Unfortunately, Bibian was a little late, so I panicked a little. I couldn’t remember if I had actually arranged to meet her here at that time or whether I was supposed to go to Sai Kung by myself.
Anyway, she showed up eventually. Although we didn’t think we’d have time for breakfast, we still managed to fit in a 10 min breakfast of instant noodles, sausage, ham and egg. Great stuff for that time of day and actually something I was looking forward to as much as the diving!
It was full boat complement today. There were probably about 25 people on board. Most of them were Open Water certs and I can never really get over how many people whom I’ve seen on that basic course and people that I’ve spoken to, have actually gone and bought the equipment (or at least the expensive parts of the get-up). It’s quite endemic to HK people I think.
Anyway, Bibian was running to Advanced courses today…another couple, and Gladys and me. Gladys was again going to be my dive buddy for these dives. I actually don’t really mind. She’s the same level as me (although she won’t have done the Night Dive yet, so she’ll get her Adv. cert. then) but she’s actually quite a confident and competent diver. She’s probably a better diver than me, but that’s okay because that makes her a good dive buddy. It’s probably because she’s a nurse so she has that calming influence on people? I guess its also because she has the good grace to put up with me nattering with her for the whole day and still smile at my stupid jokes. Bibian has learned to start hitting me!
We had plenty of time to set up our equipment as we had to stop at Shelter Island again so that Bibian could do a Deep dive with her other Adv. Cert. students. The more times I put together the equipment, the easier it gets. Well its not that hard, but now I’m a little more systematic and my gear isn’t strewn half across the boat. 24 people on boat helps to encourage tidiness. Bibian had lent me her Force Fins…basically, to let me try different fins out before I buy a pair.
I was dying to try my new booties on (okay, I know its sad, but when you get new equipment, you just really want to try it on). I was trying to find an excuse to put them on, when Gladys suggested I gear up and try the Force Fins that Bibian had lent me on for size. Smart girl, that one.
So tried them on and they fit. The Force Fins too but I’ll get on to how they actually worked later on.
When Bibian had returned and we were on course to the dive site at Pak Lap (again! - Gladys had been there the week before so she wasn’t too amused!), she briefed us on the Search & Recovery Dive that we were going to do. Essentially, she was going to leave us to find a golf ball and a weight belt. We were going to execute a circular search pattern with a rope to find the damned things. I foolishly let Gladys choose which item she wanted to find - naturally, she choose the easy object of the weight belt! Bibian consoled me and told me that she thought that men always liked a challenge! (She doesn’t seem to understand that a challenge for men is remembering their girlfriends’ birthdays - on that note, 27 August 1979).
Gladys and I worked out some rudementary pull signals that we would be using with the rope to execute our search. When we arrived at Pak Lap, we were the first to go. One of the things that I have noticed about myself and also Gladys, is that we’ve become more confident about gearing up and getting into the water. Rather than a 10 minute affair, it’s down to about 2 mins with all the proper checks. I think that’s about the right time for this.
This was the first time I got to enter the water off the side of the boat. It may not seem much, but mostly divers will enter the water from the stern of the boat via the dive board. The side of the boat means a jump from a meter high into the water, which added a little bit of excitement (okay, small things excite me). After Gladys and I were in the water, we swam to Bibian who gave us a quick demonstration of how to use a life bag (something that would help us to bring the object in question to the surface). After that, we were on our own.
We decided to search for the golf ball first. It was perhaps because the visibility was so good at about 8m that we were able see the golf ball from the surface. We thought about diving down and just picking it up but we choose not to and just try the circular pattern. Later I was reprimanded for not using another search pattern more appropriate for the conditions.
We tried the circular pattern and after I had done two laps I found that if I extended the diameter of the circle further, I would have got our rope entangled in some fishing lines that had been deposited in the area. So I decided to swim in to Gladys and suggest that we try to move our search closer to the boat and where we thought we saw the ball. A silly mistake because as we were moving towards a new search point, we saw the ball. If I had just been able to extend the rope a little further and complete I third lap! Anyway, we picked up the ball and made our way to the second area where we thought we’d find the weight belt.
Actually, Gladys managed to find the weight belt quite quickly and our search point was very close to where it was. I aided her in lifting the object a little but as it was her search, she did most of the work. She let the lift bag ascend to quickly and she made a common mistake of not letting go of it, which meant that she ascended a little too quickly.
Once we were on the surface, we decided that we should return to the boat rather than do some more diving just for fun. This was partly because my air pressure was at 50 bar and well, we didn’t want to take the risk.
We returned to the boat and stowed away our equipment and waited for lunch. We decided to go up top on the sun deck while we waited. I made the mistake of not putting a T-shirt on up there and decided to get myself a little sun tan…and I think as I write this, I think a little sun burnt too.
After lunch, Bibian briefed us about the Peak Performance Bouyancy dive that we were about to do. My problem is that I understand the theory and all but its hell to execute. This one was going to be a tough dive.
Once we were in the water (after a disappointing stern water entry), Bibian did a Bouyancy check on us. I had the right weight on although Gladys, I think, was overweight a little.
One down.
At the bottom, Bibian demonstrated the pivot movement, the hover movement, the backward kick cycle, and the “turn turtle” swimming position. Sounds kinky, but trust me, kinky they are not. I finally managed to get the pivot movement (one that I hate) and I had much better luck with the hover movement. I used one of the techniques in the book, visualisation, to achieve the perfect position. Sounds silly, but it worked.
The remain two exercises, we were demonstrated but when we executed them, both Gladys and I managed to look very ungraceful. However, it was enough to convince Bibian that we knew what we were doing. We surfaced and Bibian told me that now I was a happy certified Advanced Open Water Diver! I managed to release one of my famous whoopies (involves raising your hands like a little kid and going “whoopie!”). It amuses the people here sometimes.
Bibian basically let us go and use the remainder of our air to explore on our own. Gladys, again, managed to use her navigation skills to get us to the right points and back to the boat. I just basically followed her. Unfortunatly, my BCD was leaking so I wasn’t exactly maintaining a necessary neutrally bouyant position. It meant I had to keep adding air to my BCD as I kept sinking into the coral reefs below.
I pushed the limit of my air supply, something for which I got a stern look from Bibian when I got back to the boat. It got down to 20 bars which is more than half of the critical red area of the gauge. To be honest, and I don’t recommend that people do this, I had enough air as we were very close to the boat. It was just a judgement call. Besides, I always seem to use more air than Gladys does and I feel bad that her dive has to end just because my air consumption is higher.
I can’t say we saw much on that dive although I hear that I missed a crab stuck in a cage. Not the most memorable dive in terms of marine life.
Once we surfaced and had stowed away our BCD’s, tanks, and regulators, I talked Gladys into going for a skin dive (aka snorkelling). She wasn’t too thrilled about going into the water without her BCD to give her positive bouyancy but once we were in the water, she seemed quite comfortable. Besides, we still had our wetsuits on which gave us some additional bouyancy to our own natural bouyancy. We probably spent about twenty minutes on that dive/surface swim.
What we did see were small baby jellyfish. These little suckers were quite cute as they are about the size of a fingernail. Gladys poked one of them, which I didn’t think was too smart but she seemed to be okay.
For the last two dives, I’ve managed to use the compass on my watch to help me navigate. It actually works quite well and it will serve as a useful backup in the future (primarily, I should use the liquid filled compass). And, in the future, when I get a dive computer, that will also have a compass heading.
When we got back to the boat, after we had stowed all our equipment and got into dry clothes, I stole about 20 mins sleep on the sun deck (this time with T-shirt but still no flipping sunblock - I’ve bought some on the way back home). Gladys and I filled in our log books and managed to successfully work out our pressure groups. Bibian debriefed us and I managed to walk away with a temporary Advanced Cert. card. I also donated AUS$10 to Project AWARE which is a charity that is run by PADI to promote environmentally safe diving and marine life preservation. I guess it made me feel a little happier since although as a recreational diver I go to enjoy the marine life and environment, ultimately, my being there at all can have an adverse impact.
The down side of such a great day was having to take the Public Light Bus back to Yau Ma Tei MTR. It was a busy day in Sai Kung and the queues for most of the public transport were ridiculous. I managed to sleep for the 45 min bus ride but I also had the luck to share it with some school kids who felt that everybody in the bus needed to hear their conversation.
Actually, taking public transport helps me to do to things. One it helps me to think about the days diving (when I’m not asleep). This is important for me as I spend a lot of time yacking. Bibian commented on it when we had breakfast this morning. She told another instructor not to ask me any questions because when my mouth gets too busy. Cute.
The second thing about public transport is that it helps me to realise that doing this course is something special. Walking along the street in Kowloon and in Central I realise that a lot of people will have had done nothing really consequential with their day today. Okay, I know its because they might not have the funds to do so, but really, there is more to being in HK other than yum cha and shopping, which a lot of these people will be doing.
Getting my Advanced Certification is the first real qualification that I’ve payed for and seen through by myself. Especially after leaving the education system, the feeling that I’m working for someone else and something else (i.e. working in company) and not for my own benefit is something that I missed. I feel great about myself and that I’ve managed to do something in this last month. I’m looking forward to the next stage in my diving learning - working myself up to be a Rescue Diver.
Some Useful Links
My Dive Record (The Technical Stuff)
Project AWARE
PADI Recreational Diving
May 17th, 2002 by Eshin
Ten years after the ‘Phantom Menace’ threatened the planet Naboo, Padme Amidala is now a Senator representing her homeworld. A faction of political separatists, led by Count Dooku, attempts to assassinate her. There aren’t enough Jedi to defend the Republic against the threat, so Chancellor Palpatine enlists the aid of Jango Fett, who promises that his army of clones will handle the situation. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan Kenobi continues to train the young Jedi Anakin Skywalker, who fears that the Jedi code will forbid his growing romance with Amidala…
(Summary written by Brian Barjenbruch.)
Okay, now that I’ve finished grovelling, here’s the important stuff.
I’m going to suggest that if you don’t want to spoil the plot and excitement of the film (and the trilogy arc) that you don’t read this. So stop reading now, if you don’t want to come across any spoilers.
I mean it.
I’m sure I’ll ruin the fun. So seriously…
Continue reading ‘Star Wars - Episode II’
May 17th, 2002 by Eshin
Just a short rant this one.
I don’t know if any of you know Hong Kong that well. Well, if you did, you’d have told me about the damned weather patterns here and not laughed when I went a-packing with just lightweight trousers and t-shirts. But I’d like to gripe about one thing in particular and although it might not seem that it’s related t the weather, it is (and because I’m British, it means that I have to comment on the damned thing).
In Hong Kong, they have these damned Public Light Buses…now those of you who know at least a little about Hong Kong will know these things…but they have to be the most practical and strangest things I’ve seen.
Essentially, there are no bus stops. The bus will stop at any point that is safe to do so to let on or let off passengers. The price of riding the bus diminishes as it progresses through its route. What my gripe is, is that I don’t want to sound too much like a foreigner and say “please stop!” (I mean, even the foreigners say it in Canto) and that my mastery of Canto - Wai Hon (Wellcome) Mgoi, Yau Lok” - is still at a stage where I’ll be damned if I say it out loud, let alone shout it out to bus load of strangers.
This, means that, and it seems quite comical (even to me), that I sometimes ride the bus until someone else stops the damned thing. I usually undershoot but once I’ve ridden all along Caine Road without a damned person feeling the need to get off or get on. Yes, it is comical. But not when it’s rainy friggin season out here.
There, rant over. And yes, I know the solution to the problem. Don’t send answers on a postcard.
May 12th, 2002 by Eshin
So, my first full day of diving over. I think the course structure was to do the most difficult ones (given my situation) first. The night dive as my first dive when I hadn’t been in the water for so long. And first time again in the day, I go for the Deep dive…which is perhaps one of the most riskier types of dive for a recreational diver. But, I managed to make it and my confidence is right up there about my own diving after today.
So the day started off early. A 0630 start to meet my instructor, Bibian, at Yau Ma Tai train station on the Kowloon side was a pleasant experience. Thankfully, she told me she only got two hours sleep whereas I only had three since I was finishing off the last of my papers for the dive! It did give me a chance to talk to Bibian about some of the aspects of underwater navigation that I didn’t quite fully feel comfortable with. We also talked her being a technical diver as well as a PADI instructor. It means that she gets to go to depths and use diving skills that are way of limits to the multitude of the PADI recreationals. Apparently, one person dove to limit of 300m, stayed for 2 mins at that depth and then had to spend 19 hours slowly surfacing making decompression stops (otherwise the nitrogen in his body would have made his blood turn into bubbles and explode his body - simple explanation). The guy who runs Diving Adventure has been to 190m which is certainly a an accomplishment.
Anyway, back to my day. Unfortunately, the diving buddy that I thought I was going with suffered an accident with an HK tram and due to stitches in his leg could not attend today’s diving. Luckily, another student, Gladys, was also taking the advanced diving course and so I had a diving buddy for this trip other than Bibian. Gladys is a nurse in one of the hospitals here and amongst other things, she enjoy skydiving too. Guess diving in just water isn’t enough for her! She was friendly and we got along quite well I think. She was trying to convince me to go skydiving but safer to say, she might try wakeboarding with me when I go next.
After a quick Chinese breakfast (Instant soup noodles with fried egg, ham, and sausage) we boarded the dive boat. On board were already a group of 15 or so divers. Most were PADI Open Water students (the basic level) but seemed to be accomplished divers in their own right. They seemed to be doing the course for the official certification from PADI.
The boat took us to a dive site near Shelter Island which had the necessary depth for a deep dive. I have a feeling that the half hour stop at that dive site was purely for the benefit of our training.
I felt a little apprehension getting into the water during day light. As I mentioned before, deep diving is one of the more riskier dives, and adherence to all the safety requirements is necessary or else you can even end up dying. With this pleasant thought in my head, I descended down the anchor line with Bibian leading the way and Gladys following behind me. Bibian took the lead to make sure that our ascent was kosher and that everything was okay.
As you get deeper, two things you will notice - it gets dark and it gets colder. Luckily my wetsuit really fixed the problem of temperature. For visibility, it was okay at around 4-5 metres and also considering we are only staying by the anchor line. At the bottom, Bibian demonstrated how the colours of things would change and also showed us a mineral water bottle that she had been carrying…it was essentially there to demonstrate how pressure works and also what would happen if you failed to breath normally at that depth.
We also completed a simple task that was timed. We had done the task on the surface and timed each other. Repeating the task at that depth tends to make people slower and this was to demonstrate this. Gladys completed her time on the surface in 10 seconds but at 16m depth, she completed the task in 34 seconds. For me, I completed the task quicker at depth than on the surface! It took my 20s to complete my task on the boat and 19s to do it underwater. I was quite pleased with that myself.
I enjoyed the Deep dive but there is a certain degree of risk involved, which I found myself using to drive my excitement.
Once we had completed our task, we began to surface. The deeper you go, the more air you are likely to be using. So realistically, we spent about a good 10 minutes down there. After 3 minute safety stop, we reboarded the boat which took us to our second dive site for the day, Pak Lap Island.
Pre-lunch we managed to get a “fun dive” in…one where we just explore the underwater world without any training go on. Although I had problems with my bouyancy control and kept going to fast, I did manage to enjoy it. My mask constantly fogging up was an interesting experience. I let water in to clear it several times until I realised it wasn’t on tight enough.
I guess this has been the most interesting dive I’ve done to date. I managed to see two Lion Fish, plenty of sea urchins, a crab hiding away under a rock, Groupers, Cleaning fish, a two common rock fish. Clown fish were also there and were extremely docile. In fact they kept picking at us as we entered their territory.
Once we were on the boat, lunch was served…fried noodles, chicken curry and congee.
After lunch I started chatting to this one guy. Turns out he’s another IT guy (guess they’re paid fuck loads, eh?) and that he’s doing his open water certification, despite being going on previous diving trips. Guess he just needs that much sought after card.
The final dive for the day would be the underwater navigation. Bibian went through the pre-dive briefing and what she expected us to do underwater. Gladys and I basically buddied up and did the same, reviewing communications signals, the sequence of events, etc. It’s quite important to establish as much on the surface as possible in terms of what you are actually going to be doing. Communication at the bottom of the sea isn’t the most effective and is limited to obvious hand signs and body language. Trust me, you’ll get it one time when you just say “What?!” underwater by accident because you think you can talk!
Bibian’s role in the training part of the dive was minimal. For this dive, she expected Gladys and I to take on the role of buddy divers. Which, truth to say worked out quite well. We performed the required tasks - measuring kick cycles, elapsed time and successfully navigating in a square. My dive buddy completed the square a lot quicker than I did, but I guess that was not unexpected. I hate numbers and geometry and all that crap…yes, I know its simple, I just hate it.
We then proceeded to just explore the area around us. I must say that it was probably my best dive that I did that day in my short career as a diver. I managed to visualise how I wanted to dive, felt at one with the sea (yah yah…puke, puke), and just gracefully (well, almost) glide through the water. My previous dives had seen my hand flailing around the place, me going up and down in depth and me exercising no control whatsoever. Needless to say that those things are all not good.
Unfortunately, my air supply brought our dive to a quick stop. I have no idea why but my air seems to always deplete quicker than other people. I guess its because it takes some time to breathe in a more controlled and relaxed way. Also we had been doing some exercises in the water and apparently, men need more oxygen than women. I guess our ego’s need oxygen too.
Once out of the water, we proceeded to stowed our equipment and Gladys and I stumbled our way through filling in our log books. It’s not that hard but the difficult part is filling in the appropriate pressure groups and stuff. It’s important because it affects your body and how it reacts to pressure based on the depth and time you spend in and out of the water. Its not all that complicated by it involves thinking…and you know how much I like to do that.
Bibian signed off the advanced training elements of the day’s diving and now I’m more than 50% on the way to getting my Advanced Diving Certification. To be honest, now I’m thinking of seeing if I can do the Rescue Diver course…that teaches basic first aid and emergency procedures for divers. The skills can be relavent on land as well as it at see. Will have to find out about that.
Got dropped off about 1800 and Gladys showed my a new way of getting home. I’m not too sure its all that practical because it means I have to take a second train instead of one. Also, the Central MTR station has some problems in that its so friggin large. I got the wrong exit and ended up at Statue Square. Since it was raining, a lot of the Filipino maids had taken up residence in the shelter and bang found myself in the middle of them….its strange to be in HK and sometimes the dominant language will be English, sometimes Cantonese, and this time is was Tagalog.
Amusing at it was, the rain made less so. Taxi’s scarce and I had to walk (yes, me, walk) to Lan Kwai Fong to get a taxi that I knew wouldn’t appreciate the short drive to my flat. Thankfully, he was okay about it.
Looking forward to next week’s dive, although I have no idea who I’m going to be buddying up with…Eyal’s still not in the water on account of his leg, and Gladys is diving out of planes next week. Oh well, guess I’ll meet another new person!
May 12th, 2002 by Eshin
This diving lark is exciting. In fact, the cost so far has upgraded it from being a simple lark to well, a hobby that deserves full-time attention.
Why do I sound less enthusiastic? Well, I don’t. I’m still as enthusiastic as ever to get into the water and do some diving. My wallet’s doing the less enthusiasm part. All in all, I’ve spent about +/- HK$5000 so far on the advance cert. and on equipment.
Yep, that’s painful. Even for me.
The problem with Scuba diving is that the initial investment into your own equipment is expensive. While with other sports that have cheaper equipment you can always economize in the early stages of the game, with Scuba there is very little point. Yes, sure, you can skimp on a few hundred dollars on your wetsuit and end up with one you aren’t happy with but sure you saved a few bucks. The problem comes in the future. When you want to upgrade or when the quality starts to degrade.
Not only do you have the sunk (and do pardon the pun) costs for the original equipment but you have to fork out considerably more than those measely few hundred bucks you saved when you bought it to replace it with new equipment. Hence, investing in the right equipment at the early stages is a wise idea.
The problem is to find the time and opportunity to do it.
I’m actually interested in a lot of things…and the problem is finding the time and the opportunity to do these things. I mean, do some of you know that I even took up horse-riding. I have a riding hat, boots and jophers as well. Don’t get me wrong, it looks funny and a little queer, but I did enjoy riding a horse. Maybe I will take it up again.
Also, my golf game has been sorely lacking in the last 18 months, its alongside my tennis game. Partly, golf is expensive in HK (and Scuba isn’t?!?!) and naturally with tennis, most people I know want to play with reasonably competent players. I, for all my skill and wisdom, don’t qualify.
The scuba diving may just another be in the long line of things that have come and gone, but I really am interested in it. There is a sense of peace and quiet when you are under the water, somewhere that man hasn’t conquered and sullied. There are no people. So if you ask if the money I spent on the equipment is worth it, I would have to say yes.
It’s odd that my two favourite hobbies that I’m laying claim to are at 6’s and 7’s with each other. Paintballing can be accused of being the quintessential human activity - the art of entertainment and mock killing (the real thing is something we humans are very good at) while the Scuba Diving represents are more quiet time, natural hobby.
I guess its part of why my interests seem to reflect a different facet of me…Diving is my need for peace and solitude, Paintballing is my desire to, well, shoot things, and golf is my need to social hierarchy and behaviour.
I just ask you, my audience, to help me with remembering that I need to do my hobbies more. Constantly ask me where i’ve gone diving and how what did i see. That why I’ll either bite your head off (and feel better) or I’ll do more diving (and feel even better).
Ta,
N.
Equipment
ScubaPro SilverSkin Wet Suit (3mm TPF 26) Black
Aqualung SPHERA Black Mask
TUSA Snorkel Adapter (in a fetching silver!)
AUSA Titanium Dive Knife (looks cool but isn’t that sharp - which btw is not what a dive knife needs to be. It isn’t a weapon.)
Underwater Kinetics SL4 High Intensity Dive Light Black
Underwater Kinetics UK2AAA Mini Pocket Light Clear Blue (Back-up Light)
Dry Bag
Well, maybe post some pictures of the stuff up here. Not that most of you will be interested.
