Scuba Diving Kauai

One of my favorite adventures on Kauai was scuba diving.  We decided to do our scuba dive at Tunnels Beach.  It's famous for a a barrier reef with tunnels that go through it.  That sounded fun and exciting, so how could I pass it up?

We had to be at Tunnels Beach at 8 AM on Wednesday.  It turns out Tunnels Beach is really hard to find.  There are no signs for it at all.  There is a little road that goes to the beach, but it isn't marked, and it's not anywhere near where Google says the entrance to the beach is. We eventually pulled up to that little road and I walked down it.  I found the people we were Scuba diving with, and they told us to park at Haena Beach which was a quarter mile down the road.

Robyn was stressing out (like she does) but we got there and got suited up without any problems.  They gave us wetsuits and put all the gear on us.  We got in the water and had to swim out to where we actually began the dive.  It took us a a minute to get back into the groove of how to move with all the gear and everything.  But once I was back in the water, everything went super smooth and it was great.

We saw some really cool things while diving.  Here are a few of them.

Swimming underneath a turtle

A sleeping turtle

Seeing an eel

Swimming through a tunnel

We did a two tank dive, which means you do one dive and then come back and get another tank to go out for more.  In between dives, they gave us snacks and our dive masters acted as sherpas, hauling the empty tanks from where we left them in the water and replacing them with full tanks, so that we could put them on in the water and not have to haul them down ourselves.

It turns out I breathe way more than Robyn.  Near the end of our first dive, I told the dive master I was down to 200 PSI in my tank, so he told me to go to the surface.  At that point, I took the regulator out of my mouth and put in the snorkel.  I snorkeled directly above Robyn.  She didn't see me go up, so she continued to follow the group.  She said she was a little concerned that she couldn't find me, but she trusted that the dive master was taking care of me. She didn't realize that I was snorkeling directly above her.  I just continued to follow her until she was ready to surface.  I never lost sight of my dive buddy, even if she didn't know where I was.

All in all, it was super fun.  It was a little more work than a boat dive, because we had to swim out from the shore, but it was still really cool.  We had planned to snorkel at Tunnels Beach after our dive was over, but we were much more tired than we had anticipated, and we realized we wouldn't see anything snorkeling that we hadn't already seen diving.

So instead of snorkeling after diving, we went back to the condo and took a nap.

Naps are a great part of Hawaii too.

Scuba Diving in Roatan

The first port on our recent cruise was Roatan, Honduras.

I already wrote about the crazy lady that accosted me in Honduras.  But, I didn't write about the main event while we were there.

Since we were recently Scuba certified, we had taken this cruise specifically so that we would have the chance to use our certification.  We had heard that Roatan, Honduras was one of the coolest places to do Scuba, so we made it happen.

When we got off the ship, there were billions of different people holding signs for different excursions.  It was like when you land in the airport and there are all those people holding signs, and you always wish you were important enough to be on a sign.  We weren't important enough to be on a sign this time either, but we were looking for the sign that said "Scuba 2 tank dive".  We found the guy holding the proper sign and he asked to see our certification cards.  We showed him and then we got on a little ghetto fabulous bus.

I had been nervous about Scuba diving without our instructor to take care of us.  He promised us that even if we died underwater, he would bring us up alive.  (He's that good.)  The real world doesn't have that kind of guarantee.  However, what I didn't realize was that I didn't need to worry about the Scuba part.  I needed to worry about the bus part.  The bus was winding through the thin streets of Roatan at a speed that seemed much faster than what I would consider safe in those conditions.  There were children, dogs, goats, other cars and various other obstacle that came way too close to the bus for my comfort.  The bus driver would just honk loudly and hope that everyone would move.  At one point, I heard a little girl scream but I looked out the window and we did not hit her, so I think all was well.  I think the bus was just a little close for her comfort.  (She was experiencing the same discomfort I was.)

The bus dropped us off at a little resort.  (Or at least what passes for a resort in Roatan.)  It wasn't fancy or anything, but they had boats and Scuba gear.  That's all we needed.  We had to fill out paper work saying that we promise we know what we're doing and we won't sue if we die.  Then they asked us how much weight we needed.  I didn't need any weight in fresh water, because I sink like a rock.  But I had no idea what I needed in the ocean.  We explained that we're newbs, and we have no idea.  He gave me 16 pounds.  It turns out, 16 pounds is more than I need, even in the ocean.  But we'll get to that in a second.

The boat took us out to a little place called Green Outhouse Wall.  It's a really awkward name, and I thought I heard it incorrectly, but I googled it when I got home.  Maybe an outhouse is something different in Honduras.  Because I probably wouldn't name a dive location after a bathroom, but that's just me.

I jumped in the water with my BCD (Buoyancy Control Device, that's the vest you wear while diving) fully inflated like I'm supposed to.  In my class, I always just dumped all the air out of it so that I could sink.  It turns out when you have 16 pounds of weight, you probably want to leave some air in it.  I emptied it out and sank like a rock.  Luckily, we were only in 15 feet of water at that point.  I hit the bottom, and realized I wasn't supposed to sink that fast.  So I decided to put more air in.  I probably should have been more careful about how much air I put back in, because I then shot straight to the top.  Robyn was descending slowly and reached out her hand in somewhat of a panic as I shot past her on the way back up.

It took me a while, but I did eventually get the hang of buoyancy.  I've heard even experienced divers say that buoyancy is the hardest part of diving.  Getting to the point where you can control your ascent and descent or just staying at one point in the water is hard.   So I'm not ashamed that I didn't do it perfectly on the first dive.

I had a fantastic experience.  We saw crabs, turtles, lobster, tons of fish, lots of different kinds of coral, and even a shipwreck.  I wore my GoPro and took video the whole time.  The video isn't great for 2 reasons.  One is that I apparently move my head around a lot which makes for somewhat nauseating video.  The other is that it was an overcast day, and though I could see just fine, the video turned out very green and it's hard to make out very many things.

Nonetheless, I pulled out a few stills from the video for your enjoyment.

I took this selfie accidentally when I was trying to make sure the camera was on.

We saw lots of coral and sea fans.

We were constantly surrounded by fish.

Can you see the turtle?

 The first dive was about 45 minutes.  Then they took us back to the resort, let us take bathroom breaks and visit the gift shops while they got more air tanks on the boat.  We took the opportunity to show how cute we were.

Our second dive was to a place called Deep Eel Garden.  We never saw any eels but we did see a shipwreck which was super cool.

Approaching the shipwreck

Getting a little closer to the wreck

 The wreck itself sat at 110 feet in depth.  We're only supposed to go to 60 feet.  But I really wanted to check out the cool nest sitting on the mast.

You can't see super well but there are cool little furry worms on and in the nest.  

 After looking at the nest, I checked my depth gauge and I was at 75 feet deep.  I looked up at Robyn and she made a gesture to show that she was very cranky and that I needed to ascend to 60 feet.

Robyn never made that kind of mistake, because she was looking at her gauge 100% of the time.

But she still loved me, even when I went too deep.

She was easily the cutest thing I saw on the dive.

One of the things that we had to do in our dive class was that you are supposed to ascend to about 20 feet of depth and do a safety stop, where you stay at that depth for at least 5 minutes before continuing to ascend.  In our class, we just played paper rock scissors because there was nothing else to do.  The divemaster on this dive did a good job of leading us to a place where it was only 20 feet deep but there were still things to see.  So that made it a nice way to end the dive.

Finally we had to come up and finish off our diving experience.

These fish were all around the boat.  They hung out right at the surface.

Once we got back on the boat, they had people that took our air tanks off and broke down all our equipment.  We had learned how to do all of that in our class, but it was so nice to have someone do it for us.

This is how cute we were on the boat.

So that was my diving experience!  It was sooooo amazing!  The best part is that Robyn really enjoyed it which means we'll be doing it a lot more.  Woot!  I hope to share many more diving experiences.  And maybe in the future I'll have better pictures to share.

Birthday Weekend and a Certification

I'm Scuba certified!

I don't have any cool pictures to show you from the actual dive.  My underwater camera is only good to 30 feet.  I thought that was plenty when I bought it, because I was planning to use it for snorkeling, and I was confident that I would never free dive to 30 feet while snorkeling.

For our final dive, we just had a few more things to pass off.  We had to simulate an emergency ascent from 20 feet (You pretend you're out of air and ascend to the top while exhaling the whole way, so that your lungs don't explode.)  We also had to take off our mask and put it back on at 20 feet.

Then he let us have about 25 minutes to dive doing whatever we want.  He said that was our final exam.  He was watching us and he told us the biggest thing he's watching is to make sure that we're aware of our buddy and things like how much air our buddy has left.

Robyn and I explored all of the fun things that are down in the depths at the Crater.  There is a wagon wheel at about 35 feet.  There's a ring you can swim through around 40 feet.

Our certification allows us to go to 60 feet, but when our instructor signaled that our time was up, Robyn and I had only worked our way down to 48 feet.  So that's the deepest I've ever been.

But it was soooo cool!  I'm so excited to do some real dives!  We told our instructor that we're going to the Caribbean next summer, but we want to do some local dives with him first.  He said he's doing a trip to Sand Hollow reservoir in a few months.  Maybe by then I'll have a camera that can go diving.

Anyway, since Robyn's birthday was last week, we decided to have a little romantic getaway at the Homestead Resort (where the Crater is located) to celebrate.  Basically, we'll use anything as an excuse to take a trip.

So here are a few of the highlights of our short little getaway.

It was pretty darn cold, but I got Robyn to bundle up and go exploring with me in the snow.  (That's how much she loves me.)  Isn't she so cute all bundled up?

These were the lights on the front porch of our suite.  It thought the icicles were epic.  Part of me wanted to break them off and pretend they were swords.  But the part that wanted to leave them and let them grow prevailed.

There is a little Mexican place in Midway that I love.  We tried to go there for dinner, but I guess in small towns restaurants just close when their owners need a vacation.

Everything was totally frozen except for this little duck pond.  I'm pretty sure it had to be heated because there was no ice in it at all and there was steam rising from it.  It was like a little duck spa.

Hidden under the snow lurked an evil that never sleeps.  That's right, there was a golf course.

These little ice tepees had little fountains on top of them spraying a fine mist so that over time it formed this coolness.  

This is what Robyn does on vacation.  It was super fun to get cozy next to the fire after being outside in the cold.

It was a pretty fabulous weekend.  Robyn's birthday and Scuba certification worked together well to give us a solid excuse to have a getaway.  It will be a long time before we take another trip.  It's nearly a full 2 weeks before we fly to California for Christmas.

The Underwater World

If you've been following along, you know that I've been taking a class to become Scuba certified.  We spent time in a classroom, then time in a pool, and finally I had my first opportunity to to go for a real legitimate dive.  (In more than 7 feet of water.)

Our class uses the Crater in Midway, UT for our open water dives.  If you don't know what that is, it's an underground hot spring where they have dug into and built a space where people can come and float in the warm water or dive down deeper with Scuba equipment.  (Robyn and I went floating there for our Anniversary last year.)

The water is about 65 feet deep, which is perfect for Scuba certification because you only get certified to go 60 feet deep.  They say they don't want anyone touching the bottom anyway because there is so much silt that touching the bottom ruins visibility for a long time.

They've also setup the Crater as an ideal place to learn to Scuba dive.  In the video I linked above, we are floating next to some red buoys.  At the time we had no idea what they were, but they are attached to platforms beneath the water.   For our first descent, our instructor had us hold onto those ropes and lower ourselves down to a platform at about 20 feet in depth.

I was super nervous.  We had learned all the important skills, how to regulate the pressure in our ears, how to clear water out of our masks, how to share air with our buddy, etc.  But I was afraid because in the pool if anything went wrong, you could just stand up and you were in an environment with air.  Not so in the Crater.  One of the rules of diving is that you can't go up faster than 1 foot per second.  That means at 20 feet of depth, it should take you 20 seconds to get to the top.  That's a long time if you're having a panic attack.

Our instructor told us that if we panic we can go to the top, but he's going to grab us and force us to go at a safe pace.  He said, "Just don't forget you have a regulator in your mouth.  You can breathe underwater."

So all that made me nervous, but it turned out my fears were unfounded.  Diving deeper is no different than diving in a pool, except that it is more awesome.

On the platform at 20 feet he had us pass off many of the same skills we'd already passed off in the pool.  We had to take off our mask and put it back on.  We had to pretend we were out of air and ascend while sharing air with our buddy.  We had to lose our regulator and retrieve it.  By now these skills were old hat.

But then he let us swim around a bit.  I'm not gonna lie.  It was the coolest thing ever.  I honestly thought that diving at the Crater would be boring, because there are no fish and not a lot to see.  Well, it is kind of barren, but there's something magical about being in the underwater world.

First I looked down.  I could see divers down below me.  I was amazed how good the visibility was.  I could see way below me.  I watched the other divers exploring around, and then I started to notice there air coming up around me.

Most of the time, there would be lots of little bubbles, but every once in a while you'd get one giant bubble.  It was fun to watch that bubble slowly ascend and then pass me.  They looked like little jelly fish.

After a few of them went by me, I decided it was important to try to pop them.  Yes, I played the exact same game that fascinated the 3 year olds in our Sunbeam class last year: "Pop the bubbles".  It was neat to poke the jellyfish and watch it turn into 100 tiny jellyfish.

After I had had of enough looking down, I started to look up.  There were people floating in the surface, kicking their legs and moving around.  I realized they couldn't see me at all.  It occurred to me that this is what a shark sees.  It was eerie to realize that when you're on the surface, everything below you has a perfect view of you while you can't see below you at all.

It was so amazing to realize how much volume there is in just 65 feet of water.  The Crater is only maybe 25 feet across, it's not a huge area.  But looking at it 3-dimension-ally, it suddenly became a giant cylinder with near endless space.

After we had been down a while, it was time to ascend.  We ascended by holding the ropes again.  It's nice to have the ropes to be able to control the ascent.  It's hard to tell how fast you're ascending or descending without a frame of reference.  That's something I'll have to get used to when we're in the ocean.

The weirdest thing about the ascent was feeling the air escaping my ears.  As you ascend, the water pressure is decreasing and so the air in all your body cavities is expanding.  I'm not gonna lie, it was a strange sensation.

When we got to the surface, our instructor assured us that diving in the ocean is way more awesome, and don't be discouraged if that was boring.  I told him that experiencing an underwater world was absolutely amazing.  His response was that he had dove in the Crater over 3800 times.  The magic of just being underwater wasn't really there for him anymore.

But it was still magical for me.  I'm excited to be certified so soon.  Then, it will be time to do some real diving.

When Scuba turns into Shoe Shopping

I've written a few times about how we're working to get Scuba certified.  Getting certified involves a lot of things.  You have to read the book.  There's a DVD you have to watch.  You have to pass a written test in a classroom setting.  You have to pass off skills in the pool, and eventually you have to pass off skills in a real open water environment.  I expected all of those things going into it.

What I didn't expect was shopping.  And not just any shopping.  That's right.  It involved shoe shopping.  It seems my wife is very sneaky.  Regardless of what we're doing, she somehow manages to make it about shoes.

So here's the story.  We have a set of snorkeling equipment that we bought from Costco.  (And snorkeling equipment turns out to be a subset of what you need to go diving.)  There's nothing wrong with the Costco equipment, but it's the cheap stuff that will meet minimal functional specifications for snorkeling.  However, when we were in Hawaii we found that the fins weren't incredibly effective for swimming and the mask had a tendency to leak.

So we decided that if we were going to get into diving, we should get some new equipment.

We went to the dive shop, fully intending to buy masks, fins, snorkels, and the like.  But before I knew it I was trying on shoes.  How did that even happen?

Of course, Robyn was in her element trying on shoes.

Don't get me wrong, our cute little booties will be very functional when we're getting into colder water or entering on rocky beaches.  I'm glad we got them.  I'm just trying to figure out if Robyn had the whole shoe shopping thing all planned out beforehand.  She knows I hate shoe shopping, but that I'll do it for an awesome cause like diving.

She's good.  She's real good.

My excellent bootie with my fins in the background.

Of course, we got all our basic gear.  (We didn't buy air tanks or regulators, we're not that hardcore yet.  Just fins, mask, booties, snorkel.)

Robyn enjoyed trying on shoes.  I enjoyed trying on masks.

These were the two finalists, but the black was more comfortable.

But look how good I look all decked out.

We tried out our new gear on our second Scuba class in the pool.  I'm not gonna lie, my new fins definitely propel me much better than the old ones.

Not to mention, we both look super snazzy in the water.

Guess who else looks pretty snazzy?  The Watsons did some shopping as well.

If you can't tell which ones are Watsons, just look for the ones slightly less precious than me.

The best news?  We passed off all of our basic skills.   I can now take off my mask under water, put it back on and clear it of water.  I also know what it feels like if my air runs out (I don't like it) and I can even share air with my buddy.  All of this means we've graduated from the pool.  Our next stop is a real open water dive at the Crater in Midway.

We're gonna look super snazzy at the Crater.

Scuba in the Pool

Remember when I told you that I passed the Scuba written test?  Well, the next step was to begin actually learning the Scuba skills in a swimming pool.

When we first arrived at the pool, we had to prove that we could swim.  This was the hardest part of the whole class.  I didn't think it was very fair, because when we go diving we'll be able to breather underwater which means we can just relax.  Nonetheless, they made us swim the length of the pool ten times and then we had to tread water for 10 minutes.

Treading water was the worst part.  Robyn totally floats.  If I'm ever drowning, I'll just grab onto her because she is the best flotation device around.  I sink like a rock.  So that was the longest ten minutes of my life.

Next, he asked if we remembered what we had learned about how to setup all our gear.  We kind of looked at each other and said, "Ya, we prolly remember."

He told us we'd better remember because we need to setup our gear now.  Setting up Scuba gear is kind of like setting up a computer.  It's not that hard, you just make sure that every hose (or wire, in the case of a computer) is connected to something.  Then you put the regulator in your mouth and make sure if it gives you air.  Robyn and I both got ours connected backward at first, but we corrected it before he inspected, so that's our little secret.  (Just don't tell, okay?)

Finally we got to do actual Scuba stuff.  The first thing we had to do was figure out how much weight we needed.  He said that we should be able to kneel on the ground in 4 feet of water.  If you float at all, you're too buoyant.  Robyn needed to add somewhere around 1000 pounds to be able to kneel.  I needed to add nothing.  At least I could tell her I wasn't crazy when I was working so hard to stay afloat a few minutes earlier.

After getting our gear and weights all set up, we went over some of the same skills we had learned in our Scuba Discovery class.  We practiced getting water out of the mask while still underwater.  We practiced finding our regulator if it ever comes out of our mouth.  We learned how to equalize the water pressure in our ears.

Finally, after practicing our new skills for an hour or so he gave us some free play time.  He let us swim to the very depths of the pool.  That's right, we did a real bona fide dive to the extreme depth of about 9 feet.  We also had a photo shoot during our free swimming time.

It's precious to hold hands underwater.

Swimming backward is a special skill.  It's like swimming forward, only it's backward.

This is Robyn's superman stance.  But she's better than Superman because Superman can't breathe underwater.

Aren't Dave and Jen so precious?  I mean, not as precious as us, but still pretty precious.

This is our instructor.  He likes headstands.  He also likes peace.

So that was our first experience with Scuba in a swimming pool.  This Saturday is our second class in the pool, then we get to start our open water classes.  Won't that be fancy?

Scuba in the Classroom

Remember a while back when Robyn and I took that Discover Scuba class?  Remember how, at the end of that post, I said that Robyn has agreed to get Scuba certified with me?  Well, we finally signed up for our certification class.  This week we did all of the classroom work, and on Saturday we're gonna be in a swimming pool learning super sweet skills.

We booked the class about a month ago.  The instructor gave us a book to read before the class began.  Naturally, the night before our class we realized we hadn't read any of it.  It was just like high school all over again.  And, just like high school, I skimmed the book the night before.

We took the class with some friends.  Dave and Jen made sure to read every word of the book.  They are good studious students.  If you're looking for dive buddies, they are probably better options then us.

Our first day in class we went over the first 3 chapters in the book and took a quiz on each chapter.  After that we got to learn how to hook up the air tank, and the BCD (Buoyancy Control Device).  We tried on our BCDs as well.  Robyn looked especially snazzy in hers.

The second day of class we went over the last two chapters and we took the final exam.  All through high school, I was the guy who barely skimmed the book and aced all the tests.  I don't think I was ever nervous about a test in my life.

I was nervous about this test.

I realized as I was about to take it that this knowledge was actually important for things like staying alive under water.  As our instructor passed out the test I quietly wished that I had actually read the book instead of skimming it.

I took the test.  I got 92%.  That means I get to go on to the cool parts where we actually do stuff in water.

After I was done with my test, it was important to document what was happening around me.  Robyn had different strategies to deal with me documenting.

Her first strategy was crankiness.

Her next strategy was to ignore me.  But look how happy Jen is to be taking a test.

I told my Dad that I got 92%, he asked if that meant that 8% of the time I don't survive the dive.  Blast!  I really need to go back and read the book in its entirety.

I'm hoping I won't die 8% of the time, but I do have to warn you about one of the questions I got wrong.

One of the things we are required to learn is a form of sign language specific to Scuba Diving.  One of the signs looks exactly like, "Thank you" in ASL.  But, it doesn't mean "Thank you" it is a request to use your air.  It's probably an important sign to know.  Here is a scenario that I picture happening if you Scuba Dive with me.

We are diving along and you realize you have run out of air.  (You should have paid better attention to your SPG, but whatevs)  You approach me and ask to use my air.  I sign back, "You're Welcome."  You repeat the first sign.  I repeat, "You're welcome."  After a few minutes of this you drown.

So, if you ever go diving with me, just know that I missed that question on the quiz.  Also, know that all Scuba divers are required to have a secondary source of air.  Don't ask me for mine.  Just grab it.  Then I'll say, "You're welcome."

Discovering Scuba

One important item on my bucket list is that I really want to get Scuba Certified.  However, to maximize my certification, I really want Robyn to get certified as well.  That way, we can go diving on vacations and have lots of adventures together.

I had it all planned out.  We would take a class together and then live happily ever after.  (I know, it's a very detailed plan.  I hope you were able to follow that.)  Unfortunately, Robyn had a concern with this plan.  She was pretty sure that Scuba is too scary and she might die.

Amazon has a little program they've started to compete with City Deals and other similar companies, called Amazon Local.  They sent me a deal for a local dive shop where they could do a "Scuba Discovery" class for $10 / person.

When I saw that my heart leaped for joy!  This was the perfect compromise.  I asked Robyn if she would be willing to go discover Scuba with me.  I told her she only had to commit to one hour and then we could either confirm that it's much too scary and I would never bother her about it again, or she would discover it's pretty cool and we could get certified together.

The place is called Dive Utah and it's located in Holladay.  It was a little inconvenient because the class started at 6, so I had to leave work early to drive through traffic and get there on time.  But we made it safely, so all was well.

When we arrived, the first 30 minutes was a classroom atmosphere.  They explained all the equipment, they explained basic principles of diving.  (The most important thing we learned is to never stop breathing, because if you drift up or down while holding your breath, the change in pressure could cause serious problems.)

We had to pass a little quiz before we could get in the water.  I took the quiz before we started and got 100%.  But if that wasn't easy enough already, he went through the quiz question by question and told us the answers, so we could just fill it out as he told us if we wanted.

We finally got to get in the water.  It was just a swimming pool, but there were still crazy marine life forms such as a real live Scuba certification class.

The first thing we did in the water was put on all our gear.  As soon as I got it on, I realized that wearing a big air tank on your back is kind of like being a ghostbuster, with their big nuclear reactors on their backs.  Naturally, I shared that with the whole class.  "It feels like I'm a ghostbuster!"

Only seconds later, he had us put the regulator in our mouths and try breathing through it, above the water. Instantly, I knew that I had become Darth Vader.  (They must have based Darth Vader's breathing on a scuba regulator.)  I immediately regretted using up my geek moment talking about Ghostbusters.  Luckily, the teacher was either as geeky as me or he just knew his audience, because he said, "Luke, I am your father."  It filled me with gladness.

Once we were geared up, he showed us some basic skills.  We had to show that we could take the regulator out of our mouth (while still breathing out, because you never stop breathing) and then put it back in and clear it of water.  We also had to be able to clear water out of the mask.

Finally, he just let us swim around the swimming pool.  I definitely need work, I would be crawling along the bottom and would push the button to gain some buoyancy, then I would magically be at the top of the water.  After that, I would push the button to release air and I would be back on the bottom.  It would seem I need to learn balance.

After swimming around for a while, the class was over.  Then came the most important part.  We grabbed a camera for a photo op.

Robyn with some underwater love

Not to be outdone, I threw up some double love.

We're just the cutest little scuba couple.

The best part of the whole thing?  Robyn has agreed to get certified with me.  That means we have a future filled with diving all over the world.