So you've seen pics before showing our love for Scuba Diving. Well a few weekends ago, we decided to get our Advanced Certifications and Nitrox rating.
All was going well. On our "search and recovery" specialty dive, we found the hidden object together and quickly! Hooray for team work. Then its on to using the lift bag. We clipped it to our big ass concrete block and as taught, brought it to the surface - Success! We had plenty of air left in our tanks so it was play time. I made the big ass concrete block neutrally buoyant and then swam around with it chasing fish. Why? Because I could. Because without a lift bag I couldn't get this thing off the bottom, and now I could swim with it fast enough to chase fish!
I laughed when a fish looked particularly freaked out and then, every diver's nightmare - I breathed in and all I got was water. Damnit. I must have laughed too hard and let water into the regulator. Try again. Just water. FREAK OUT. This is the part I (and everyone else later) was proud of me for. I reached around and grabbed my spare and breathed from it. Simple right? HA. Tell me that when its you. At this point I am ok. I've got air, I'm breathing again, and I didn't bolt to the surface and risk getting bent. But I am NOT HAPPY. It was one of those moments when I thank God for training sticking in my brain and managing to win out over panic. But now that the immediate threat is gone, the after affect hits.
Our instructor, who's been trained for these kinds of things, was nearby. I didn't care. All I wanted was Adam. I swam to him and as soon as he looked at me he knew I was not okay. He took control of our slow ascent, and I cried the whole way to the surface. Our instructor has realized that I am on my spare regulator which means something has gone wrong. As soon as we hit the surface he tells me to lay back and he swims me to the nearest platform. They ask what happened and I held out the mouthpiece to the normal regulator. It had become disconnected from the regulator. Both he and the other instructor nearby knew what had happened and were incredibly impressed that I had the presence of mind to reach for my spare reg. There was a moment when the instructor wanted to ask why I didn't come to him since he was closer, but he refrained. Had I not been able to recover air, maybe, but I wanted Adam. In theory, its safer to go to your instructor because he/she will make the smart decision, whereas your significant other might panic with you.
So really, in those short, yet seemingly unending moments, I learned a lot about myself, about Adam, and about us as a couple. I could face a life or death situation and make a smart decision before panic could set in. In a bad situation when something goes wrong, all I want in the world is Adam. And even when he knows something is wrong but doesn't know what, his focus is not only on fixing what has cause me anguish, but also on what is safe and smart. In a threatening situation, we cling to each other, and slowly rise to the surface, where the threat is no longer. I hope to remember that throughout our marriage.
All photos courtesy of me from our manatee dive trip - not our Advance Cert dives (we forgot to take pics).
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