When I am asked to explain diving, the best explanation I can come up with (besides wet and cold) is that diving is just like flying.
You know when you are about to board the plane! That antsi feeling about going somewhere different, mixed with the jitters about flying, even if your not scared of heights; you know what I'm talking about; you have just spent two hours in the airport getting yourself organized, figuring out where to go, being analyzed by people who can send you home if they wish. As you are boarding the plane you start running through a check list of all the things that you may have forgotten or things that you need to do. Neither of which you can do anything about at the moment.
As you take your seat and the cabin pressurises; you immediately feel the squeeze; similar too entering a crowded elevator.You grab what you need out of your bag eg.gum and a book.
As the plane goes down the runway your heartbeat quickens as it begins take off, you feel the bump de bump of the wheels going inside the plane, you may feel a little tense anticipating the uncomfortable rise of the plane and as quickly as it starts it stops the plane becomes horizontal.
You realize that you are tense, you breathe in deeply, you may take a drink or pinch your nose to clear your ears, and your good, you relax, get settled and enjoy at least a few minuites until the cramped sensation takes over and you just need to stretch, go for a walk, but you can't there is nowhere for you to go. There is only so much you can do for comfort.
Going diving is quite like flying in a plane.
At your dive destination there may be someone checking your certifications and health.
You will definitely have the jitters and a great anticipation instead of a grimace, you will have a big grin that stretches across your face. Instead of gum you may use a decongesant to make sure that you will be able to equalize, which just like on a plane you may have to do this often.
When you have arrived and your getting geared up; you may feel anxiety about forgetting something or not quite remember the order of which things go, just like a stewardess; buddys and guides are there to help.
As you near the waters edge your heart rate quickens; you and your buddy make your safety checks.
In diving you are the pilot, your buddy is co-pilot, in SCUBA divings case however you each have your own plane which each of you are responsible for.
You and your buddy step in to the water. In this scenario, it's cold, green and clear; pristine diving conditions. You look at your feet, viz (visibility) looks good, you smile at your buddy, he points out a family of seals sun bathing on the rocks. Your smile is now so big your hoping that you will be able to keep your regulator in your moulth.
The two of you dip your masks and submerge your heads to climatize your selves; you both lay back and don your fins. The two of you swim out to the guide and the rest of the group, you, are not in a rush, you are there for the experience, all of it.
As you and your buddy descend into the water; you are only concentrating on one thing, breathing slowly in and out. You know from your training that if you let too much air out you will sink like a rock to the bottom leaving very little time to equalize your pressure spots which result in a squeeze. If you hold too much air in; not only will you feel cramped, you will have trouble getting down. Slowly you descend the line; you check your depth gauge; your at 40 ft; you see the bottom about 10 ft below you, it slopes down from there. You and your buddy rotate your body so your heads are pointing down and you begin to swim down the slope.
One of the differences between diving and flying is that to start a dive you descend, and to finish you ascend, if one were to try that in a plane, either they wouln't get off the ground or the concequences would be dire.
In SCUBA diving how you descend and ascend makes you the pilot. If you simply drop like a rock to descend and then crawl along the bottom, and when ascending you climb up the line, you may agree with me on the feeling of boarding a plane, flying however perhaps not.
Once you have mastered your breathing and your air intake|outake of your suit and your buoancy control device (bcd) you will have mastered buoancy control.
Now you are the pilot and you can fly, you can soar with the manta rays and whale sharks, you can hover over a delicate coral reef; you and your group may decide to swim in a V formation like the canadian geese.
You are the pilot, you are in control, it takes time to get to that point, it takes practise.
We all start out as passengers with the anxiety and the cramped squeezes; when going up and down feels more like a freight elevator than flying, however with practise you will get there, you will be invited into the cockpit, you will be able to play with the gauges and do-hickeys. Soon enough you will be soaring into a completely different world and who knows maybe one day I will be your co-pilot. Happy flying
