Where Is Joey Today?

My first dive in Crystal River

Not sure the last time I woke up at 5:30 but I remember why I don't like it. I gathered all my things for my first scuba dive ever in (what I remember being) the clear waters of Crystal River, FL.

The water we jumped into was pretty murky but we were told that it would get better at the bottom. Maybe if we were in the first group of divers to go down but as the silt was stirred up the visibility dropped to mere feet. Being identically dressed in black wetsuits made it tough to find your dive buddy below. Since this was a skills exercise we had to do a few things besides just look around.

Our first dive tested removing the regulator, half flooding our mask, and sharing air. The regulator clearing is becoming second nature, but the mask clearing still makes me a little nervous. You have to create a pressure in your nose while breathing in, otherwise you will inhale some water along with air. Not good. At 25-30 ft deep, you have to do that with a bit more concentration, and whatever you do, don't panic. So as I cleared my mask I got a little bit of water in my nose...not much but a little. So I remembered Doug Adam's memorable advice as I calmly smashed the mask on my forehead, then tiled it up while exhaling though my nose. From that point I could definitely feel my heart beating a little faster. So I took a few breaths before going on to the next activity. Our out of air scenario worked out pretty well and we ended up surfacing without any problems.

We hung out up there for a bit before going back down for a full mask flood and a tour of a "cavern". We swam into a cave and then from the bottom you can see the exit on the other side. Very safe.

I met up with a college buddy who lives in the Crystal River area and his family for lunch before heading back home.

Devil's Den Dive

To be certified by NAUI (and probably for all the other certifications as well) you need to do five "open water dives". I did three in CR, and had to do two in Devil's Den in Williston, Florida. Apparently the spring got its name from when it was discovered during the winter and the "steam" would be rising of the 72 degree water out of the ground.

We arrived around 10am and did a walk around the surface opening and got briefed on the dive to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible. While all this is going on we are putting our tanks on, getting our weights and the like so I got a little sweat going...not so great for putting on a wet suit. When I finally greased myself into the thing I went from being slightly hot to candidate for heatstroke in about two minutes.

The actual entrance to Devil's Den is narrow and short, which often leads to jams with everyone geared up. To add to this the wooden stair case is meant for one diver at a time, so the pace down is quite slow. At the bottom of the stairs I saw some minnows milling around which was a welcome change from algae covered rocks the week before. That 72 degree water was very refreshing.

As a group we swam over to a tethered ball to start our exercises. Seeing the bubbles rushing past me and people both going down and up I got a little disoriented and thought I was falling downard to quickly. I actually never left the surface. When I finally got down to where everyone was the much vaunted visibility turned out to be pretty bad add to that it was a little dark and the environment stunk. The full mask flood went well (something I was definitely nervous about even though I practiced it a LOT in the pool) and then we did some neutral buoyancy tests before swimming a lap around the perimeter.

When we surfaced we decided to break up into two groups to complete the last exercise since the visibility was so bad and we were all jammed in there. The finally check was a mask removal (as in you take off your mask and hold it out to the side). What makes it a little worrying is that you have to take about two breaths without anything covering your nose. Again, no problems. Another lap around and it was time to surface. I gave myself one kick and I saw another girl pass me which made me feel like I was falling again. So just as I am pumping in a little more air, I break the surface.

--Joey