The intro course gave me a few credits toward the Aida 2 star ticket which I hope to complete in the next couple of months
…… then I can get my Tanya Streeter silver suit
The course was really good, I’m glad I did it and I’m looking forward to completing the next part of my course
and the challenge is to jump off a boat in the mddle of the ocean and not breath in because my brain thinks I’m on SCUBA ;o)
Yes, I did log these as dives!
The London Diving Chamber, a Hyperbaric decompression chamber offering NHS funded recompression to divers with Decompression Sickness (DCS) together with other Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) treatments.
London Diving Chamber specialises in Diving Medicine and provides a 24 hour clinic with everything a diver could need from a medical facility.
The word ‘hyperbaric’ literally means ‘high pressure’. The use of high pressure (i.e. pressures higher than normal atmospheric pressure)and it’s use in medicine is often viewed today as being somewhat new and controversial. However, the concept of Hyperbaric Medicine has been in existence since as early as 1662.
The industrial revolution, when bridge and tunnel builders were working in compressed air, saw a further great development in hyperbaric chambers. It was at this time when Paul Bert reported that nitrogen bubbles were forming in tissue during rapid decompression (1876) and was implicated in “The Grecian Bend”.
Since the latter part of the twentieth century hyperbaric medicine has gained most of its recognition for the treatment of certain mainstream medical conditions specifically related to the diving industry, including decompression sickness and air embolism.
November 7th, 2007
Posted by
scubagirl |
I've got a bend |
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Ten years ago I entered a way of life that was to, in my opinion, lead me to the single most thrilling activity ever known to mankind. I began to explore an environment which is still relatively untouched, encountering living creatures whose evolution can be tracked back over 500 million years.
The earth’s surface covers 196 million square miles and 72 percent of this is made up of the worlds five oceans: the Antarctic, Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, and
Pacific
Oceans. Yet fewer than 10 percent of people use the water for recreational purposes, those that do opt for above-water activities such as sailing and surfing or lazing around on the beach. However, those looking for something more daring have started to plunge beneath the waves in search of new challenges and unique experiences through the sport of SCUBA Diving.
I had been swimming for as long as I can remember and my earliest memories are of being encouraged to use the slide at the outdoor pool in Maidenhead. So, there I was wearing armbands, a little red bikini and a matching red rubber ring around my waist and I was about to tackle the world’s highest outdoor pool slides, or so I thought when I was three years old. I cautiously walked to the top of the steps and waited for my turn. As I went down the slide the sun was in my eyes and then I hit the icy cold water with a huge splash.
As I bobbed up and down on the surface I turned to my Dad and cried, ‘I don’t like you anymore!’ and splashed around until he fished me out of the water. But secretly I loved the water and went back for more until it was time to go home.
My parents had always encouraged me to go swimming and to learn to swim. As a child growing up in
Kenya my Mum was never allowed to go near water as her parents thought it was too dangerous. As a result of this I was taken swimming regularly and joined a swimming club at an early age. After 10 years of competing and teaching kids and adults to swim I needed to take my love and affinity of the water one step further.
After graduating from University in London I spent my third summer teaching swimming in the
US, then in October I started working for an IT company. But, I soon realised that I was not ready to adopt a grown up lifestyle comprising a suit and shiny shoes - I needed to get away again!
This trip was to be like no other I had experienced. I booked a flight to the
Maldives and spent the entire two week holiday over Christmas and New Year studying and sitting exams to qualify for my PADI Open Water.
The Maldives are the remnants of a number of volcanoes and comprise 1200 atolls which dissect the equator east of
Kenya. My choice of the
Maldives was due to news stories I had read about el niño destroying coral reefs and how melting of polar ice caps could result in the complete submersion of these tiny islands with in the next century.
The Maldives is a
Mecca for diving enthusiasts the world over and they flock to the islands to spend time in this underwater paradise.
On my last dive in the
Maldives I rolled off the back of the boat and entered the water. As the last diver submerged a large white tip shark came up to greet us. My adrenalin began to pump, this was my first shark encounter and I didn’t know what to do, this wasn’t in my PADI manual, how do I defend myself against this 500 pound beast of the deep! I looked around to see my diving buddies all suspended in the water, eyes wide and fixed on this huge beast which was now circling just below us.
All of a sudden it flicked its tail and disappeared. The Instructor began to motion us deeper into the water. I checked my dive computer and I was only at 10 meters at the time. My initial certification at that time enabled me to dive to a maximum depth of 18 meters but further study and practice now allows me to dive much deeper, on a recent trip to
Egypt I dived to 60 meters.
During the rest of that dive we saw eagle rays above us which were perfectly silhouetted against the sun, a pair of large hawksbill turtle effortlessly hovering over the reef looking for food and a Napoleon wrasse who tracked me with his motile eye for at least ten minutes. Just as I was getting sensory overload our time was up and we headed back to the boat. On the way we encountered a school of barracuda, each one over a meter long.
With my PADI qualification under my belt and a need to satisfy my thirst to learn and experience more of the underwater world I took a further eight diving courses including the professional Dive Master certification. This allows me to go anywhere in the world to work as an underwater guide.
There are endless dive sites around the globe offering incredible aquatic diversity. Tropical diving destinations are abundant with exotic marine life and coral reefs. With every dive, and at differing depths, you will see different species of fish, crustaceans, and nudibranch all with a variety of different colours.
There are also ship wrecks and lost cities in lakes, rivers and oceans that are dived by people who are interested in history or finding priceless artefacts which will later be seen in museums.
The ultimate adrenalin rush is ice diving. Where the divers cut a hole in ice which may be up to a foot thick, they then jump into the water with a rope tied to them so
they will find their way out at the end of the dive. With ice diving preparation is key. There is no way of communicating with others and if you lose the rope there is no chance of you finding the hole in the ice which you entered and death is inevitable.
During my last trip to
Egypt I returned to a reef that I had dived many times before, but this time due to the highly qualified people on the boat we were going to tackle the arch at Elphinestone.
There is a tale about an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh whose final resting place is Elphinestone and that his sarcophagus lies at the under the arch - 60 meters below the surface of the water.
Due to the tides we had only one chance to dive the arch and had to be fully kitted up and in the water at 6am or we would miss our opportunity to dive on one of the most difficult and respected sites of the Red Sea.
We entered the water at the south eastern side of the reef and began our descent. It was very early and the limited sun light meant that the usually bright colourful coral looked grey/ blue. The magnificent arch opened up in front of us and sure enough there was a large rectangular shape in the centre of the arch. Through the other side of the arch we could see four hammerhead sharks acting as security guards for the Pharaoh who had been the sole occupier of the arch for thousands of years.
My diving equipment is made up of over twenty separate items valued at £5,000 which need to be carefully maintained between every dive. My camera is my most precious piece and I have taken many underwater pictures so that I can share my experience with others. My underwater pictures can be found on www.superjolly.com.
Taking up diving is not like any other hobby, it takes a lot of commitment to keep your certification up to date and having your equipment regularly serviced.
Taking up diving is like discovering a whole new world and once you’ve jumped in and experienced this vast unexplored environment you may want to specialise in certain areas or try all the different types of diving available to satisfy your need to adventure and learning.
November 4th, 2007
Posted by
scubagirl |
India Link |
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I was on a 8 day liveaboard doing five dives a day in the Dutch Antillies, beginning at St Maartin and ending at St Kitts taking on Saba and Statia along the way.
On the seventh day my left hand and arm started feeling a little sore and itchy
I never really thought much about it until I returned home and went to the office the next day
Over the next week my hand got worse …. I could not type, I could not use my mouse in my left hand. Worse than that was that I could not hold my weights while working out in the gym and I couldn’t throw a punch in Combat. I was driving with my right hand and the thumb of my left hand which was not as bad as the others digits
My fingers were swollen, discoloured, tender to touch, I couldn’t bend them, my hand was very sore and still itchy
By the second week I realised that there was something seriously wrong
I was going down the route of having touched something and getting poisoned. So after seeking advice from random people I was sitting at my desk in the office with my hand in a mug of boiling hot water or a glass of ice water. I was rubbing tiger balm into my fingers and rubbing oil into them. But nothing tooked the pain away!
It was getting worse and now I could not bend my fingers or make a fist
I went to Ashford A&E and saw a nurse who used to work for the Navy in Weymouth then up in Leciester near stoney and she old me that she had seen a lot of diving related injuries but decided that I had been bitten by a spider
I went to my local doctors surgery and the GP I saw wanted to send me to the Centre for Infectious Diseases and International Health, but I had to have a blood test first
After five blood tests I was told they were all negative and there was nothing wrong with me
On the way back to the office I called Gary at Slough Sub Aqua. After I described my symptoms, he said ….
‘you have a bend!’
I said, ‘no I haven’t!’
He said, ‘yes you have!’
I said, ‘no I haven’t!’
He said, ‘yes you have!’
I said, ‘no I haven’t!’
He said, ‘you’re in denial!’
Gary gave me the number of the Hyperbaric in St John’s Wood and told me to call them
I still wasn’t convinced so I took a detour and stopped by Runnymead EuZone
There was a closed sign in the window, but I could see lights on and the dooor was slightly open
I decided to call them, and a really nice lady asked me to come in as they were doing stock taking
She took one look at me and dialed the number of the Hyperbaric for me
November 4th, 2007
Posted by
scubagirl |
I've got a bend |
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