celebrating new year underwater
I am now an Emergency First Responder and an international certified Rescue Diver from PADI ! As you can see from the picure, I am celebrating the end of the course… Special Thanks to my dive buddies Max, Vale and of course all the instructors who brought me up to this pro level : Roby , Dario and Miki. I’m looking forward to reach the next level : dive master…
advanced padi certificate
Second step done! Advanced Padi o.w. license is now mine! I’m capable and allowed to: night dives, 30mt..30mts/90 feet maximum depth , compass navigation , altitude dives, deep dives and many other pro skills. The next step will be Rescue Diver which is actually Jen’s level.
padi open water promoted
Thanks to a Jen’s friend who is actually an amazing instructor, very calm, patient and with a buoyancy that is really something incredible, trust me, he will be moving just the last part of his fins, not even the legs. I wasn’t really in to scuba diving, but those guys knows how to make your underwater experiences relaxing and fun at the same time! With my license now I will be authorized to dive till a dept of 18mts/33 feet.
costal cleaning in Cebu
Let’s help the environment! It was an honor that CORAL POINT DIVE CENTER offered Alan Rooster the possibility of participating to the international underwater cleaning day which is taking place every year all over the world, hosted by the local government and supported by professional divers and associations within the area. The mission was to dive within the start time of 10.00 am and the finish time 5.00 pm (with a free lunch break in between) trying to collect the maximum possible amount of garbage that we could find under the water and put it in sacks. My garbage check list was: -pack of Milo milk -iron cage 2sqm , -iron cage 3sqm -iron boat signage -a napkin -a tire, some clothes. My group was second, but in the end the total weight of garbage collected by everybody was very heavy , they had to call a truck to bring it away! I felt so good to take out all that shit from that wonderful sea. I helped out the environment while having fun and harnessing my buoyancy skills. [Comment by Jeny: It was a fruitful event, help the environment, having fun and most of all being with Alan.]
What a scary experience while diving today! I guess I went very close to a fatal accident! I premise that Jennifer almost forced me to take the open water diving course because she is already a professional diver so she would like to bring me to Philippines for some underwater time together. I am a professional swimmer so I love the marine environment and I am very attracted by the water world, but at the same time I consider exploring it very unnatural and dangerous. I mean, if I think about having to use a tank, paying attention at gauges and being careful about not going up or down too quickly, it gives me the idea of being so powerless down there… Anyway, I wanted to challenge myself again and as usual I pushed myself over the limits so here it comes my scary experience: I am on my second dive of the day, the nitrogen level in my blood accumulated during the first dive is maybe still high, we are a group of 4 people and I am the last one, we are about 18-19 meters, the view is marvelous, the coral reef and its inhabitants look amazing, at some point I see a huge sting-ray passing very close to me and descending slowly: she looks friendly so I cannot resist the idea of swimming and touching her, so I start to follow her, but forgetting to inform the other divers about my intentions. I then descend few more meters but when I get close to the sting-ray, she accelerates her swim and in a matter of seconds I loose sight of the animal while suddenly starting to feel disorientated. I feel my head heavy and my brain turning upside down, I try to have a look at my diging watch which is indicating that I’ve gone over the depth limit, but my residual air is more than enough (around 90 bar), however I look up to search for my other buddies, but I’m unable to locate them. After few seconds I also start to feel weak and my heart is beating so fast, I’m scared to fall unconscious… I feel cold… I want to escape from this trap, run up and finish my dive but I’m also scared to have a lung overexpansion if I ascend to fast. So I inflate my buoyancy-control-device (BCD) to a few bar, this way I will be pushed up without having to move too much and just after ascending about 5 meters I feel my pulse was lowering and the dive instructor right on top of me. Nobody seems to have noticed my absence and I start to wonder how long did all this really lasted even if I felt I lost sight of everyone for at least 5 minutes. Anyway I am about to tap the instructor to let him know that there was something wrong, but all my faintnesses are slowly disappearing so I decide to wait a minute before giving the alarm, I’m not feeling well, I feel a very strong headhake and pressure on my ears. I try to re-equalize, forcing my jaw as well, and it seems it’s getting better. So I normally finish the dive at about 15mt deep. My brain starts to work normally and begin think what I did wrong… Could it be nitrogen narcosis or Co2 toxicity ?? I dont have a clue, I’m just a beginner at his 5th dive, anyway I do my 5 minutes of safety decompression stop at 5 meters, still scared and anxious to be taken by an embolism attack at the last second. Soon later I cant believe I’m out of the water, safe and breathing fresh air. I inform the dive master about what just happened, and he says my accident might have been brought by a missed step on equalizing the pressure in my ears while descending… however I suspect it might have been an axiety or a panick attack underwater…
