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Published: January 15th 2010
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8:30 start with theory again at Asia Dive and we learnt about decompression sickness and the effects of oxygen and nitrogen at pressure under water. Basically we breathe 21% Oxygen or O2 and 78% Nitrogen or N and 1% other gasses. If you go down 10m deep you double the pressure you will breathe so it adds to 42% O2 and 156% N and if you dive to 30m you take in 63% O2 and 234% N. There is more to it than that but basically your whole body becomes saturated with Nitrogen because we don’t use it. Nitrogen under compression saturation or builds up in our skin and tissue and if you stay down to long the Nitrogen builds up so much that you have to make a slow accent to give the Nitrogen bubbles time to dissolve out of your muscle, tissue, fat and skin, so basically when you are surfacing you are like a human coke bottle that has just had the lid taken off, this is the short version.
We caught a taxi to the jetty at 12:30 to go on our first ocean dive at 12meters deep. We paid 300THB for Jacinta to come with us
so she could go snorkelling this included all snorkel gear and nibbles. Our first dive was at Twin Peaks and the visibility was all right at around 12 and it was straight into the dive from a safety line. The first dive we were able to follow the instructor around a set course to get the feel of everything. I think the reason was we all were pretty confident in the water and we were able to enjoy at least one dive early on, plus we would of been distracted by all the life under water anyway so it was great just to look around first. The dive lasted 40min and it was the quickest 40min of my life. It was great to just be able to dive without coming up for air all the time as I’m so accustomed to when spearfishing and freediving. We were up on the boat when a massive rain storm came over and within an hour we were back under the water at 12m to do our second dive and some more training. First part of the training was to fill our mask with water and then clear it again, then take of our
mask and put it on then clear it again. The next was to take off our weight belt and replace and the same was for the BCD (Buoyancy control device which includes the main vest and tank) and place it in front and put it back on again. The next task was to be able to demonstrate neutral buoyancy under the water by controlling our breathing and air in the BCD. It’s strange to think that if you take a deep breath you can actually rise up very quickly and same goes with exhaling, if you are not carful and you exhale to much you will sink and crashing to coral. So it’s a combination of breathing to keep neutral but never ever holding your breath at the same time as you are in danger of popping a lung by holding your breath and rising up as the air in your lungs will expand and will do serious damage. The last task was to simulate running out of air under water and using your buddy’s alternative air supply, we then rise slowly to the surface to finish our dive. Back in the boat for debriefing and it was great to
Our group
Jean Michel, Arnold, Paul, Me and Kyle hear the instructor say that we were the best class he has ever had and the next two dives would be just diving and enjoying the experience. For our reward as being good students we will be diving in one of the best reefs in Southern Thailand called Chumporn. I can’t wait for tomorrow.
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