Done with SCUBA Boot Camp!

We are finally done with SCUBA bootcamp, meaning that classes start on Monday.  On Thursday we took the Emergency First Responder exam.  I forgot how not straight forward that the exam could be.  What sort of question is "Name one reason as to why you would hesitate to help someone."  I believe that I passed, but it was not a happy test.  Then, we talked about dive physiology, mainly the many scary things that can happen if you are not careful.  Everyone here is being very smart about being safe, so I don't think that we will have a problem.  We also finished up the rescue dive manual.  In the afternoon, we did some of the rescue skills as well as point-line intercept survey.  What this involves is laying out transect tape across the reef at a certain depth.  A point intersect survey means going to each meter along the ten-meter long transect and recording the substrate under that point.  That was the first pass along the tape.  The second pass was a line transect.  This is where we take a piece of pvc pipe 50 cm long with 10 cm increments and taking approximate measurements of everything underneath the tape (i.e. dead coral, Montastrea annularis,  sand, etc).  All this is the hopes of getting an approximate estimate of how the surface of the reef is made up.  I looked a bit like an idiot while I was doing this surveying  due to the fact that I was spinning and flailing around, not because I was having buoyancy issues, mind you, but for no reason I can think of.  I asked around the dive and I was not the only one that felt completely uncool.  I'm lucky that I didn't throw up.  That would have been a very classy Quinn moment, and not that good a story, so I'm glad that I didn't.

First thing in the morning on Friday, we had a quiz on coral, algae, and disease.  Considering that I had no idea what anything was the night before, it went pretty well.  After that we had a lecture about research diving and the importance of what we are doing.  We then went to the decompression chamber on the island, and we got to go inside.  I can't imagine having to spend any sort of extended period of time there.  I hope that I never have to go back.  Though fairly roomy, it wouldn't take that much to make anyone claustrophobic.  After lunch we took the DAN Oxygen provider test.  I really wouldn't mind having all of these certifications.  I like being trained to help if the need were to ever arise.  I don't know why, but I find it exciting and satisfying.  Then we did an AGRRA benthic survey.  This was extremely complicated and involved multiple passes on a 10 m transect tape, looking for different things. I was completely upside down at one point during this exercise, and I remember thinking to myself "How did I get into this position?" and "I remember a time where I would not have been comfortable doing this." By my calculations, I now have 24 dives under my belt.  I believe that we have done eleven dive since being here.  That's not bad for two weeks work.  My gear has yet to be dry since I have been here.  In doing my dive log tonight, I have broken 1000 minutes underwater with 1046 minute, giving me over 17 hours of SCUBA.  I'm pretty excited about this milestone.  Hopefully I will have many more dives under my belt by the end of this.  I had about the fourth highest level of experience, which was surprising to me, coming into this.  It has been fun seeing everyone who hadn't done anything outside of the certification checkout dives, or those who just got certified here, get better and more confident as divers.  I can definitely see a difference from the nervous crowding around the lead diver to now.  Yay for improvement!  Happy to celebrate the survival of SCUBA boot camp, but now the real work begins.

Gina, really excited about getting her picture taken 

This is Gina.  She is really cool.  We have already talked about applying to internships for the summer together.

Andrew

This is Andrew.  He is the most amusing person I've ever met.  He didn't want to come into the program being "that kid", but proceeded to log in four times during our online predeparture orientation meeting.  He goes to CU Boulder, which is why I know so much about him.

Alex

In case you couldn't tell from the caption below the picture, this is Alex.  She is from Oregon and goes to Oregon State.  She is a beaver.  She is such a sweet person.

Those are all of the people that I will introduce you to in this blog.  More to come.  Five down, ten to go.