What happens during the 4 cert checkout dives?

[KJHorton]

Congratulations! I'm surprised you will only be diving twice on back to back cruises. You may want to think that over again!

 

Who are you diving with in Cozumel?

[topspot]

Congratulations!!! You will soon see it was worth the work. ;)

[Capt_BJ]

I would HIGHLY recommend against using Afrin. Afrin and other Oxymetazoline Hydrochlorides (Sudafed *****, Dristan, Vicks Sinex, etc.) have a condition called rhinitis medicamentosa (rebound congestion). If you were to go on a dive trip and rely on Afrin for the trip, near the end of it you might suffer from rebound congestion. If it happens underwater you will have what is called a reverse squeeze. Essentially what happens is you go down fine but at the end of the dive, as you go up, the air in you inner ear and sinus cannot escape. Even on a dive as shallow as 33 feet, when you come to the surface the air will double in size. You will cause irrepairable damage to your hearing and possible go deaf. The pain will also be horrible.

 

I have been told other drugs like pseudoephedrine (Sudafed, original not PE or *****) don't suffer from this effect but I have no medical evidence to back this up. You know you have the original Sudafed because it is kept behind the counter. Pseudoephedrine is used in the manufacture of illegal drugs. If you attempt to purchase large quantities of it the pharmacist will call the police. Therefore you have to ask the pharmacist for it even though it is an over-the-counter (OTC) drugs.

 

As my post said it was "bad advice" but it works for me

 

A reverse squeeze is a possibility and can happen without using "drugs" - happened to the spousal unit on a night dive and the down side of a reverse squeeze is you actually DO have to come up eventually versus not going down. We eventually reduced the blockage with hot compresses which increased blood flow and she experienced the POP of relief. (she's also been "bent" so maybe I should find a new diving partner? :p been there done that and wore out the t-shirt)

 

Sudafed is simply a commercial name for a Pseudoephedrine containing product and any generic works for me - it isn't "under the counter" in my town but true if I try to buy 1000 packages . . . .

 

Seriously - don't use this as an excuse or replacement for good equalization. SOME find it helps and it is only by experience you learn how well you tollerate or need.... I'm talking about a dive rate - as a recreational diver - or 8 to 12 dives a month . . .

[gargoyle999]

Congratulations! I'm surprised you will only be diving twice on back to back cruises. You may want to think that over again!

 

Who are you diving with in Cozumel?

 

Wellll...the first cruise is only Coz and Key West (4 nights) and we want to walk around Key West and we are only there from 8a-2p so can't do both. Then the other cruise also stops in Curacao, Aruba and Dominican Republic (La Romana).

 

But we won't get into Curacao until 2pm so no dive there since it's so late which is disappointing but I plan to do some snorkeling. Aruba DW wants to walk around and see the sights and in the Dominican Republic I can't find any info about much of anything there and I don't want to pay the $150/pp to book with the ship.

 

In Cozumel I'm thinking of just booking with the ship so I don't have to worry about much except the dive as it will be our first. But now that we are certified I may look around for an independent shop. My main concern with that is I don't want to be on small boat with experienced divers and have them be PO'd cause we are new and can't stay down as long as they do.

 

We will be doing another cruise in Feb and will dive in Cabo and maybe Puerto Vallarta. Even though it won't be as nice as the Caribbean it will give us a chance to get back in the water.

[KJHorton]

Too bad you won't have too many opportunities to dive, but I'd still rather cruise and not dive than stay home and work.

 

We dove with Alison in Cozumel in June. One day we had a new diver, his first dive after certification. He made it for 30 minutes before having to ascend. Alison went up with him for his safety stop, made sure he safely got back on the boat, and rejoined us for the remainder of our dive.

 

If you do some research, you will find that many of the Cozumel dive shops let people dive their limits, deco or air, whichever comes first. If you find the right operation, you won't negatively impact any experienced divers.

 

Have fun!

[Booyakasha]

Forget the drugs try a Neti Pot.

http://www.webmd.com/allergies/sinus-pain-pressure-9/neti-pots

This is a simple yet remarkable device. My son who is 13 has a difficult time equalizing. Start using this a few days before you dive and it will help a lot! I don't have any problems equalizing but when I use the neti pot it is even easier. I can drop to 60ft like a stone with maybe 1 or 2 equalizations. My son sometimes can't go to the bottom of a pool without pain and this help him dramatically. Plus it has no drugs or anything that can cause your problems to worsen in the long run (like Afrin).

 

B.

[Booyakasha]

Too bad you won't have too many opportunities to dive, but I'd still rather cruise and not dive than stay home and work.

 

We dove with Alison in Cozumel in June. One day we had a new diver, his first dive after certification. He made it for 30 minutes before having to ascend. Alison went up with him for his safety stop, made sure he safely got back on the boat, and rejoined us for the remainder of our dive.

 

If you do some research, you will find that many of the Cozumel dive shops let people dive their limits, deco or air, whichever comes first. If you find the right operation, you won't negatively impact any experienced divers.

 

Have fun!

 

You also don't have to go as deep sometimes which will help you conserve air. I dive the Cayman's with my son and he is too young to do the 100+ft dives that usually happen off the wall. We just stay at 65 ft and follow the bubbles. We have had other people that don't want to go that deep or want to conserve air stay with us also. I have never had an experienced diver say a word to us as we were just being safe.

 

B.

[gargoyle999]

Forget the drugs try a Neti Pot.

 

I've never heard of those things! Not expensive so I'm going to buy one and check it out. Thanks for the tip! :)

[Capt_BJ]

off topic - a check out dive story

 

This is about a checkout dove that I'm sure everyone there remembers vividly. Would have been about 1985, spousal unit and I were on a dive boat in the Key Largo area, had finished our dives and the boat was about to head back in. I was in USCG at the time and was up by the wheel talking with the skipper/dive master when the radio lit up: a dive boat had sunk!

 

There was a lot of excited radio chatter but it was quickly determined that the dive boat had been anchored and all the divers were down - off the boat, and the boat had sunk from an unknown leak. All the divers were soon accounted for by other boats in the area and the situation was stable.

 

When we got to shore near Pennecamp Park, boats began pulling in and depositing 'survivors'. Turns out they were a class that was sitting in a big circle on the bottom in about 30 feet & doing their skills tests when a few of the group started frantic and unusual hand signals......as the boat that had brought them out slowly decended into the middle of the circle!

 

As I said, everyone was recovered but soon another radio call went out....guess where everyone's car keys, money and ID was!!!!!

 

Name of the boat? Captain Crunch .... for a few years after that you'd occasionally see a diver with a t-shirt reading "The Crunch Bunch" .... they were the class on the bottom.

[gargoyle999]

off topic - a check out dive story

 

Wow! They should have taken care of the Wreck dive and counted it towards AOW! :p