Scuba Dive Notes

This weekend involved a botched "Advanced Open Water" course. This post is a set of notes about things I ought to remember at all times, learned from various expert divers I've encountered the past couple of days and through new discoveries I've had along the way.

1. There's little point diving without the weight check being correctly tuned.
2. Additionally, the closer one is to ideal weight, the broader allowances/tolerances in buoyancy management will be (i.e. an easier time).
3. After entering the water, do an additional tightening of all the straps.
4. After a few more minutes in the water, do yet another additional tightening of all the straps.
5. The thing I've been told on a few occasions, or so the impression goes - is to empty the BCD fully to descend. Well, I've always hated that. In fact, it's a better idea to avoid full deflation. Deflate enough to slowly descend, manage a reasonable "gotta equalize" rate, and find neutral soon. Let empty lungs be the negative buoyancy tool instead of the pure weights. This is probably best time to do "full inhale/exhale" – to feel for whatever buoyancy adjustments one needs in order to hit that "neutral buoyancy" zone before reaching target depth or some kind of horrible silty bottom.
6. When ascent/decent rates are "too fast" for any reason, remember to flatten out like a star and/or parachute jumper to resist the flow more. This "breaking" pose is handy to remember. In contrast, an "upright pencil" pose will offer practically no "breaking" resistance.
7. Instead of literally "breathing normally" with full breathes like taught during my Open Water training, focus, and use half-sized breathes to tighten up buoyancy management. This is flexible. Quarter breathes. Third breathes. Lower-bound empty, play with bottom half and stay towards negative. Upper-bound full and play with top half to stay towards positive. Maybe land somewhere in an optimal middle +/- a quarter breathe above and below.
8. BCDs can and will get water inside of them.
9. It's rather annoying to lose track of my inflator hose's position. Mine tends to stay front and center at my chest when I don't feel it at my shoulder strap for whatever reason, at least. Same with my second stage regulator, especially after a "casual sweep" turns up empty.
10. It's definitely easier to set and keep a heading and its reciprocal using my dive computer than fiddling with an analog compass's dials.
11. The "yoga float" pose takes lots of practice to master in terms of keeping stable w/o tilting or spinning too much. It's actually a show-off level skill, apparently. XD
12. Full mask clearing certainly takes more practice. I was mildly annoyed by a small puddle being leftover in my clearing attempts. Maybe I need to look "up" even more.
13. The MacGuyver'd glasses insert were abysmal for visibility. Because of magnification in water due to the index of refraction effect, I'm far better off using contact lenses or a prescription-lens dive mask.
14. To my surprise, my old contacts were still viable today. I wonder just how long they'll keep going for.
15. Zip-ties are the underwater world's equivalent of duct-tape. They just hold everything together nicely – especially snorkels to masks – those damn "clips" from the factory are highly prone to all kinds of disconnecting, breaking, etc. It's optimally safer to just zip-tie snorkels to masks.
16. The spring straps of my fins prefer being as high as possible up my ankle for optimal "hold/gripping". Best so set that high position right from the start. Lower positions tend to lean into "slipping off" feelings once in the water.