dive with mia

Part 1 – BCD Air Inflation/Deflation and Buoyancy: A Balancing Act!

April 5, 2012 By Dive With Mia

If you haven’t already done so, take a look at my introduction to Understanding Air and its Relationship to 5 Key Areas to Scuba Diving prior to reading this post to give yourself some quick and helpful background information! In this post I will discuss the BCD, its correlation with air, some helpful tips, and then my personal equipment recommendation. If you enjoy this article – let me know and stay tuned for the next 4 posts on how Air relates to Ears, Mask, Tank & Octopus, and your Lungs & Breathing!

The first specific area I’d like to talk about is the BCD or Buoyancy Control Device. Divers wear this piece of equipment, which contains a bladder to hold air, like a jacket or vest. Your BCD is connected to the air in your tank via the “Low Pressure Inflator Hose”. It is also equipped to be “orally inflated” should there be a problem with the mechanism to add air from the tank. You do this by blowing into the hose while holding down the deflate button (which opens the valve to allow air in/out).

Before you jump in the water you always make sure your BCD is partially inflated so that you can float on the surface. When you are ready to go underwater you raise the Low Pressure Inflator Hose high above your head and release all the air from the BCD and exhale slowly, which also releases air from your lungs to assist in your descent. As you come close to the bottom or the depth that you want to stay at, you will usually need to add some air into the BCD to prevent you from continuing down or hitting the bottom.

This tends to take a few dives as you learn the balancing act of how much air will maintain your general position at a certain depth. Remember, the air that is put into your BCD is also affected by the pressure and becomes increasingly more (and less!!) dense depending on your depth. That means that the amount of air you need to maintain neutral (neither sinking nor floating) buoyancy at 10m/32ft will be different than what you put in at 23m/75ft, for example. This also means that when you change your depth by swimming over a reef or to a shallower depth, you must make adjustments to the amount of air inside the BCD by releasing air – even if you didn’t add any more air to it!!

This happens because just as going deeper causes the air to be more dense, ascending (even just a metre or 3 feet) will cause the air to expand and make your BCD fuller causing you to float upwards until you release the air, which results in a balance of just enough air inside the BCD to achieve neutral buoyancy at that specific depth. This is a kind of balancing act that at first takes some thought and will later become second nature to you. Remember this important point – Upon ascent, consider that the air already inside your BCD will expand, so pay attention to your positioning and if you begin to float upwards. Be prepared to release the air to balance it out and to avoid an uncontrolled ascent.

Mia’s helpful tips!
1.    Before diving and during your pre-dive equipment check, with the air turned on, practice putting air into the BCD and taking it out (inflate and deflate). Sometimes it can be confusing when using rental gear on which button is which. You can also practice orally inflating.
2.    While underwater, if you are trying to locate your Low Pressure Inflator Hose to inflate/deflate, always remember: “If I touch my LEFT BOOB, I will find it!!!” Anyone want to admit to trying to deflate their snorkel at some point of their diving career!!!???
3.    Having trouble deflating? Air will always stay at the highest point as it rises. If you are in a horizontal position, slightly head-first, that means the air could be sitting in the bottom part of your BCD as your bum will be higher than your shoulders. Try to make it easy for the air to escape from your Inflator Hose by:
a.    Always raise the hose as high above your head as possible.
b.    Sometimes you can even adjust your positioning in the water from horizontal to momentarily vertical to further assist the escape of air from the Inflator hose as you reach up.

In a head-first position, use a dump valve to release air

c.    If for some reason you are head-first and your fins are high above you, this means any air in your BCD will actually be in the bottom of your jacket. Most BCDs come with a “Dump valve” to release air from a head-first position underwater. Feel around the bottom edge of your BCD for the cord and a little tug should allow a burst of air to escape.
4.    Little by Little! Try to avoid the up and down ping-pong effect by thoughtfully inflating/deflating only a little, waiting for a result and then repeating as necessary. As a beginner diver learning this fancy balancing act called buoyancy, stay calm if you feel yourself floating up upon ascent. Remember to exhale completely as you release just a puff of air. Many divers have felt a quick twinge of panic at floating up and proceed to do a big dump of air causing them to drop back down, but too quickly and beyond their intended neutral zone into a “negative buoyancy” (sinking). This results in more fiddling of inflating again to achieve the comfortable hovering position.
5.    Make a commitment to get to know yourself! Adding air to your BCD is not something you should typically be doing throughout the entire dive. Remember that your buoyancy is not only controlled by your BCD, but ALSO by your breathing. Make a commitment that on each dive once you achieve neutral buoyancy (neither sinking, nor floating) at a depth you will stay at for awhile, practice using your breathing to adjust your position in the water. Refer to the post on your Lungs & Breathing blog to come in a few weeks! Buoyancy is something that you will practice over and over again and WILL get! Have patience, get familiar with your BCD and enjoy!

Mia's favourite BCD - the Oceanic Hera

Mia’s BCD Recommendation!

The BCD I use now and absolutely love is called the “Hera” by Oceanic and created specifically for women. It is both a jacket style and rear inflation form, which I love because I am stable in both horizontal and vertical positioning without back weights (although pockets for back weights are available if I want). It also has a ton of sturdy D rings to attach my Alternate Air Source and attach my Surface Marker Buoy alongside big pockets to store a slate or some yucky plastic bottle I find underwater and want to put in the trash. Before the “Hera” I used the Seaquest “Diva” for many years and loved, but I decided against the newer version of this due to my desire to leave rear-inflation styled BCDs and the lack of pockets and D-rings. Sorry Diva you were good, but time to move on!

Feel free to send me a message via Contact Mia if you have any questions regarding this topic. If you “Like” it make sure you let me know on my Facebook page DiveWithMia!

Happy Diving!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: air, BCD, density, depth, dive with mia, diving, diving tips, Hera, how to scuba dive, Oceanic, Oceanic Hera, pressure, scuba, scuba diving, volume

Understanding Air and its Relationship to 5 key areas in Scuba Diving

April 2, 2012 By Dive With Mia

Air was a topic that I had wanted to write about for some time now as it seemed to be the common theme when discussing buoyancy, equalization, air consumption, safety and more; but, as I started writing I kept branching out on the topic and ended up with a super long blog! Soon I realized and quickly decided that my topic had evolved into a 5 part series! So, I am excited to present this blog as the introduction piece to this series and the topic that I am going to zero in on is all about Air and the impact that the underwater world has on that; Afterwards, I will go into more detail on 5 more specific areas of diving that all have important relationships with Air: the BCD, our Ears, our Mask, the Tank & Octopus, and finally our Lungs & Breathing.

Some of the ins and outs of diving and air include a wee bit of background knowledge of a basic scientific principle. Considering science and math have never held my interest for too long, I remember over 10 years ago when I did my Open Water training, I really brushed over these topics with a passing score yet not fully understanding the key concepts. Now that I am an Instructor I see students struggling in the same way I did and I hope that I can offer some advice I wish an Instructor could have provided me earlier on!
So here goes for my little scientific introduction to air and diving…
As we all know, water has weight (when you pick up a bucket of water – it’s heavy!). That means, when you go underwater there is a lot of weight on you; this is otherwise known as “Pressure”. We are lucky though because the weight of water doesn’t have any effect on similarly composed liquids like the makeup of our body, so we can swim freely below the surface without feeling the weight of water on our bodies. However, this weight does affect “Air Spaces”. Air is made up of many molecules that are spread out all around us on the surface. Underwater, air can be found inside our Buoyancy Control Devices (BCD), in our ear and sinus spaces, inside the mask, and in our lungs (of course!). As you go underwater, the air molecules will get closer and closer together in each of these areas (air becomes “Dense”).
If you look at the Density arrow in the picture below, you will see that on the surface, Air Density = 1x and at 30m/99ft, Air Density = 4x. That means, for example, that if you compare a breath you take on the surface to a breath you take at 30m/99ft, you would, in fact, be taking in 4x the amount of air you would breathe on the surface. In addition, consider that as you ascend from your dive, that air becomes less dense and will naturally expand in the air spaces found in your BCD, ears/sinuses, mask, and even your lungs if you hold your breath! It is quite a simple principle that is very helpful (and extremely important!) for you to practice fun, enjoyable and safe diving experiences.

Click here to read my next blog which will be about how Air and your BCD interact, including tips and equipment recommendations from DiveWithMia!

This is a good picture of what happens to air as you scuba dive underwater.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: air, density, depth, dive tips, dive with mia, how to scuba dive, pressure, scuba diving, volume

Results from the Sosua Bay Lionfish Hunt, March 4, 2012

March 5, 2012 By Dive With Mia

What an incredible day for diving as the sun shone all day, the ocean remained calm and visibility reached 100ft!

With a total of 3 teams competing (Diwa – Rayo; Superior; Northern Coast), a total of 3300RD (84USD) was raised and distributed between the 2 teams who caught the MOST Lionfish and the BIGGEST Lionfish, a grand total of 100 Lionfish were caught and the biggest being 16 inches (412mm). Everyone enjoyed a friendly competition and a delicious Lionfish dinner courtesy of Carlos at Coco’s bar in Sosua Bay parking area (Sosua Bay Lionfish Hunt Poster).

MOST Lionfish caught:
Superior Dive – Wendy, Paul, Alberto, and Mia
75 Lionfish caught (Paul catching the most at one time – 18 on a two tank dive)
Biggest – 16 inches (406mm)
Dive Sites – Between Charamicos beach – Pyramids – 5 Rocks and Coral Garden wall

BIGGEST Lionfish caught:
Northern Coast – Jan, Keith, Claude, Jukka
22 Lionfish caught
Biggest – 16.25 inches (412mm)
Dive Sites – Pyramids – Farthest end of Airport Wall (where biggest was found and caught by Keith)

Special mention to:
Team Rayo (Diwa) – ChiChi and Jorge
3 Lionfish caught
BEST Team spirit!!!!

The raffle prize winners included:
500RD @ Jolly Rogers – Domingo
100RD @ Donovan’s – Chuck and Jan
Northern Coast caps – Carlos and Wendy
Northern Coast t-shirts – Amelio, Francisco (Chinwin), Keith, and Geoff
Superior Dive t-shirts – Robinson, Arturo, and Tomas
THANK-YOU SO MUCH TO our Sponsors!!!

I want to say a very special thank-you to everyone who contributed and participated including our beloved capitans – Domingo, Amelio, and Tomas and for ALL the help in filleting all 100 Lionfish (25lbs of meat!) by Paul, Caquito, and Arturo! We couldn’t have done it without you!

A very inspiring day, indeed, as we worked together to address the problem of the over-populating Lionfish in this region. Click here for more information and research regarding the problem.

We look forward to our next collaboration and contribution, which will be an underwater beach clean-up!

first-scoring-sosua-bay-lionfish-hunt-dominican republic

First Scoring of the Sosua Bay Lionfish Hunt - 52 Lionfish!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: dive with mia, diving, Dominican Republic, hunting, lionfish, scuba, Sosua, spearfish

Lionfish Hunting

March 1, 2012 By Dive With Mia

Today was a hunting day. I had been an observer for over a year now and a helper a few times, but this time was different – this time I had my own spear gun and I was diving only for me. Before the dive I felt a heightened buzz, which was a result of the anticipation for embarking on something unknown. In addition to the usual considerations when diving, such as my depth, no decompression time limit, actual bottom time and air consumption, now I will be on a mission to also discover, uncover and target the invasive Lionfish species not native to the Atlantic ocean where I dive. I will need to travel underwater with spear and catch bag in hand taking into account my position in the water in relation to those items and any other divers and sub aquatic plants and animals. I was so excited!

Descending along the line at the dive site “Tunnels” along the Airport Wall, I adjusted myself so I was in a comfortable and streamlined position and began to swim hard! I knew there was a bit of a swim in 70-80ft of water towards the cliff overhangs, swim throughs, and crevices where I knew we would locate our targets. Sure enough, our hopes were realized. Ensuring the safety on the gun, I loaded the spear gun with two hands pulling the rubber band while holding the butt against the cummerbund of my BCD. I released the safety and took careful aim while controlling my position in the water with precise breathing. I pulled the trigger and scored my goal! The bag that I borrowed is ideal for holding my catch as it has a spring handle. With one hand I can open the bag, put the Lionfish, who is still on my spear, into the bag, close the bag and draw out my spear leaving the fish safely inside. By tying a long rope and a small bottle to the bag, it can easily be towed behind me staying above the bottom of the ocean and avoiding any contact with me as I swim.

Paul, who was also Lionfish hunting, snared one himself only to entice an insistent Spotted Moray Eel out for lunch. This whole component of how the bionetwork functions is so curious to me! How is it that the eel only hunts the Lionfish once the Lionfish has been injured? How is he not stung by the Lionfish’s venomous spines? Either way, it certainly puts on a live National Geographic type performance for us divers as the eel gobbles the Lionfish up in one bite!

Looking forward to the Lionfish Hunt this coming Sunday!

Invasive Species Lionfish caught in Sosua, DR

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: dive with mia, diving, Dominican Republic, lionfish, Sosua

Claustrophobia vs. Freedom

February 17, 2012 By Dive With Mia

Time and time again, when people discover I am a scuba dive instructor, many respond with “Oh, I would love to try it, but I am claustrophobic”. For many who haven’t experienced it, scuba diving instills a feeling that they are trapped, confined and restricted. They see diving as being trapped under so many feet of water and confined behind their mask and their movements restricted. Diving is a sport that is fundamentally psychological where your mind is actively involved in all the physical components as well.

For me, as soon as I enter the water and begin to descend below the surface, air slowly being released from my lungs in the form of bubbles, I am embraced by a gentle sense of peace. Movements are slow underwater and the hectic sounds of the day are removed and engulfed by my everlasting companion, the water. Even when the ocean is rough and seems to be pushing me around, I give myself to him and trust my experience and instinct to move with him and vow not to fight him and the encounter is always better below the surface.

At the bottom of the ocean, hovering just above the sea bottom, a new and fascinating world is exposed. Colours that don’t exist on the surface with animals seemingly hand-painted by some concealed artist flick in and out of coral crevices oblivious to my unseemly presence. In pairs, butterfly fish dart over the reef in a life they will live together forever. Opposite to feeling entrapped, a sense of freedom is unleashed upon me as I glide through a medium others believe to be inhibiting. Drifting through water is what I imagine a bird feels like who soars through the sky, but only slower and more meditative.

When you learn to dive, for many, there can be overwhelming feelings of excitement, apprehension, exhilaration and even downright fear. Not to mention, there tends to be an added dose of adrenaline thrown into the mix. These can be alleviated significantly when you take your dive training with someone you trust and who is attentive to your learning. The more you dive, the more tranquil the experience will be and the trust that, in the beginning, you give to your instructor or guide becomes the trust you have in yourself.

Judy and Mia at Canyon

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: claustrophobia, dive tips, dive with mia, diving, freedom, learn to scuba dive, scuba diving

PADI Advanced dives with Marcus

June 5, 2011 By Dive With Mia

Diving and kiting seem to go hand in hand in a way…at least on the north coast of the Dominican Republic they do! Generally the diving around here is a two tank dive in the morning that finishes around 12:30pm. And the kiting starts when the wind begins to blow blow blow usually around 1pm. So the super adventurous water sport enthusiasts who come to Cabarete and Sosua can be both underwater and gliding the surface of the Atlantic Ocean all in one day! And with Marcus not having dived in quite a number of years, I recommended the PADI Advanced Open Water diver course, which included 5 Adventure dives with yours truly (me!). We even enticed his lovely girlfriend, Viera, to give diving another go with the Discover Scuba course. While Marcus and I practiced superb buoyancy control as we swam through the awesome canyon at the same-named dive site Canyon, Viera was practicing in the pool. For our second dive, Marcus did the Boat Adventure dive and we went to one of my favourite dive sites – Three Rocks; Viera looked on from above as a snorkeler and Marcus spent his time carefully capturing the underwater world with his camera! These great shots can be found on my website and Facebook page! We enjoyed a nice and slow dive and the company of a very special Yellow-tail Snapper who followed us along for our entire dive like a love-sick puppy! The next time I see Marcus and Viera, I think she will be ready to take a deeper plunge and join us below the surface!

The following day we finished with 3 more Adventure dives – Wreck, Deep, and Underwater Navigation. We headed out to the Zingara Wreck for a great swim around that gorgeous sunken treasure and followed with Mini Wall and Larimar I for Navigation. I was so impressed with Marcus’ swift handling and problem-solving of all the compass and natural navigation skills we had to do! Not to mention a cutie-pie moray eel popping his head in and out of rocks with a friendly smile to say ‘hi!’.

I loved spending time with this couple as despite the lack of wind for a vacation meant for kite surfing, they were able to capture the essence and endless appeal of the Dominican Republic. They enjoyed a bit of grey weather, a gorgeous ocean, and spontaneous roadtrips and ended their vacation with words that they would be back and for long term! This wasn’t the first time I had heard these comments

Can’t wait to see you guys again!!

Yellow Tail Snapper at Three Rocks in Sosua, DR

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Advanced, Cabarete diving, dive with mia, diving, learn to scuba dive, PADI course, scuba diving, Sosua

Night Dive

May 26, 2011 By Dive With Mia

Have you done a night dive before? The first dive I ever did following my PADI Open Water Diver course back in 2001, or thereabouts, in Guam, USA, was a night dive. It was a bit of a nutty experience for me as there were a million people on the boat and it was Christmas time; each person was given a glow stick and then at some point underwater, you had to line-up with your buddy and when it was your turn, swim to an underwater Christmas tree, put your glowstick on the tree and then smile for a photo. Your 5th dive after the 4 in the course can generally be a bit topsy-turvy, but mine, well, that was a lot topsy-turvy!!

The night dive I had the other night with Merijn was the complete opposite. We met just after 7pm despite threatening rumbles of an afternoon thunder cloud. I had taken the carrito over from Cabarete and could see a rainbow meshed into a beauitful glowing pink sunset through the clouds. In the parking lot, we prepared our gear, did our buddy checks and walked into the quiet waters of Sosua Bay just as the sun went down. We enjoyed our surface swim out to the dive site while curious tourists looked out from their hotel balconies. As we descended, I suddenly remembered something I will, from now on, never forget when preparing for a night dive – you absolutely need defogger for your mask, be it retail types or just hand soap. I used the traditional saliva method and a slightly foggy mask on a night dive, just won’t do! Don’t forget your de-fogger, folks.

We swam along the inside of West Wall and then to the wall and we were not disappointed! With so many awesome caves and crevices that look pretty cool in the day, turned into something spectacular while illuminated with a flashlight. The first one held a stunning octopus that glided along the back wall in a luminescent green colour that just cannot be compared with any other animal. You have to see it to believe it. Merijn and I continued together, but in our own exploratory worlds as we swam back to shore. Merijn found a beautiful Snake Eel, which many people had told me were around here, but I had yet to see. Then we both found one of the strangest animals both of us had ever seen. Imagine a cross between an octopus tentacle, a sea cucumber, topped with the tentacles of a squid! Ew! Not so handsome! Truly alienesque! Merjin later learned this is a “Sticky Snake Sea Cucumber” or something along those lines.

All in all, we had a gorgeous relaxing night dive from the shores of Sosua with some refreshing beers to follow at the Jolly Roger. Thanks Merjin for a great night!

Night Dive with Merijn from Sosua Bay, DR

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: dive tips, dive with mia, diving, night, scuba diving, Sosua

Dive with Joe

May 19, 2011 By Dive With Mia

I woke up bright and early after what sounded like a monsoon thunderstorm last night and met Joe for our next two dives. I knew that I wanted to show him the Zingara Wreck as he had never dove on a wreck before. The conditions yesterday were beyond spectacular, so I felt confident it was a good day to venture eastwards along the northern coast of the Dominican Republic. With Joe being super good on air, we thoroughly enjoyed the wreck even with a swim through and a quick peek at the coral-encrusted toilet (hehe – I love it!). We then decided to explore the reef that lies next door; this was my first time to see that and I was really in awe at the expanse garden of healthy soft corals. We peacefully glided over the reef all of us within our own zone of underwater appreciation and enjoyment. Joe spotted a moray eel and a couple of big lionfish in some barrel corals. I will definitely be doing the wreck/reef combo dives at the Zingara from now on!

Our second dive and Joe’s last dive for this trip was at my all-time favourite Mini Wall, just outside of Sosua Bay. I think Matt from Northern Coast Diving had replaced the old mooring line, which brought us down to 14m and two perfect shimmering squid. We gazed at those for awhile as you can get really close if you move verrry slowly towards them. They never cease to amaze me. On the way back to the boat we encountered one of the biggest schools of fish I had ever seen! A complete wall of shiny silver fish and suddenly I saw Joe swimming like mad towards them. It was like a moving picture as the fish divided and spread and we each were held within a perfect protected circle, waving to each other through the moving walls of fish that had established themselves between us. What an experience and a fab way to end a great two days diving with my new favourite Mexican diving buddy, Joe!

Enjoying an underwater park bench with Joe

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: dive with mia, diving, scuba diving, Sosua, squid, wreck