Dive Line off Dinghy
01 August 2015 | Bonaire Dive Site Something Simple
Elizabeth (photo by Ed)
For experienced divers this post will be a big bore. But for beginners or inexperienced folks, I thought you might like to see how I clear my ears when we first start our dives and also how I clear and decompress when surfacing. My ears begin to block at about 15-20' feet. If I don't clear them, which I do by squeezing my nose and blowing until I feel them pop (like you would on a plane) they will begin to ache. While this line dangling off our dinghy is only 15' long, I hang off it to get situated with my ears and then go down a little further to 20', clear again, then on to 30-40', clear again and then I can typically go to 60-75' with only occasional clearing. I try to swallow a lot but that can be challenging underwater with a regulator in my mouth. To surface, I hang out again on the rope as a safety stop (to decompress) for 3 minutes. I don't always hang on the rope but it's handy. In this photo you can see me checking my gauge; we went on a brief dive this time because our tanks were only filled half way. I was double checking the level of air which was just over 1000 pounds and when we stopped it was just under 500. The snorkel you see in the picture isn't used for diving but it's handy to use when I'm at the surface and don't want to use up air in my tank. There you have it, a lesson from the pro! Right.