Date: Tuesday, June 6th, 1995 7:30PM
Location: Cates Park, North Vancouver, BC
Visibility: 10-15ft
Depth: 45-50ft
Duration: ~25min
Surface Interval: 53 hours
Tank: Al80
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This was the Night dive part of the AOW certification. It was done in the early evening in Summer, so wasn't much of a night dive. At depth though there was almost no light from the surface, and the affect on the dive experience was very interesting. There wasn't a whole lot to see in the bay part of Cates Park, a few concrete objects that didn't yet qualify as artificial reefs. However we did find a sea pen about 18 inches tall that my instructor had us gather around. She got us to point our lights behind us as she strummed her fingers up along its centre. As her fingers stroked the ribbing, it light up with shocks of bioluminescence. It was really remarkable. Apparently if it's really dark you'll see bioluminescence when waving your hand through the water, but because the sea pen is effectively a filter for the plankton, it was super-concentrated, and visible in the twilight we were in.
We puttered around for a little while. I was young and new to diving, so I stuck like a remora right off my instructor's left shoulder. She later said that I was an excellent buddy, she never had to worry about where I was, she just had to shoulder check, and I was giving her the ok salute. Overall it was a pleasant dive, until it came time to ascend. As we ascended slowly up the beach from around 40 feet I developed a problem equalizing. I hadn't had any trouble equalizing on the way down, but during the dive my sinuses must have become blocked. It started out like a painful sinus cold, but quickly progressed into a painful pressure on the inside of one of my teeth.
A few more feet of ascension and it was agony. It was like an ice-pick being pressed into the raw nerve. I tapped my instructor on the shoulder and tried to signal that I had problems. I gave the hand rocking back and forth 'things are a little uneasy' signal, but was quite calm. She wasn't sure what was happening so I signaled again and pointed at my tooth. It's not an easy charade to indicate that you are having equalization problems with your tooth in darkness while wearing 25lbs of neoprene and holding a regulator in your mouth. I kept wiggling my jaw and ears, trying to relieve the agony when I heard a super high-pitched squeal as the air equalized out of my sinuses. I can tell you from experience that the best part of torture is when it stops. The feeling was incredible, and I indicated we could proceed up to shore.
However, over the next 10ft of ascension, my painless bliss gradually turned into dentistry from hell once again. Again I tried to explain the problem to my instructor, and had her slow down. Mystified, she waited patiently until I said we could proceed. After more contortions, I heard the squeal of joy once again, and we continued up, only to have to repeat the entire process one final time.
I was quite glad to finally break the surface. At this point I had the pleasure of experiencing the effects of forced gradual decompression of blocked sinuses on the human nasal-mucal membrane. These effects result in impressively large amounts of mucous seeping out of the nose and eyes, enough to quarter-fill a mask and escape out the skirt onto the face and hood. Quite pleasant really. Think Peter Venkman post interaction with vapourous apparition.
After cleaning off, I explained to my instructor what I was trying to communicate. She had no idea, though knew that I was calm and breathing fine, so there was no serious concern. Overall it was an exceedingly unpleasant end to an otherwise enjoyable dive.
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