Not so Deep Waters

The pool at Club Aquaya,in Koregaon Park,at its deepest,slopes down to nine feet. On the other hand the entire professional diving equipment from Scubapro and Tribord spirals up to a whopping one and a half lakh rupees. These were among some the many trivia,which were heaped on us when we reached the Absolute Scuba Diving club. Attending an ‘Introduction to Scuba’ course we were told that it is the primary one,which any individual interested in the sport,needs to undertake. Siddharth Pujari and Seemant Saxena,co-founders of Absolute Scuba,initially spoke about how the sport has grown in the country over the last 20 years and has come down from being a very expensive affair to one that can be enjoyed by people between the age bracket of 8-80,only,in Pujari’s words,’if they are fit’.

Without wasting too much time beating about the bush,Saxena,who was our instructor for the day,ran us through the standard practice of scuba diving that is followed across the world. “Currently the two major associations in the world are the PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors)and CMAS (Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques) and we are affiliated to both. The thing about scuba diving is it works on the buddy system where people dive as a team,and also that beyond the leisure and fun part it also helps common people understand the marine bio-diversity and respect it.” Having familiarised ourselves with the various aspects of scuba diving we then proceeded on to learn about the equipment,which consisted of the wet suit made of 3 mm neoprene rubber and the diving kit that held the inflatable jacket,the oxygen tank and the aqua lung breathing apparatus. The combined weight of the entire gear was a little over 25 kilos,however in the water Saxena mentioned that it felt ‘less heavy’. While we did not feel any less light the wet suit was another challenge of its own. On a hot sunny day the rubberised suit outside the water felt like an oven hot enough to melt cheese.

Once we were familiar with the equipment we were given a detail of our course. First we would start with the basic hand skills to be used underwater. This was followed by the breathing exercise,buddy breathing and also the buoyancy control. Prior to taking to the water we were instructed to walk backwards wearing the fins to avoid tripping over in the front- a common cause of accidents of the dental kind. Once in the water however the experience took a different turn. While we had a couple of problems getting used to keeping the water out of the nose and learning the breathing technique,with a little bit of help from Saxena we managed to understand the technique of preventing the water pressure from hurting the ears.

Post that,the buddy breathing skill,one of the 22 skills required to be learnt by a diver was demonstrated. It involved learning how to refit the mouthpiece if it was accidentally removed or how to use the same to help a fellow diver in emergency. After a few demonstration sessions we even boldly managed to take off the mouthpiece in the deepest part of the pool to try the same,with mixed results. On the whole the experience was somewhere in between being a daredevil stunt and an adventurer’s dream come true. We did wind up with a stiff back though owing to the heavy equipment,which we lugged around for a good hour in the pool. That and a giant grin.