Michael Galler Week 2: A Key Largo Disaster

    When I became a certified scuba diver by PADI two summers ago, I figured I would never have any major problems when scuba diving, and that it would be smooth sailing whenever I went for a dive. Today, I found out how miserably wrong I was, and learned a very valuable lesson about what not to do when scuba diving.

    The day’s problems didn’t even start today. They started yesterday when we had an AC problem. The Holiday Inn room we were staying in seemed not to be producing the cold air it claimed it was. As we found out later today, we were sleeping with a nearly completely broken AC in a room that was likely over 80 degrees. This is a major problem for 2 reasons: I cannot sleep in a room that is too hot, and it is recommended that you need a good night’s sleep before going scuba diving. When going scuba diving, you need to make sure that you are in good physical condition since diving underwater is not ideal for someone in bad condition. As for me, I tried to first go to sleep around 10 PM. I didn’t fall asleep until at least 1 AM, and I think I might have been up even later throughout the night.

    When I woke up at 7 AM, I immediately felt exhausted. I knew it would be difficult for me to dive, but I incorrectly assumed I could do it. I also noticed another problem: my nose was pretty stuffy. This is arguably an even bigger problem than my exhaustion. One of the problems with scuba diving is that pressure underwater can be bad for your sinuses, and will cause unbearable pain in your ears. The way divers clear the pain is by blowing into our nose while we pinch it closed with our fingers. This is known as equalizing, it and is incredibly difficult to properly perform with a stuffed nose. I knew that it was going to be hard, but I didn’t realize how hard it would be.

    When we arrived where our boat was to leave, we found out that the waters were not going to be too rough. This was a massive relief, as I was very concerned about getting seasick while going into the water. As I soon learned, the waters were choppy enough to make me sick. When we began to head out to open waters, I began to get a minor headache. This concerned me a little bit, but not so much that I was getting nervous. I did drink a lot of water on the boat, and I later realized that I was very dehydrated from staying in a hot room all night long. I was too tired to realize how dehydrated I was. Obviously, you don’t want to be dehydrated when scuba diving. When we got to the open water, we found out our first of two dives were going to be where a WWII ship was accidentally sunk by an ally. This was one of the many places you could go scuba diving in Key Largo, which is considered the dive capital of the world. This was a shallow dive, only about 25 feet deep. For reference, my deepest dive was around 60 feet deep, and the maximum depth you can go is 130 feet, although only those who are extremely experienced go that deep, When I went underwater, I immediately noticed a pain in my ears despite my attempted equalizing. I also felt my headache starting to get worse. I then made a critical mistake, which ended all diving activity for me today. I accidentally surfaced, and I went straight back down. This is very bad because going down immediately after surfacing is guaranteed to be bad for your sinuses, and it will certainly cause pain in your ears. After that, the pain in my head and ears became too much for me to handle. I had to surface again and get back on the boat, which made me get seasick because the boat was rocking due to the wake of other boats. I had to skip the second dive entirely, and the rest of my day was very painful.

I can learn a lot from this awful experience. I need to make sure I stay hydrated, sleep well, and make sure to follow proper diving procedures so I don’t have another dreadful experience again. I am going diving again tomorrow, so hopefully, it goes much better than today. Have you ever had a vacation experience go horribly wrong?