Aqua-Adventures (Part 1)

S.C.U.B.A. is the acronym for Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus, and scuba diving is what I just did. I just finished a course spanning about two months on weekends supplied by P.A.D.I. (Professional Association of Diving Instructors). The class consisted of academics as well as confined water training (pool) and four open water dives before certification of P.A.D.I. Open Water Diver, which basically says I can now dive anywhere. There are, however, limitations. Even though there are no S.C.U.B.A. Police, I should go no lower than 60 feet and not dive during the night until completion of the next certification level, the Advanced Open Water Diver.

I never realized how much I needed to know before diving. What I'm sharing with you now is certain aspects that will effect how you view and read comics and other stories that have underwater scenes. What I mean by this is that you will now know weather or not the writer or artist has an iota of underwater life, some of it's effects, and just the nature of it in general. My intent here is not to teach you how to S.C.U.B.A. dive, that could not be done in a column, but instead, just how different this world really is.

BUOYANCY (brief overview)

Did you ever watch a documentary on underwater life and see a diver swimming seeming effortlessly and maintaining themselves level at a certain depth? That's called neutrally buoyant. If they start floating they are positively buoyant, and if they sink they are negative.

There are a lot of factors involved in a divers weight, from the equipment to the thickness of the wetsuit, to the lead weights, but most importantly air.

B.C.D., Buoyancy Control Devices, are sort of the life vests that a diver wears which can be filled with of deflated of it's air, this is used as a tool to help maintain proper buoyancy.

That's enough about buoyancy for now, I did state that this was a brief over view. We'll touch base with this again later.

AIR SPACES AND WATER PRESSURE

Our body is made up of mostly liquid so the water pressure doesn't really bother it. But the air spaces within the body, that's a different story. These air spaces are the lungs, sinus cavities, and ears. All three of these are effected by the surrounding water pressure; the greater the depth, the greater the pressure.

To equalize the lungs and sinuses, it's as simple as breathing, but it's not the same for the ears. Have you ears ever popped while going up or down a large hill or mountain side? If so, that's your inner-ear air space equalizing to the surrounding pressure. This must be done constantly during diving. For some, it's as simple as swallowing which moves a certain muscle which lets air in or out of that air space. But for others, it's a bit more labored.

WATER AND AIR DENSITY

Here's where it starts getting tricky, and without proper training, ascending from a dive could result in death. Take a container filled with air at the surface then brought to a depth of 33 feet where the water pressure is twice as great. Even though the amount of air in the container is still the same, it is now much more dense; the molecules are more compacted leaving that same amount of air to only occupy half the space. Now, let's take this scenario and reverse it, but for a more dramatic effect we will substitute an actual person instead of the container. Let's say this person takes a breath at 33 feet and swims straight up while holding his breath, what would happen? Well, that air space would expand to twice the size leaving this divers death due to a ruptured lung. To avoid this one must constantly breath or exhale slowly during ascension, this way the expanding air will have someplace to go.

WATER DENSITY

Okay, I had to add this in here somewhere. Last summer during the Pulp Fiction annuals, the Nightwing story had him diving in the ocean and throwing a weight upwards underwater to hit the bad guy. This writer obviously had no underwater experience. If any body out there has ever tried to throw an object while under water, you know unless you have super powers, like we know Dick Grayson doesn't, this can't be done. With the combined forces of water density and gravity, as soon as the object leaves your hand it either sinks or floats depending upon weather or not it's positively or negatively buoyant. In this case it was a negatively buoyant lead weight. I hate it when I'm reading a story and I come across something stupid like that. A writer should only write what he or she knows about, unless it's a scientific hypothesis that has never been tested. If unsure, then seek an answer or avoid the topic by filling it in with something you know. But now because of this writer's and editor's inexperience, I'm sure there are people out there who think they can play catch underwater.

Well, that's enough for today's lesson. If I give too much information at once, it's harder to retain. But I'm only part way done here, so I'm going to pick up where I left off next month. And I'll leave you with another semi related tidbit for those who get confused like me...

BOATING TERMS

Bow=Front/forward
Stern=Rear/aft
Starboard Side=Right side
Port Side=Left side
Windward=Side where the wind blows across the boat
Leeward=Side away from the wind
Galley=Kitchen
Head=Restroom
Helm=Where the boat is controlled from, which is found in the Bridge
Bridge/Wheelhouse=Control Room

...To be continued!

-Wallace "Wally" Frost

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