The day before we left on vacation, Dan sent me an e-mail
stating he was “crispier than bacon.” Several incidents at work (details
deleted) where his employees had been complacent. Had done things “the way they
always did.” Had skipped procedures because they just didn’t see the point. As
Dan explained, there but for the grace of God he would have had to tell three
women that their husbands were not coming home from work. Ever.
Dan’s tension, coupled with significant changes in my job
left us both ripe for some time off to decompress. We welcomed our annual dive
trip to Cozumel. We signed up for
a “scuba review” to refresh our underwater skills, then launched into a week of
diving. The one skill we’ve been less than proficient at maintaining is
understanding our “no-decompression limit.” Most divers these days wear a computer that calculates how
much time they have at various depths against the amount of time needed for a
15’/3m safety stop before their final ascent. If you dive within the
no-decompression limit your safety stop is 3 minutes. If not, you need extra
time during the safety stop for your body to eliminate the nitrogen that
collects in your bloodstream during the dive. As we don’t own dive computers (yet),
manual calculation between dives is required, or you must rely on the dive
instructor for direction.
 |
| Looking good underwater. |
On our last dive of the week we hit our maximum dive time at
depth and Sven, our dive instructor, had us follow him up from 90’ to 45’ to
stay within our no-decompression limit.
Careful attention to the physics of diving and adherence to expert
guidance resulted in a 67 minute dive, our longest, with "air to spare". It was the perfect way to end a week of diving, especially after a
bit of a down note on the day before.
On the previous day, we learned (after our two glorious
cenote/cave dives) that exactly four weeks before three divers had been
complacent. Had done things “the way they always did.” Had skipped procedures
because they just didn’t see the point. A dive guide with 15 years experience
and two guests never finished their cenote dive. The guide and the woman were
dead with empty air tanks. The guy still had 200 PSI (not a lot, enough to get out) but was dead
as well. All in the cave we’d finished diving minutes before.
This got me thinking about the need for reflection. For
decompression. For keeping a fresh perspective on the things, people and
relationships I’ve known and had for years. For fear that if I get complacent,
they (and I) may not fare so well. My personal self, my work self and my relationship
self all do so much better when I’ve had time away from the routine. The need
to decompress can not be underestimated. Inadequate decompression in diving
will get you “the bends”.
Insufficient or infrequent decompression in life will result in all
kinds of physical and mental side-effects, and they are not pretty.
