Tag: Comic

Comic!

Scuba Comic: Fire Coral

ow… I was trying to show another diver something cool on the reef, and I didn’t even feel my hand touch anything! There was just a sharp, painful burn on my finger. I thought it was a jellyfish at first, but when I examined the wound later it looked like a nasty 2nd degree burn. I correctly guessed fire coral was the culprit.

Fire coral is horrible! The pain lasted a week, went away, and then came back worse than ever. Sea water, isopropyl alcohol, steroid cream, and vinegar are all said to help the burn but honestly nothing worked as effectively as I hoped it would! With time it’s definitely healing, but wow. That sucked.

Divers aren’t supposed to wear gloves on this particular reef, but I think I could have gotten away with it without getting in trouble.

I ended up not wearing gloves because… I was doing my Divemaster course! I was having enough trouble managing everything going on around me, plus attaching/reattaching the 6 different tools clipped to my BCD that I had to constantly remove and use… it was just easier without gloves.

Well, it made handling my tools and BCD a little easier, but was it really worth it when the trade off is a multi-week burn…?

Scuba Comic: Bull Sharks

Exhilarating stuff!!

I visited Playa del Carmen in the Riviera Maya (Mexico) for a few days, and saw a dive shop advertising bull shark dives. It was a little expensive– the cost of two dives in one– but it was well worth it. The sharks get in your personal space, which I loved. I would feel something jostling my fins, and every once in a while a shark would cruise overhead a little too close and bump my head.

Something else was getting up close and personal too…!

Divemaster: Decompression Theory

This is a crazy one, folks! I had some scuba theory I had to learn, and I think drawing it all out helpped me remember the principles.

I accidentally drew on both sides of this paper. Marker bleeds through this brand of drawing pad so no colors this time!


I didn’t even get to the Haldanean Model before I ran out of time. I had a limited amount of time I could study, and drawing was just taking too long!! Modern recreational dive planning tables are based on a LOT of research and theory developed over decades. Haldane was a man who theorized that different organs in our bodies absorbed and released gas at different rates, when put under pressure. Lungs absorb a lot of gas fast; brains are the opposite and take up gas relatively slowly.

Ol’ Hal (that’s my nickname for him now) made a chart and some calculations for determining how fast a diver will become saturated with gas (nitrogen gas for example) and how quickly the diver will release that gas.

This information isn’t very practical. Nobody needs Haldeanean (how many different ways will I incorrectly spell this…?) tissue compartment gas saturation tables to dive. You can use your dive computer and/or dive tables that someone else already programed and designed.

It’s probably useful to know because understanding the theory and details behind why something works can help a person understand the whole thing better. Or maybe someone at PADI really likes Ol’ Hal and doesn’t want his name to be forgotten. Maybe it’s both!

Divemaster: Equalization

I’m sick! I think it’s a head cold that could turn into a sinus infection if I’m not careful. Unfortunately, this means I can’t dive while I’m ill.

I’ve met plenty of divers who still go out when they’re feeling under the weather– and they’ve been fine– but the potential for complications and injury are high when you’re sick in certain ways. Anything involving your sinuses or inner ear could more easily lead to an injury that ends your diving career.

A traumatized sinus will eventually heal, but it will take a long time and it might be too sensitive in the future to handle the kind of pressure changes that happen during scuba. A blown-out eardrum on the other hand doesn’t heal or repair itself, so a diver will need surgery. Even then they probably won’t be able to dive in the future.

Don’t dive sick! It sucks to lose your deposit, and its a pain to change your plans, but in the end it’s worth it not to suffer through a major injury that could stop you from diving forever.

Scuba Comic: Scammed!

Yep, I got scammed trying to buy scuba equipment. It was a really interesting experience, and while I’m happy to say I got my money back, I never want to go through that again! I also got my money back in a rather unexpected way.

Here’s a breakdown of what happened:

I bought a BioSeal Neck Gaiter listed for $20USD, but when I was charged through PayPal, it said I had been charged $300USD.

Then, when I checked my actual PayPal account, the total was 45k Japanese Yen. That’s about $285USD.

Then it gets weirder! The amount charged was increased to 51k yen.

And then… when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, I got a notification that my package had been delivered… in the past! It was the 25th of December (what an awful Christmas present, am I right???) when the scam happened, but the package was instantly delivered on the 9th of December to an address that’s not mine. Christmas Magic!?

I immediately reported the seller and started a claim through PayPal, and once the holidays were over I called my bank for advice. The seller didn’t get access to my banking information because I didn’t put in my card/bank info when making the purchase– I used PayPal as a proxy– and I think that saved me a LOT of trouble.

Unfortunately, the PayPal claim was ruled to be not in my favor! They determined that the charges had not been made fraudulently. Er, so what about the magical, instantaneous delivery and the unauthorized price increase? Or the fact that $20 somehow turned into $300?

Fortunately, the seller refunded my money! I submitted a ton of screenshots to PayPal and described exactly what happened, and made a fraud report to the Federal Trade Commission:

All of that was shared with the seller. Maybe they got scared and decided I wasn’t worth the trouble. My next step would have been to call my bank and all to dispute the charge, but I didn’t need to do that.

So, buyer beware! Be careful when purchasing stuff, especially when it seems too good to be true. Also if something bad does happen, act immediately, don’t panic, and don’t back down.

Here are some links that have good info on online scams:

Better Business Bureau: Fake Websites

Better Business Bureau: Scam Reporting

Federal Trade Commission: Scam Reporting

Quorum: Spotting Consumer Scams

Yikes! Stay safe out there!

Scuba Comic: The Seattle Aquarium

I had the good fortune to be able to visit some good friends, and they took me to the aquarium! While I didn’t actually scuba, I did get to see some cool creatures and learn some new animal facts.

I had been to this aquarium once before with a different friend, several years ago when the second half of the aquarium was still under construction. Its very well done, with lots of great-looking habitats and interesting critters.

I hadn’t been able to see the Northern Fur Seals the last time, and I fell in love with Flaherty at first sight on this second visit. He looks like a disaster, with scraggly hair and bloodshot eyes… but he’s perfectly alright. I think fur seals just look like that.

I spotted a nudibranch! The water in the Seattle Aquarium comes in through the Puget Sound, so little creatures will get sucked into some of the tanks and often make their new homes in the exhibits. Nudibranches are often seen in one area of the octopus tank, and I made it my life’s mission to find one… and amazingly, I did. They are absolutely tiny. The picture below of the nudibranch is probably twice as big as the real thing.

How fabulous! I know very little about these guys but I think this is an Opalescent Nudibranch. You can check my work using this handy guide from Emerald Divers!

Guitar Sharks, aka Guitar Rays or Guitar Fish, are absolutely fascinating creatures. I’ve seen a couple on dives in Cabo San Lucas, though they were much smaller than the behemoth at the aquarium!

We were told they are very, very rare and many people go their whole lives without spotting one. I feel lucky having seen two or three in my lifetime out in the wild!

Scuba Q&A (1)

I get questions from friends, family, and sometimes even other divers I meet on excursions. I was sharing these comics with friends, and asked if they had any questions for me… and I got quite a few!

I could probably talk about scuba all day and all night, so it’s a lot of fun to test my knowledge and see what more I need to learn and where there are gaps in my knowledge. The best way to test that is through teaching/explaining concepts to others!