gear, so the first part of the day was dedicated to adjusting for the new gear, but it took a much shorter time
to get in and get down this time. Today would be Frank's day to have problems.
Frank had purchased his buoyancy compensator used and apparently, it had some problems. The most
prevalent was a tendency for the inflater valve to leak a little air through. Frequently, Frank would be sitting
near the bottom, working with his class, when he would feel himself start to rise, slowly at first, then faster,
toward the surface. He would start dumping air, which would send him bouncing to the bottom in a cloud of
quarry dust and fish poop. He would readjust his air, only to start the cycle all over again. Frank was
beginning to despair that he would never get a handle on buoyancy control.
It was during one of these "bounce" sessions that Frank ended up on a platform in twenty feet of water, with
his dive buddy (a divemaster trainee) and two people who seemed to be in distress. The dive buddy signaled
to Frank not to go further and Frank, worried that something was wrong with the other students in his class,
waited patiently for a signal of what to do next. It came quickly.
Feeling a tap on his shoulder, Frank turned to find his instructor hovering above him. The instructor
motioned for Frank to surface. Breaking the surface, Frank was surprised to see not only the instructor, but his
dive buddy and the other two students on the surface. He asked what the problem had been down below, but
no one seemed to know what he was talking about. It wasn't until they had all gotten back in that he
discovered that he had, somehow, joined another class that was practicing some underwater first aid! It
seems that diving is like going to a formal party - everyone dresses the same and you really can't tell who's
who!
