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Waiting to Exhale: Diving’s Golden Rule Explained
by Alex Brylske
As a child of the ’50s, I was a big fan of the hallmark TV series Sea Hunt and its indomitable hero, Mike Nelson, played by the late actor Lloyd Bridges. One episode I particularly remember involved the kidnapping of a scientist. As this was the era of Sputnik, it was implied — though never overtly stated — that the culprits were a group of “stinking commies.” The scientist was being held in a cave on an island. Central to the story line was the fact — seemingly unknown to the bad guys — that the cave could be entered from underwater.
Of course, Mike Nelson knew all about the underwater entryway and planned a highly sophisticated escape: he swam into the cave, distracted the guards, gave the scientist a 30-second scuba lesson, dodged a few bullets on the way out and — fade to black — the world was once again a safe place for mom, apple pie and clean-cut capitalists.
For years, I thought the episode was pretty bogus. Even as a kid I knew that becoming a scuba diver required hours of arduous training. I never gave the show much thought until years later when, following in my hero’s footsteps, I, too, became a scuba instructor. Even back then, everyone wanted to be like Mike. I soon came to realize that my hero hadn’t let me down after all. In fact, his 30-second lesson was brilliant in its cut-to-the-chase elegance, and certainly could have been enough training given the dire circumstance and high motivation of the unlucky victim. I don’t remember the dialogue verbatim, but it went something like this: “You see this thing? [pointing to the regulator mouthpiece] You put it in your mouth and breathe. Whatever you do, keep breathing; don’t ever hold your breath, or your lungs will burst and you’ll die!”
End of lesson. Any questions?
It was one of the few instances where Hollywood actually got the facts straight. If you had but 30 seconds to teach someone to scuba dive, what would you tell them? The same thing Mike did — the Golden Rule of scuba diving. Breathe normally; never hold your breath. The rest, in most cases, is pretty much secondary.
Of course, if you’re learning to dive without the distraction of gunfire, and your instructor has a bit more time to explain the nuances and importance of breathing, you probably will be subjected to either an illustration or an actual example of the most commonly used prop in diver training — the ubiquitous balloon. And the explanation, though lacking the dramatic effect that Lloyd Bridges could bring to the lesson, will be something like: If a flexible, gas-filled container — like a lung — can’t vent excess pressure as it rises in the water column, its volume will expand until it bursts. Of course, today you might have sophisticated video or computer-based graphics, but the essence of what Mike told the scientist remains the same.
Unfortunately, the balloon-aided explanation is about all that most divers ever learn. Now, there’s nothing really wrong with the balloon analogy. It’s just a bit oversimplified, especially if you really want to fully understand the consequences of forgetting what Mike Nelson so succinctly told the scientist. For one thing, our lungs bear little resemblance to balloons. (A sponge is a much more accurate analogy.) And due to the intricate and delicate nature of their anatomy, severe problems occur from lung expansion long before, as Mike so aptly put it, “your lungs burst and you die.”
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Waiting To Exhale: Diving’s Golden Rule Explained - Dive Training Magazine | Scuba Diving Skills, Gear, Education
