Dispatches

Jan. 26, 2012 – Day 2 started at 8 a.m. at the fire hall so we could go over a few more things before we went to the site to suit up and start our in-water evolutions. I made sure to pack a change of clothes just in case my gumby suit leaked, and an extra really warm snugly sweater . . . can't help it, I'm a girl . . . I get cold easily.

We made it to the site around 9 a.m. and were instructed to put our suits on. Lucky for us, there was a heated fire department trailer on site to suit up in, if we were so inclined. (Trust me, I was inclined!)
It was probably about -5 C Saturday morning and partly sunny, so it could've been a lot worse, but it was still cold to me.

My suit was an XL. That should pretty much say it all, but allow me to paint a picture for you. The feet in my suit were so big the toes rolled up on them, which made them look like elf shoes, and as someone pointed out, I could've worn my boots inside of my suit. My fingers ended somewhere about the upper-wrist area of the arms in the suit, so when I needed to use my hands, I had to bend over and stretch my arms as much as I could to get them into the glove part of the suit. (I kept them pulled out of the gloves as often as I could just to keep them warm throughout the day though.)

I must note, we do have new Ice Commander suits in our hall, however, they are also too big for me and it seemed that the gumby suit would be the lesser of two evils, as it would be easier to get the air out of when it came time to go in the water. (For anyone that has read past blogs of mine, they may recall me talking about how I popped up like a cork while wearing the Ice Commander suit the last time we did ice water training in our hall.)

Gumby suit issues aside, the morning's training evolutions went off without a hitch. (There were carabiners though . . . ha ha ha . . . my feeble attempt at humour!) We practiced our reach techniques, our throw techniques (sorry Bertram!), how to self rescue, the help position (for one person) and the huddle position (for four). I wondered if a two-person position would be a cuddle position! And, of course, we went swimming (which, to me, felt like running in slow motion more than swimming!), but the point was to get used to being in and moving through the water in the suits.

At lunch break I was happy to see that I had remained dry and didn’t need the change of clothes…yet. I was feeling a little chilly though, evident by my intermittent shivering during the morning evolutions. At one point, my instructor noted my shivering and told me it was a good thing because it was generating heat . . . mind you, I don’t know where the heat went that I was generating, because I wasn’t feeling it . . . out my big boots, perhaps. And then there were times when I’d just stop completely, and I’d wonder if that was a good thing or not . . . 

All in all, it was a great morning and I was looking forward to the afternoon . . .