New Diver -1st trip was a beast!

[Schizlor]

Hi Guys and Gals,

Just wanted to introduce myself and give you the run-down on my 1st dive trip after completing the OW certification. My friend, his wife and I went to Stella Maris Resort on Long Island, Bahamas for 6 days of diving. It was a pretty incredible trip, here is a snap-shot: Pictures to follow

Day 1:
2 Reef dives about 45ft

Day 2:
Conception Island. Wall diving, max depth 105 ft. Wall dropped off to 1200 ft
Saw a huge sea turtle, only one of the trip (underwater. saw several on surface)

Day 3:
Dean's Blue Hole
Max depth 103 ft. Deepest blue hole in the world, 663 ft. Free diving world record was set here by William Trubridge 5/11/07 (since broken)

Day 4:
Cummerbach: Wreck penetration at 95 feet. Max depth 102 ft

Day 5:
Shark Reef: OW shark feeding with free swim around reef with sharks after feeding. Max depth 45 ft

Day 6:
Finished up with some light dives around 35ft on various reefs.

3 dives over 100 ft, wall dive, wreck penetration, OW shark feed w/ free swim. Not bad for dives 5-15, eh?

caveat: I know many might think some of these dives may have been a bit foolhardy for a novice, and I was concerned about going to 100ft on my 7th dive of my carreer before we dove, but I am and always have been a water-baby. Swim team for 8 years, etc. I never felt uncomfortable at depth. I must say that had I disclosed that this was my 7th dive, they may not have wanted to go that deep, but they could tell from the way we dove that we were ok. On the shark dive, the divemasters said they have never, in the 25 years of operating at Shark Reef, taken divers on a free swim around the reef after doing the feed, and that the only reason they were going to try it was because they liked us and we "were such good divers" So, for whatever that's worth..

All in all it was an incredible experience and I can't wait to get back in the water again. thanks for reading and I hope to get to know a lot of you over the years here. I will upload pics from the dives (got some great shots of the hole and the sharks) when I get home.

I'd also like to give a quick shout-out to Dandy Don. Your well-researched, well-informed posts are the kind of thing I was hoping to find when I first checked out this site, and it is because of members like you that I will keep coming back here.

Cheers,

-Brendan

 

[CJM]

wow.... Im speechless.. Hell of a dive that was.. very nice. Oh and welcome to SB

 

[Schizlor]

Thanks CJM. Yeah, I really got to run the gambit on that trip. I just hope I didn't set myself up for disappointment, it'll be tough to match that one again.

Best part was listening to our divemaster tell us about when he got a call to see if he could come out to be a rescue diver for a movie shoot they were doing in the Exuma Island chain the next day. He said they offered him $650 a day cash to be in the water while they shot the film. Turns out the guy who he spoke to was Gore Verbinski. When he showed up he realized he was on the set of Pirates of the Carribean II. He said half the time he was in the water, and the other days he was just chillin on a 120 ft yacht eating Lobster and Filet Mignon and sipping brews, hanging out with Johnny Depp and Keira Knightly.

I am in the WRONG business...

 

[Bob Vincent]

Hi Brendan ...

& Welcome to ...
:sblogo::colouredsmilies::colouredsmilies:

 

[Digger54]

First dive trip and WRECK PENETRATION at 95 FEET!

Hmmmmm.

 

[Schizlor]

First dive trip and WRECK PENETRATION at 95 FEET!

Hmmmmm.

We went into the engine room through a big hole, looked around the room, and swam out. A most liberal use of the phrase, Wreck Penetration

 

[pasley]

First of all welcome to ScubaBoard

Second, that is one heck of a great trip. Sounds like you had fun and I am envious of the trip.

Third, you knew this was comming.... I don't know you and I don't know how good you actually are at this stage. But....

.... I know many might think some of these dives may have been a bit foolhardy for a novice, and I was concerned about going to 100ft on my 7th dive of my career before we dove...

Ya think? That "I was concerned about going to 100 ft" was your common sense telling you not to. You should listen to it. I am sorry, but you were way beyond your training and where you should have been at this point in your dive career. :11: Now, in the interest of honesty and full disclosure, I must disclose that my 8th and 12th dives were to 100 and 110 feet (not the plan I agreed to, but we wound up there). Of course my next 3 dives after number 12 were in a acrylic tube in a hospital. I also spent the next year limited to 30 feet. But back to the rant. Here you were at depth, on your 7th lifetime dive. Very likely no yet fully competent in your buoyancy (able to lay/stand/sit absolutely motionless and hold your depth any where in the water column for 5 minutes rising and falling only few feet with each inhale and exhale) skills, trim and general underwater emergency skills. You have not under the supervision of a dive instructor gone down to 100 feet and done a puzzle, or opened a combination lock to illustrate/test your susceptibility to nitrogen narcosis. In short, you placed your life and others at risk by going this deep this soon. I assume you remembered to/and were able to hold a safety stop at 15 feet for at least 3 minutes on the way up. In my first 10 dives or so I more often than not found myself on the surface going, darn, I forgot the 3 minute safety stop, or unable to hold the depth and blew right though it.

...but I am and always have been a water-baby. Swim team for 8 years, etc. I never felt uncomfortable at depth. ...

Uh, huh. And how much time on that swim team were you breathing compressed gas at a depth exceeding 100 feet and susceptible to nitrogen narcosis? In short, being a good swimmer at 100 feet does not mean anything if you have nitrogen narcosis and don't recognize the symptoms or have a dive buddy who does. I will admit that being comfortable in the water is a good portion of SCUBA and diving safely as you might not panic so quickly. But there is a big difference between being comfortable on the surface and being comfortable at 30, 60 or 100 feet. Being spot on your buoyancy and able to control your assent rate and knowing how nitrogen narcosis will affect you before going down to 100 feet over a 600 foot bottom is more than just a good thing, it is potentially life or death In short, you don't know what you don't know.

A woman I know, named Lynne Cox, swam at age 14 from Catalina to the mainland (23 miles straight line). She has also swam and held the record (mens and womens) from England to France, Alaska to Russia, Chile to Argentina, and 1.02 miles in Antarctica. All with out a wet-suit! (she has written an very good book "Swimming To Antarctica" Alfred Knopf publishing 2004, about her experiences). So you could also say she was comfortable in the water. Yet I am comfortable that she would not have considered doing what you did if she did not yet have the experience on or training SCUBA. Being a good swimmer is nice, but even people who can't swim can SCUBA (quadriplegics for example) so that probably has the least to do with SCUBA, as being good at the underwater skills (buoyancy, not holding your breath,controlling your assent, holding at 15 feet for a safety stop.

WARNING - THE FOLLOWING IS HARSH if you want it sugarcoated skip to next paragraph

...I must say that had I disclosed that this was my 7th dive, they may not have wanted to go that deep...

(Brace yourself, it is harsh) Withholding information that you believe would cause your fellow diver to not make the dive with you is a cardinal sin. You do not have the right to make this type of decision for the other diver that places their life at risk, which is what you did. You owe the other divers full disclosure so they can make their own decisions that affect their life. If it has escaped your attention, read the accident and incident forum, people die doing SCUBA or worse, get paralyzed for life. This is an Adventure sport (aka dangerous even if you do everything right, but we believe manageable). There is a reason that when you go to get life insurance and tell them you are now a certified SCUBA diver you will find many companies will not write a policy, or will charge you more (NYLIFE wants $3.00 per $1,000 of coverage more). Sorry to be so harsh, but please take this in the manner in which it is intended, and that is to make you and your dive buddies old divers. (END OF HARSH).

If they were competent DM's and they had known (if they were competent they would have asked) of your lack of experience, they would not have gone that deep with you because you placed their lives at risk as well as your fellow divers too. If you got into trouble, they would have to have rescued you while abandoning the other divers. A little rapture of the deep (nitrogen narcosis) and off you swim for the bottom thinking you are going up. Or you remove your regulator from your mouth because you are so stoned you think you can breathe the water. Or on the way up, you make an all too common new diver mistake and let the air bubble in the BC get ahead of you and make like a Polaris rocket to the surface. It happens.

Unfortunately we routinely hear reports of these remote resorts knowingly taking novice divers on deep dives and otherwise endangering divers. They have a real "what ever" attitude encouraged by the lack of fear of accountability (no lawsuit or criminal charges if you die or crippled for life).

Wreck penetration. OK it was only the engine room at 95 feet. Never mind the wreck diving instructor in San Diego in 2006 who died in the engine room of the Yukon. You don't need wreck training before going inside a wreck,... if you have a death wish that is. I know, it was probably more of an open environment than an overhead or closed one. I have yet to enter an engine room, or otherwise penetrate an overhead environment of a wreck, because I have not been trained on it. Now answer me this, you were at 95 feet on what, an AL80 which at your stage of diving usually goes exceptionally fast? So how much air did you surface with, and did you execute your safety stop? I have over 290 dives and I would not have done the engine room penetration if it was an overhead environment, because I have not been trained or would I do it with an AL80 (a near NDL [18:40] dive to 110 feet on AL80 will have me on the surface with 1680PSI but still not enough gas for an overhead environment for me.

In short, I hope you dive until you are 85 and beyond. But I would strongly encourage you to make your future dives within the limits of your training and experience. Start listening to that voice of reason and common sense. You got away with it this time, you may not be so lucky in the future. Remember the life you save may be your own, and/or that of your dive buddy.

So if you will answer the following questions and then evaluate the answers for yourself:
1. On each dive below 60 feet (on every dive for that matter), did you surface with 500 PSI or more in the tank? If not, what was the emergency plan if your buddy needed to share your air?
2. Did you hold a safety stop at 15-20 feet for 3 minutes on every dive?
3. Did you ascend at 30 feet per minute or slower at all times?
4. Did all the dives all conform to the dive tables NDL?
5. Did your dive buddy (whose life also depend on you) know you were only 7 dives lifetime experience before you went down?
6. Did your dive buddy have sufficient experience (say at least 50 dives and at least 5 in the past 6 months) for the deep dives? Keeping in mind he/she is your first line of help if something happens.

 

[MtnPlayVA]

Very nicely said Melvin. I am new to diving - got my OW in July and my AOW in August...a whooping total of 12 lifetime dives and I can't imagine doing a trip like Brendan did. It scares me that other new divers will read this and think it is ok to dive beyond your training.

 

[Digger54]

Pasley:

Thanks for so articulately saying what I wanted to say. Buoyancy, narcosis, silt, disorientation, shortened bottom times -- all pretty scary when coupled with inexperience. None of which have any relationship to how much of a water-baby a person has been.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Let me say as well that sounds like a nice trip. That is the only thing I'm impressed with. Except for the dm's ability to blow smoke up your butt and have you believe it. Your instructor failed in that he did not impress upon you to five within your training and experience and either work your way up to deeper dives or get the proper training. That you blindly followed the dm on basically what were "trust me" dives shows a marked lack of understanding regarding basic safety. That the dm would not check your level of certification indicates an operation I'd never use. How much of tip did you give them after their little ego stroking. That's what it was. Make no mistake. You may be good diver for your level of experience but to allow you to go into an overhead like they did was just plain stupid. I sincerely hope you listen to that little voice that now has had it's volume turned down thanks to a few incompetents looking to make a buck. And not being upright with your experience level would get you thrown off boat up here and guarantee a shortage of five buddies. Just plain dumb and dangerous all the way around on this one. Nothing to be truly impressed with.