Approaching 50 dives

[rfwoodvt]

How are your buoyancy and trim? Working on finning techniques?

All over the map initial weighting primarily because I'm still sussing out my kit and undergarments. Bet every time out I learn something about it and it's getting to the point that I can now predict +- a few pounds what one of those changes will produce.

Buoyancy control is a work in progress but I am making progress. Long way to go before I will feel good enough to dive close to a wreck or reef with confidence but am leaps better than I was.

Practicing finning every time out. Have a serious disparity in mobility/form between my legs; old nerve injury to my right hip that I've compensated for in walking but causing problems in finning. Left leg does well but the right leg wanders, kind of like a one-legged frog trying to hop, lol.

 

[Robert H. Diver]

All over the map initial weighting primarily because I'm still sussing out my kit and undergarments. Bet every time out I learn something about it and it's getting to the point that I can now predict +- a few pounds what one of those changes will produce.

Buoyancy control is a work in progress but I am making progress. Long way to go before I will feel good enough to dive close to a wreck or reef with confidence but am leaps better than I was.

Practicing finning every time out. Have a serious disparity in mobility/form between my legs; old nerve injury to my right hip that I've compensated for in walking but causing problems in finning. Left leg does well but the right leg wanders, kind of like a one-legged frog trying to hop, lol.

Are you writing down what weight you use with what gear and exposure protection to use as a reference in the future?? If I change a gear configuration I do a weight check at the end of the dive to see if I’m overweighted and annotate it in my log. Still working on my kicks as well, my right leg likes to do its own thing sometimes, back kick is also kicking my @$$.

 

[rfwoodvt]

Are you writing down what weight you use with what gear and exposure protection to use as a reference in the future?? If I change a gear configuration I do a weight check at the end of the dive to see if I’m overweighted and annotate it in my log. Still working on my kicks as well, my right leg likes to do its own thing sometimes, back kick is also kicking my @$$.

Every dive ends with a weight check. My chosen end gas is 750 psi so if I have too much gas I'll bleed it off, then I'll check my surface-neutral-level, which I've arbitrarily chosen as eyeballs at normal exhale. I run a surface inner tube for my flag so I'll have extra weights in that for my end of dive check. Most times i'll do a quick check as is then remove some weight until I'm high then add it back till satisfied.

Then, of course, I write all that stuff down in subsurface!

I'll use that as a starting point for the next dive and add or subtract based upon guesstimates when I make a change in my kit. For example last weekend my end check showed me about 3 pounds shy and wrote that down. Today knowing that my shoulder vent wasn't working properyl last time due to fleece getting in the way I only added two pounds to the main pouches (instead of the recorded 3) and then guesstimated that my new undergarment shirt would be another 2# and put that into my belt pockets for quick adjustments. Surprised myself and found it pretty much spot on. I wrote down the weight for next time.

My next dive I'm not making any changes other than going from freshwater to salt so I'll have to deal with that but that is a simple addition of 4-5 pounds. It's going to be a fossil dive out of Venice FL next week. What I have works, so I don't want to waste time futzing with my kit before hand.

 

[OMyMyOHellYes]

SEND PADI MONEY IN CELEBRATION OF THE MILESTONE. BE A MASTER DIBER.

 

[UtilaSarge]

Benchmarks........ Some people use dive numbers, others use "comfort levels". At 50 dives (congrats by the way!) you should be noticing that you get a little more comfortable with every dive. Meaning, you spend less time actually thinking about what to do, and are witnessing that same action just happening because you have done it before and it is becoming a skill you don't have to think that much about. Like neutral buoyancy - Most "new" divers spend an awful lot of time adjusting up and down, restarting until they finally get neutral. More seasoned divers can just drop down and make it happen without a lot of conscious thought. I have seen divers reach this "benchmark" by 15 dives, and I have seen them reach it at 70. No right or wrong, it just means that that is what it took for THEM to be comfortable with it. This also applies to air use - the more comfortable you are, the easier you will breathe and the lower your SAC rate will be for a given depth or situation. I personally do not like equating a certain number of dives with being proficient. I have been diving with people I am comfortable with who have 30 dives, and I have been diving with people I won't dive with again that had 150 dives. Numbers alone really mean nothing. Shallow diving, quarry diving, lake diving etc are all valuable as ANY time wet and neutral allows you to gain comfort underwater and practice those things that you need to improve on. Keep diving!

 

[rfwoodvt]

SEND PADI MONEY IN CELEBRATION OF THE MILESTONE. BE A MASTER DIBER.

I dated a Paddie once. She asked for money too!

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Are you safe, having fun, not destroying the environment?

If yes to all 3, the rest doesn't matter unless you want to take your diving further where you are now.

The only suggestion if you don't is work on your gas consumption by relaxing, slow/deep breathing, and efficient movements so you aren't "that guy" that cuts everyone's dive short when following a guide.

When it comes to movement, less is more.

 

[rfwoodvt]

50 dives is an accomplishment.
I tell newer divers that at 50 dives you are getting a clue. At 100 dives you realize you didn't LOL

Just keep learning, stay curious.

Amen to that.

Same thing with my day job; when I became Internationally Certified I knew a bunch. Then when I became Board-Certified I realize I hadn't even begun to learn.

IMHO Every day that we don't learn something is a wasted day for sure.

 

[rfwoodvt]

Did some fossil diving Down in Venice Florida last week. Figured while I was down there doing Storm Damage Assessment and work I'd take the time to help the LDS get some cash flow going.

As a result I got dives #'d 45, 46, 47 & 48 in the books. All hour + long fossil dives in about 30' Saltwater.
2 more to 50!

Now the question is, do i dive in our 50* water for 49 & 50 or wait till I go back to work in FL in a few weeks?

Decisions, decisions, decisions...

 

[scubadada]

It's hard to plan landmark dives. I was recently down in Florida and planned to do dive 2,250 on the Castor in Boynton Beach. Unfortunately, a couple of dives were cancelled the day before so that plan was dashed. I made the landmark the next day.

It was my 125th dive on the Castor.