1000RR
Contributor
My daughter (13) and I got our OW certification a couple weeks ago so yesterday I picked up a couple tanks and we decided to head down to Blue Heron Bridge (FL) and do our first dive (shore dive) as we wanted to get one more under our belt before our first boat dive Labor Day weekend.
You want the good news first or the bad? Ok, figured that... that bad news first. Actually not too bad, but we got all the way down there (2hr drive) and I thought I packed everything in the truck... apparently that nice weight bag holding our weights didn't make it
. On the way down, I was just talking to her about planning your dive and discussed Bob's article (which I had been just reading this week) about gas management and planning your dive to give her the conceptual idea of some of the things you need to consider. So now what? Well we discussed the dive and discussed where we would go, which bridge we'd explore, the route back, gas, etc. But the weights?! We were diving in rash guard and shorts so that was good. I needed 6lbs or so and she was around 8lbs.
So we improvised... we went out let out all air in our BCs and we figured out we were barely buoyant. Not enough we couldn't swim down but enough that we had to keep our head below our feet to stay in a controlled depth. So the plan was to get rocks from the bottom. It was actually fun and what we ended up doing is each finding a rock big enough to keep us neutral to slightly negative. Once we did that, the fun began (good news) and we proceeded to explore w/our new flashlight and camera (nothing special). I was towing the flag (a first also). So we were doing quite a bit of task loading given our newness to this sport but she's pretty collective and very good in the water. Trying to carry a rock, a flashlight, snap pictures, and carry a flag (I didn't do all of them, she usually did the flashlight and camera) made for quite a fun time. We got about an hour in for the dive since we were exerting quite a bit in the first 1/2... so next time we'll do better I'm sure.
We figured since both of us could hold a depth without our rock (even though it was a constant head downward type swim) we felt OK with the situation... turned out to be a great 1st dive and hopefully the last time I screw up with forgetting our weights. Glad we weren't in wetsuits!! I had just though yesterday evening that I should make a checklist... guess my gut feeling was correct.
The other good news is that the previous dive I had a little challenge clearing my ears and right after ended up with an outer and middle ear infection. Got rid of those this past week and was working all week on various ways to clear my ears. Seemed good throughout the week so I made sure we both cleared early and cleared often! Man what a difference, I was able to really easily clear my ears, maybe the practice helped this past week? I even cleared them without grabbing my nose a couple times. Was great!
So the visibility was outstanding down there; I don't have a lot to compare to, but I'd have to guess 50-60' or more (maybe closer to 70'+). Outstanding for Blue Heron Bridge. My daughter managed to snap some pictures while managing her rock in the other hand
Oh... and her favorite part was seeing the eel w/its head sticking out. My favorite part was watching her have such an great time! My second favorite was probably watching the two smallish barracudas watch us and check us out. They were really cool!!
You want the good news first or the bad? Ok, figured that... that bad news first. Actually not too bad, but we got all the way down there (2hr drive) and I thought I packed everything in the truck... apparently that nice weight bag holding our weights didn't make it
. On the way down, I was just talking to her about planning your dive and discussed Bob's article (which I had been just reading this week) about gas management and planning your dive to give her the conceptual idea of some of the things you need to consider. So now what? Well we discussed the dive and discussed where we would go, which bridge we'd explore, the route back, gas, etc. But the weights?! We were diving in rash guard and shorts so that was good. I needed 6lbs or so and she was around 8lbs.So we improvised... we went out let out all air in our BCs and we figured out we were barely buoyant. Not enough we couldn't swim down but enough that we had to keep our head below our feet to stay in a controlled depth. So the plan was to get rocks from the bottom. It was actually fun and what we ended up doing is each finding a rock big enough to keep us neutral to slightly negative. Once we did that, the fun began (good news) and we proceeded to explore w/our new flashlight and camera (nothing special). I was towing the flag (a first also). So we were doing quite a bit of task loading given our newness to this sport but she's pretty collective and very good in the water. Trying to carry a rock, a flashlight, snap pictures, and carry a flag (I didn't do all of them, she usually did the flashlight and camera) made for quite a fun time. We got about an hour in for the dive since we were exerting quite a bit in the first 1/2... so next time we'll do better I'm sure.
We figured since both of us could hold a depth without our rock (even though it was a constant head downward type swim) we felt OK with the situation... turned out to be a great 1st dive and hopefully the last time I screw up with forgetting our weights. Glad we weren't in wetsuits!! I had just though yesterday evening that I should make a checklist... guess my gut feeling was correct.
The other good news is that the previous dive I had a little challenge clearing my ears and right after ended up with an outer and middle ear infection. Got rid of those this past week and was working all week on various ways to clear my ears. Seemed good throughout the week so I made sure we both cleared early and cleared often! Man what a difference, I was able to really easily clear my ears, maybe the practice helped this past week? I even cleared them without grabbing my nose a couple times. Was great!
So the visibility was outstanding down there; I don't have a lot to compare to, but I'd have to guess 50-60' or more (maybe closer to 70'+). Outstanding for Blue Heron Bridge. My daughter managed to snap some pictures while managing her rock in the other hand
Oh... and her favorite part was seeing the eel w/its head sticking out. My favorite part was watching her have such an great time! My second favorite was probably watching the two smallish barracudas watch us and check us out. They were really cool!!
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. I like the bin idea and I have a couple of those for our rinsing of gear, maybe I'll do that? Right now I keep all our gear, the weight bag, my dive toolbox/save a dive kit/whatever you call it... all together in one of our closets. So hopefully it won't happen again 
