StreetDoctor
Contributor
Sitting here on my couch with a temperature of 36F outside and a couple inches of snow on the ground, I've had a chance to reflect on the 2009 diving season.
From beginning to end...
I started out the year with 45 dives under my belt and I did my first dives of 2009 in the beginning of May at the quarry in a 7mm farmer john wetsuit and a newly acquired single HP130. I started diving a backplate and wing the end of last summer but this year my girlfriend started out the season in a backplate/wing and she thoroughly loves it also. I did a lot of training dives this year in the quarry getting more and more into the "DIR" concept. In June we went on a trip to Bonaire for a week which was awesome and gave me my first real experience with tropical diving which had me amazed how much easier it is than local diving. No wetsuit and 150' visibility really makes a difference :cool2:
I purchased my first drysuit- a DUI TLS350 and did my first dive in it on 7/3/09 and strangely enough I had 73 dives to date. I had a couple dives in rental suits beforehand and had taken a drysuit class so I had a decent handle on drysuit diving, but this was luxury compared to the worn out rental suit I was accustomed to using. Around this time I also purchased a cannister light (used salvo 21W HID) which has come to be one of my most favorite pieces of dive gear to date.
I took Intro to Tech with Duane Johnson (Precisiondiving.net) and learned a lot. This is also where I met my regular dive buddy (scubainchicago) who I did the majority of my diving with for the rest of the year. This worked out awesome as he was pretty much on the same page with me on my progression towards "DIR" diving. On 8/1/09 I completed Intro to Tech and did my first dive in Double HP130's. This was dive # 81 one for me and although it was very different I could tell right away it was going to open up a whole new world of diving. It took me about 10 dives to get my trim back to being decent, although my SAC was still bad and I wasn't very comfortable yet I was handling them well and making a decent transition. It took me until dive #111 to really get comfortable and figure out I needed to add a tail weight to help with trim and cure my being underweighted with empty tanks. At this time my SAC rate dropped from an average .8 in doubles down to an average of around .5 over a matter of one day of diving. It's amazing what dialing in your equipment can really do. On 8/16 I also completed rescue Diver with Duane and had a great time.
In the beginning of september my girlfriend and I did a trip to Socal. We stayed in San Diego for a week and dove with the Marissa Charter on the Yukon, Ruby E, and a Kelp Dive. I had a really good time on this trip although I was spoiled with my HP steel tanks and Nitrox I had grown accustomed to back home. Strangely enough Nitrox was pretty hard to come by on charters in Socal and we ended up diving air which limited our bottom times on all 3 dives. We had also planned on driving up to Long Beach and doing a Charter to Catalina. This gave me the opportunity to show off a bit of California to my girlfriend because I'd love to move there someday. We did a Catalina Charter with Sun Divers and had the entire boat (30 diver capacity I believe?) to four of us. We dove Shiprock, twin rocks, and pirates cove. Capt. Kyaa was great and we will definitely be diving with her operation on our next trip. I have to say Catalina is also by far my most favorite place to dive to date. The kelp forests, visibility, and fish life are awesome. Again we dove air but we were lucky enough to get to use HP steel 80's instead of the aluminum tanks that required me to wear more weight on my waist in my drysuit. We enjoyed Catalina and Sun Divers so much we ended up driving up to Long Beach again a few days later to do 3 more dives with them that were equally enjoyable.
After I got back from California I hit the quarry pretty hard in preparation for an upcoming class. Working on S drills, Valve drills, Ascent drills, etc. while in technical diving gear. I really, really enjoy training dives. I don't think there's a dive that goes by at the quarry where a valve drill, s drill, or ascent drill isn't practiced. On 11/1 I completed GUE Fundamentals with Ed Gabe and was rewarded with a technical pass.
Class Report Weekend 1
Gue Fundamentals Weekend 1 of 2
Class report Weekend 2
GUE Fundamentals Weekend 2 of 2
This was by far the most demanding class I've taken to date and Ed was an extremely laid back instructor who was very easy to get along with. This class will demonstrate where the bar is set and Ed did everything in his power to help us reach it.
Two weeks after fundamentals I went on a cruise to the Bahamas and snuck in two dives with Stuarts cove. I did these dives in a rental jacket BCD with an instabuddy (and lived to tell about it!!! ) The shark feeding dive was pretty cool but probably something I won't seek out to repeat. It was extremely odd diving in a jacket BCD when I had become so used to my BP/W and doubles. I had only dove in a jacket BCD about 4 times previously and I didn't miss it.
I did a total of 95 dives in 2009 from May-November which gives me a current total of 140 dives, with about 45 of them in doubles. Next year I hope to get in the water much sooner now that I own a drysuit and should break the 100 dives/year mark.
I'm currently in the process of gathering equipment for GUE Tech 1 in the end of February. Some of my goals for next year are to complete Tech 1 and get out into the Great Lakes a lot more. I'm also working on putting together a road trip to Florida to Dive some of the famous wrecks in the beginning of September.
Here's a couple pictures that stick out in my mind.
An empty Sun Diver on the way to Catalina
Catalina Island dive site
Octopus near Catalina
Current at Shiprock, Catalina Is.
Milwaukee Car Ferry Wreck, Lake Michigan
Shark Dives with Stuarts Cove
Feel free to post similar reports of how your dive year was if you like.
From beginning to end...
I started out the year with 45 dives under my belt and I did my first dives of 2009 in the beginning of May at the quarry in a 7mm farmer john wetsuit and a newly acquired single HP130. I started diving a backplate and wing the end of last summer but this year my girlfriend started out the season in a backplate/wing and she thoroughly loves it also. I did a lot of training dives this year in the quarry getting more and more into the "DIR" concept. In June we went on a trip to Bonaire for a week which was awesome and gave me my first real experience with tropical diving which had me amazed how much easier it is than local diving. No wetsuit and 150' visibility really makes a difference :cool2:
I purchased my first drysuit- a DUI TLS350 and did my first dive in it on 7/3/09 and strangely enough I had 73 dives to date. I had a couple dives in rental suits beforehand and had taken a drysuit class so I had a decent handle on drysuit diving, but this was luxury compared to the worn out rental suit I was accustomed to using. Around this time I also purchased a cannister light (used salvo 21W HID) which has come to be one of my most favorite pieces of dive gear to date.
I took Intro to Tech with Duane Johnson (Precisiondiving.net) and learned a lot. This is also where I met my regular dive buddy (scubainchicago) who I did the majority of my diving with for the rest of the year. This worked out awesome as he was pretty much on the same page with me on my progression towards "DIR" diving. On 8/1/09 I completed Intro to Tech and did my first dive in Double HP130's. This was dive # 81 one for me and although it was very different I could tell right away it was going to open up a whole new world of diving. It took me about 10 dives to get my trim back to being decent, although my SAC was still bad and I wasn't very comfortable yet I was handling them well and making a decent transition. It took me until dive #111 to really get comfortable and figure out I needed to add a tail weight to help with trim and cure my being underweighted with empty tanks. At this time my SAC rate dropped from an average .8 in doubles down to an average of around .5 over a matter of one day of diving. It's amazing what dialing in your equipment can really do. On 8/16 I also completed rescue Diver with Duane and had a great time.
In the beginning of september my girlfriend and I did a trip to Socal. We stayed in San Diego for a week and dove with the Marissa Charter on the Yukon, Ruby E, and a Kelp Dive. I had a really good time on this trip although I was spoiled with my HP steel tanks and Nitrox I had grown accustomed to back home. Strangely enough Nitrox was pretty hard to come by on charters in Socal and we ended up diving air which limited our bottom times on all 3 dives. We had also planned on driving up to Long Beach and doing a Charter to Catalina. This gave me the opportunity to show off a bit of California to my girlfriend because I'd love to move there someday. We did a Catalina Charter with Sun Divers and had the entire boat (30 diver capacity I believe?) to four of us. We dove Shiprock, twin rocks, and pirates cove. Capt. Kyaa was great and we will definitely be diving with her operation on our next trip. I have to say Catalina is also by far my most favorite place to dive to date. The kelp forests, visibility, and fish life are awesome. Again we dove air but we were lucky enough to get to use HP steel 80's instead of the aluminum tanks that required me to wear more weight on my waist in my drysuit. We enjoyed Catalina and Sun Divers so much we ended up driving up to Long Beach again a few days later to do 3 more dives with them that were equally enjoyable.
After I got back from California I hit the quarry pretty hard in preparation for an upcoming class. Working on S drills, Valve drills, Ascent drills, etc. while in technical diving gear. I really, really enjoy training dives. I don't think there's a dive that goes by at the quarry where a valve drill, s drill, or ascent drill isn't practiced. On 11/1 I completed GUE Fundamentals with Ed Gabe and was rewarded with a technical pass.
Class Report Weekend 1
Gue Fundamentals Weekend 1 of 2
Class report Weekend 2
GUE Fundamentals Weekend 2 of 2
This was by far the most demanding class I've taken to date and Ed was an extremely laid back instructor who was very easy to get along with. This class will demonstrate where the bar is set and Ed did everything in his power to help us reach it.
Two weeks after fundamentals I went on a cruise to the Bahamas and snuck in two dives with Stuarts cove. I did these dives in a rental jacket BCD with an instabuddy (and lived to tell about it!!! ) The shark feeding dive was pretty cool but probably something I won't seek out to repeat. It was extremely odd diving in a jacket BCD when I had become so used to my BP/W and doubles. I had only dove in a jacket BCD about 4 times previously and I didn't miss it.
I did a total of 95 dives in 2009 from May-November which gives me a current total of 140 dives, with about 45 of them in doubles. Next year I hope to get in the water much sooner now that I own a drysuit and should break the 100 dives/year mark.
I'm currently in the process of gathering equipment for GUE Tech 1 in the end of February. Some of my goals for next year are to complete Tech 1 and get out into the Great Lakes a lot more. I'm also working on putting together a road trip to Florida to Dive some of the famous wrecks in the beginning of September.
Here's a couple pictures that stick out in my mind.
An empty Sun Diver on the way to Catalina
Catalina Island dive site
Octopus near Catalina
Current at Shiprock, Catalina Is.
Milwaukee Car Ferry Wreck, Lake Michigan
Shark Dives with Stuarts Cove
Feel free to post similar reports of how your dive year was if you like.