Info A SATurner starts diving*... (*trials and tribulations of a 50+ year old out of shape guy learning to dive)

[scubadada]

Rofl, that's funny!! I'll try to be better about letting my typos slide to reduce the moderator load.

The Ikea bag was fun, and it served well for the first trip. No knowing what I needed, I was way over packed. I have dialed in on an Akōna Globetrotter. I had been looking at them heavily prior to the cruise and ad luck would have it a diver in Cozumel had one and raved about it.

It was not correcting your typo, the system incorrectly flagged your post due to one of the internal screens, it happens.

A mesh backpack is nearly ideal for transporting your gear to and from the boat. You will never be one of those divers taking up all the room on the boat and your gear can drain.

Sorry if I missed it, which Shearwater computer are you diving?

 

[SATurner]

I chose the Perdix 2. It was chosen for a couple of reasons initially:
1. Screen visibility and color ( I wear bifocals so I was concerned about readability)
2. My logic was that if I hated diving I would be able to get out from under it with the least amount of hassle/loss (not sure if this was correct, but it worked for me at the time)

Initially, I had no intention of using the AI portion. I had concerns about reliability and connectivity. I kept digging and eliminated those concerns. I actually like to see that the SPG and DC are showing the same info (within reason). If I ever see a big difference, something needs checked out!

Did I need to start with that DC? Nope, I am sure many others would fit the bill. Did I want to? Yes indeed, in some ways it is a small piece of mind having it. The screen has been absolutely wonderful. The user interface quick to pick up by simply "playing" with it. That said though, I still reference the manual often and am digging into things that I don't know/understand.

I like being able to change the battery myself. I also like the Bluetooth connectivity to my phone or computer for log transfers. I have easily sent logs to:
Shearwater Cloud
Subsurface
Divemate

It isn't easy to see all the features and how they display while topside.

One thing I like is that it warns you of a thing and once acknowledged it assumes you are gonna respond appropriately. It doesn't continue to nag. That said, I haven't pushed that, it might nag if you continue to do whatever it was warning you about.

More time underwater with it will be needed for sure.

 

[scubadada]

I chose the Perdix 2.

Great computer, I've dived a Teric since May 2019.

On board log and download to Shearwater Cloud give you SAC in psi/min, it is at 1 atm. You can easily calculate RMV in cu ft/min, it is also at 1 atm, by multiplying by the tank factor, tank volume in cu ft/working pressure in psi. SAC psi/min x tank factor cu ft/psi = RMV cu ft/min. SAC is tank dependent, RMV is tank independent.

I don't know what information you have chosen for your home screen, there are many choices. You might want to take a look at SurfGF. So many interesting things you can do depending on what you want or need.

You're off to a good start

 

[SATurner]

Dives #9 and #10: (San Francisco Reef and Paradise Reef Cozumel, Mexico)
These dives occurred off of a cruise ship (the Carnival Dream). Carnival docked at the southern cruise terminal.

I had located a "buddy" via my wife asking in some group on some social media platform. My buddy and I traded several texts back and forth prior to the cruise and met up on the boat on day one. The plan was to sort out debarkation and then get together on dive day and share a taxi to the dive shop.

Debarkation came but I believe there were at least two other ships that docked that day so the port was busy. We headed to the line to get taxis along with everyone else that was headed to excursions or whatever other things they had scheduled in Cozumel. Since we were a part of two, we got pulled to a bit of a shorter line once we made it known we weren't a large party.

The taxi ride was short and uneventful, lasted maybe 10 minutes. The cost was $18usd, no clue if that was good or bad, but it was necessary so it happened. That is something like 330+ pesos and I didn't have any luck finding pesos at the ATL airport (ATM was down).

Once inside the shop we were taken to the rear and asked what gear we needed. I don't recall if we had to fill out paperwork or not which leads me to think it might have just been a "sign here" kind of thing. We were given gear and the chance to set it up without a tank.

They were willing to add my swift transmitter to their reg set, but they had to find one that the button wasn't seized in. When they saw my dive computer (Perdix 2), they were impressed and said "that's a nice computer."

There were a few others getting ready and once everyone was ready and had their marine park wrist bands we went down to the boat to head out. I am going to have to guess that the tide was out or low or something because the distance from where I was standing to the gunwale was at least 3'~4' DOWN! So the boarding process was to hand gear down, then sort of deep squat on one leg while reaching down with the other while holding onto the top of the shade canopy while the distance was constantly changing due to the waves. The distance between the shade canopy and the doc was closer to even, but not by much. I would guess the boat was about 1/2 the size of the one in Belize the day prior.

There were six of us going out that day. Two of the other divers were on the other Carnival ship that docked that morning, the other two were staying in Cozumel and diving.

Neither my buddy or I had done any sort of drift dives prior to this. I had read all about the tourist that was lost in mid January, but opted not to share it with my wife or dive buddy so as not to increase anxiety. I probably had enough to spare. So we headed out and headed south to go to San Francisco reef.

Dive #9: (San Francisco Reef)
You've likely noticed by now that I get a small amount of anxiety before splashing. Today was no different, though having dived just the day before, I the day's anxiety was about the new type (drift) of diving, the recently lost tourist, and trying to sort out the boat exit/entry because there wasn't a platform at the end like the day prior.

The dive brief was brief to say the least. It was that we would be back rolling into the water. "I am putting on this rainbow colored hood so you can see me." Let me know when you are at 1000psi, I will deploy my SMB and you can follow it up to your safety stop at 750 PSI. And GO!

Splash! Lots of waves, but didn't feel a lot of current, all seems well. Started decent, but my buddy was having trouble descending. I tried to get the DM's attention and he realized the issue. Came to my buddy and helped her descend. I think there may have been some weight added. Then we were all off.

I pointed down current and started following with my buddy trailing. I found myself turning to check on her often and finally realized that I felt most "natural" just letting the current push me sideways (so super terrible trim) because in that position, I could observe the reef and my buddy without all of the extra work to spin in current to view her. For a brief while, I tried just facing into the current, but not knowing what was coming up behind me told me to go back to sideways pretty quick.

The reef wasn't as pretty as what I saw in Belize, but there were more fish. The vis also was less that what I had seen the day prior.

Current wise, it wasn't insane, so I settled in pretty quickly and the anxiety levels dropped away. Well, this go around, I was the air hog, so I signaled the DM and he deployed his SMB. He signaled for me to ascend on his line basically making an "okay" around the line. So, I got to his line, watched my pressure, and at 750 started up to a safety stop. It was kind of fun being above the group and noticing the current difference between where I was in the water column and where they were. They were going faster than I was. Not by a lot, but by some.

Safety stop completed, I went to the surface. If you have dived in Cozumel, you know there are boats zipping around and at times they are close to one another. When I broke surface, I wasn't sure what to expect. We hadn't seen/heard any boats recently. At the surface, the SMB was lying there like a sad pink hot dog and there were at least 3 boats within 100 yards of where I was. Did I mention that there are boats zipping around? So, for a minute I held the DM's SMB partially lower so it would stand up. That made it short in the water. So, I got a bright idea, I would inflate my SMB fully and have two.

Well, apparently that freaked out a nearby boat captain because he launched over to my location and was yelling asking what boat I was on. Well, that wasn't part of the dive brief, so note to self "figure out the boat name BEFORE you splash." I said I didn't know and he yelled, "what shop?" Sounded like ship to me, so again I said I didn't know. Then I finally understood him and told him the dive shop. Once he knew the shop, he was on the CB and calling my boat. That boat captain didn't want anything to do with me prior to my second SMB being visible.

I wasn't waving anything around, I wasn't shouting, I just had two SMBs in my hands floating on the surface trying to make sure boats saw me and didn't hit me. The boat I was on came and picked me up and asked where the others were. I said at the bottom showing him the pink SMB from the DM. It wasn't too long and they came up. Entry back into the boat was via a ladder hooked over the side.

End of dive #9.

 

[SATurner]

Dives #9 and #10: (San Francisco Reef and Paradise Reef Cozumel, Mexico)

During the surface interval, there was an offering of some type of rolls that had cheese and jelly/jam inside, apples, and bananas. I had some of the roll and a banana. We headed to paradise reef.

Dive #10: (Paradise Reef)
This was further north from the San Francisco reef. It is also a shallower area. The current on this dive was significantly lower. The "reef" was more like clumps of reef/fish separated by sand. To me, it was a little bit neater than the San Francisco reef because it was possible to go to the bottom and hold position in the sand with one finger if desired. At the beginning of the dive we saw a large spotted ray headed toward shore swimming above us.

Looking into nooks and crannies, I found a spotted eel, a "Caribbean king crab (looked like a basket ball with legs)?," and several other fish. In the sandy areas between the reef spots, there were huge conch shells.

The group was all closer to the same air usage this dive. I surfaced maybe a minute or two before the rest of them. The current shifted during the dive too. It started out pushing us toward the cruise ship port and finished pushing us away. My time at the surface was a bit more relaxed this go around. I didn't deploy my SMB as I saw my boat and the captain saw me. The DMs SMB was still limp at the surface though.

End dive #10.

 

[SATurner]

Reflections on dives #9 and #10:
I just saw a DAN video recently and it pointed out that excessive movement in the water uses more gas. I can attest to that as my constant looking for my buddy on dive 9 likely caused me to burn more than I needed to.

A good conversation to have top side with a buddy would be about positioning of each diver. Will it be side by side, lead and trail, high and low, etc. Having that sorted could help reduce some gas use.

I saw one snorkel on these dives. I am a bit torn on snorkels. I don't mind them, in fact, I like to snorkel. It does seem to be something that could easily be lost though. I had every intention of using mine, but in the moment forgot to add it to my mask. On at least one of the dives, I could have used it to swim toward the boat instead of my tank air. Perhaps adding a "snorkel keeper" would eliminate my thought that the hard plastic clip is a failure point and add some redundancy to the setup.

Diving with a boat full of strangers has pros and cons. This is not an all inclusive list, but just some highlights:
Pros:

• common interest to discuss
• meet new people from various locations and backgrounds
• exposure to different techniques/methods

Cons:

• not knowing how others will behave/react to things
• picking up bad techniques/methods
• herd mentality where no one is willing to "speak up"

Once out of training, it is on you to make sure that you keep your skills up to snuff. I need to establish my own skill refresher/practice routine to perform on dives.

At least on of the divers in Cozumel 100% ignored their dive computer because that damned alarm was going off for what seemed like hours (and I have crap hearing). On the boat, his question was, how are you all getting such long NDLs? Well, the second dive, he had a long one too because he simply ignored his computer. This experience made me thankful for having chosen the Perdix 2. It has a vibration alarm, but it doesn't "nag" you, it tells lets you know when limits you set are met, if you opt to say, "I got this," it let's you have it.

I now more firmly believe that it is MY responsibility to make sure that I am good. I don't feel like there were a lot of people in the water with me looking after me. This makes me thankful that the group I dove with during training plans group dives and works toward building a community. It's harder to let someone slide if you know/care about them.

I am not making these statements as a knock on either dive shop in Belize or Cozumel. I am simply pointing out that there is a very relaxed atmosphere/attitude so it is up to me/you to keep me/yourself in check and safe. Maybe as I experience other shops and dives, I will have a different perspective.

 

[johndiver999]

You are learning a lot; some of it the hard way. When drift diving (and not swimming) your trim and position in the water is irrelevant (for the most part), take whatever position keeps you comfortable and gives you the best visibility and situational awareness.

And also, yes, it makes tons of sense to TRY to get a buddy to agree to relative position in the water. Good, experienced buddies who dive together do it naturally and crappy divers have too much other stuff to worry about and don't even consider it. Keeping a uniform relative position, defining a leader (when applicable), staying at the same depth, all go a long way toward making the dive less stressful (saving air and frustration) and probably safer too.

Not knowing what freaking boat you jumped off of, is incredibly stupid, but it is kinda funny and you won't do it again, so no big deal.

Violating computers is, in my opinion, a big freaking deal. I don't recall EVER doing that (other than a short period of accelerated ascent), don't learn bad habits from terrible tourist divers. A REALLY bad lesson for a fat old guy in a foreign country.

 

[freeflowigb]

This is good! It reminds me of those chapters in the Shadow Divers book where the author told the story of the characters

 

[scubadada]

Hi @SATurner

When will we hear about your RMVs, especially dive 9?

 

[SATurner]

Hello @scubadada, see post #43. As the Godfather's Pizza "Godfather" used to say, "It's in there.".

Both dives #9 and #10 were higher than the second dive the day before.

@freeflowigb, as luck would have it, I will be diving again next weekend. There will be at least three new locations. It will be with the dive shop back in the fresh waters of northern Florida.

I'd have to find some sort of sponsorship to be able to dive frequently enough to turn these out at a fast enough pace to keep readers engaged.