mwhities
Contributor
I went to bed around 1:30 AM after having a few beers and hanging out with my best friend/dive buddy. We were celebrating his new job.
I woke up at 7:30 and gathered everything up I needed to head to Birmingham AL to pick up 3 sets of doubles. (LP95s, LP107s, and HP120s.) The wife had mentioned something about going and we would drive over, get a room, go shopping and I could pick up the tanks. Make it a weekend vacation. (AN vacaion is a good vacation.) She stated that she didn't want to go and that her and Tanner would stay home. I asked if she was sure and she said yes.
*DING DING DING*
What did "I" do? I grabbed my scuba gear. (Luckly the day before I had picked up my tanks.. "luckly"
) I packed up my back pack with extra clothes, the my bags into the back of the truck and give my kisses and hugs to my son and wife.
woo hoo! An unscheduled dive trip! GOTTA love THAT! By 8:15 AM I was on the road. Not having ate any breakfast, I was HUNGRY!! So I looked around and BAM, peppered beef jerky. Hey, food is food!! I chewed on a few pieces until my belly told me an enough is enough.
About half way to Birmingham, I had to stop and get gas. I filled the truck and noticed a Subway open out of the corner of my eye. Bought myself a chicken and bacon sub. I headed out with my food and drink and finally my belly was happy.
About an hour and a half later, I arrive at "The Summit". A good sized shopping area on top of a hill/mountain. I meet up with Chris (the guy I bought the tanks from.) in front of the levi's store, just West of the Cheese Cake Factory restaurant. We talked for a few minutes and the urgetoget to ABWA was to great. I paid him the money, we transfered the tanks and we said good bye. About 20 miutes later... ahhh at last!!! I was there!
Granted, this was only the third time I've ever been there but, it was packed. The parking area is quite large too. I luck up and I find a spot only one row away from the building. I jump out, nake sure I have my c-card and head to te office. I sign in and head back out to meet up with Keith and his family (wife and son). Keith is there for his AOW check out dive and his wife and son are there for their OW check out dives.
We BS for a few and he introduces me to a few of his buddies. I remeber Chances name but, I cant remember the other guys name. All four of us were going to do a dive before Keith had to do his check out dives.
We start gearing up and of course, they finish before I do so they head down and wait in the water. I finally get everything together and I join them.
We talk about the dive plan and being I had the most dives, I was elected to "lead" the group. I suggested that we follow the wall to the tie-ins and we could follow that out to the sail boat and depending on air supplies, we could look around a little more. We decided to not go past 70ffw or so as they would be doing several more dives and a night dive.
So we ease down to the 15' platform (students are already on it) and I flash an "okay" signal at them. All three reply promptly. I make my way North along the wall and drop down to about 30ffw (Remember, this is only my third time diving here.) I'm looking for the tie off (It's usually "right there".) and I can only assume I missed it as we came upon the HUGE concert pipe. It's big enough that 5 guys my size could easily swim side by side and fit through it. We swim around it for a minute and since I realized I missed th tie off, I decide to drop down to about 50ffw and WOW, thermo cline at 40ffw. (I'm in only a 3mm long suite.) The temperature drops down 63 degrees. BRRR! We pass up a few of the cars and sunken boats, just slowly swimming taking everything in. Finally, I catch site of the line (not the tie off). It runs in a North Easterly route so we follow it and slowly going deeper.
Finally we hit the sailboat at 68ffw and I swim around it a few times. I'm loving the fact that I'm horizontal instead of verticle like I was the last time I was there. I do an air check and one of the guy's gauge reads 1500psi. (I'm still at 2K! woo hoo!) So I rally everyone together and we start making our way back up the line that we followed out. About 42ffw we hit the thermo cline again. THANK YOU! Back up to the higher 70s. About 30ffw, we find the tie-off point that I missed earlier. I do another air check and one guy is down to 800-900psi. I decided to go ahead and make an ascent from there.
I signal to everyone to slowly go up and to take their time. Ahh, the water is getting warmer! At about 15ffw I signal to level off for our safety stop. We stay there for about 5 minutes and again I signal to slowly make their way up. I get to about 8 feet and I decide to stop again as one of the guys is a few feet below me. I signal to him "okay" and he responds with an "okay". He finally comes up and surfaces. I hover there for a few minutes and then finally come up.
Mind you, we did leave the area where the tie-off point was. Why? Well, even though this is a rock quarry, the follow of the spring is pretty strong. We do a surface swim back to the dock. We chat along the way and everyone seemed to enjoy the "tour". I don't think any of them has ever dove there.
We then sat out for about an hour and thirty minutes and ate some pizza. Keith had to get ready for his check out dives so, the three of us decided to all dive together as a team. The plan this time was to leave the main dock and swim South around the large wall to the other dock. Taking my time, I look at the wall and see all kinds of small fish. Little minnows, bream and bass. There is a tree at about 25ffw that looked like a "swim through". With my new trimmed out skills, I slowly made my way through the trees limbs. I bumped my tank a couple of times but, I didn't silt up the bottom or touch the bottom. YAY! They wanted to get 5 dives in that day, so we made it to the dock on the other side and sat there for 10 minutes so it would "count as a dive".
We then entered the water again and dove down to about 35ffw and made our way past the firetruck (1950/60s model) and past a trailer. I wet down a little further to 39ffw and WOW... it got cold again. I rerouted with a heli turn and started North Westerly. Ahh, shallower and warmer water. We ended up at the bream beds and the three boats. I figured that to be a good turn around point and started back to the dock. We did another stop at 15ffw and waited 5 minutes. We again went up to the dock and waited another 10 minutes.
When we went back into the water, I had one of the guys lead. I followed him and motioned for him to follow the wall back around to the main dock. We leisurely swam back and we came upon the main dock. Again there was a class full of OW students there. (This is my favorite part.) The instructor doing the check out dives, was the same guy that did my check out dives. Well, the dive-con that was with them was the same one I had. (rewind a second.) I was hovering there watching them do the skills while doing my safety stop. I noticed Keith's wife and son and waved at them. They got a kick out of that. So I made my way around the platform and came up onto the dive-con. He looked at me and I gave him the "okay" sign and and he responded. then he gave me a "two thumbs up" signal. I took it as he was impressed with my diving.
Got up on the dock and I was happy with my performance. I have a few things I do need to adjust though. I'll talk about these hings and afew other things I need to get opinions about.
Thanks for reading if you did read all of this.
Michael
I woke up at 7:30 and gathered everything up I needed to head to Birmingham AL to pick up 3 sets of doubles. (LP95s, LP107s, and HP120s.) The wife had mentioned something about going and we would drive over, get a room, go shopping and I could pick up the tanks. Make it a weekend vacation. (AN vacaion is a good vacation.) She stated that she didn't want to go and that her and Tanner would stay home. I asked if she was sure and she said yes.
*DING DING DING*
What did "I" do? I grabbed my scuba gear. (Luckly the day before I had picked up my tanks.. "luckly"
) I packed up my back pack with extra clothes, the my bags into the back of the truck and give my kisses and hugs to my son and wife.woo hoo! An unscheduled dive trip! GOTTA love THAT! By 8:15 AM I was on the road. Not having ate any breakfast, I was HUNGRY!! So I looked around and BAM, peppered beef jerky. Hey, food is food!! I chewed on a few pieces until my belly told me an enough is enough.
About half way to Birmingham, I had to stop and get gas. I filled the truck and noticed a Subway open out of the corner of my eye. Bought myself a chicken and bacon sub. I headed out with my food and drink and finally my belly was happy.
About an hour and a half later, I arrive at "The Summit". A good sized shopping area on top of a hill/mountain. I meet up with Chris (the guy I bought the tanks from.) in front of the levi's store, just West of the Cheese Cake Factory restaurant. We talked for a few minutes and the urgetoget to ABWA was to great. I paid him the money, we transfered the tanks and we said good bye. About 20 miutes later... ahhh at last!!! I was there!
Granted, this was only the third time I've ever been there but, it was packed. The parking area is quite large too. I luck up and I find a spot only one row away from the building. I jump out, nake sure I have my c-card and head to te office. I sign in and head back out to meet up with Keith and his family (wife and son). Keith is there for his AOW check out dive and his wife and son are there for their OW check out dives.
We BS for a few and he introduces me to a few of his buddies. I remeber Chances name but, I cant remember the other guys name. All four of us were going to do a dive before Keith had to do his check out dives.
We start gearing up and of course, they finish before I do so they head down and wait in the water. I finally get everything together and I join them.
We talk about the dive plan and being I had the most dives, I was elected to "lead" the group. I suggested that we follow the wall to the tie-ins and we could follow that out to the sail boat and depending on air supplies, we could look around a little more. We decided to not go past 70ffw or so as they would be doing several more dives and a night dive.
So we ease down to the 15' platform (students are already on it) and I flash an "okay" signal at them. All three reply promptly. I make my way North along the wall and drop down to about 30ffw (Remember, this is only my third time diving here.) I'm looking for the tie off (It's usually "right there".) and I can only assume I missed it as we came upon the HUGE concert pipe. It's big enough that 5 guys my size could easily swim side by side and fit through it. We swim around it for a minute and since I realized I missed th tie off, I decide to drop down to about 50ffw and WOW, thermo cline at 40ffw. (I'm in only a 3mm long suite.) The temperature drops down 63 degrees. BRRR! We pass up a few of the cars and sunken boats, just slowly swimming taking everything in. Finally, I catch site of the line (not the tie off). It runs in a North Easterly route so we follow it and slowly going deeper.
Finally we hit the sailboat at 68ffw and I swim around it a few times. I'm loving the fact that I'm horizontal instead of verticle like I was the last time I was there. I do an air check and one of the guy's gauge reads 1500psi. (I'm still at 2K! woo hoo!) So I rally everyone together and we start making our way back up the line that we followed out. About 42ffw we hit the thermo cline again. THANK YOU! Back up to the higher 70s. About 30ffw, we find the tie-off point that I missed earlier. I do another air check and one guy is down to 800-900psi. I decided to go ahead and make an ascent from there.
I signal to everyone to slowly go up and to take their time. Ahh, the water is getting warmer! At about 15ffw I signal to level off for our safety stop. We stay there for about 5 minutes and again I signal to slowly make their way up. I get to about 8 feet and I decide to stop again as one of the guys is a few feet below me. I signal to him "okay" and he responds with an "okay". He finally comes up and surfaces. I hover there for a few minutes and then finally come up.
Mind you, we did leave the area where the tie-off point was. Why? Well, even though this is a rock quarry, the follow of the spring is pretty strong. We do a surface swim back to the dock. We chat along the way and everyone seemed to enjoy the "tour". I don't think any of them has ever dove there.
We then sat out for about an hour and thirty minutes and ate some pizza. Keith had to get ready for his check out dives so, the three of us decided to all dive together as a team. The plan this time was to leave the main dock and swim South around the large wall to the other dock. Taking my time, I look at the wall and see all kinds of small fish. Little minnows, bream and bass. There is a tree at about 25ffw that looked like a "swim through". With my new trimmed out skills, I slowly made my way through the trees limbs. I bumped my tank a couple of times but, I didn't silt up the bottom or touch the bottom. YAY! They wanted to get 5 dives in that day, so we made it to the dock on the other side and sat there for 10 minutes so it would "count as a dive".
We then entered the water again and dove down to about 35ffw and made our way past the firetruck (1950/60s model) and past a trailer. I wet down a little further to 39ffw and WOW... it got cold again. I rerouted with a heli turn and started North Westerly. Ahh, shallower and warmer water. We ended up at the bream beds and the three boats. I figured that to be a good turn around point and started back to the dock. We did another stop at 15ffw and waited 5 minutes. We again went up to the dock and waited another 10 minutes.
When we went back into the water, I had one of the guys lead. I followed him and motioned for him to follow the wall back around to the main dock. We leisurely swam back and we came upon the main dock. Again there was a class full of OW students there. (This is my favorite part.) The instructor doing the check out dives, was the same guy that did my check out dives. Well, the dive-con that was with them was the same one I had. (rewind a second.) I was hovering there watching them do the skills while doing my safety stop. I noticed Keith's wife and son and waved at them. They got a kick out of that. So I made my way around the platform and came up onto the dive-con. He looked at me and I gave him the "okay" sign and and he responded. then he gave me a "two thumbs up" signal. I took it as he was impressed with my diving.
Got up on the dock and I was happy with my performance. I have a few things I do need to adjust though. I'll talk about these hings and afew other things I need to get opinions about.
Thanks for reading if you did read all of this.
Michael
