2airishuman
Contributor
A tale of woe.
I finished my open-water class last February, in Florida, and have been getting out and diving once or twice a week ever since. I bought my own gear early on, and dive a DSS BP&W, speardiving wetsuits, HOG D1s, and steel 120s. I have a little over 50 dives in my logbook and they reflect a progression of the things you find in Minnesota and surrounding states: lakes and rivers, often cold, low viz by ocean standards (2-3' is common), current, a gradual progression of longer and deeper (to 60') dives to build skills.
I found an AOW class this weekend that fit my schedule that takes place at a location where I want to get to know the local diving a little better. Signed up somewhat at the last minute but showed up early at the dive shop to finalize paperwork and get ready.
There were three other students. None of them had their own gear. Two showed up 45 minutes after the class was supposed to start, and had to be fitted for wetsuits and so on. We went over the course material in the classroom and went out for the buoyancy, navigation, and night dives. I was never introduced to the other students and still don't know their names or dive history.
We get out to the dive site which is an unimproved shore access featuring mud, mosquitoes, and poison ivy. Instructor has brought a mosquito fogger and assigns divemaster to fog the immediate area to try and get the mosquitoes under some semblance of control. I have my kit all put together in the car so I pull on a wetsuit, defog my mask, and am pretty much ready to go.
So I watched while the other students struggle to figure out cam bands, how to attach regulators to tanks, hose routing, and how to get into 7mm farmer johns and hoods. I ask if we're going to have buddy pairs or just go out as a group. Instructor says we'll sorta pair up in the water. This sort of thing is one of my pet peeves, either I have a buddy or I don't, I don't want to try to watch 3 other divers. Instructor talks us through BWRAF and no one notices that I don't have a weight belt (because I'm in 3mm) and don't have an "octo" (because I dive a long hose).
We get out in the water which, thankfully, gets us away from the mosquitoes. After some discussion on the surface around the float and flag we pair up and descend. I'm with a diver who I can only identify as pink fins. Pink fins has trouble descending but we eventually get over to the platform they've set up and do some buoyancy exercises. I swam through the hoops sideways and upside down to make it fun. I don't think of myself as having really great trim or buoyancy control but the other students were all over the place.
We did some navigation exercises which my buddy never really quite got right. I'm not sure how good her compass was, so maybe that was part of it.
I did see a good sized northern pike, probably 6-8 pounds, quite close.
There was some discussion of starting the night dive at that point, but my buddy's cylinder was down to 1200 PSI and after some deliberation the instructor decided that we needed more air.
We braved the mosquitoes and poison ivy again and switched tanks and got lights and flashers. I had brought my lights on the first dive. I have a DGX 600 and a DGX 800, and if I think there's any chance I'll need them, they are clipped to my chest d-rings and held down with a piece of inner tube, one on each side.
The night dive was fun, lots to see, pretty good viz except where someone had silted out the water.
Before we reached the turn point my buddy's (rented) light started to get dim. It was a halogen one and I could tell that it was getting more yellow and less bright. So, no surprise when it finally went out, and I gave her my light and pulled out my backup one. We continued the dive for a few more minutes, turned, came back.
Today we're doing a deep dive.
I'm bringing a pony.
I finished my open-water class last February, in Florida, and have been getting out and diving once or twice a week ever since. I bought my own gear early on, and dive a DSS BP&W, speardiving wetsuits, HOG D1s, and steel 120s. I have a little over 50 dives in my logbook and they reflect a progression of the things you find in Minnesota and surrounding states: lakes and rivers, often cold, low viz by ocean standards (2-3' is common), current, a gradual progression of longer and deeper (to 60') dives to build skills.
I found an AOW class this weekend that fit my schedule that takes place at a location where I want to get to know the local diving a little better. Signed up somewhat at the last minute but showed up early at the dive shop to finalize paperwork and get ready.
There were three other students. None of them had their own gear. Two showed up 45 minutes after the class was supposed to start, and had to be fitted for wetsuits and so on. We went over the course material in the classroom and went out for the buoyancy, navigation, and night dives. I was never introduced to the other students and still don't know their names or dive history.
We get out to the dive site which is an unimproved shore access featuring mud, mosquitoes, and poison ivy. Instructor has brought a mosquito fogger and assigns divemaster to fog the immediate area to try and get the mosquitoes under some semblance of control. I have my kit all put together in the car so I pull on a wetsuit, defog my mask, and am pretty much ready to go.
So I watched while the other students struggle to figure out cam bands, how to attach regulators to tanks, hose routing, and how to get into 7mm farmer johns and hoods. I ask if we're going to have buddy pairs or just go out as a group. Instructor says we'll sorta pair up in the water. This sort of thing is one of my pet peeves, either I have a buddy or I don't, I don't want to try to watch 3 other divers. Instructor talks us through BWRAF and no one notices that I don't have a weight belt (because I'm in 3mm) and don't have an "octo" (because I dive a long hose).
We get out in the water which, thankfully, gets us away from the mosquitoes. After some discussion on the surface around the float and flag we pair up and descend. I'm with a diver who I can only identify as pink fins. Pink fins has trouble descending but we eventually get over to the platform they've set up and do some buoyancy exercises. I swam through the hoops sideways and upside down to make it fun. I don't think of myself as having really great trim or buoyancy control but the other students were all over the place.
We did some navigation exercises which my buddy never really quite got right. I'm not sure how good her compass was, so maybe that was part of it.
I did see a good sized northern pike, probably 6-8 pounds, quite close.
There was some discussion of starting the night dive at that point, but my buddy's cylinder was down to 1200 PSI and after some deliberation the instructor decided that we needed more air.
We braved the mosquitoes and poison ivy again and switched tanks and got lights and flashers. I had brought my lights on the first dive. I have a DGX 600 and a DGX 800, and if I think there's any chance I'll need them, they are clipped to my chest d-rings and held down with a piece of inner tube, one on each side.
The night dive was fun, lots to see, pretty good viz except where someone had silted out the water.
Before we reached the turn point my buddy's (rented) light started to get dim. It was a halogen one and I could tell that it was getting more yellow and less bright. So, no surprise when it finally went out, and I gave her my light and pulled out my backup one. We continued the dive for a few more minutes, turned, came back.
Today we're doing a deep dive.
I'm bringing a pony.
