DukeAMO
Contributor
DH and I had a lot of fun in our AOW + PPB class last weekend! I feel like we got about 200% better at our diving skills over the course of the weekend. This isn't too surprising considering the fact that we went from 5 logged dives and 100 minutes of underwater time to 12 logged dives and 300 minutes of underwater time! We still have a lot to learn, but I feel a lot more competent than I was before. Here's a quick summary of the dives (at Fantasy Lake NC).
Most of the dives were at an air temp around 70-75 degrees, surface water temp around 72 degrees. 5 mm Farmer John, 5 mm Shorty, Hood, Gloves, Boots. Most of us were chilled by the last dive of the day, but only one or two people were actually shivering. They were all sandy shore dives with little to no current or waves. The only noticeable current was from the spring near the deep dive site.
We had 7 students in the class. There was a family of 4 that was certified last year and then went on one dive vacation. There was another diver who was certified last year and had been on a couple of dive vacations. And there were DH and myself, who were just certified a couple of months ago. We had the instructor, assistant instructor, and 1-3 additional experienced divers along to help with things like weight/trim checks, video taping, tank fills, and setting up hoops.
Dive 1: Peak Performance Buoyancy Dive 1
Visibility: 20-25 ft Depth: 29 ft Time: 31 min
Trim while swimming: pretty good, slightly feet down
Kicking: not very effective - need to work on it
Hovering: feet kept floating down
Descending: slow
Sculling: not too much, but I could use my hands a bit less
Swimming through hoops: pretty good
Controlling depth with breath control: pretty good
We lost track of the 3rd person in our buddy group and got chewed out for that. We won't do that again!
Dive 2: Underwater Navigation Dive 1
We did some surface compass navigation before the dive.
Visibility: 20 ft Depth: 38 ft Time: 53 min
We measured kick cycles over 100 ft, then used that to measure the depth to a dock.
I found that my kick cycles were not consistent, since I'm still improving my finning technique. I'll have to re-calibrate my kick cycles later.
DH swims like a bat out of hell even when he's supposed to take his time!
Navigating using visual clues was easy for us. The out and back navigation was easy for us.
We struggled with the "square" navigation pattern for a while because we had a hard time controlling depth while concentrating on the compass, but after several tries we got the hang of it. We had to invent a buddy signal for "stop and correct your depth".
This dive lasted almost 2 hours because of surface swims and instruction/correction at the surface.
Some people got bad sunburn - wear sunscreen!
I struggled with ear equalization issues on this dive.
Dive 3: Night
We set up our gear and lights before sunset, and got into the water right at sunset. After a surface swim, we descended as twilight fell.
Visibility: 4 to 12 feet Depth: 38 feet Time: 22 minutes
We had to stay very close together because of the low visibility, and only sent one buddy pair at a time out on the navigation trial.
We did much better with staying with our buddy group of 3 starting with this dive.
It was a little cold, especially because we were still chilled from the last dive. But other than that, it was fun!
Swimming in very low vis was a challenge on the nav run. At one point it was difficult to see the compass 2 feet from our eyes.
It's cool seeing the lights of the group underwater.
Based on feedback from the PPB dive, I moved my tank up and also moved 6 lbs of weight to the top of the tank (ankle weights) and 6 lbs to the trim pockets. This fixed my trim and hovering problems.
Swimming back after the dive was cool, with all of the crickets, cicadas, and frogs chirping. It felt like camping.
I had my weighting dialed in by the end of this dive, with the instructor's help.
Drove back home for some well-deserved sleep...
Dive 4: Deep
This was first thing in the morning the next day. Some of us were more anxious than others (especially me).
Visibility: 10-15 feet Depth: 75 feet Time: 17 minutes
The bottom temperature was 52 degrees. It was cold enough to make us shiver and to make our faces sting, but we weren't below the thermocline long enough to get hypothermia.
The instructor was clever. He's had people freak out as it gets colder, and darker, and colder, and darker, so he sent the assistant instructor down to the bottom with a dive light. Right about the time you start to wonder just how cold and dark it will get, you can see the light below you and it's not so far away.
We had people hanging on to the line too much, so the buoy got pulled underwater many times. 25 feet under at one point (messed with our safety stop). People need to work to avoid doing that.
We practiced ascending and descending in a horizontal orientation.
At the bottom, I was somewhat affected by the cold, some anxiety, and possibly a bit of narcosis. I definitely had a hard time writing legibly on my slate, and I forgot what I was doing once or twice.
Breathing while looking up at depth is a bit difficult, even with a high-performance regulator. Best to avoid doing that too much.
We did a few simple tasks at depth, including color identification and tracking time/air pressure at a few different times. It didn't help that my wetsuit (and my arm) were so compressed that my slate and computer were practically falling off. I was shivering too much to fix them, plus the gloves didn't help with dexterity.
On our other dives we just swam in and did the safety stop while very gradually ascending along the bottom. For this one we did a true 3-minute safety stop at 20 feet.
But for all of the strangeness and cold, we all had fun on this dive! We had a nice adrenaline rush to enjoy on the way back.
We did dive 5 just for fun before returning to shore because everyone had plenty of air left.
Back on shore, we calculated SAC rates.
The instructor said that cold water breeds better divers. Hah! I hope he's right. He said diving in the Caribbean will be easy after this.
Dive 5: Fun
Visibility: 25 feet Depth: 27 feet Time: 23 minutes
We played around with the hoops under water. We swam back to shore underwater and checked out the fish on the way. The sunfish were nesting in the sand and guarding their nests. The bass was nesting in the bus and guarding his nest. A diver in another group got to close to the bass and the bass bit him. They do have teeth, apparently.
My buoyancy and trim were much better this time.
Dive 6: Wreck
Visibility: 10-15 feet Depth: 35 feet Time: 27 minutes
We set up our slates with a list of measurements and observations to take. (Highest and lowest points, deck depth, orientation, interesting things and hazards, etc.) We also measured our arm spans to use that later.
We were not allowed to lose buoyancy control on this dive, touch the bottom with anything but the depth gauge, or kick up silt.
The "wreck" was an old glass bottom boat. It was rusty and had some sharp things sticking out. Interesting features included a frog doll someone attached to the rail, the folding seats in the center, and a torpedo on the bow.
I tried using the frog kick more and more. It's a lot easier to frog kick when your trim and weighting is correct.
Dive 7: Peak Performance Buoyancy Dive 2
Only DH and I stayed for this class, so we got more individual feedback.
Visibility: 15-20 feet Depth: 36 feet Time: 34 minutes
DH and I led the underwater navigation to the wreck this time.
This was a fun dive.
We did things like staying on the side of the wreck with only a fingertip touching, then pushing off with the finger and swimming back with a minimum of movement. We did the same thing in the vertical direction.
We also practiced with a more challenging underwater hoops course.
I was quite good at hovering by the end of this. Practically no sculling or fin motion.
I was also getting much better at the frog kick. I did find it more efficient and effective than the flutter kick.
My trim was nearly perfect for most of this dive.
DH had some issues with one side of his BC collecting more air than the other. That made him fin more to stay level. Now that he's aware of it, he can work to correct that.
We got within 6 inches of the bottom to swim through hoops without touching the bottom.
We can still use more practice with the buoyancy skills, but we know what and how to practice now.
We did our safety stop for 3 minutes alone, with no visual reference or line. (The other divers were above us at the surface.) It was a challenge to hold our depth with just our depth gauges for reference, but we did it without much struggle. Definitely smoother than the safety stop after the deep dive.
Most of the dives were at an air temp around 70-75 degrees, surface water temp around 72 degrees. 5 mm Farmer John, 5 mm Shorty, Hood, Gloves, Boots. Most of us were chilled by the last dive of the day, but only one or two people were actually shivering. They were all sandy shore dives with little to no current or waves. The only noticeable current was from the spring near the deep dive site.
We had 7 students in the class. There was a family of 4 that was certified last year and then went on one dive vacation. There was another diver who was certified last year and had been on a couple of dive vacations. And there were DH and myself, who were just certified a couple of months ago. We had the instructor, assistant instructor, and 1-3 additional experienced divers along to help with things like weight/trim checks, video taping, tank fills, and setting up hoops.
Dive 1: Peak Performance Buoyancy Dive 1
Visibility: 20-25 ft Depth: 29 ft Time: 31 min
Trim while swimming: pretty good, slightly feet down
Kicking: not very effective - need to work on it
Hovering: feet kept floating down
Descending: slow
Sculling: not too much, but I could use my hands a bit less
Swimming through hoops: pretty good
Controlling depth with breath control: pretty good
We lost track of the 3rd person in our buddy group and got chewed out for that. We won't do that again!
Dive 2: Underwater Navigation Dive 1
We did some surface compass navigation before the dive.
Visibility: 20 ft Depth: 38 ft Time: 53 min
We measured kick cycles over 100 ft, then used that to measure the depth to a dock.
I found that my kick cycles were not consistent, since I'm still improving my finning technique. I'll have to re-calibrate my kick cycles later.
DH swims like a bat out of hell even when he's supposed to take his time!
Navigating using visual clues was easy for us. The out and back navigation was easy for us.
We struggled with the "square" navigation pattern for a while because we had a hard time controlling depth while concentrating on the compass, but after several tries we got the hang of it. We had to invent a buddy signal for "stop and correct your depth".
This dive lasted almost 2 hours because of surface swims and instruction/correction at the surface.
Some people got bad sunburn - wear sunscreen!
I struggled with ear equalization issues on this dive.
Dive 3: Night
We set up our gear and lights before sunset, and got into the water right at sunset. After a surface swim, we descended as twilight fell.
Visibility: 4 to 12 feet Depth: 38 feet Time: 22 minutes
We had to stay very close together because of the low visibility, and only sent one buddy pair at a time out on the navigation trial.
We did much better with staying with our buddy group of 3 starting with this dive.
It was a little cold, especially because we were still chilled from the last dive. But other than that, it was fun!
Swimming in very low vis was a challenge on the nav run. At one point it was difficult to see the compass 2 feet from our eyes.
It's cool seeing the lights of the group underwater.
Based on feedback from the PPB dive, I moved my tank up and also moved 6 lbs of weight to the top of the tank (ankle weights) and 6 lbs to the trim pockets. This fixed my trim and hovering problems.
Swimming back after the dive was cool, with all of the crickets, cicadas, and frogs chirping. It felt like camping.
I had my weighting dialed in by the end of this dive, with the instructor's help.
Drove back home for some well-deserved sleep...
Dive 4: Deep
This was first thing in the morning the next day. Some of us were more anxious than others (especially me).
Visibility: 10-15 feet Depth: 75 feet Time: 17 minutes
The bottom temperature was 52 degrees. It was cold enough to make us shiver and to make our faces sting, but we weren't below the thermocline long enough to get hypothermia.
The instructor was clever. He's had people freak out as it gets colder, and darker, and colder, and darker, so he sent the assistant instructor down to the bottom with a dive light. Right about the time you start to wonder just how cold and dark it will get, you can see the light below you and it's not so far away.
We had people hanging on to the line too much, so the buoy got pulled underwater many times. 25 feet under at one point (messed with our safety stop). People need to work to avoid doing that.
We practiced ascending and descending in a horizontal orientation.
At the bottom, I was somewhat affected by the cold, some anxiety, and possibly a bit of narcosis. I definitely had a hard time writing legibly on my slate, and I forgot what I was doing once or twice.
Breathing while looking up at depth is a bit difficult, even with a high-performance regulator. Best to avoid doing that too much.
We did a few simple tasks at depth, including color identification and tracking time/air pressure at a few different times. It didn't help that my wetsuit (and my arm) were so compressed that my slate and computer were practically falling off. I was shivering too much to fix them, plus the gloves didn't help with dexterity.
On our other dives we just swam in and did the safety stop while very gradually ascending along the bottom. For this one we did a true 3-minute safety stop at 20 feet.
But for all of the strangeness and cold, we all had fun on this dive! We had a nice adrenaline rush to enjoy on the way back.
We did dive 5 just for fun before returning to shore because everyone had plenty of air left.
Back on shore, we calculated SAC rates.
The instructor said that cold water breeds better divers. Hah! I hope he's right. He said diving in the Caribbean will be easy after this.
Dive 5: Fun
Visibility: 25 feet Depth: 27 feet Time: 23 minutes
We played around with the hoops under water. We swam back to shore underwater and checked out the fish on the way. The sunfish were nesting in the sand and guarding their nests. The bass was nesting in the bus and guarding his nest. A diver in another group got to close to the bass and the bass bit him. They do have teeth, apparently.
My buoyancy and trim were much better this time.
Dive 6: Wreck
Visibility: 10-15 feet Depth: 35 feet Time: 27 minutes
We set up our slates with a list of measurements and observations to take. (Highest and lowest points, deck depth, orientation, interesting things and hazards, etc.) We also measured our arm spans to use that later.
We were not allowed to lose buoyancy control on this dive, touch the bottom with anything but the depth gauge, or kick up silt.
The "wreck" was an old glass bottom boat. It was rusty and had some sharp things sticking out. Interesting features included a frog doll someone attached to the rail, the folding seats in the center, and a torpedo on the bow.
I tried using the frog kick more and more. It's a lot easier to frog kick when your trim and weighting is correct.
Dive 7: Peak Performance Buoyancy Dive 2
Only DH and I stayed for this class, so we got more individual feedback.
Visibility: 15-20 feet Depth: 36 feet Time: 34 minutes
DH and I led the underwater navigation to the wreck this time.
This was a fun dive.
We did things like staying on the side of the wreck with only a fingertip touching, then pushing off with the finger and swimming back with a minimum of movement. We did the same thing in the vertical direction.
We also practiced with a more challenging underwater hoops course.
I was quite good at hovering by the end of this. Practically no sculling or fin motion.
I was also getting much better at the frog kick. I did find it more efficient and effective than the flutter kick.
My trim was nearly perfect for most of this dive.
DH had some issues with one side of his BC collecting more air than the other. That made him fin more to stay level. Now that he's aware of it, he can work to correct that.
We got within 6 inches of the bottom to swim through hoops without touching the bottom.
We can still use more practice with the buoyancy skills, but we know what and how to practice now.
We did our safety stop for 3 minutes alone, with no visual reference or line. (The other divers were above us at the surface.) It was a challenge to hold our depth with just our depth gauges for reference, but we did it without much struggle. Definitely smoother than the safety stop after the deep dive.
