dsteding
Contributor
Last night I did a practice dive with three really talented divers (I was the newbie on the dive, for instance, this was the first dive where I actually successfully exectuted a back kick . . . and I only have around 90 dives). We spent the entire dive between 40 fsw and the surface practicing ascents and such. It was dark, and vis would have been about 15 feet at best anyways.
For me, mid-water work is something I've been exposed to, but I clearly need to work on it more. I had my moments of success: shot a bag from 40 feet (success!)--which went well until about 20 feet when I started asking myself "hmmmm, why is there so much slack in my line, did my bag sink . . . " (no dummy, not the bag sinking, you are ascending, oops, there is a big failure).
Our second ascent went better, I managed to hang at 20 feet for 8 minutes with only minor swimming to reposition myself at times. The rest of the crew was doing valve drills, OOAs, and generally hamming it up and having a good time. I had decided to really focus on buoyancy control, trim, and generally being quiet in the water-- I'm taking baby steps to build a solid platform in mid-water.
Afterwards, a friend sent me an email on a related topic, discussing a recent death here that was arguably the result of a failure to successfully execute a mid-water air share. This got me thinking that mid-water skills are not just something for tech divers, but are useful skills for all of us to have. That made me ask myself the question of how comfortable I am mid-water. I can execute ascents, and air shares generally go fine, but I'm committed to really hone these skills. I want to get SOLID mid-water. Lots of practice ahead of me.
So, I thought I'd toss these questions out there (because these are the questions I asked myself):
1) Where are mid-water skills in terms of priorities for you?
2) Where are you in terms of your skills?
I think these can be easily overlooked, and last night's I was reminded that there is a HUGE difference between doing skills in sight of the bottom and doing them without visual references (I, for one, was in love with the bolt snap tied to the line at 20 feet).
[final note: I came away from last night loving diving, but that is related to the Type A in me that loves challenges-in a weird way this was the most fun I've had on a dive in a long time]
For me, mid-water work is something I've been exposed to, but I clearly need to work on it more. I had my moments of success: shot a bag from 40 feet (success!)--which went well until about 20 feet when I started asking myself "hmmmm, why is there so much slack in my line, did my bag sink . . . " (no dummy, not the bag sinking, you are ascending, oops, there is a big failure).
Our second ascent went better, I managed to hang at 20 feet for 8 minutes with only minor swimming to reposition myself at times. The rest of the crew was doing valve drills, OOAs, and generally hamming it up and having a good time. I had decided to really focus on buoyancy control, trim, and generally being quiet in the water-- I'm taking baby steps to build a solid platform in mid-water.
Afterwards, a friend sent me an email on a related topic, discussing a recent death here that was arguably the result of a failure to successfully execute a mid-water air share. This got me thinking that mid-water skills are not just something for tech divers, but are useful skills for all of us to have. That made me ask myself the question of how comfortable I am mid-water. I can execute ascents, and air shares generally go fine, but I'm committed to really hone these skills. I want to get SOLID mid-water. Lots of practice ahead of me.
So, I thought I'd toss these questions out there (because these are the questions I asked myself):
1) Where are mid-water skills in terms of priorities for you?
2) Where are you in terms of your skills?
I think these can be easily overlooked, and last night's I was reminded that there is a HUGE difference between doing skills in sight of the bottom and doing them without visual references (I, for one, was in love with the bolt snap tied to the line at 20 feet).
[final note: I came away from last night loving diving, but that is related to the Type A in me that loves challenges-in a weird way this was the most fun I've had on a dive in a long time]
