Are you comfortable mid-water?

[dsteding]

It seems like just the right set of conditions can just play optical tricks on me and I don't see any reason to think that it can't happen again so I look for chances or excuses to practice stuff midwater.

Interesting, I think comfort in this case can only come from time spent midwater. In the past year, I've probably logged 100 hours underwater, but only--maybe--3 of those were spent in true midwater situations (i.e., no bottom in sight) and most of that is in small chunks on ascent or descent. I think that ratio needs to change.

 

[do it easy]

I've been doing/practicing about everything you can think of midwater for a long time. But...there have still been times when midwater with no reference that I felt disoriented. It seems like just the right set of conditions can just play optical tricks on me and I don't see any reason to think that it can't happen again so I look for chances or excuses to practice stuff midwater.

I was in blue water once and I lost the boat- it was so disorienting, that I had to use the compass to make sure that I had turned completely around to look for the boat. I coudln't tell how fast or far I was turning without it. Other than being lost, it was a wonderfully sublime experience.

 

[TeddyDiver]

Trying to practise time to time. Ok (not perfect) with a computer depth reading, trying to learn it with my ears only (have very sensitive ears).

 

[deepblueme]

You can see some pretty cool stuff out there in the Blue Water.

One of my favorite dives was in 60ft off of Bimini, I took a compass heading on the wall turned around and started swimmin for about 5min. I was just deep enough to barely see the surface but no bottom or sides when along came a shool of Blue Runners that took 10 min to pass and all the jellyfish like animals that I saw.
I would like to have had Dr. Bill with me to tell me what I was looking at.
One of the things looked like a string of little blocks the size of pencil erasers about 10 feet long.

 

[MikeFerrara]

I spend and have spent quit a bit of time midwater. I don't know how else to explain it.
It doesn't usually happen when there is no reference at all as much as when there is a optically confising reference. When it happens, I usually just pick one focal point until my head catches up with what all my sensory inputs are telling me. Make any sense?

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

... it was a wonderfully sublime experience.

One of my earliest mid-water experiences was diving the wall at Hornby Island looking for six-gills. A few times I found myself out over the wall at 100+ feet, shining my light down into the blackness below me (the bottom was probably 100 feet or more below me) ... I guess "sublime" would be a good way to describe the feeling. Of course, I was pretty narced at the time ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[gcbryan]

One of my earliest mid-water experiences was diving the wall at Hornby Island looking for six-gills. A few times I found myself out over the wall at 100+ feet, shining my light down into the blackness below me (the bottom was probably 100 feet or more below me) ... I guess "sublime" would be a good way to describe the feeling. Of course, I was pretty narced at the time ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Looking for Sixgills here at Cove 2 is a practical application for mid-water diving. When viz is poor but you are looking for Sixgills you can't maintain sight of the bottom or you will be too low to see a Sixgill if one does come by.

It sounds like this scenario is a practical application of your AOW mid-water navigation skills test.

 

[Gary D.]

If your buoyancy control is good enough to stay off the bottom, at say 5’, then mid water will not be a problem. The only difference is you don’t have a reference point to look at.

To combat no reference point, look at your gauges or listen to your body. Your ears will speak volumes as to, am I going up or down.

Mid water stuff is more of a mind game than anything. Look at it like a pilot or IFR.

You don’t want to be very heavy when there is 7.5 miles of water under you.

Gary D.

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

I'm pretty comfortable mid-water, with all of my skills. My first dives after OW/AOW, were wall/drift dives in Cozumel. In 3000+fsw there's no "bottom" to go to, to get straightened out, if something happens. (Well, there is, but you'll end up flat as a pancake..) LOL

I think the secret is proper weighting. If I'm fighting to stay down during my safety stop due to being underweighted, that's when I have the toughest time.

 

[H2Andy]

You don’t want to be very heavy when there is 7.5 miles of water under you.

i bet the narcosis feels real good after, say, the first two miles ...