Aug 8th MAG boat dive...

[mikeguerrero]

Everyone,

You all are hilarious!!!

You guys made me laugh really hard with everything you posted, Mike M, Ron you are funny...LOL

Chris thanks for the feedback on the mask...

Michelle, thanks for the vote of confidence in my diving, I appreciate that since a lot of divers look up to your opinion...

Michelle, you are right about me wanting to try out my 19 cf pony, and I'm glad you said, "Mike, I would feel better if you didn't bring it on the dive", I listened and value your advice and to me I understood it as, "Mike, I want safety for our team and I don't understand that configuration on you and it can lead us to trouble".

I think I need to communicate with you better on the pre-dive plan, because that is how I'm being trained moving forward and I failed to ask you thorough questions before the first dive.

When you couldn't clear your ear on that first deep dive, I didn't want to let you out of my sight, two reasons, I've been trained not to leave my wingman for any reason, I have before and have run into trouble myself and to my partner.

I know you had a different protocol of going down and had I asked before the dive, I would've followed, sorry for that.

As a result when I went up to you and noticed Chris still descending I got very confused and tried rushing back down to catch him and ended up not being able to clear my ear, thankfully I cleared it before I lost the group.

Also when I came up on 400 psi and wouldn't drop back down under the kelp, sorry but I should've told you, I had a bad experience with a previous diver that left me a lone in that kelp before. As a result I got entangled in the Kelp with the same amount of gas, panicked and felt my walls closing in.

As I drove home that day, I thought to myself is diving what I want to be doing, and I later found out that yes it is, but it's the buddy system that I need to learn. They are the most important thing in diving, all the best equipment cannot save you, it's your buddy.

So if I seemed odd at the surface it was because of that, and I didn't want to make a scene at the boat about my call to remain on the surface, I did find a clearing and got to the boat.

On our second dive, I didn't want to leave your sight because divers have left me alone in the past and I know what that feels like to me. I know you are a very experienced, competent diver, and didn't require that I be there, however, I will always be there because of the diver that I want to be, hope you didn't mind seeing my red mask staring you down while you handled your ordeal.

I'm learning so much from all of you, and just want to thank all of you for giving me the opportunity to dive.

Thanks,

MG

 

[Anti-Hero]

Casey,

Thanks for the feedback. Everyone can relax, I'm not interested in a FFM at all. I simply wanted to have fun with the post on the Sea Nettles.

Mike - I'm not trying to discourage or encourage you in any direction when it comes to using FFM. I was just relaying my experience with the EXO26.

I personally dislike them for a number of reasons, but they are a necessity for public safety diving where chemical and bio hazards are the rule not the exception.

 

[eric gundrum]

Mike,

I want to thank you for sharing your experiences so openly. It's good to have insight into how a buddy may feel less comfortable than I do with some situations. And, it helps me recall my own experiences and better appreciate all that we go through as we learn to be the best divers we can be.

Prior to my recent AOW class, I couldn't imagine being panicked. I just felt confident with my skills and being level-headed. Then I did a pool session where I had to take off my mask. I had so much trouble with that, it made me question if I should be diving at all. I couldn't sleep that night. :nailbiter:

I also was learning to use a dry suite in that class. At the end of my pool session the instructor sent me off to practice my skills for the remaining few minutes. I think he was surprised when I said I wanted to practice mask removal rather than buoyancy. Thankfully he showed me some tricks to help me keep from sucking water in through my nose, but still I'm not comfortable with breathing underwater without a mask. I know I need to practice it, but every time I think about it, my anxiety level shoots way up. Sometimes I think I'll just buy a backup mask instead, but I know that's not the right answer.

Anyway, thanks for sharing.

 

[micboucher]

Everyone,

You all are hilarious!!!

You guys made me laugh really hard with everything you posted, Mike M, Ron you are funny...LOL

Chris thanks for the feedback on the mask...

Michelle, thanks for the vote of confidence in my diving, I appreciate that since a lot of divers look up to your opinion...

Michelle, you are right about me wanting to try out my 19 cf pony, and I'm glad you said, "Mike, I would feel better if you didn't bring it on the dive", I listened and value your advice and to me I understood it as, "Mike, I want safety for our team and I don't understand that configuration on you and it can lead us to trouble".

I think I need to communicate with you better on the pre-dive plan, because that is how I'm being trained moving forward and I failed to ask you thorough questions before the first dive.

When you couldn't clear your ear on that first deep dive, I didn't want to let you out of my sight, two reasons, I've been trained not to leave my wingman for any reason, I have before and have run into trouble myself and to my partner.

I know you had a different protocol of going down and had I asked before the dive, I would've followed, sorry for that.

As a result when I went up to you and noticed Chris still descending I got very confused and tried rushing back down to catch him and ended up not being able to clear my ear, thankfully I cleared it before I lost the group.

Also when I came up on 400 psi and wouldn't drop back down under the kelp, sorry but I should've told you, I had a bad experience with a previous diver that left me a lone in that kelp before. As a result I got entangled in the Kelp with the same amount of gas, panicked and felt my walls closing in.

As I drove home that day, I thought to myself is diving what I want to be doing, and I later found out that yes it is, but it's the buddy system that I need to learn. They are the most important thing in diving, all the best equipment cannot save you, it's your buddy.

So if I seemed odd at the surface it was because of that, and I didn't want to make a scene at the boat about my call to remain on the surface, I did find a clearing and got to the boat.

On our second dive, I didn't want to leave your sight because divers have left me alone in the past and I know what that feels like to me. I know you are a very experienced, competent diver, and didn't require that I be there, however, I will always be there because of the diver that I want to be, hope you didn't mind seeing my red mask staring you down while you handled your ordeal.

I'm learning so much from all of you, and just want to thank all of you for giving me the opportunity to dive.

Thanks,

MG

Mike,

I'm really glad you didn't decide to give up diving. Each dive is a learning opportunity and it sounds like you're really open to learning from every experience. That's great! I too learned a lot about pre-dive planning and the importance of asking the right questions with new buddies that day. I think knowing your own gear and feeling comfortable enough to handle unexpected situations yourself is best but having a good buddy and knowing what to expect is really important. I didn't mind you hanging out with me at all...I just thought you might be running low on air yourself. That was another thing I learned...always watch my NDL. :doh2:

So when are you going to do your 100th? Are you going to follow the old tradition here in our balmy waters?

 

[bbianchi]

My 100th just worked out to be not in the cool green waters of Monterey .

 

[bbianchi]

You should ask Brandon about the motion of the ocean....

I wanted to die.

Lesson learned there don't boat dive shortly after finishing an intense course of antibiotics. That really got me, never in my life have I felt that sick to my stomach. Once that rolling stopped I started feeling better, but man I was having trouble walking and even keeping my eyes open towards the end. There's lots I learned from this but the biggest lesson was I never want to pay $100 to feel like I want to die again. Ill be getting some motion sickness patches (one for me, one as a backup). The only other time I had gotten sick was on the way back from Carmel in 14' seas about 10 minutes from the harbor (figures).

 

[sarita75]

Okay, I gotta tell you this Brandon. Robin and i have been tee-heeing about the fact that the boat crew gave you a bucket to be sick in. What was so funny is that the bucket had a slogan on the side which read "we make boating more fun." And then they was you leaning over it. Poor guy. We were so tempted to take a picture, but refrained.


Posted via Mobile Device

 

[bbianchi]

LOL, oh man.

I vaguely remember the bucket, granted I have no idea what it said. That's quite ironic I suppose. They certainly didn't make it fun... im not sure what more could have been done but one would think boats would have something on board to assist in situations like this. Be it potent ginger or whatnot.