Aurora Reservoir Trip Report 5/22

[ddavies]

I got to go 6/4 to Aurora. Viz was about 15ft Water at depth 58. Underwater Phantazies had a couple of classes there at the time. Ron, my computer is not back yet but I took your advice and bought gages for backup. It was harder to dive with gages instead of the computer. Actually, I was only underwater for about 15 minutes.

The diver I was with had just gotten his OW. I watched him closely on the desent. He did not seem to have any trouble equalizing on the descent and he signaled OK. We headed in our search pattern for the plane. (I am determined to find that thing) We were down 15 minutes when he went 'nuts'. He signaled he wanted to go up and he grabed is inflater and instead of going up he dumped his air and started down, he also started breathing really hard. The only time I have seen that many bubbles is when we did the free flowing regulator in class. Any way, he starts spinning like a top. I swam down and grabed his arm, checked to make sure the regulator is in his mouth and he is breathing and then I take him to the surface. Since he was keeping his regulator in his mouth, and was just breathing hard, I did not see a need to dump our weights. When we got to the surface he said his ear had popped and he was in so much pain he could not see straight. He was out of it enough to not realize I had grabbed him and 'dragged' him to the surface. It was scary to see how quickly you can go from OK to serious trouble. Staying close, keeping an eye on each other paid off this time.

At the time I did not know what was happening. I assumed he was having a panic attack, since we were deep enough to not see the surface and also could not see the bottom. And with limited viz, I thought he had 'freaked'

I thought I would pass this story along to remind everyone to be safe.

Dan

 

[RonFrank]

Speaking of which, I'm up for a rescue class in the fall, or even early winter? You want to do this together? I'm NOT into doing this local, I'd rather do the hole after summer.

I think I will be dying to dive by then.

Way to keep your head, and help out a newbie. Maybe I'm not such a bad dive buddy after all since I have not gone nuts on you yet.... :11:

Hey, are you planning on the Res in two weeks?

Our group has kinda fizzeled, but I'm definately in.

Also I'm thinking of the gorge on Labor day weekend. This would be camping most likely in our case. I thinking of bringing the FAM as it a really nice place diving or no.

In any event I would encourage people to post on the NEW THREADS that are specific to each trip rather than on than other threads (like this) that are not really associated with the event.

Dan (or anyone for that matter), feel free to PM, email or call if you want talk before Aurora. At this time, I'm not sure exactly how many will plan on being there since no one has really responded to the pot luck thread. I have talked to Greg in the past few days (CAPTSNOT) and sounds like he is going.

 

[ddavies]

Let's keep in touch on the Rescue class. I am interested in that one and maybe the class on equipment. I think it would be good to know more about the 'stuff' we use.

Dan

 

[knotical]

BRAVO Dan! The more divers like you around, the safer I feel.

I look forward to meeting you (and the others).

 

[DistanceFish]

Rescue Diver course.

Hello, I stumbled upon this forum while looking for water temps at Aurora Res. DDavies and RonFrank, I am also planning to do Rescue Diver in the Fall (on a path to OWI and beyond.) I'd be glad to coordinate a class with you guys if you're interested. It would be great to meet some local people with whom to dive.

 

[RonFrank]

Rescue Diver course.

Hello, I stumbled upon this forum while looking for water temps at Aurora Res. DDavies and RonFrank, I am also planning to do Rescue Diver in the Fall (on a path to OWI and beyond.) I'd be glad to coordinate a class with you guys if you're interested. It would be great to meet some local people with whom to dive.

Dan and I may do Rescue together sometime in the winter, we have really not done more than discuss the possibility, and we are both interested.

To do this course you should have at least 20 logged dives, and you must be AOW.

We would likely do this at the Hole, and we generally have used A1 for classes, however I have a DrySuit class (got a freebie) that I will be doing at the hole with a Shop I have not used in the past, Coral Reef.

 

[dimitrik]

Rescue Diver course.

Hello, I stumbled upon this forum while looking for water temps at Aurora Res. DDavies and RonFrank, I am also planning to do Rescue Diver in the Fall (on a path to OWI and beyond.) I'd be glad to coordinate a class with you guys if you're interested. It would be great to meet some local people with whom to dive.

DistanceFish,

What cert agency are you planning on going through for rescue. I know PADI requires AOW before rescue while SSI doesn't. As far as advanced goes, SSI won't let you do it until you have logged some dives (25) while PADI will let you do it right after OW. Not trying to bash either one, just want to make sure you are aware of the rules . I actually have both. PADI for OW and SSI for Nitrox.

I'm also trying to get to Aurora Res sometime within the next month to try out my new BP/Wing setup. I spoke to Ron about this already and i'm sure he will be game once he comes down from his Florida Key's high. Either way, once we get a date finalized i'll make sure we post. If we get a big enough group togehter maybe we can do a little BBQ as well.

 

[shiekarj]

About 1:30 we finally hit the water (MUCH L8R than planned). We swam out to the marker which *SHOULD* have marked a downed Cessna. It was a fair distance from shore, maybe 300 yards. We decended to about 35' (bottom), and no plane. The visibility was crap here (2 feet likely less). I attempted to do circles around the chain trying to find the plane. Dan thought maybe I was loosing my Nav skills, but as he described my circles Later I realized I did exactly what I attempted. After about 10 minutes of finding NOTHING with poor vis, I decided to head back toward shore, so I headed East (I had taken a bearing at the surface). The Vis improved dramatically as we went from about 30' to 25'. There was also a Thermocline at about 25' (water temp at max depth was 53F, and about 58F at 20').

I am not sure if you have been to Aurora Res lately, but the Cessna was recently moved back to its proper location. Rumor has it, someone moved it as a prank. As of a few weeks ago, the plane was at the bottom of the chain with the round white marker attached to a concrete block. It actually was not very far from where you were looking, but with the poor vis....

 

[RonFrank]

I am not sure if you have been to Aurora Res lately, but the Cessna was recently moved back to its proper location. Rumor has it, someone moved it as a prank. As of a few weeks ago, the plane was at the bottom of the chain with the round white marker attached to a concrete block. It actually was not very far from where you were looking, but with the poor vis....

We actually found the plane a few times after our initial failure. Having it where it belongs will definately make things easier, but it was kinda fun having to search for it... And initally ANNOYING!

Actually I believe they moved the marker not the plane. The rumor is confirmed, a guy moved the marker, and was then attempting to move the plane. He wanted it in deeper water due to the drought, the plane apparently was sticking out of the water... Hard to believe the Res was that low.