Hehe, here is our personal report I wrote to share with some email friends...
Santa Rosa Practice Dive Trip A Resounding Success
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Haha, our intent for driving 220 miles to this tiny New Mexico town once famous on old Route 66 as a good spot for spring water from an old volcano vent was for a dress rehearsal - to practice preparing, packing, and diving the spring mostly to discover any mistakes, weaknesses, or problems we might otherwise incur on a real dive trip - and boy did we! I am just so thankful we were fumbling around there and not on a real trip, and with no friends present as witnesses
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I try to think thru my equipment in detail while packing, preparing it and myself both to be as close to ready to dive on arrival and not be farting around the parking lot, i.e. recharging all my batteries, loading batteries into all devices, greasing O-rings - perhaps excessively mission oriented? My home bud is to be admired for his laid back attitude I suppose, more of a throw it all in the bag, itll come together when we get there type who seems to enjoy mulling around the parking lot as much as getting down in the water. We seem to complement each other well - or it could be that we put up with each other in spite of ourselves.
We have our routine set-ups for tail-gate diving there, large tarp laid out behind the pickup to keep us from creating a mud puddle when get return dripping from the dives, a couple of folding canvas chairs, insulated bucket of warm water with a plastic jar for pouring inside out wetsuits, AstroTurf on the tailgate so the metal tanks wont slide as we strap on our BCs/flotation control vests, and we got that laid out quickly on arrival Saturday noonish. I know that I tend to be too hyphenated for many and probably pester Jerry too much on diving details so I have tried to ease off on him some this trip.
I was soon ready to saddle-up and hit it, but Jerry had his learning experiences
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Hold on, gotta load batteries in my camera. Hmm, theyre not charged? I charged them last week! No Jer, rechargeables are not storage batteries; they have to be refreshed often. So he plugged in his back-up batteries.
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Okay let me put some in my strobe, too.
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Hmm wonder why my camera wont change modes? That took both of us a while to figure out. I hadnt worked with that old camera I sold him when I upgraded in so long and we both forgot that you have to slide open the lens cover.
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Here Don, put these batteries into my dive light.
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Damn, where is my dive computer? I loaned him my backup.
Preparation means different things to different people
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Hehe, then I had problems. Id bought some nifty neoprene socks to wear with my cold water booties for extra warmth, and Ive been afraid that I may have put on some winter weight and - I could not get my nifty socks on?! Just couldnt reach. Had to get Jer to slide them on for me. It occurred to me later: Put on bottom half of dive suit, then the socks and booties, then the top half that restricted my bending over - in addition to my bit of midriff.
It took a while but we finally got into the water, chest deep on the ledge anyway for our final buddy check and last pieces of gear donning
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Uh Jer, youre BC strap is twisted. Take it off and lets fix that
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Whoa, one of my gloves float off and over the spillway! He unsaddled again to go pull it out of the creek.
> Runaway BC Inflator!! A serious risk perhaps caused by dragging it in sand somewhere, got it cleared, had a quick talk about how dangerous that would be if it happened 80 ft down and the fast actions needed to prevent a runaway ascent, Embolism, death, etc.
Ok? Ok.
> And then he couldnt sink?! 26 pounds of lead is exactly what he should have needed with that kit as weve dived together enough for me to know that too, and he said he loaded 26#, but he couldnt sink? So he unsaddled a third time so I could hold his floating kit while he went back for a few more pounds.
Arrg! After my standing chest deep in water for 15-30 minutes, we finally got to dive. Im not perfect, I have problems and mistakes at times too, but its fun to rag on Jerry when he has so many more. I intended to check his weight counts later, but forgot.
Jer often has problems clearing his ears as we descend into increasing pressures, but this time I experienced my first nasal squeeze. Wow, those are painful! I slowly cleared it okay, but this was the first time he dropped faster than I did. After all this it seemed like a major accomplishment for us to finally get to the bottom of the Hole, but we made it, swam around a while, Jer shot some pics, and then it occurred to me that in all the confusion Id forgotten to grab my reel to shoot my Sausage marker from depth like Id planned on practicing.
Next dive!
After the longest list and time period of problems getting a dive started ever, I guess we took the longest parking lot break ever - didnt want to rush things back into the same troublesome rut. The second dive went much more smoothly, no real problems, so I got out my reel and Sausage to inflate and shoot it up, had some problems getting it to fill, messed with it, got disoriented in the murky visibility, looked around to see how deep I was still -
Ooops, Im on the surface?! Hadn't noticed I'd been drifting up. Blew that exercise! Went back down to the 20 ft platform for an extended Safety Stop and just accepted this was not our day for diving.
Tomorrow has got to go better, I thought as I hung onto the platform at 20 ft.
We got out, unsaddled, undressed from our dive suits, loaded up the rig and called it a day - moved into the Best Western, hung up out suits, beanies, gloves, booties, to dry, cleaned up and met our most recent Instructor, his wife the dive shop manager, and their students for supper at Josephs fine local dining. Goooood food enhanced by the fact that our friends had been diving nearby Perch Lake followed by an afternoon classroom while we fumbled around with our shortcomings and hadnt seen us with all of our problems. Next morning, back to the Hole
Our third time to get in went so much more smoothly after the previous days fiascoes and soon we were ready to leave the ledge and meet at the 20 ft platform for the extra buddy & bubble check I like to do before getting on into a dive. I dont think any of the agencies teach such, something I picked up from more experienced divers, and it gives Jer time to clear his often troublesome ears while we do a quick look at each others kits checking for potential problems.
Jer? Jer? Where is Jerry? No way, not happening, ear blocked, he could not get to 20 ft for anything. We surfaced, he passed me his camera, I suggested holding onto the down line to work down a gentler descent, and he tried again.
No go: we surfaced again.
Jer, did you take your allergy meds last night? And this morning? No, no. Uh, I know I have said this before, but how in the hell can anyone who has ever had an ear blocked forget to take their Sudafeds?! We tried a third time, gave up and called the day. Except we werent finished actually.
I was first to approach the stairs and a couple of newbies asked me about Jers camera I was carrying, so I started chatting with them - then couldnt find Jer?! He wasnt on top waiting, he wasnt floating,
Where the hell is he?! Ive learned tho - dont rush into emergency dive mode to check the Hole for bodies simply because Im missing one; get out of the water first and see if the other simply went to the pickup without telling me? There he was; we discussed that a bit too. Body searches are never fun, but unneeded ones are a real drag.
Hot shower at the hotel before checking out, good home made burger & fries at a local diner, and homeward bound. There is going to be a bad dive day for everyone, and a bad weekend even at times, but maybe I need to go back to nagging Jerry more
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Maybe we can do some clear water dives Sunday morning.
