SeaJay once bubbled...
But the flip side of that is that MHK had no problems. Sure, he's an expert... And I'm not... But that's not the point. The point is that it was possible to have enough skill to manage it. And I didn't have those skills. I simply was not skilled enough to handle a 5 mil suit in 20' of water.
And let's face it... Handling a 5 mil suit in 20' of water takes a little finesse... But on the "skill chart," doing so isn't too tough. I mean, compare the skill of handling a 5 mil in 20' of water to the skill of penetration at 240'... Or diving sucessfully in a cave in Mexico... Or deep deco with a dozen other divers in zero vis and 3 knots... Or handling an OOA situation with a paniked buddy. I mean, by comparison, handling a 5 mil in 20' should be cheese, right?
So the big picture... And the part that was so hard to take... Was the fact that I simply did not have the skills I needed to be safe underwater. Heck, you shoulda seen my out of air drills... They were horrible, and very much made worse by the terrible bouyancy problems.
Seajay,
I am really puzzled here. You admit not being able to handle a 5 mil suit in 20' of water, but then you choose to do a solo dive. Did you not learn anything about not diving solo? What logic did you use to justify diving alone when your skills are not what they need to be? As you state further down it should be cheese. Shouldn't it be cheese to do a solo dive? Do you classify your self as a Darwin candidate? I might be a bit harsh here but man you just admitted you couldn't do it and you go out and endanger yourself. I think your ego wasn't bruised enough myself. You really didn't use much of what was taught when you made the solo dive choice. I hope your really digesting this class and make significant changes in your thought and logic processes.
I will say, as everyone else pointed out, your writing style is wonderful. Just make changes in your diving style so your around to keep writing.
DSAO
