Day 4: Now or never.
We switched it up a bit and got out of the shop asap and were at the dive site early.
Dive 4 and 5 had to get done and Dan called these the "Show me" dives. These are the dives where it counts and the most difficult including bag deployments, unconscious diver rescues, S drills, valve drills, no mask swims, OOG ascent with SMB deployment while holding stops. Basically everything in the course was included.
I had been nervous (and at times downright stressed) during the previous days. Today I was clam. The guys on my team commented on this as well and I just sort of felt "myself" again.
I knew we'd do it. The only thing I had been worried about, the no mask swim, was a none issue. These guys were going to be there. I knew it. So even if I had problems getting my mask back under my hood (the thing fits very tight around the mask) I knew that they would be there, understand, and help me get it sorted out.
Dive 4: No mask swim went great. I actually had to remember to throw in a couple of kicks, basically I was cargo and the guys moved me down the line. My hood inflated a bunch as I was clearing my mask and I had to 'purge my hood' which made feel like a bit of a dork, but I stayed fairly well in trim. The kicks went ok and it was onto the unconscious diver recovery. Dan demonstrated and made it look pretty damn easy. TC was next and he did a decent job, turned the guy over too early (15 fsw) but got him to the surface didn't let him go at any point. I took careful notice as I was next. I made sure to get the suit vented, ensure his suit was fully open, dumped my wing, got his feakin manifold stabbing me in the chest and then I slowed down. I took a bit of time getting him neutral and then managed to get the ride going. During this I learned an important lesson: I can't see my depth gauge if it's not turned down a bit all I see is a reflection. No matter, I used the TC's vytec to read the depth. Which worked great until we got into the crappy vis at the top and I no longer had a sense of depth. So I turned him, inflated the heck out of his wing and then mine. All in all I think it would do in an emergency. The stability of the wide doubles wing actually helps coming off the bottom
We managed to NOT get our lines tangled during the SMB deployment. But the team broke down, we were all too busy worrying about deploying the bags. Once they were deployed we managed to stay within sight of each other, not get turned around in the current and we got close to holding the stops. We got another "not half bad" from Dan. I was starting to feel rather good about these, as this seemed to indicate that noone died.
Dive 5: The final dive. Make it or break it!
It was time to show the valve & s-drills, do an OOA ascent while deploying a bag and holding 2 stops. No problem, right? Well, I don't know what the hell I was thinking, but I decided now was the time to properly tuck in my inflator under the bungee. A thinking diver would have left good enough alone, but noooooooo, that would have been too easy for me. So I messed up my buoyancy while Diver 2 was doing his valve drill. The TC stepped in as I was cursing myself and fighting to get back into the right position (I was diver 3 today). Still kicking myself it was time for me to do my valve drill, this time using Dan's light so he could see if could handle it. Well wouldn't you know it, my valve drill was 'not half bad' and apparently during the s-drill I also did the right things with the light cord (though a few times during the day 4 dives I had to use both hands to clip stuff off, but I did get it done eventually.
I had asked Dan to let me know if I got too far behind on time at any point due to futzing with the addition of the light and I'd just lip it off and get on with the skills as I wanted to make sure that I didn't jeopardize the team success, after all it wasn't the other guys fault that my plans had fallen through...
TC had issues with his valve drill and started over, but he eventually got it done, as did diver 2. I ended up donating on the way up, but as TC pulled the bag out of his pocket it tuned out that his spool had unraveled. Oh noooo.... He did eventually get it sorted out, but he was kicking himself as he already dropped a double ender on the previous dive and had to run to the car to borrow one! We got a bit delayed and Dan criticized us for not just dropping the spool and using a different spool & bag combo, after all we had 2 others in the team. I had debated pulling my stuff out of my pocket, but at the time decided not to as I didn't want to add to the tangle. I should have indicated to the TC to leave it and then handed off the smb and spool. Lesson learned. Anyway, we got off the bottom eventually and held the stops not to bad
TC was very upset with himself for the valve drill mixup and the spool entanglement and I wasn't too happy with my buoyancy issues. But all in all I thought we'd not done too badly.
Next: The final review
Back to the shop it was. We had a nice lunch (bit late but we needed to eat) and everyone was upbeat. After all, the diving was done, we only had the exam left and then Dan was going to tell us how we did. I figured that I'd missed the Tech pass anyways, but that should be ok as a Rec pass is still nothing to sneeze at. I was sure I didn't fail as I didn't display anything completely unsafe on day 4 and besides one major buoyancy "Whoops" managed to keep it together.
Dan completed the final course slides, we took the exam (and took a long time) and all did fairly well.
And now the moments of truth. Dan threw up the slide with the Rec pass criteria. He read through it, and told us that while we all pretty much needed work, we had all made a Rec pass. From his comments the day before and during the dives, I believe most of us expected to make the Rec, but many were there for the Tech. For those of you that have looked at the standards, you know that tech level skills list is much shorter, but it's the one that packs a punch. 3 feet of target depth, proficiency using a can light, valve drill, proficiency using a back kick were the big ones. Dan went around the room and asked us what we thought. The 3 guys before me were all not sure. Dan told them he'd get back to them and to think about it.
My turn came and I started talking about how I didn't know how I did with the light on day 4 and Dan gave me a slightly impatient 'Don't worry about the light, do you think you met the requirements". I told him that except for the one buoyancy screwup, today I thought that "I met those requirements". Dan said "I think you did too, as a matter of fact you were a pleasant surprise". The lesson here folks: Suck really bad on days 1 and 2 and the lower expectations will help you on the final two days
I already mentioned that Dan had positive things to say about Guys diving. The 3 other guys who were thinking about if they passed tech or not, all did get a pass (there was much talking about 'skin of the teeth') and then it was time to tell us all where we individually needed the most work. I think everyone knew where the improvements needed to be made, we know we have much work ahead of us. If anything, I figure I am at least a year of diving and practicing from even thinking about attempting Tech 1. Dan was careful to point out that none of us were at the top end of a tech pass, but middle of the road or "skin of the teeth". I'll take middle of the road any day of the week and twice on Sundays
Fundies course: $750 Cdn
Moving to doubles: $1500 Cdn
Having a team come together and getting to the point where you trust the guys in the water to get through whatever it takes: Damn near priceless
