divemaster mapping project?

[MalibuJerry]

I did about five dives. I was familiar with the dive site, but it was a large enough area that it took a few more dives. I thought it was a fun project.

 

[bracko]

I did zero dives on the site. one of the guys did one dive and that was it.

I can draw maps, but it was a terrible site and poorly chosen. the shop has never been to the site and will never go to it. sandy beach, a few bommies you could see from google maps and we purchased a shipping chart which showed the depths for the bay. It was a quality map and we put effort into it even knowing it would never see the light of day again.

it was a bit dissapointing to be given the site when there were so many other good sites around with maps that were +15 years old hanging in the shop, so we just got on with it, looked at the marking criteria and made sure we achieved a good score.

 

[Nick A]

I did a new (to me) site with a buddy. 3 total dives. I got on google earth and printed the site out, I drew the objects that were sticking out of the water, like the pilings, to scale on a big slate and went at it with a marked reel. The area of the site was 300ft x 200ft .First dive was depths, second was structures and points of interest and third was a double check, making sure I got everything and that all depths were accurate.

 

[Steve_C]

The site was one I was familiar with but it was a fairly large section of a quarry with several levels and several objects. Used an air photo for basic location. Did probably 4-5 dives just for mapping. Also took photos from shore. The area has some buoys marking some objects and some unmarked objects. It also took several hours to produce the text to go with it. Instructor wanted complete dive site planning and the location sort of sits on the corner of several jurisdictions so had to track down a lot of numbers of addresses and find out who was responsible for what, nearest medical centers and when open, etc. Also instructor wanted information like where air was aviailable there and nearby, and special rules, etc. So it was both a dive map and a dive trip, and a guiding experience, etc. Suffice it to say there were two or three revisions after the map itself was done before he accepted it. Did make me think about a lot of stuff. Whole thing was spread out over a month or two.

 

[oregondiver]

Thanks everyone. I got mine done in 4 dives (80 ft viz) and it just didn't seem as hard as I have heard others report it (but the others I talked to did theirs in 10-25ft viz locally). So wanted to check in here. Appreciate the posts!

 

[TMHeimer]

I did mine solo--familiar site, 15' viz I think, and used the U pattern. To be honest, I found the simplest site I knew and did it with two easy dives. Some of the DM mapped sites go on our website, but no one would ever be up my way to make use of mine. Perhaps I took the easy way out, but it was Fall with the water cooling off and I just wanted to get it done. In fact unlike most, I did it right when the DM course started. I looked at it as just a requirement to be met. IMO there was a lot of stuff in the course that was interesting (including the map), but not directly relevant to what I would be doing as a DM. Kind of like using maybe 25-30% of the knowledge I gained taking 2 music degrees while teaching Band 19 years. I know, it's good to have a broad knowledge base in anything you do. I also learned how to map a wreck in that course. Won't be mapping anything else.