DM pay or free to 'hold hand'?

[TyTy]

What spots are you looking to dive?

I'm in the Pensacola area, just on the other side of the FL/AL line. I'll gladly not take responsibility for you and not hold your hand for a free dive. I can get a buddy, especially if they go for free as well. I've got my own tanks, no need to provide anything but the ride out

I don't mind shallower reefs, it'd still be nice to get a bit off the beach so I'm game. ~150 dives, some shallow, some deep(100+'), some fresh water, some salt, some great conditions, some horrible, night, low vis, some off a boat, some off a canoe, some off the beach, ect.



I have a 10' Zodiac, I know this feeling exactly.

Hey, PM me your number. Im not sure what we are going to do yet but we might go.

What preliminary plan is for my Dad to take us over to Ft. Pickens to the the main jetti over there. It is my understanding that the jettie is max 55 ft, rocks going down and then an old jeep and some other military junk at the bottom. Basically it will be a shore dive that we get to on a boat cause the road on Ft. Pickens is still out. Nothing too exciting but not to bad either, guess it will hinge on the visibility. We are headed to Scuba Shack to get a conditions report. High tide is at 10:20AM, so be in the water around 8:00AM and out by 10:40 or so. This should allow for two tanks and a SI.

Anyway, not positive how it is gonna work. Dad is game/excited Mom is freaked out/trying to throw a wrench in things. My girlfriend is cool with any shore diving/comfortable, she thought I was talking about a wreck dive I had mentioned earlier so her concerns are null, she's pumped if its from the shore and 60 feet or less.

PM me your number, I wont gaurantee we are even going but we'll see what mom lets dad do. Dad is usually in charge but you know how woman can exert that extra control when they want to. (My mom is terrified of water in general, saw her friend drown at local swimming hole when she was little, dosent even like driving over bridges).

PM me.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

This is this weekend? Ouch! I opened my mouth too soon... I'm heading to Marianna to dive the Mill Pond Saturday and diving Morrison that evening, then camping the area and diving Cypress Springs and Becton Spring Sunday.

251-978-4089 if you want to do it some other weekend, the more advanced notice the better. We were actually thinking about getting a boat out there next weekend, probably Sunday...

 

[Jim Lapenta]

My apologies. I work with too many kids that have no respect for anything or anybody and when I hear certain things it sets me off. I guess I'm getting old. Hope your excursion is a safe and happy one.

I did specify my age, I am 24 years old, have a great relationship with my father whom I can poke or prod at about being a rich old geezer all I please, seeing as how he is MY father. If you dont like my comments about my own father who I respect more than any man I've ever met or spoke with, then click the big red X at the top of the screen to close the page.

As for the comments directed towards the question at hand, thank you I appreciate the conveyance of knowledge.

 

[TyTy]

My apologies. I work with too many kids that have no respect for anything or anybody and when I hear certain things it sets me off. I guess I'm getting old. Hope your excursion is a safe and happy one.

Thank you, sorry for the quick comments.

Ill post up as to how the first undivemastered dive went. Went good, learned a lot.

Anyway, sorry for being so quck to jump on you. I laughed this weekend though hanging out wiht my dad he reffered to hiself as an "old *******" and I laughed thinking about this thread.

More to come on our dive, about to eat some crab legs (store bought unfortunatly, not caught on the dive ).

 

[TyTy]

So, here is how it went.

We only did one dive, my girlfriend was congested the night before and her ears bothered her, she got a bit of a reverse block but we waited it out and came up easy. Her ear hurt a little afterwards but they always do a little, they say it will get easier the more she does it.

So anyway, we did the dive. We saw some cool stuff but the current was pullin pretty good. We were advised that high tide was at 10:20 by one shop owner but then as we were getting out another shop instructor was getting in who said no wonder the current was pulling, we were early cause high tide was at 12:00ish.

LESSON LEARNED #1: Check and double check the tide changes MYSELF.

So we got down there and hadent planned on the current being so heavy. We got pulled down the beach some and spent a lot of air/energy to get back to the rock formations we intended to see. The plan had been to turn around and head slowly back when the first person got to 1500 psi but at 1500 I told Meghan (by yelling underwater close to her ear, worked great, wasent sure if it would) I said "I dont know how long it will take us to get back to shore with current, lets be safe and go up" she agreed. We did our safety stop hovering for the first time and got pulled by the current even more but surfaced closer to our entry point than I thought. It felt like the current was moving us more than it had. I was glad to have been more safe than sorry though, better to surface with unspent air than not to surface

LESSON LEARNED #2: Currents are a pain in the butt. Its not fun to be panting into a regulator. I think I would have waited had I known the current would be so strong. Thoe other guys said there was almost no current after we got out and they got in so I guess we were early, possibly dive shop #1 guy misread 12:20 as 10:20 on his chart hence we dove about 2 hours early.

LESSON LEARNED #3: Glad we surfaced early to be safe. Meghan was glad I did too.

LESSON LEARNED #4: If Meghan is congested at all that weekend save the money and wait to dive until next time. She is allergic to parents dogs some so she will start taking claratin D next time a week before coming cause that clears her up nicely for weekends with my parents. We learned she cant just take one the day before and catch up, once stuffed up you are stuffed up until you leave parents house so better to pre-empt the stuffyness.

LESSON LEARNED #5 Shark rays are cool

LESSON LEARNED #6 Its the tiny jelly fish that suck, the big ones are no problem. Also that jelly fish sting block is expensive but worth it.

All in all it didnt go perfet but Meghan and I were glad to have done a dive by oursleves. My parents both came along and felt much more comfortable after seeing Meghan and I check and double check eachothers gear, help eachother, go over our plan, quiz eachother on what ifs, talk over every aspect and then triple check our gear before we went in. They said they didnt know we took ti so seriously and as such a team thing. Even my mom was much more comfortable with us diving in general after watching us get ready and go. We waved as we went under, told her when to expect us back up, etc, etc... Told them the signals for OK and distress for when we came up, gave them emergency numbers.

My dad is talking about getting tank holders for his boat and wants me to get GPS coordinates for wrecks. Also says he is going to get an O2 bottle. He wants me to get a speargun to and shoot the grouper and snapper, he loves fish

 

[BabyDuck]

ty, i think that sounds great. glad that even the parts that didn't go perfect were things to learn from & not disasters. yay for y'all!

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

I'm showing 10:20AM being the high tide as well. When that site was accessible by land, they'd have a printout over by the showers with the months high tides.

Did you guys find the jeep chasis or any of the other machinery/junk down there?

I have some extra polespears if you guys want to give em a try next time you're in the area.

 

[Aquanaut4ata]

Quote:LESSON LEARNED #2: Currents are a pain in the butt. Its not fun to be panting into a regulator. I think I would have waited had I known the current would be so strong. Thoe other guys said there was almost no current after we got out and they got in so I guess we were early, possibly dive shop #1 guy misread 12:20 as 10:20 on his chart hence we dove about 2 hours early.///

The lesson here is this: NOAA tide charts are estimated high tides, and can vary by a couple of hours pretty easily....the trick is to get there a bit early, and watch the tide movements. It will get easier to do that as you get more familiar with the dive site. Also, of course, when you start a dive in a current, you always want to move into the current at the beginning, so later in the dive, as you start to get tired, you have an easy ride back to the exit point.
Aside from that, it sounds like the dive went pretty well. I am reading that the challenges were handled calmly & rationally, and you paid attention to what to look for/how to overcome it for next time. Glad to hear that Mom's fears have been calmed, too.

 

[Archer_Pensacola]

My dad is talking about getting tank holders for his boat and wants me to get GPS coordinates for wrecks. Also says he is going to get an O2 bottle. He wants me to get a speargun to and shoot the grouper and snapper, he loves fish

Make sure you get a fishing license too

 

[TyTy]

Quote:LESSON LEARNED #2: Currents are a pain in the butt. Its not fun to be panting into a regulator. I think I would have waited had I known the current would be so strong. Thoe other guys said there was almost no current after we got out and they got in so I guess we were early, possibly dive shop #1 guy misread 12:20 as 10:20 on his chart hence we dove about 2 hours early.///

The lesson here is this: NOAA tide charts are estimated high tides, and can vary by a couple of hours pretty easily....the trick is to get there a bit early, and watch the tide movements. It will get easier to do that as you get more familiar with the dive site. Also, of course, when you start a dive in a current, you always want to move into the current at the beginning, so later in the dive, as you start to get tired, you have an easy ride back to the exit point.
Aside from that, it sounds like the dive went pretty well. I am reading that the challenges were handled calmly & rationally, and you paid attention to what to look for/how to overcome it for next time. Glad to hear that Mom's fears have been calmed, too.

Good advice. I knew about starting a dive into a current but didnt realize there would be such a bad current, live and learn. I did feel good about calling the dive at 1500psi since I wasent sure how far we had been swept from the current, not as far as I thouhgt. I think the algae being swept by in the water created a sense of barely moving but for us to have surfaced where we did we had to have been making much more progress than I thought because we surfaced about 10-15 yards from our entry point, I thought we had been swept 50 or more yards.

Next time Ill know better, my grilfriend and I went over the lessons learned and mistakes made.

This dive wasent as fun as in seeing all sorts of stuff and covering a lot of ground but I think it was good for other things. Looking forward to diving in Pensacola. I want to learn my way around there to where it sort of becomes my 'stomping grounds' somewhat. I know my dad is pumped to take us, he had a blast, didnt stop talking about it, asking us what we saw, asking if we could have speared this or that (he's a big time hunter and fisherman, I think he was wild eyed about combining both and shooting at fish )