Dove Monastery 10/29

[mikeguerrero]

Fuzzy,

I will try to be brief and to the point. I completely understand your excitement about diving on the California coast. Without mixing too many words it's just priceless. Like you, back in 2007 when I got certified, I had the heart of a Fuzzy, I would dive my heart out even if it meant pushing beyond standards.

Eveyone that is posting on your thread came in and sat me down and explained the inherent dangers in my activities, with time I began to understand, but it wasn't until many other divers succcumbed a more painful experience, some even with their life.

That could have been me and thankfully my senses started to match up with my level of diving and I slowed down and got more training. To me that's the pinnacle of success, keeping to the boundaries of the training.

Look up my post and you will see my adventures took me on a similar path that you are experiencing today.

Fuzzy keep diving but think about all the great advice you are getting and take with you what sounds plausible and become a better diver.

Also to biggy pack on what Lynne said about flooded mask; there is a post I did on a major experience I had when the same happened to me.

My mask flooded and I couldn't clear it and I froze and went into full blown panic, thankfully my buddies were there and a highly trained soon to be instructor pulled me through.

It was one of my most frightfull experiences in diving, you go temporarily blind and lose the ability to rationalize.

If anything Fuzzy, keep reading up on the board, all the anecdotes here have good messages, take what you can and become a more equipped diver to handle certain situations. But always remember to dive within your comfort zone and learn to walk away when you hear that little voice talking to you.

Clam chowder soup on the wall at Break Water is always better than getting thrown around in the heavy surf in scuba gear.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

That was sweet, Lynne.
FBB, you are a reasonable guy. No one wants to see you get hurt or worse, and Monastery kills people every year. I know you experienced a free flow last weekend at Breakwater due to some o-ring in your reg? What if that had happened when you were narced and couldn't think through the problem? Can't safely do a CESA from 132 ft. You didn't have a buddy to supply the air, can you turn off your air supply by reaching behind you? Have you tried? I can't.
I've only been to the limit of recreational depths for my AOW class, with my instructor, to ascertain if I would feel narcosis or how I would react. I would never ever ever do it alone, that's an insane risk to take. Think those bunny ears may be affecting your reasoning.
Do your AOW and Nitrox classes this weekend and enjoy them, then consider getting further tech training if you want to dive deep.

Did you get narced on your AOW Deep Dive?

Yes, I can reach my tank valve. Before diving a bunch I read a ton of the accidents and incidents as well as other threads that criticized PADI or gave useful miscellaneous tips. When I realised that my OW class did not tell me that I had to be able to reach my valve, I immediately re-adjusted my gear layout so I could reach it. Had to do it twice over the weekend in fact. Once was when I did a systems check after I had donned the gear (I had done one while it was off, just doing it again because you never know what might have shifted after donning). Sure enough, the reg free flowed from a stuck purge, so I reached back and shut off the air.

The second time was actually that o-ring free flow you mentioned. I was at 42ft picking up trash and staring at a nudi when it suddenly happened. I switched to my octo, tried to tighten the connection, and when it kept doing that, I did a slow ascent while listening for boat traffic. Turned off the valve, then removed my BC in the water and fiddled around with the reg some more. When that still didn't work, I redonned the BC and swam back to shore.

BTW, I make it a point to dive with two seperate weight systems. I see very bad things happening when all the weight is in the BC (can't take it off underwater for one) so I put 14lb on my belt (which happens to be the exact weight I freedive with anyway) and the rest in the BC weight system either as regular weights or trim weights. That way not everything is in one basket, and I won't rocket to the surface should I need to remove my BC for whatever reason.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Fuzzy,

I will try to be brief and to the point. I completely understand your excitement about diving on the California coast. Without mixing too many words it's just priceless. Like you, back in 2007 when I got certified, I had the heart of a Fuzzy, I would dive my heart out even if it meant pushing beyond standards.

Eveyone that is posting on your thread came in and sat me down and explained the inherent dangers in my activities, with time I began to understand, but it wasn't until many other divers succcumbed a more painful experience, some even with their life.

That could have been me and thankfully my senses started to match up with my level of diving and I slowed down and got more training. To me that's the pinnacle of success, keeping to the boundaries of the training.

Look up my post and you will see my adventures took me on a similar path that you are experiencing today.

Fuzzy keep diving but think about all the great advice you are getting and take with you what sounds plausible and become a better diver.

Also to biggy pack on what Lynne said about flooded mask; there is a post I did on a major experience I had when the same happened to me.

My mask flooded and I couldn't clear it and I froze and went into full blown panic, thankfully my buddies were there and a highly trained soon to be instructor pulled me through.

It was one of my most frightfull experiences in diving, you go temporarily blind and lose the ability to rationalize.

If anything Fuzzy, keep reading up on the board, all the anecdotes here have good messages, take what you can and become a more equipped diver to handle certain situations. But always remember to dive within your comfort zone and learn to walk away when you hear that little voice talking to you.

Clam chowder soup on the wall at Break Water is always better than getting thrown around in the heavy surf in scuba gear.

Most important point first:

I don't get why everyone likes the clam chowder here! They get rave reviews on Yelp for the Montere style chowder and I tried it and don't think it's that earth shattering. It may be because I ate it alone I bet it would taste better with friends. While eating it I actually thought about how much cooler it would be to be laundered at Monastery instead, jk

Thanks for the input. I'm going to dig up your post history now and see what shenanigans you were up to.

 

[Gombessa]

I've always thought of things in terms of atmospheres. 132ft is what I meant, and it's 4 atmospheres. That to me is the recreational depth limit.

I think you mean 5 atmospheres?

 

[Hepcat62]

I think you mean 5 atmospheres?

It depends on whether you pronounce "atmospheres" as ATM or ATA. Most PADI people I know pronounce ATM as "atmospheres", and use "atmospheres absolute" for ATA.

Back on topic...

I'll just say that I'm glad nobody got hurt this time, and that I hope this doesn't happen again. For my own sanity's sake, I'll include this link as a somewhat PADI'fied version of a very important concept that the OP can hopefully use to think about their dives even more concretely.

Rock Bottom and Gas Management for Recreational Divers | Spherical Chicken

 

[pacificgal]

Did you get narced on your AOW Deep Dive?

No, I didn't get narced, actually I did the math faster on the bottom of the ocean than when we were sitting on the boat.
I really don't care for super deep dives, it's dark, it's cold, and there's a whole lot of water between me and the safety of the surface. Truthfully, 70' and above is my preferred range, occasionally I'll go down to 100' off a boat to see hydrocoral or something, but I've only done that a few times too. Friday was the first time I saw 100' depth from shore, and it wasn't as cool as the places you see off the boats, no hydrocoral, no corianactis, it was just OK.

 

[Gombessa]

It depends on whether you pronounce "atmospheres" as ATM or ATA. Most PADI people I know pronounce ATM as "atmospheres", and use "atmospheres absolute" for ATA.

That's obviously the case here, but I think in the context of depth limits most describe the total atmospheres of pressure involved and do not omit surface pressure. I think it helps to learn and use standard nomenclature whenever possible to avoid confusion. If I were skydiving, I wouldn't say I pull the chute at xxxx ft, and later clarify that I meant "above sea level."

 

[mikeguerrero]

Fuzzy,

You are right, clam chowder is much better when in the company of a diving friend and you are talking about the adventure that just took place. And the main characters are you and your buddy. It's like making a film and you are the star of the movie.

I have never eaten it alone and also don't solo dive, tried it only once at lover's point in 20 feet. End result was a paranoid state that everything that moved was a shark or sea monter that was going to eat me.

I will not forget that paranoid dive and I was only in 20 feet, it was the worse 1 hour dive I have dove. That was back in 2007 when I thought diving was like surfing a solo event.

Conclusion, diving with a buddy has more than just safety, you get to tell them after the dive that they diving stinks, I like to poke fun on my buddy and tell him, that his trim and bouyancy is off, when of course it's really me out of trim... LOL

 

[Hepcat62]

That's obviously the case here, but I think in the context of depth limits most describe the total atmospheres of pressure involved and do not omit surface pressure. I think it helps to learn and use standard nomenclature whenever possible to avoid confusion. If I were skydiving, I wouldn't say I pull the chute at xxxx ft, and later clarify that I meant "above sea level."

Totally agree. Most of the UTD and GUE materials I've seen generally just expand the formulas in terms of depth, which is fine by me from a teaching standpoint. I think it's less confusing for people that hated high-school physics and/or chemistry, and despise unit conversions. They can learn the atmosphere-units later to make the formulas shorter and easier to guesstimate.

 

[Anti-Hero]

I think you mean 5 atmospheres?

I'm glad somebody else caught that...

FuzzyBabyBunny - you're comfortable in the water and that's great, really. But remember this: You've got your whole life to dive, learn, dive, practice, dive, learn, etc.

You're doing WAY too much, WAY too fast. What's the rush?