Everything went wrong today. Advice needed.

[CT-Rich]

I have yet to mount wheels on my sidemount cylinders... But that just might be the next big thing in rig design!

Maybe he was talking about something like this....

Shark Bite Scuba



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It might be what Tbone was talking about. It is a $400 solution to a $40 problem, so it could be. Although I imagine he would be disappointed that they start at $349. He seems to gravitate the more to expensive solutions. Must work in the defense industry. Ordering those $1,300 toilet seats and what not.

---------- Post added September 14th, 2015 at 06:42 PM ----------

Oh, CT: When you wind up in 4' of water you are at a typical CT shore dive and half way to the bottom.

TM, If you are in 4' on Connecticut shore dive you are already there. You just can't see it.....

 

[KevinNM]

in backmount you still have to pick the gear up off of the floor and set it down at floor height to use a cart in backmount which for me is actually more work than just wearing the rig, especially if you have one that fits you well. Curling 100lbs is something I can do, but I'd much rather carry it on my back. In sidemount you can leave the bottles at floor height...

Ok, makes sense. But squat it, rather then curl it. Most anyone healthy can be quickly taught to lift/lower 100 pounds in a squat. (Ok, hard to do with a spare set of doubles not a on a BP). I tend to work out a truck tailgate, so I'm not having to lift stuff out of the car trunk. I just stand it up on the tailgate and put it on.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

:doh: I came for a quick look and saw talk about doubles first reaction was how did it get to doubles in this thread :doh: goes to show how important reading back is

One of our local divers set the Guiness book record for oldest unassisted scuba dive. I see him at the local sites fairly often shore diving. He uses a golf club cart type thing to get his gear to the shore. Most of our shore dives are a long walk to the entry.

The suggestion of slowing down your process is good. Take your time gearing up. Do the entry when you are ready. When you enter make sure everything is in order and you are both ready to descend. Our dives often involve a surface swim and we wait till everyone has caught their breath and ready. When you get to the bottom once again make sure everything is working and you are ready then signal each other to begin. Those checks and having time to get oriented, comfortable and breathing comfortably can go a long way in settling into the dive mind space. Shore dives are perfect for the slow easy approach.. some boat dives you have to go quickly due to conditions and numbers of divers.

The other question I have is related to the BCD. If you are small and the BCD doesn't fit right. On the surface the BCD may float up on you... you get too low in the water and so you inflate more. The jacket BCD squeezes your ribcage which makes breathing harder which creates stress. You mention it riding up and hitting your head underwater. That may mean a poorly positioned tank or a poorly fitted BCD. I didn't realize how much the Jacket style BCD contributed to my initial discomfort until I had been diving a while and borrowed my husband's back inflate BCD. I bought a back inflate style for myself and the difference was amazing.

The other thing that may help is a crotch strap to keep it in place. I just recently bought a BPW but I am not going to try to "sell" you on that. Lots will but it is best to work out what is good for you. The first step IMHO is to try a back inflate of some kind. for surface swims they are easy to inflate... roll on your back like it is a float and swim that way. They don't push your face into the water like some say .. just how you use them.

The other thing is to pay attention to how you walk in your gear. I have a friend who was complaining about carrying the gear.. felt like it was pulling her over backwards. I watched for a while and realized she was trying to walk with "good posture". We had to remind her to lean forward a bit to balance the weight of the gear on her back otherwise all that weight was pulling her backwards and stressing her back and shoulders.

 

[Neilwood]

:doh: I came for a quick look and saw talk about doubles first reaction was how did it get to doubles in this thread :doh: goes to show how important reading back is

One of our local divers set the Guiness book record for oldest unassisted scuba dive. I see him at the local sites fairly often shore diving. He uses a golf club cart type thing to get his gear to the shore. Most of our shore dives are a long walk to the entry.

The suggestion of slowing down your process is good. Take your time gearing up. Do the entry when you are ready. When you enter make sure everything is in order and you are both ready to descend. Our dives often involve a surface swim and we wait till everyone has caught their breath and ready. When you get to the bottom once again make sure everything is working and you are ready then signal each other to begin. Those checks and having time to get oriented, comfortable and breathing comfortably can go a long way in settling into the dive mind space. Shore dives are perfect for the slow easy approach.. some boat dives you have to go quickly due to conditions and numbers of divers.

The other question I have is related to the BCD. If you are small and the BCD doesn't fit right. On the surface the BCD may float up on you... you get too low in the water and so you inflate more. The jacket BCD squeezes your ribcage which makes breathing harder which creates stress. You mention it riding up and hitting your head underwater. That may mean a poorly positioned tank or a poorly fitted BCD. I didn't realize how much the Jacket style BCD contributed to my initial discomfort until I had been diving a while and borrowed my husband's back inflate BCD. I bought a back inflate style for myself and the difference was amazing.

The other thing that may help is a crotch strap to keep it in place. I just recently bought a BPW but I am not going to try to "sell" you on that. Lots will but it is best to work out what is good for you. The first step IMHO is to try a back inflate of some kind. for surface swims they are easy to inflate... roll on your back like it is a float and swim that way. They don't push your face into the water like some say .. just how you use them.

The other thing is to pay attention to how you walk in your gear. I have a friend who was complaining about carrying the gear.. felt like it was pulling her over backwards. I watched for a while and realized she was trying to walk with "good posture". We had to remind her to lean forward a bit to balance the weight of the gear on her back otherwise all that weight was pulling her backwards and stressing her back and shoulders.

A very good point with regards to lifting - when walking you really want the weight centred over your hips not behind you.

I know for a shore entry I need about 5-10 minutes after walking from the vehicles to the entry point to recover from it (depending on the site) as my all in gear weight is in the vicinity of 60lbs (BC, harness, tank, 30+lbs weight, fins, gloves, hood, mask, regs etc) which is quite a bit to carry (so tempted by the sounds of a golf trolley!).

One reason that when I do buy a BC it will probably be a BP&W as it cuts down on the inherent buoyancy (which all needs to be offset with weight)

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Right now I am out of the water recovering from surgery for a badly torn tendon. Doc says 6 months recovery time and I wound up buying a "kneewalker"

I have also just retired and was wondering about an easy way to transport my gear on public transport to some of the dive sites. Rather than drive for an hour amass a bunch of toll fees, parking fees and burn the fuel, I'd like to go by train (for a pittance). I had been thinking of adapting a furniture mover type trolley but I have been thinking the Knee Walker may get another life after I can walk again I got one with larger wheels for outdoor use.

 

[DivemasterDennis]

I think most of the problems are eliminated with thorough PRE-DIVE communication. Be sure each knows what the other wants to do on the dive, and agree to it before the dive. Whether skill work, or some other activity, make it clear before the dive. Also go over underwater communication- hand signals, slate use, etc. Finally, dive as buddies, especially close as new divers- and to me that means finger tip touching distance at most. You did fine. You will learn from every dive. The ;lesson you just learned is a good one. Plan your dive, prepare for it, talk about it, and be clear before the dive begins.
DivemasterDennis

 

[beachbummer28]

Thanks for all the responses! I'm glad this thread is helping some other newbies out and I'm not the only one who is a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing. My husband and I of course signed up for our OW cert because diving seemed (and is!) awesome and fun and exciting, but then you get into it and for some of us, it's like ... there is a whooooole lot more to this than I originally thought and it's making me anxious as hell. I'm an impatient person and I have never stopped and caught my breath after carrying all of our gear down to the site, suiting up, etc. - it has just been a hurried "let's go, let's go, I'm so annoyed to be standing here in the 100+ degree heat in Florida in this tight wetsuit!" :biggrin: I think catching my breath and re-grouping, talking through the dive, understanding where we'll be going and what we'll be doing when we go under will definitely help (all done before wiggling into the wetsuit, obviously). Most of my anxiety is wrapped up in not understanding where we're going, how long we'll be at a certain depth, if we're going to do the strict "side by side / 3 second" rule in regards to the buddy system or if this is an easy enough dive that I don't need to panic if he drifts away to take pictures while I look at this thing over here, etc. In the past we haven't talked through any of that because we're just so excited to get in and explore, but on each dive we've done (all two of them - hah!), it has made me pretty anxious to not know these things while we're down there. What can I say, I'm a planner. I don't even like surprises above water, so surprises underwater are especially unwelcomed lol.

As far as some people saying maybe it's better not to buddy with my spouse right now, I get where you're coming from - he's definitely more natural at diving than I am and is more laidback. When I told him I was anxious over not having a dive plan, he looked at me dumbfounded and said, "It's a spring with 100 feet of visibility. What is there to really discuss?" Haha! He didn't mean it in an insulting way but he's much more comfortable winging things than I am. Maybe eventually I'll get to the point where I don't really need to nail down what we're doing on a extremely simple dive, but for now it would help. For any other new divers out there who are anxious underwater, maybe try the whole "plan your dive and dive your plan" thing they drill into our heads but some of us ignore the second we're able to dive on our own! I think after our failed dive this weekend, he understands that I need to talk through even the simplest of dives right now, so we're hoping our next dive goes better after implementing this.

Oh, and someone asked a few pages ago if my husband and I did a "mini-dive" at the end of our OW cert; yes, we did, and it was down to about 45 feet with less visibility than we had this past weekend when I freaked out. The difference was that it was at the same site as our certification and we were really familiar with it, as our instructor had led us around previously and we of course did all of our OW dives there. We also discussed what we were going to do before we did the mini dive, although we didn't think of it as "dive planning" at the time even though that's what it was - "Let's go down to the cave entrance, take some pictures, go through some of the loops and cool swimthrough thingys, practice some skills, and then surface." I did not feel any urge whatsoever to talk or surface during this 30-minute mini dive, I guess because I knew what we were doing down there. Thanks for asking that because I hadn't even thought about the fact that I didn't want to surface and ask what we were doing on that mini dive because we had already talked about it beforehand.

 

[Gareth J]

Thanks for all the responses! I'm glad this thread is helping some other newbies out and I'm not the only one who is a bit overwhelmed by the whole thing. My husband and I of course signed up for our OW cert because diving seemed (and is!) awesome and fun and exciting, but then you get into it and for some of us, it's like ... there is a whooooole lot more to this than I originally thought and it's making me anxious as hell. I'm an impatient person and I have never stopped and caught my breath after carrying all of our gear down to the site, suiting up, etc. - it has just been a hurried "let's go, let's go, I'm so annoyed to be standing here in the 100+ degree heat in Florida in this tight wetsuit!" :biggrin: I think catching my breath and re-grouping, talking through the dive, understanding where we'll be going and what we'll be doing when we go under will definitely help (all done before wiggling into the wetsuit, obviously). Most of my anxiety is wrapped up in not understanding where we're going, how long we'll be at a certain depth, if we're going to do the strict "side by side / 3 second" rule in regards to the buddy system or if this is an easy enough dive that I don't need to panic if he drifts away to take pictures while I look at this thing over here, etc. In the past we haven't talked through any of that because we're just so excited to get in and explore, but on each dive we've done (all two of them - hah!), it has made me pretty anxious to not know these things while we're down there. What can I say, I'm a planner. I don't even like surprises above water, so surprises underwater are especially unwelcomed lol.

QUOTE]

Beachbummer

I think you've got the bit about planning.

The little section above about being hot and just getting on with it. As I and others have said, take a break between the carrying and putting the kit together before you get in. i.e. you want to start the dive as relaxed as you can.

Whilst I am based in the UK, I do often dive in hot climates like the Red Sea and Malta. One trick my girlfriend has learnt when diving in Malta during August, when its really hot. Is she will often go for a quick dip to cool down. This might be after arrival at the site, after putting the kit together, or moving equipment to the waters edge.
She likes to be cool and relaxed before she starts to kit up, she knows she'll get hot during the kitting up and entry phase so she starts off cool.

One other thought. If you are concerned with separation, much as I don't like them, you could try using a buddy line. Reasonably common in the UK where the visibility can be down to a foot or two. Its a line of 1-2m (3-6ft) in length with a carabiner (clip) at each end. You clip to each of the divers, then they can't separate. HOWEVER, you should each have a knife so that you can cut it free if you get it tangled. The other alternate is to use a reel, then at least you can reel in the slack.
It does teach you discipline about staying in the same relative position with regards to your buddy.

If you start a dive hot and stressed it is seldom an enjoyable experience, take the time to relax before you enter or descend. As others have said if you are shore diving, and there is no tide issues, you can as much time as you like. If you are boat diving then prepare early, giving yourself time to relax before the rush to get everyone in.

Visualisation might also help. Once everything is ready, before kitting up, or just after, sit still with your eyes closed running through the dive in your mind, the entry, the descent, getting settled and buoyancy sorted before you move off, etc. This might help you relax, and also highlight anything you missed in the briefing.

Take your time, relax and enjoy the dive

Gareth

 

[tbone1004]

Ok, makes sense. But squat it, rather then curl it. Most anyone healthy can be quickly taught to lift/lower 100 pounds in a squat. (Ok, hard to do with a spare set of doubles not a on a BP). I tend to work out a truck tailgate, so I'm not having to lift stuff out of the car trunk. I just stand it up on the tailgate and put it on.

agreed but you still have to get it up to a height where you can put it on. Regarding cost, the OP doesn't own a rig yet, and a sidemount BC is no more expensive than any other. With sidemount you can adjust a standard two wheel dolly for basically nothing and wheel it to wherever you're diving. Much more versatile if carrying a single tank is a lot of work.

Alternatively, if you invest in LP72's which can be had on craigslist for quite cheap, get a ss backplate and wing, you can remove over 10-15lbs of total rig weight. LP72's hold almost as much gas as an AL80, weight 5lbs less, require 5lbs less lead, and a SS backplate weighs about the same as a normal BC but is 6lbs negative. Remove 10lbs of lead, and have a tank that is 5lbs lighter, carry the same amount of gas, it's a no brainer.

 

[uncfnp]

beachbummer28. Buddy with your spouse but I would caution to not buddy only with your spouse. Eric and I only dove together or basically solo for years. Looking back, I think that in some ways it limited my experiences. I encourage you to also buddy with others when appropriate, and I don't mean group dives.

tbone. Going over the top here. She is definitely not ready for doubles and that is really what you are talking about with SM. And I wish that 72's were as readily available here, and as cheap, as they seem to be elsewhere. But Florida probably is a good place to find them.

Gearing up. Much of my shore diving has been Bonaire and as KevinNM mentioned, the best option there is gearing up on the truck tailgate. Same for BHB in WPB. That may also be a viable option for the OP as well at the Florida springs if they own a truck. Otherwise it means getting the gear from the truck to the picnic table in most cases. If it's far a hand cart might be a viable option in the same ways as it is in SM but you will not be transporting to the water but to the table. If they gets a bin they might also be able to strap it own and load with much of the other items as well.

Another thought to BB. If you are like me you are probably insisting on schlepping your own gear. Forget that. At least for the heavy stuff. Let him help. You can help in other ways that you are better at.