Fail! Weekend Certify-

[GI0Ria]

If I owned a shop, I would be reluctant to haul tanks. It seems that 49 CFR 172.101 states that compressed air is a Division 2.2 Hazardous Material. As a result, hauling it is subject to both Federal and State requirements. Yes, there are quantity limits and I believe if the load is less than 1000# there is no problem but that's only about 25 cylinders.

The absolute last thing I would want to do in the wee early hours before dawn is argue with the California Highway Patrol about the transportation of hazardous materials. Let the divers carry their own tanks.

Richard

why would it be necessary to carry more than 25 tanks???? Aren't student groups around 3 -5 or smaller even? 25 tanks would be plenty- especially where refills are available, that is overkill.

 

[rstofer]

Well, if there were 6 students doing 4 dives without refills, that would hit 24. There would also be tanks for the instructor and DMs (if any).

It would be pretty easy for a class of 5 plus an instructor to hit the limit.

Richard

 

[fnfalman]

A quick search on the SSI home page shows three SSI shops in the greater Sacramento area:

All About Scuba in Fairfield
Aqua Divers in Yuba City
High Sierra Divers in Auburn

If one of the above is the OP's shop then I'm sure the other two would be more than glad to do a referral checkout dive if the OP can't get satisfaction from the owner of her shop.

Life is too short to put up with crappy LDS.

 

[Brewski]

Do you know about folsom lake? I always wondered about there, if they were diving out there. I seen divers at the American river but not folsom, well not that I can remember.

Folsom lake is divable when the water level is high enough. In the winter this not the case.
You can dive at Folsom point most times of the year, be prepared to hike up and down the dike. Summer is good for Granite bay, and Beals point. I will use Beals point a lot in the summer.
As for this time of year, its Negro bar in Lake Natoma, or Monterey, and I strongly recommend Monterey, as the cold water and poor vis in Lake natoma does not make it a fun experience for you the student diver.

 

[Guy Alcala]

Thanks for the info. I was more concerned with how comfortable you were in the water, which is less a fitness issue (although that's important) than it is an experience issue.

My comfort level in water? Let me give you some insight. From the time I can remember I was in the water. When I was young my family vacationed every summer at Lake Havasu (sp)? My uncle had a speed boat I remember tubing on it. After moving to NorCal I remember white water rafting in Auburn Ravine (American River) by myself in a single man raft. I was in Junior High. as recent as the last 10 yrs I been rafting down that strip of River. Google that, it is now off limits to raft in the area, to many deaths.
I have been in the water all my life, love most things about it, I also love fishing!

Does that give you a good idea my comfort level?

Yes, that helps a lot. So now I'm wondering what it was about having a hood on that stressed you, since it appears that being in/on the water, even rough water, wasn't an issue. Had you any prior experience with goggles, a mask and/or snorkel, and (deliberately) swimming underwater holding your breath?

Having a hood on was a non-issue to me, but then I've been using a balaclava (with essentially the same coverage as a hood) for mountaineering and back-country skiing for decades. Maybe a claustrophobia issue?

That seems to be a very strange sequence. AFAIR, we did skills dives the first day, a guided fun dive as the first dive on the second day, then had to do our last dive on our own. I'll have to check my original log book to confirm my memory, and get back to you.

Most folks are more familiar with the 4 OW dive requirement of PADI. So, students bring 2 tanks and get them refilled before Sunday. It's not unusual for a class to start at 8 AM and be finished by noon or so. Plenty of time to get them filled.

Three tanks for 6 dives sounds just right except that the tanks will still need to be refilled. It certainly seems like they weren't very clear on who pays for refills. But in the scheme of diving, $20 is nothing.

We had an example the other day (actually, last summer) where a class went out and one of the students, a great big guy, had an Al 50 and everybody else had Al 80s. The dive didn't last very long!

From a scheduling standpoint, I would always prefer to see the 'work' dives done first. There's time enough for 'fun' dives late when the student is more comfortable. But I'm not an instructor so there may be some reason for the sequencing. In the PADI system, there can be no more than 3 OW dives per day so it can be scheduled as 3:1, 2:2 or 1:3.

My grandson got the 1:3 sequence and it sucked! By the 3rd dive on Sunday he was REALLY cold. A miserable plan, all in all.

Richard

GIoRia, I've checked my old SSI logbook for my OW checkout at BW. Level 1 dives (those required for your OW cert; pages have yellow edges) total 5: the first one is a snorkeling dive. Indeed, that log page specifically says 'Snorkeling Dive Log', and there's nowhere to record scuba data (tank size, pressure etc). The last four dives are on scuba, with appropriate log pages. We did two skills dives on Saturday, Dives #2 & #3. Max. depth and dive time 38'/39 min. & 34'/44 min. We were done by about 2:30 or 3 o'clock at the latest.

Sunday we did dives #4 & #5, two experience/fun dives, 48'/35 min. to the metridium fields and back with our instructor and AI, and our self-guided dive (just the 5 students), 45'/29 min. along the wall. We had good conditions and a group that were all very comfortable on scuba, so our bottom times were better than many classes. Done by 1:30 or 2:00, which included all the paperwork.

So, unless SSI has changed their OW program in the last few years, you normally only get 5 dives, 4 on scuba. Getting a sixth would seem to be an extra provided by the shop, and would have had to be logged on a level 2 log page (Blue or Green edges IIRR, if they were even included in the basic logbook package). Does this agree with how your log is arranged?

Thanks,

Guy

 

[Guy Alcala]

why would it be necessary to carry more than 25 tanks???? Aren't student groups around 3 -5 or smaller even? 25 tanks would be plenty- especially where refills are available, that is overkill.

Well, if there were 6 students doing 4 dives without refills, that would hit 24. There would also be tanks for the instructor and DMs (if any).

It would be pretty easy for a class of 5 plus an instructor to hit the limit.

Richard

I've seen classes at BW that are considerably larger than 3-5 students; 10-12 is not all that uncommon. Ultimately they're limited in size by the max. instructor:student ratio allowed by the particular agency, and the number of instructors/AIs/DMs available. Trying to keep track of a large group in limited vis conditions is difficult, regardless of the number of instructors.

Guy

 

[Guy Alcala]

I'm sorry, GIOria, somewhere I got the idea that you were in Sacramento, so I assumed the shop was, too. Nonetheless, my point was really that there should be some information available to the shop to decide whether it is reasonable to take a class down to do OW dives. If the shop is close to Monterey, they might not consider that someone from further away was facing major logistical issues, and they might be a bit more liberal about "giving it a try".
<snip>

Lynne, most of the instrutors I know do watch the forecasts/wave models etc. (you follow the Norcal forum, so you are aware of the weather resources available for Monterey). But NWS tends to be conservative in their forecasts, and many of the weekends with poor forecasts, including those the morning of the dive, turn out to be quite acceptable at a site like BW.

So even for those of us with lots of local experience and shorter drives, it's still largely a crapshoot (barring a swell model showing 20 foot waves in Monterey, with buoy reports that agree) I imagine all of us have bailed on weekends (including this past one) only to hear later about great conditions, at least at certain sites at certain times. So I can certainly understand an instructor deciding to take a chance if the forecast is iffy. But once on site and the reality is obviously not good, no (barring circumstances such as HepCat describes).

Guy

 

[Becca_007]

What kept you and your son from arriving at the float with everyone else? You said that other people had special needs but seemed to make it there with the group. Is it because the instructor was helping them and you had to swim yourself? Was there some kind of equipment issue that hung you guys up? Regardless of the why (although I'm curious) I don't know why you were left by yourself without further communication about what was happening.

Stinks that you didn't know about having to haul your own gear. Around here the shop hauls your gear to the pool sessions but not for the OW dives. Everyone is responsible for their own equipment for the weekend. I don't remember them ever saying that, but it's something I always knew. Where the OW dives are done is a park (you have to pay an entrance fee) so there are some picnic tables but it's first come first serve and there are no vendors or food available other than what you bring. However, after the dives the group goes out for pizza.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

That they had to swim to the float unescorted in unforgivable. Decent instructors know that the slowest diver, in this case the students, set the pace. To do otherwise is reckless behavior.

 

[Snarfal]

Didn't the OP mention that the dive master was watching her kick from below and would pop up and give her instruction on how to improve her kick for better movement?