First fresh water dive

[SoccerJeni]

On my quest to get more practice and dive whenever possible I did my first fresh water dive this past Friday. I was in Austin, diving with Lake Travis Scuba. I had such a great time and Robert with Lake Travis Scuba was so helpful and really made me feel comfortable with everything seeing as I was from out of town and diving in an environment I wasn't familiar with.

Even though I had a great time and it was a really good experience I must say my performance was the worst to date. It was so much more challenging than anything I had done before. Previously I only had salt water dives, with the lowest temp of 73F, a minimum of 50' visibility, and the big key was I could always see the bottom before I started my descent. In Lake Travis the water was 66F and viz was about 8'.

I think the low viz truly affected me. I had never had any major issues with buoyancy before, but on the first dive I was ridiculous and kept sinking like a rock. It had been almost 4 years since I had been under 35 feet, and I didn't realize how much air you really need to put in your BCD. I kept thinking, gosh, I shouldn't need this much, but yes, I truly did. I also noticed my breathing wasn't as relaxed, plus my decisions and movements were so much more hurried and jerky than previous dives, were I was calm and collected. And not having that bottom reference kind unnerved me. Thankfully my DM buddy took the time to plan out the dive & communication. I signaled him at 35' feet that I needed to level out. I knew I needed to just relax, breath for a bit and get used to the environment. And once I felt more relaxed and had calmed down we descended a bit more. At the end of the first dive I wasn't paying close enough attention to dumping the air in my BCD and I started to have an uncontrolled ascent. As soon as I noticed I was assending I began swimming down, tapping my buddy, reaching for his arm to have him help me stay down. He helped me and grabbed my rear dump valve and released the air in my BCD.

On the second dive I corrected some of my problems and my buoyancy at the bottom was much better than the first dive, but still not like previous dives. Overall this second dive was much better, but I still had problems dumping air out of my BCD at the end. This time I was paying attention and was trying to dump air. I didn't notice much air coming out. I was holding up the inflator hose & hitting the dump button, I was pulling down on the inflator hose at times, and was pulling on the dump on the other side of the BCD. I couldn't find the rear dump (rented gear), but since I was head up I didn't think it was as important. I started to feel myself assend with increased speed and I started grabbing onto the rocks around to help slow me down. Finally I decided to bear hug a very large rock, got my buddy's attention and he again dumped the air out of my rear dump. He said he squeezed my BCD while having the dump open and tons of air came out. I truly don't know how I didn't get the air dumped. I kept trying, frequently and wasn't seeing much air come out. I pulled 3 different spots, but still had tons of air in there. Obvioulsy this is something I need a lot more practice with, and that's exactly what I plan to do.

 

[knowone]

Do it all longer by primarily concentrating on shoulder dump cognizance.

 

[driftwood]

You where diving with a lot of gear that you were not used to in an environment that was beyond your experience. Bet you were wearing a 7mm or 5mm wetsuit. That alone will screw up your buoyancy and trim. It also sounds like you were really over weighted, which compounds the problem. On top of that, you had a BC that you were unfamiliar with. The icing on the cake is that it was the first time you were diving in low vis.

Given the "perfect storm" you hit, I think you did a very good job of keeping your head on straight and not panicking. Knowing Lake Travis, I would dive with you anytime.

 

[k ellis]

Well it was rented gear which tells that its probably not as familiar gear as if it were your own personal gear. Seeing that most of your dives from your history tend to be warm water dives this is a common problem for people who go to dive colder water with more neoprene too.

I often run into these scenarios primarily when the water temps are in the lower 60s and colder for some unknown reason but its something I have since learned to adapt too and plan in advance for.

I would recommend for familiarity reasons if you can afford to purchase a good BCD then do so. Youll be glad you did . By the way where you from in Missouri? Joplins got a neat little diving hole there

 

[SoccerJeni]

Do it all longer by primarily concentrating on shoulder dump cognizance.

I'm not familiar with the shoulder dump cognizance. What is that?

Well it was rented gear which tells that its probably not as familiar gear as if it were your own personal gear. Seeing that most of your dives from your history tend to be warm water dives this is a common problem for people who go to dive colder water with more neoprene too.

I often run into these scenarios primarily when the water temps are in the lower 60s and colder for some unknown reason but its something I have since learned to adapt too and plan in advance for.

I would recommend for familiarity reasons if you can afford to purchase a good BCD then do so. Youll be glad you did . By the way where you from in Missouri? Joplins got a neat little diving hole there

I'm just starting out...so I have so much to buy and so little budget. What do you think would be best thing to buy first? I was thinking a computer then reg then BCD? What do you think?

I live in KC. I did not know that Joplin had a dive site. Is it a Lake?

 

[dmcutter]

I'm the opposite from you-just got certified in Sept and all my diving has been quarry and lake. The last lake dive was 58 degrees and pretty low viz, but I was toasty in an 8 mm semidry suit. Heading to Aruba this Saturday for a week vaca and my first saltwater dives.
And not meaning to threadjack, but +1 on the wetsuit messing with buoyancy. When we did our last open water cert dives I didn't wear a wetsuit and I had my buoyancy dialed in minutes. With a 5 mm, and especially with the 8 mm it is much, much harder for me to get neutral. I don't really understand that, either-I just figured it would be a matter of adding weight to compensate for the suit and gettting neutral would just be a matter of adjusting the BC.

 

[k ellis]

I'm just starting out...so I have so much to buy and so little budget. What do you think would be best thing to buy first? I was thinking a computer then reg then BCD? What do you think?

I live in KC. I did not know that Joplin had a dive site. Is it a Lake?

Its a scuba Park and its www.oronogo.com. Its a neat little dive site and its actually a quarry. Its usually around 50 degrees year round at depth and it has depths that range from able to stand up all the way to over 200 feet deep. It offers an airplane, wrecked cars, statues and even an underwater computer desktop on a desk LOL

Honestly Id recommend looking around and asking some of the shops about used rental gear as alot of them will be rotating their stock to keep next years lines up and current. I have seen awesome BCDS that retail for 700 dollars sometimes sale for as little as 350 bucks and even more rare but still out there are some of those BCDS have under 100 dives on them!

Good luck

 

[Kevin Carlisle]

Sounds like you did good with all that was thrown at you. Come down ths way to dive and you can get into crystal clear springs and 68 degree water all year

 

[cloudflint]

Even though I had a great time and it was a really good experience I must say my performance was the worst to date. It was so much more challenging than anything I had done before.

Did you take into account the fresh water being less buoyant than salt water? You wont need as much lead in fresh water as you do in salt water.

Also the thicker your wetsuit the more of a swing in buoyancy there will be as you change depth and thus the harder it will be to control your buoyancy. Also the thicker the suit the more lead you will need, then as you go deep and the suit compresses you will become overweighted. I used to dive in a 13mm uncompressed neoprene dry suit and it was a nightmare in the 0-10 meters range since the buoyancy swing was HUGE

 

[SoccerJeni]

Its a scuba Park and its Captain Johns | Oronogo, MO. Its a neat little dive site and its actually a quarry. Its usually around 50 degrees year round at depth and it has depths that range from able to stand up all the way to over 200 feet deep. It offers an airplane, wrecked cars, statues and even an underwater computer desktop on a desk LOL

That sounds really neat! I'd love to check out that site! I think I'm going to go to Bonne Terre sometime in February maybe?

Sounds like you did good with all that was thrown at you. Come down ths way to dive and you can get into crystal clear springs and 68 degree water all year

Thank you very much. Crystal clear sounds great! I know I want all the practice I can get.

Did you take into account the fresh water being less buoyant than salt water? You wont need as much lead in fresh water as you do in salt water.

Also the thicker your wetsuit the more of a swing in buoyancy there will be as you change depth and thus the harder it will be to control your buoyancy. Also the thicker the suit the more lead you will need, then as you go deep and the suit compresses you will become overweighted. I used to dive in a 13mm uncompressed neoprene dry suit and it was a nightmare in the 0-10 meters range since the buoyancy swing was HUGE

When we planned my weights we did account for the fresh water. I probably was overweighted because I had trouble getting down, however I know my breathing was irratic and probably affecting that. And the thicker wetsuit makes complete sense that it would be more difficult to control your buoyancy at deeper depths...I didn't even think about that! So much to learn! Thank you for sharing that!