Great dives today!

[SeaJay]

Dayv (Dave): New2ScubaSC (Erik and Lindsay):

Great dives today. What a blast.

Typically, I find that any time you bring divers together, there's bound to be "issues." When various personalities trained in various different ways get together and do something which inspires such passion like scuba diving... Well... It doesn't always work out well. I've come to expect that sometimes people just don't mesh well, and that sometimes different peoples' dive styles just don't mesh either.

We had none of that today.

We all got along great, and I want to tell you that I really enjoyed y'all's company... It looked to me like everyone felt that way, too... We all enjoyed each other.

What was really amazing to me was the fact that we could all drop down in pretty low vis stuff and basically stick together. Sure, sometimes we lost each other here and there, but for the most part the majority of our time, everyone knew exactly where everyone else was. I don't think that anyone was lacking in "situational awareness" at all... Heck, I even knew who everyone was underwater (that's a rarity).

What a great dive.

Our gorgeous morning gave us near-perfect dive conditions. I couldn't believe the vis we got, either... Four feet or so is unheard of here in the local rivers. Everyone's gear worked as planned, and nobody had any emergencies. Dayv lost a small penlight, but it didn't cause him too much stress. We had no significant dive issues whatsoever.

Sure, it was shallow... But the water was beautiful, warm, relatively clear, and still. How awesome was that?

I really enjoyed myself today with y'all, even though we didn't find any teeth. Next time.

You know what I really think made a huge difference? Sure, amicable personalities, everyone's good grasp on the basics (it's not common for most new divers to be properly weighted, but Erik and Lindsay, y'all seem to have had that pretty good) and alarmingly good air consumption rates (y'all sure you haven't been diving for years?) definitely help... But there's one thing that we did before diving, which I really think made the dive great... We planned it properly. We took the three minutes, just before getting in the water, to establish the "whos, whats, whens, wheres," etc. I think the most valuable of all the planning was something that I haven't bothered to spend much time on before... We talked about our formation.

Starting from the left, the formation went, "Lindsay, Erik, me, and then Dave." What this did was set some order, which really worked out great... At any time, all of us were able to communicate with each other, and everyone knew who everyone else was... Because of their position. It was great!

It was really nice not being upset at the buddy in front of me because he won't wait up... Or the buddy behind me because I can't see if he's keeping up with me. The side-by-side thing was spectacular.

Also, the task loading was waaaaay reduced... Now it was a simple thing for one diver to simply stay in position with the other one... And the other one didn't have to worry about losing contact with his buddy. Communication was great, too, as I could easily see four lights on the ground, and anyone could communciate using those with anybody else with ease.

It astounds me that we were so easily able to take four different divers with four different personalities and four different trainings and perform a dive together minutes after meeting each other for the first time ever, without even a hiccup.

We just all had a good time, I think... It was great to get to the surface with y'all and hear nothing but excited chatter mixed with laughter...

Truly, I had a blast with y'all...

 

[New2ScubaSC]

Lindsay and I, had a great time too! Your so right about it being a perfect Morning on the May River. I dont believe we could of planned it any better. Catching the tides right and i was also reinsured about or dive plan. thats one thing our instructor never covered much during certification. Your idea about the set formation we used was awsome. it was perfect for the murky water enviroment. besides we where able to cover a good bit of ground in the search for fossils, even though we had no luck.
i really wish that Dayv was able to take some back home. maybe next time Dayv.

Bottles, Bottles and More Bottles, some old some New, some broke and some unKnown. we also came across a couple of Horse Shoe crabs. I believe they where doing the (horizontal mombo) but as much as i wanted to exspess that under water i couldnt think of a decent hand signal to communicate, being that we where touching and petting them. it didnt seem to phase them at all. we moved along and SeaJay was stopped bye something he spotted buried in the thick marl. What is it? SeaJay was ona Mission. He was digging vigorously at this object Dayv and I gave a hand periodicly. Soon the water was filled with a dark cloud .Lindsays to the left of me wandering whats going on
as it got darker i could feel her holding my hand tighter because soon site was no more after the cloud passed from the current sweeping it away. i seen Seajay standing on the bottom bent over top of this object with both hands around it Pulling with all his might (determination set in) i think i even heard a grunt or two
. finally ..POP.. He frees the object from the clay. But another cloud of silt came rushing up making vis. no more once again and once it cleared it became clear what it was he has unearthed....
...An Orange Traffic Cone!!! ...What the heck is that doing Here? we all looked at each other puzzled. Buit SeaJay was proud. of his fine. Hell i thought he was going to an Air bag lift it to the surface and take his hard worked find Home. but the Limelight only lasted for a few seconds and we abandoned it. once more be apart of the May River. Its kinda spooky when you look to the end of your vis.(4 feet) and see the silt get kicked up and plant life started to sway from sealife running away from us. you wander what kinda fish was just there, hope it wasnt a shark or something like that. The May River seemed to be as Baron as a Dessert coverd with shells and small rocks, There has to be a mega ton of fossils out there, well find some soon enough, i now believe that the area we dove may have been picked clean bye other divers in the past, being they do frequint the area a good bit.

Seajay and Dayv it was Great to have dove with you guys , Linds and i not only had a great time with yall but where reinsured to dive along well exsperianced divers as your selves. im so glad it went perfect. We also had a blast . Lindsay and I talked about it all day.

Lets do it again real soon

Oh ravin sorry to hear you where unable to make it. Lindsay Really wished you where there. Maybe next time

again it was a pleasure

 

[SeaJay]

Ha! Freakin' traffic cone... Lol...

In all fairness, it was Dayv that found it. He tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to it. An orange sliver seemed to glow under our lights, a stark difference from the bland, muddy bottom. It was compressed in such a way that it wasn't even round under there... So it was really tough to figure out what it was.

...But when Davy dug a little and then passed it up, realizing that it was either a cone or a pipe or something that he might not want to mess with, I got a little aggressive, thinking that I wouldn't be able to stand not knowing for sure what it was. Since the surface of it seemed to flex a little when I pushed on it, I realized that it wasn't a pipe or anything super-dangerous, and I began to dig.

Funny that that was our "big find." I think we need to do a whole lot more diving so that we have better stories to tell.

Bummer that we didn't send Dayv back to NY with something super-cool to remember his dive by. That would have been terrific...

Next time.

Hey, RavenC and I are diving next weekend... We were originally thinking about Myrtle Beach, but we're thinking to just stick around here, for the savings in time and money. Anyone else interested?

Brighton Beach - the place we dove this time - was great because it was clean and sparsely populated, and had a freshwater rinse right at the dive site - making it really nice when we got out. We could do that again and I'd be thrilled. But we could also try diving some other places in search of more fossils. The Morgan is supposed to be pretty loaded...

 

[SeaJay]

New2ScubaSC once bubbled...
Your idea about the set formation we used was awsome. it was perfect for the murky water enviroment. besides we where able to cover a good bit of ground in the search for fossils, even though we had no luck.

I'd love to claim it, but actually, that wasn't really "my" idea... That's one of the less controversial teachings found in DIR-F. While I've always dived that way when I've dived with other DIR guys, I've never bothered to talk about it before the dive with people who aren't DIR trained... Usually, there's so many other issues going on, that it seems to take last priority, and never really gets talked about.

Everyone pretty much had their "stuff" together, though... So I thought, "Hey, let's try this on this dive." It was terrific, and I think that it really did great things for everyone's comfort level, communication, understanding, and even our ground covered. I always knew that that sort of thing worked out well for diving, but I have to admit that I was surprised at how much of a difference positioning actually made. What at first seems like "regimenting" the dive I think really turns out to be super-effective at making sure that everyone has the most fun they can possibly have.

From now on, I'm going to make it a point to touch base about positioning with everyone before getting in the water. I think that it should be a priority, followed by direction (and who's in charge of direction - usually the person with the compass, positioned in the middle of the formation) and then expected depth and runtime. A 30-second reminder of what certain hand signals mean, and maybe even a dry OOA practice (or at least an understanding for everyone that I'm diving a long hose primary) and we're good to go. That three minutes or so I think was priceless, and really made a tremendous difference.

Can't wait to do it again.

 

[New2ScubaSC]

i noticed you rig setup was a bit different but as long as you explain your techniqe to your buddy and if he or she is aware or understood of the setup you dive, then all should be well (i.e) it was understood that your buddy breath tech. was to be from your long primary, so ina instance i would know to take that from you in an emergency, it works out great

plus i think if things are just left to be understool and not debated that all dives should work fine

you know i can see ina more technical dive when diving a couple hundred feet and what ever. i can see where techniqe and setup should all be practiced the same.

but thats a great idea. what we did the other day with the planning and refreshing drills to make sure every one was on the same page makes every thing run smooth and gives you that extra reinsurance

so i agree, planning and procedure should be priority before the dive.

 

[Deyv]

I agree with the lining up, at least for the murky stuff we were doing.... the times we lost each other, was usually going down

Would have liked a souvenir but oh, well (I could have taken the cone home!)

If any of you guys get up to Western NY (Buffalo/Niagara Falls), We have some good wreck diving in lake erie, and a nice drift dive in the niagara river (just dont stay in too long or you'll go over the Falls!... just kidding, it's a couple miles to the falls... and if you miss the exit point, you just have to wade back up stream, though with full gear that can be a pain!

And again I had a Great time (and like you guys said, the weather was perfect!)

deyv