Randy g
Contributor
We were able to get one day of diving in this weekend and it was the first of the year in the big pool.
Short story-This year has been a difficult year for me. The last 2.5 months I have been dealing with 2 broken wrist, 6 weeks apart. I have limited motion in both wrist now and have moved to sidemount for ease of valve use. However diving off a boat is way different than walking into the water and mounting them and something I have to learn now.
Sea state off Hatteras on thursday was 11', so the weekend was iffy. Saturday cancelled but sunday was on. Fast forward to Sunday. I plan on a solo dive on the Dixie Arrow while trying out Kates (Her and our buddy Patrick was completing their AN/D class) new scooter in SM. So I let everyone jump in before me, so as to not hold anyone up while I try to figure this out. I jump in with my left bottle attached and clip the right bottle to a down line. After attempting to fully clip my top and bottom clips in and failing (wrist are not cooperating). I grab the LP85 by the first stage and head to the sand. It took me a couple minutes to figure out how to manipulate my wrist into snapping the bottom clips into the rail but after that, I was off to explore my favorite wreck. With both wrist in braces, my 5 mil wet suit was a little light for 65 degree water. I would have worn my semi dry or drysuit but can't seal the wrist, so I froze! After about 15 min my right wrist was in pain and not digging the scooter but I toughed out a 30 min bottom time and had a fun dive regardless. I sat out the second dive due to thermal protection, I am a cold water woosee.
Visability was about 40' and a dirty green/brown, unlike the normal blue the gulf stream draws in. This Aleutian current is ugly by comparison. On the bow of the DA was a dozen medium sized sandys and a metric sheit ton of big fat triggers all over the wreck, if I only had a gun! The Goliath Grouper has moved on and was no where to be found. There were several turtles both large and small that were loving on the new bubble blowing dive companions....literally. Kates instructor had one try to kiss him.
Overall it was a great weekend on the water with friends, after 8 months of surface interval. We are looking forward to diving NC a bunch this season.
Short story-This year has been a difficult year for me. The last 2.5 months I have been dealing with 2 broken wrist, 6 weeks apart. I have limited motion in both wrist now and have moved to sidemount for ease of valve use. However diving off a boat is way different than walking into the water and mounting them and something I have to learn now.
Sea state off Hatteras on thursday was 11', so the weekend was iffy. Saturday cancelled but sunday was on. Fast forward to Sunday. I plan on a solo dive on the Dixie Arrow while trying out Kates (Her and our buddy Patrick was completing their AN/D class) new scooter in SM. So I let everyone jump in before me, so as to not hold anyone up while I try to figure this out. I jump in with my left bottle attached and clip the right bottle to a down line. After attempting to fully clip my top and bottom clips in and failing (wrist are not cooperating). I grab the LP85 by the first stage and head to the sand. It took me a couple minutes to figure out how to manipulate my wrist into snapping the bottom clips into the rail but after that, I was off to explore my favorite wreck. With both wrist in braces, my 5 mil wet suit was a little light for 65 degree water. I would have worn my semi dry or drysuit but can't seal the wrist, so I froze! After about 15 min my right wrist was in pain and not digging the scooter but I toughed out a 30 min bottom time and had a fun dive regardless. I sat out the second dive due to thermal protection, I am a cold water woosee.
Visability was about 40' and a dirty green/brown, unlike the normal blue the gulf stream draws in. This Aleutian current is ugly by comparison. On the bow of the DA was a dozen medium sized sandys and a metric sheit ton of big fat triggers all over the wreck, if I only had a gun! The Goliath Grouper has moved on and was no where to be found. There were several turtles both large and small that were loving on the new bubble blowing dive companions....literally. Kates instructor had one try to kiss him.
Overall it was a great weekend on the water with friends, after 8 months of surface interval. We are looking forward to diving NC a bunch this season.
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