perdidochas
Contributor
This happened back in 1989, when I was a very active diver--I was a research diver rated to 90', had been nitrox trained (a rarity in 1989), and was an inactive assistant instructor. I was a graduate student in marine biology at the University of Miami, and was diving with the U of Miami scuba club. As the most experienced diver, I ended up in a three way dive team with this hot cutie, as well as a female Israeli grad student. The cutie was a good diver, and I had dove with her before, alas, only in the SCUBA sense. I had dove with the Israeli grad student's husband a few weeks before (he was a very good diver).
We were diving off the "Three Little Devils" out of Palm Beach. The Israeli lady dove with a horsecollar. (this was 1989, so it was only 10 yrs out of date). The divemaster on the boat bullied her into using a jacket BC they had on board. I watched this, and in hindsight, should have defended her choice of the horse collar. Our first dive was the Mizpah (sp?) which is a wreck. As is usual for the area, the current was honking. We got down the anchor line ok, but in the transition between the anchor line and the wreck, the Israeli lady decided to swim from the anchor line to the wreck (a distance of about 20' at the point). I follow her (I'm invincible and she's my buddy). She starts to have buoyancy problems, as she didn't put any air into the unfamiliar BC on the way down, and then puts way too much air into it (it doesn't handle exactly like her horsecollar). I grab her (as a rescue trained AI, it's my first instinct). She bumps my mask, and as I'm 90 degrees to the current, this floods it. She calms down, we swim to the side of the wreck (as I clear my mask). The rest of the dive (and the second dive on breaker's reef) are uneventful.
I learned a few things from that dive: 1) don't allow DM's to bully your buddy into changing equipment before making a fairly deep; 2) make sure that your buddy in rental equipment is well aware of how to operate the equipment and 3) try not to wreck dive off of Palm Beach. It's too stressful. I'd much rather drift dive the reefs there.
We were diving off the "Three Little Devils" out of Palm Beach. The Israeli lady dove with a horsecollar. (this was 1989, so it was only 10 yrs out of date). The divemaster on the boat bullied her into using a jacket BC they had on board. I watched this, and in hindsight, should have defended her choice of the horse collar. Our first dive was the Mizpah (sp?) which is a wreck. As is usual for the area, the current was honking. We got down the anchor line ok, but in the transition between the anchor line and the wreck, the Israeli lady decided to swim from the anchor line to the wreck (a distance of about 20' at the point). I follow her (I'm invincible and she's my buddy). She starts to have buoyancy problems, as she didn't put any air into the unfamiliar BC on the way down, and then puts way too much air into it (it doesn't handle exactly like her horsecollar). I grab her (as a rescue trained AI, it's my first instinct). She bumps my mask, and as I'm 90 degrees to the current, this floods it. She calms down, we swim to the side of the wreck (as I clear my mask). The rest of the dive (and the second dive on breaker's reef) are uneventful.
I learned a few things from that dive: 1) don't allow DM's to bully your buddy into changing equipment before making a fairly deep; 2) make sure that your buddy in rental equipment is well aware of how to operate the equipment and 3) try not to wreck dive off of Palm Beach. It's too stressful. I'd much rather drift dive the reefs there.
