knobber
Registered
Since my FG trip was postponed for three weeks, my instructor asked if I wanted to do my AOW navigation dive at Smith Lake (Vidor) since he would be out there. "SURE!" was my reply. Oh how I should have thought about this one!
I had been out there the day before, helping pick up trash in the swimming end. Very fun, and visibility was about 5 feet. It was about 10 feet during my OW, so I figured it was just a bad day. Sunday, after a constant shower for the previous six hours, it was 2-3 feet! Not necessarily bad if you're going first, but since I was second, following the first guy meant I also had to swim through his HUGE silt trail. I kid you not--in that, the visibility dropped to 3 inches; so bad that I had to raise up to see my wrist compass, and I was already off course, so I had to start over.
By the time I got back to the start, another guy had gone, so I was now swimming through three silt trails. Everyone had to start over at least three times.
I feel like an idiot--I had to start over four times before I got it. But I did, and my other dives--square and retrieval--were cake.
Does 2-3ft-diminishing-to-3" visibility qualify me for an honorary swamp diver membership if I haven't paid the fee yet?
I had been out there the day before, helping pick up trash in the swimming end. Very fun, and visibility was about 5 feet. It was about 10 feet during my OW, so I figured it was just a bad day. Sunday, after a constant shower for the previous six hours, it was 2-3 feet! Not necessarily bad if you're going first, but since I was second, following the first guy meant I also had to swim through his HUGE silt trail. I kid you not--in that, the visibility dropped to 3 inches; so bad that I had to raise up to see my wrist compass, and I was already off course, so I had to start over.
By the time I got back to the start, another guy had gone, so I was now swimming through three silt trails. Everyone had to start over at least three times.
I feel like an idiot--I had to start over four times before I got it. But I did, and my other dives--square and retrieval--were cake.
Does 2-3ft-diminishing-to-3" visibility qualify me for an honorary swamp diver membership if I haven't paid the fee yet?