I dove Hudson Grotto yesterday, my first sink hole or spring. Great place to dive in.
It was also my first dive with my new DSS wing, and my new Versa Pro computer. Both of which were great. That wing is fantastic, and the Versa Pro was very simple to use.
It was also my first dive with a heavy silt on the bottom, and my introduction to the frog kick. I need more practice on that though
My buddy started pointing behind me and I looked to see what looked like a thunder-head of silt rolling towards us. Then I remembered that cave video that everyone was downloading on the other thread, and started to frog kick. Very helpful. That first dive was down to 112', and VERY dark. It was nice to have a wall to look at all the way up though. The slow ascent seriously helped burn off the deco time we got on the bottom. The Versa Pro never went into deco though. My buddy was using a Nitek HE, and it said we needed 5 minutes of deco (he's a tech trained diver). The Versa Pro was less conservative by a couple of minutes, which was fine, and good to know. This will help me plan dives with others in the future. Like I said, we burned off the deco time looking at the walls, and making the a trip around the hole at 40'. Then practiced the frog kick by doing laps around the 20' platform. It's a very cool place to dive, as long as you can stay off the bottom The entire dive from submerge to surface was 50 minutes, which is also my longest dive. I was using a single PST 104 (3000PSI), and my buddy was using double 80's.
The second dive we went to the middle buoy, which goes down to 106', and was THE darkest place in the sink. While descending, all I could see of my buddy was his light. It was interesting to follow the cave lines to the different "wrecks" on the bottom. The halcoline wasn't as pronounced as usual according to my buddy, but it was there. There was a couple of times I thought I was looking at a wall. We saw 2 boats, a VW bus, and a toilet Again, my buddy incurred deco on this dive (on purpose), while the Versa Pro still had 2 minutes left on NDL. So we slowly ascended by swimming around the walls again. This time we found the Budha and rubbed his belly. Yet another 50 minute total dive time.
I really enjoyed being able to get deep without dealing with the ocean. I see lots of spring diving in my future I'm also feeling pretty good about the new skills I learned in that environment: better buoyancy, frog kick(s), and my improved SAC rate.
Just had to share.
Jason
It was also my first dive with my new DSS wing, and my new Versa Pro computer. Both of which were great. That wing is fantastic, and the Versa Pro was very simple to use.
It was also my first dive with a heavy silt on the bottom, and my introduction to the frog kick. I need more practice on that though
My buddy started pointing behind me and I looked to see what looked like a thunder-head of silt rolling towards us. Then I remembered that cave video that everyone was downloading on the other thread, and started to frog kick. Very helpful. That first dive was down to 112', and VERY dark. It was nice to have a wall to look at all the way up though. The slow ascent seriously helped burn off the deco time we got on the bottom. The Versa Pro never went into deco though. My buddy was using a Nitek HE, and it said we needed 5 minutes of deco (he's a tech trained diver). The Versa Pro was less conservative by a couple of minutes, which was fine, and good to know. This will help me plan dives with others in the future. Like I said, we burned off the deco time looking at the walls, and making the a trip around the hole at 40'. Then practiced the frog kick by doing laps around the 20' platform. It's a very cool place to dive, as long as you can stay off the bottom The entire dive from submerge to surface was 50 minutes, which is also my longest dive. I was using a single PST 104 (3000PSI), and my buddy was using double 80's. The second dive we went to the middle buoy, which goes down to 106', and was THE darkest place in the sink. While descending, all I could see of my buddy was his light. It was interesting to follow the cave lines to the different "wrecks" on the bottom. The halcoline wasn't as pronounced as usual according to my buddy, but it was there. There was a couple of times I thought I was looking at a wall. We saw 2 boats, a VW bus, and a toilet
Again, my buddy incurred deco on this dive (on purpose), while the Versa Pro still had 2 minutes left on NDL. So we slowly ascended by swimming around the walls again. This time we found the Budha and rubbed his belly. Yet another 50 minute total dive time. I really enjoyed being able to get deep without dealing with the ocean. I see lots of spring diving in my future
I'm also feeling pretty good about the new skills I learned in that environment: better buoyancy, frog kick(s), and my improved SAC rate.Just had to share.
Jason
