After completing PADI and NAUI Master Scuba Diver and diving as much as possible, I decided my next step is to go ahead and pursue Technical diving. I did some research and settled on going through TDI and the first course I signed up for was the Intro to Technical Diving course. I had already decided that I was going to do sidemount and I had accumulated about half the gear required. On open water day I was a bit nervous but ready to go. Because of my work schedule I didn't dive with the rest of the class so I ended up diving on a Monday, so it was like a private lesson. The first part of the first dive went well, my buoyancy was good and the time I spent practicing frog kicks paid off. I was switching between my regs with no issues and I did well on the skills test. I was thinking wow this is really going well, and then Mr. Murphey as in Murphey's Law decided to pay me a visit. I had to deploy a DSMB, now this is something that I have been practicing each time I dive so I thought, no problem. Well, as it started to rise, I somehow got inverted, I managed to right myself and finish deploying the DSMB, however when I went to take a breath I swallowed a mouthful of water. No big deal, I blew to clear the reg, breathed in and got another mouthful of water. So here I am with a completely new setup and gear, I'm thinking the reg is not working, while I'm gagging. I forgot that quickly about the other reg. Because I blew to clear the reg, I was out of breath. I was at 15ft at the time, I hate to admit it but yes I did panic and bolted to the surface. But wait there's more, I did NOT CESA and while I was surfacing, I didn't realize it at the time but I swam through my line for the DSMB, so I was entangled. As I hit the surface I realized that I really screwed up. Just that quickly I went over everything I did wrong and boy did I beat myself up as I could have been seriously hurt. I was more upset about the panic and even though this was my first time in sidemount setup I was still hard on myself. So why didn't I go for my instructor's octo or signal him something was wrong??? I have been diving solo so much, I was in that mindset and in the zone that I completely forgot he was there.
I checked the regulators and they both were fine, we discussed that when I went inverted, the regulator took in water, I was lucky to have swallowed it and not breathe it in. I spent the next few moments getting situated and going thru what happened and my instructor also gave his input. As we headed to shore, I asked my instructor to do the deployment again. This time I nailed it. I ended up doing 3 more dives that day, two more for the ITT certification and one recreational dive. I think my instructor wanted to make sure I was good with the SMB deployment, so he had me deploy it on each dive, which I did with no problems. By the second dive I was getting comfortable with the setup. During a lull in training, my instructor tried to surprise me by simulating a free flow. I performed it earlier, he just wanted to see how I would react if caught off guard. I correctly went through the steps of identifying the offending regulator and shutting down the tank. He was impressed because he said many divers wouldn't even troubleshoot, they would just shut down a tank to find the culprit.
Since this was rented gear, I could not access or see the SPG's so my instructor kept an eye on them for me. As a result I opted to order the 9" SPG hose along with two SWIFT transmitters for my setup. At the end of our last dive, I looked at the pressures in both tanks and BOTH of the readings were at 2100psi! I was taking guesses on when to switch regs based from experience from me diving frequently and my SAC rates, since I couldn't see the SPG. That made my day and it almost made up for when Mr. Murphey reared his head. In spite of Mr. Murphey, my instructor was impressed. He said that the divers that take Technical sidemount generally have some sidemount experience and that I did fine for someone who dove it for the first time.
Fast forward to today, I have finally assembled an entire sidemount setup and on Monday and Tuesday I'll be going for my certification! Getting excited, hope to have a great report Tuesday evening!
I checked the regulators and they both were fine, we discussed that when I went inverted, the regulator took in water, I was lucky to have swallowed it and not breathe it in. I spent the next few moments getting situated and going thru what happened and my instructor also gave his input. As we headed to shore, I asked my instructor to do the deployment again. This time I nailed it. I ended up doing 3 more dives that day, two more for the ITT certification and one recreational dive. I think my instructor wanted to make sure I was good with the SMB deployment, so he had me deploy it on each dive, which I did with no problems. By the second dive I was getting comfortable with the setup. During a lull in training, my instructor tried to surprise me by simulating a free flow. I performed it earlier, he just wanted to see how I would react if caught off guard. I correctly went through the steps of identifying the offending regulator and shutting down the tank. He was impressed because he said many divers wouldn't even troubleshoot, they would just shut down a tank to find the culprit.
Since this was rented gear, I could not access or see the SPG's so my instructor kept an eye on them for me. As a result I opted to order the 9" SPG hose along with two SWIFT transmitters for my setup. At the end of our last dive, I looked at the pressures in both tanks and BOTH of the readings were at 2100psi! I was taking guesses on when to switch regs based from experience from me diving frequently and my SAC rates, since I couldn't see the SPG. That made my day and it almost made up for when Mr. Murphey reared his head. In spite of Mr. Murphey, my instructor was impressed. He said that the divers that take Technical sidemount generally have some sidemount experience and that I did fine for someone who dove it for the first time.
Fast forward to today, I have finally assembled an entire sidemount setup and on Monday and Tuesday I'll be going for my certification! Getting excited, hope to have a great report Tuesday evening!
