Papa Steve
Guest
My buddy (wife) and I did our first deep dive. This was our 25th dive and we dived to 99ft with some mentor-divers. Most of our dives have been in the 25-45 range and our deepest before this dive was 74.
We were diving in Lake Medina just west of San Antonio. Weve dived there around 10 times previously and enjoy the diving as viz is decent, there are a lot of fish, and a lot of structure, walls, etc. We were diving out of "Joe's Place" marina.
We surface swam out to a diving buoy and descended down the line to a training platform at 38 Surface temp was 84 degrees and viz was 5. The temperature at the platform was 79 and the viz opened up to 12-15 past 30-35 feet.
We then followed a line down the slope, passed a boat and a car down to a second platform and pontoon boat at 80. The objective of the dive was to survey the condition of the platform, continue down to 100 and then begin a slow ascent back up the slope to a cliff at 35 and then follow the ledge back to the line at the original platform.
Once we continued our descent past the second platform we turned on our lights and I noted the temperature at 99 was 57 degrees. We paralleled the slope, maintaining 99 for about 3 minutes then began our gradual turn and ascent towards our cliff at 35. When we began our ascent I was at 1500 psi and my wife was at 2100 psi.
During my time at 99 I recall how much louder my breathing sounded and how it looked like I was hovering above the surface of the moon. It was pretty cool. I assessed myself for the effects of narcosis and was not really aware of any affects. My wife stated the same afterwards. I was aware that my breathing was faster than normal. I would attribute this to:
Though I felt fine and in control Im sure I had to be a little nervous since this was my first deep dive.
I was a bit winded after the surface swim to the buoy. Afterwards I decided I should have told the group to give me a few minutes to totally catch my breath before we began our descent.
I was busy . . .keeping an eye on my wife, the divers in front of us, keeping situational awareness in case we got separated from the rest of the group, monitoring my air, bottom time and depth, all on a first time at this depth was a manageable, but fairly high degree of task loading..
The total dive was 37 minutes. My wife went through 1900 psi in an AL80 and I burned through 2600 on the same.
Overall I was very pleased with the dive and have really come to love diving Lake Medina.
We were diving in Lake Medina just west of San Antonio. Weve dived there around 10 times previously and enjoy the diving as viz is decent, there are a lot of fish, and a lot of structure, walls, etc. We were diving out of "Joe's Place" marina.
We surface swam out to a diving buoy and descended down the line to a training platform at 38 Surface temp was 84 degrees and viz was 5. The temperature at the platform was 79 and the viz opened up to 12-15 past 30-35 feet.
We then followed a line down the slope, passed a boat and a car down to a second platform and pontoon boat at 80. The objective of the dive was to survey the condition of the platform, continue down to 100 and then begin a slow ascent back up the slope to a cliff at 35 and then follow the ledge back to the line at the original platform.
Once we continued our descent past the second platform we turned on our lights and I noted the temperature at 99 was 57 degrees. We paralleled the slope, maintaining 99 for about 3 minutes then began our gradual turn and ascent towards our cliff at 35. When we began our ascent I was at 1500 psi and my wife was at 2100 psi.
During my time at 99 I recall how much louder my breathing sounded and how it looked like I was hovering above the surface of the moon. It was pretty cool. I assessed myself for the effects of narcosis and was not really aware of any affects. My wife stated the same afterwards. I was aware that my breathing was faster than normal. I would attribute this to:
Though I felt fine and in control Im sure I had to be a little nervous since this was my first deep dive.
I was a bit winded after the surface swim to the buoy. Afterwards I decided I should have told the group to give me a few minutes to totally catch my breath before we began our descent.
I was busy . . .keeping an eye on my wife, the divers in front of us, keeping situational awareness in case we got separated from the rest of the group, monitoring my air, bottom time and depth, all on a first time at this depth was a manageable, but fairly high degree of task loading..
The total dive was 37 minutes. My wife went through 1900 psi in an AL80 and I burned through 2600 on the same.
Overall I was very pleased with the dive and have really come to love diving Lake Medina.
