pdoege
Contributor
Hey guys -
I just finished up a nice diving and surfing weekend here in lovely FL.
The surfing went well and I drove down to Lantana to do some night dives with the Starfish. I was pretty tired when I arrived. I did not want a stressful dive. Nice and easy.
The dives went well. I was diving dry, water temp was about 70F.
1st dive was a twilight dive on the Del Ray Beaches. I don't really care for them. There is too much sun for the lights to overpower and not enough sun to light up distant stuff. I think the newbies on the boat liked it though. Ripping current. Maybe 2kts. We zoomed over the reef. I had the ball and was not buddied. I was watching over everyone else. Just relaxing and letting the ball take me. Good stuff, not much to see. Everyone huffed their air and I got out with over 1200psi after around 40 minutes at 60 ft.
2nd dive was a real night dive on the Ledges. Great reef! My fill was low. 2700PSI. Two of the younger guys had HOT fills. 3800 or thereabouts. I was carrying the ball, so I made a mental note to conserve air so I didn't inconvenience them. Great dive, lots of stuff to see. 2 turtles, morays, spotted eels, etc. Young guy #1 burned through his air early. Guy #2 called the dive when he hit 1000PSI. I took my time ascending and did a nice long safety stop. Got on the boat with 750PSI remaining. That was 55minutes at 70ft using 1,950PSI. Not too bad.
I was completely pooped and was ready for bed. Went to grab dinner at Denny's. Swapped stories with my friends, lots of fun. Got to the hotel and was out like a light.
Slept till 10:00AM or so. Exhausted. Went to lunch and then back to the boat.
1st dive was the Capt. Tony. I have been on her before. Lots of kids this dive. Maybe 10 of them. Their first or second "real" dive.
I was asked to tie us off. No problem. Capt. Craig gave me a perfect drop off the bow. I went in really negative. Dropped like a rock. I kicked like a mother against the current. The current blew me from the bow to off of the stern in the time it took me to kick down 60ft! That was a strong current. The huge mooring ball didn't help! I made very little headway against it. I finally managed to reach the stern and pulled myself to the funnel. Tying off was hard! Glad I do lots of chest flys. Good grief.
As I rested, trying to regain me breathing pattern I thought about the kids who would be coming into the current. I thought that it was above their skill level. I could hear and see the boat manuevering for the drop, so it was too late to call the dive. What to do?
I wrote "Stay low and stay out of the current. Ok?" on my slate and made everybody (well kids and newbies) read it before they left the line. That worked really well. They stayed behind the superstructure and went into the hold area where they were sheltered. I stayed at the stern watching bubbles, getting ready to join them when they were blown off.
Nobody blew off! I was surprised. They started coming back out and I put them on the line. It turns out that they had managed to silt up the forwards hold. A experienced diver in the group corralled them and sent them to the stern. He was a bit pissy that their bouyancy and ascent techniques sucked so bad. I was sorta non-plussed too, but I didn't train them. Just was doing my best to manage the situation.
I spent a few minutes checking the wreck for stragglers (hard to do in that current) and saw a huge 8 foot ray off of the starboard bow. I did not see the Goliath grouper in the hold where he normally lives. I finally went up after 43 minutes. The DM of the second group and her 1 kid passed me going down.
There was a gaggle of kids at a safety stop and I got blown off the line going around them. I could not swim to the line! I was strong enough to beat the current earlier. Too tired now. So I gave up.
And then a bad thing happened. I had been kicking down against the current and when I stopped I started to ascend quickly. The air in my BC and suit expanded and I surfaced before I could dump. Dammit! So I dumped and did my safety stop. Like fricking newbie. In 20/20, my concern for the other divers and the stress of fighting the current was alot of task loading and I should have been dumping coming up the line. Live and learn.
The DM had a hard time unhooking the line. The current was so strong that she couldn't get any slack. Her kid lost a fin to the current!
This was an exhausting, stressful dive. I was happy when it was over.
2nd dive was a nice reef dive. I had several adults and one kid. She was trying hard. The current was still ripping, about 2kts. I had the ball and made everyone group at the surface and descend with their buddies. The kid was way negative. She stood vertically and kicked to hover about 10ft of the reef. I had the ball and could not free a hand for writing corrections on my slate. Phooey. We called the dive when the first diver hit 1000PSI.
The kid shot for the surface. Her buddy was rather far out. So I grabbed her fin and pulled her down. I adjusted my grip on the ball and stowed my light and managed to grab her fin as it went over my head, again.
I pulled her back down, held her hand, and put her left hand on the deflator and walked her through the dump. She was still way bouyant. Hmm, jacket BC, maybe some air is still in there? I go through the dump motions again, she has no problem doing it herself this time. No air. I do the "shake and dump". Little tiny bubbles. Hmmm, she appears to be breathing shallow from the top of the lungs. I wasn't sure how to motion, "breathe out!", and my hands were full of girl and ball, so the slate was out.
So I just hung out, like a clown with two balloons. After a 6 minute SS, I told her that we were ready to ascend. I also did the ascend check with the other divers. I slowly went to 10 feet and let go of the kid. She popped up to the surface like a balloon. I talked to her about using breathing to control bouyancy and how to avoid the "stand and kick" hover. If I could get just one more dive in with her I could really improve her performance. Oh well.
Busy weekend. Learned a lot stuff about how to handle newbies and kids. I am tempted to become a DM so that I can get paid for this kind of stuff. We'll see
Peter
I just finished up a nice diving and surfing weekend here in lovely FL.
The surfing went well and I drove down to Lantana to do some night dives with the Starfish. I was pretty tired when I arrived. I did not want a stressful dive. Nice and easy.
The dives went well. I was diving dry, water temp was about 70F.
1st dive was a twilight dive on the Del Ray Beaches. I don't really care for them. There is too much sun for the lights to overpower and not enough sun to light up distant stuff. I think the newbies on the boat liked it though. Ripping current. Maybe 2kts. We zoomed over the reef. I had the ball and was not buddied. I was watching over everyone else. Just relaxing and letting the ball take me. Good stuff, not much to see. Everyone huffed their air and I got out with over 1200psi after around 40 minutes at 60 ft.
2nd dive was a real night dive on the Ledges. Great reef! My fill was low. 2700PSI. Two of the younger guys had HOT fills. 3800 or thereabouts. I was carrying the ball, so I made a mental note to conserve air so I didn't inconvenience them. Great dive, lots of stuff to see. 2 turtles, morays, spotted eels, etc. Young guy #1 burned through his air early. Guy #2 called the dive when he hit 1000PSI. I took my time ascending and did a nice long safety stop. Got on the boat with 750PSI remaining. That was 55minutes at 70ft using 1,950PSI. Not too bad.
I was completely pooped and was ready for bed. Went to grab dinner at Denny's. Swapped stories with my friends, lots of fun. Got to the hotel and was out like a light.
Slept till 10:00AM or so. Exhausted. Went to lunch and then back to the boat.
1st dive was the Capt. Tony. I have been on her before. Lots of kids this dive. Maybe 10 of them. Their first or second "real" dive.
I was asked to tie us off. No problem. Capt. Craig gave me a perfect drop off the bow. I went in really negative. Dropped like a rock. I kicked like a mother against the current. The current blew me from the bow to off of the stern in the time it took me to kick down 60ft! That was a strong current. The huge mooring ball didn't help! I made very little headway against it. I finally managed to reach the stern and pulled myself to the funnel. Tying off was hard! Glad I do lots of chest flys. Good grief.
As I rested, trying to regain me breathing pattern I thought about the kids who would be coming into the current. I thought that it was above their skill level. I could hear and see the boat manuevering for the drop, so it was too late to call the dive. What to do?
I wrote "Stay low and stay out of the current. Ok?" on my slate and made everybody (well kids and newbies) read it before they left the line. That worked really well. They stayed behind the superstructure and went into the hold area where they were sheltered. I stayed at the stern watching bubbles, getting ready to join them when they were blown off.
Nobody blew off! I was surprised. They started coming back out and I put them on the line. It turns out that they had managed to silt up the forwards hold. A experienced diver in the group corralled them and sent them to the stern. He was a bit pissy that their bouyancy and ascent techniques sucked so bad. I was sorta non-plussed too, but I didn't train them. Just was doing my best to manage the situation.
I spent a few minutes checking the wreck for stragglers (hard to do in that current) and saw a huge 8 foot ray off of the starboard bow. I did not see the Goliath grouper in the hold where he normally lives. I finally went up after 43 minutes. The DM of the second group and her 1 kid passed me going down.
There was a gaggle of kids at a safety stop and I got blown off the line going around them. I could not swim to the line! I was strong enough to beat the current earlier. Too tired now. So I gave up.
And then a bad thing happened. I had been kicking down against the current and when I stopped I started to ascend quickly. The air in my BC and suit expanded and I surfaced before I could dump. Dammit! So I dumped and did my safety stop. Like fricking newbie. In 20/20, my concern for the other divers and the stress of fighting the current was alot of task loading and I should have been dumping coming up the line. Live and learn.
The DM had a hard time unhooking the line. The current was so strong that she couldn't get any slack. Her kid lost a fin to the current!
This was an exhausting, stressful dive. I was happy when it was over.
2nd dive was a nice reef dive. I had several adults and one kid. She was trying hard. The current was still ripping, about 2kts. I had the ball and made everyone group at the surface and descend with their buddies. The kid was way negative. She stood vertically and kicked to hover about 10ft of the reef. I had the ball and could not free a hand for writing corrections on my slate. Phooey. We called the dive when the first diver hit 1000PSI.
The kid shot for the surface. Her buddy was rather far out. So I grabbed her fin and pulled her down. I adjusted my grip on the ball and stowed my light and managed to grab her fin as it went over my head, again.
I pulled her back down, held her hand, and put her left hand on the deflator and walked her through the dump. She was still way bouyant. Hmm, jacket BC, maybe some air is still in there? I go through the dump motions again, she has no problem doing it herself this time. No air. I do the "shake and dump". Little tiny bubbles. Hmmm, she appears to be breathing shallow from the top of the lungs. I wasn't sure how to motion, "breathe out!", and my hands were full of girl and ball, so the slate was out.
So I just hung out, like a clown with two balloons. After a 6 minute SS, I told her that we were ready to ascend. I also did the ascend check with the other divers. I slowly went to 10 feet and let go of the kid. She popped up to the surface like a balloon. I talked to her about using breathing to control bouyancy and how to avoid the "stand and kick" hover. If I could get just one more dive in with her I could really improve her performance. Oh well.
Busy weekend. Learned a lot stuff about how to handle newbies and kids. I am tempted to become a DM so that I can get paid for this kind of stuff. We'll see
Peter
