M60 tanks..Report

[diveman3]

Haha if you were with us this dive you could so tell that its been 3 months since we have dives...Well lets see.

We began out trip off of tierra verde marina and every thing was great.. First dive in a few months and dad and I were siked..And man let me tell you, one we go into the gulf it was crazy..The swells were a good 8 to 9 ft...And in our 24ft boat..Not fun..Haha....

Eventually after to getting to the tanks...We were greeted by 2 other dive boats..Both smaller than ours! Crazy..But this is when it went wrong..
Trying to put BC's on tanks and regs on tanks is very very hard with 8ft swells...And i was getting sick..But eventually my dad and I got it....So im starting to put my wetsuit on...But oh snap..Its been months since ive been diving and IT DOESNT EVEN FIT..Yeah water temps 70 degrees...Haha and my dads is fine..What a joke huh? So im there in my skin and boots getting ready to dive..And eventually I giant stride in...

BRRRRRRRRRR...It was freezing..Haha..And there i am bobbing in 8 ft swells waitying for my dad to get in and im freeezing my butt off...So he gets in and we get our compass heading to the boat and such..And now were ready to go down..AND OH NO...WE FORGOT TO PUT OUR WEIGHTS ON!!...So i get back in the boat..Pull all my gear back in and put the weights on and then back in..Same for my dad...Now were ready to dive..

I decend to about 10 ft and my dads having ear problems but eventually got it.And we hit the bottom at about 30 ft..And i couldnt even see my dad at first..Starttleled me a bit..Viz was 5ft if that..So i think we started our heading north and bam..Guess what we saw??SAND..and more SAND..During our 45 min dive..we saw 1 piece of concrete and MORE SAND...'
Soi we decend after about 45 min and i come up with a numb left leg haha...But i make the swim back in the 8 ft waves..And then as im coming up the ladder...I throw up 3 times..I just could not take it...Haha...Yeah...And then you can imagine me the ride back....

I guess you could say it was a bad dive day...But i just love it so much..I thought it was fun...Haha..

Thanks

( sorry if spelling or anything wrong, im 13)...

 

[Chugger]

Well it sounds like you had a really bad day. All the problems you mentioned, most of them could have been taken care of by checking your gear. Always check your gear before leaving the house. If you haven't worn your wetsuit, especially at the age of 13 it's probably a good idea to check and see if it still fits. Second you and your father got in the water without weights? What happened to your pre-dive safety check? My point is, if you haven't been diving in a while, you want to double and triple check your equipment, and always conduct a safety check.

Without an exposure suit in 70 degree water? This dive should have been cancelled. Atleast you managed to get back safely. Stories like these are how almost every diving mishap begin.

 

[Missdirected]

Well it sounds like you had a really bad day. All the problems you mentioned, most of them could have been taken care of by checking your gear. Always check your gear before leaving the house. If you haven't worn your wetsuit, especially at the age of 13 it's probably a good idea to check and see if it still fits. Second you and your father got in the water without weights? What happened to your pre-dive safety check? My point is, if you haven't been diving in a while, you want to double and triple check your equipment, and always conduct a safety check.

Without an exposure suit in 70 degree water? This dive should have been cancelled. Atleast you managed to get back safely. Stories like these are how almost every diving mishap begin.

I'll second this. Further, you should know better DM3, you've been here long enough. You've kind of grown on us so don't go doing silly things. Think and for the love of diving, do your buddy check.

 

[ReefHound]

First off, he's 13 not a college grad, so misspelling and exaggeration are to be expected.

Well then you might want to have a word or two with him about safe diving practices if you'd like to have him around long enough to be a college grad.

 

[BHB ScubaTroll]

Couple of words for you and dad... Marine Radio... That would hopefully make you think of another couple of words... spring diving.

At 13, you are out of your league in a 24' boat and 9' swells...

Also, water temps in the gulf today were 74-78, not 70... But, without a wetsuit, it was still out of your experience level... love it or not...

 

[DiveBandit]

Diveman3, sounds like you had quite the adventure!

I don't know what numbers you have for the tanks, but several of the public numbers out there are no good. I have a set of numbers on my GPS unit I'll PM you that I marked while directly over and looking down at one of the tanks. I use those numbers everytime I go out there and they put me right over that tank every time. From that tank you can find 3 other tanks and a bunch of culverts within 50 yards of your anchor line.

Also, even though you had a bad dive look at the bright side, you got to spend the day with your Dad.

One thing you may want to mention to Dad. Pick up a "safety reel" with about 150' of line like the ones used for cave diving. In low vis Gulf diving you can tie off to the anchor and run the line as you go. It makes finding the boat again a much easier task, and it sure beats a free ascent to the surface to look for the boat.

 

[eandiver]

2 people in a 24' boat diving in 8' to 9' seas sounds like a good way to die very quickly. Think about it and if you want people to take you seriously you really should spell better. Even better would be to actually meet some of the area divers and do some dives with them.
Any time you and your dad want to do a spring dive let me know and I'll be glad to go.

On the positive side you've admitted your mistakes and hopefully you'll learn from them. The problem with admitting mistakes on SB is the fact that sometimes it draws comments and criticism from people who really have nothing of any worth to add to the conversation.

Narcosis has a good point about the safety reel. Get one with hi vis line and practice with it for a while.

 

[K Mejean]

2 people in a 24' boat diving in 8' to 9' seas sounds like a good way to die very quickly. Think about it and if you want people to take you seriously you really should spell better. Even better would be to actually meet some of the area divers and do some dives with them.
Any time you and your dad want to do a spring dive let me know and I'll be glad to go.

On the positive side you've admitted your mistakes and hopefully you'll learn from them. The problem with admitting mistakes on SB is the fact that sometimes it draws comments and criticism from people who really have nothing of any worth to add to the conversation.

Narcosis has a good point about the safety reel. Get one with hi vis line and practice with it for a while.

Yeah what he said!!!!!!

 

[ReefHound]

On the positive side you've admitted your mistakes and hopefully you'll learn from them. The problem with admitting mistakes on SB is the fact that sometimes it draws comments and criticism from people who really have nothing of any worth to add to the conversation.

Actually, I would have offered advice but I genuinely thought it was a troll. There were so many gross mistakes that it seemed as if someone was thinking "what outlandish detail can I add now". The only thing missing was a pre-dive beer chug.

The good thing about tying a reel to the anchor is that when the anchor gets dragged through the sand by the 8' seas at least you'll get dragged along with it. Leaving a boat unattended is not very wise, much less a 24' boat in 8' seas.

The most disturbing part is that he doesn't seem concerned about preventing such mistakes or being a safer diver, he thinks it's funny.

 

[eandiver]

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt as to not being a troll. There are several people who occasionally post in the Tampa Bay area that no one has ever seen or dove with. Hopefully he will do some dives in the coming months with us and end that debate. We'll see.

We didn't have 8' to 9' foot seas yesterday anyway so I think there was a bit of exaggeration there.

ReefHound, post #13 sure sounds better than the first one you made.