Mapping assignment - any hints?

[Cerveza]

When I did mine I used a slate and wrote down all the headings/distances/depths so that I had all the information I needed from one dive. A tape will work fine but arm spans are nearly as accurate and fin kicks will get you within a few feet. How many to a 100 feet and you've got a pretty good rule of thumb. Then it's just a matter of putting all of ot on dry paper.

.....

This is the way my buddy and myself (he's doing the DM too) did things this morning mapping a new wreck (new, as in only a month or so old, not a newly discovered Galleon or anything so exotic ). all went well till retrieving the reels/lines back in, which we used for triangulating a referrance from 3 other wrecks so as to build up an underwater tour..... Then one of us lost the slate while reeling in the lines.... ahh well lesson learnt.. (next time im holding the slate.. )

 

[DiveBandit]

BTW, the little grey thingies are concrete tetrapods - thats unfortunately what most of the shoreline looks like around here.

Now if we could get people over here as excited about artficial reefs as the guy in this picture, we'd be doin much better!

 

[agwatts]

Hi All,

I'm about half done with my DM. I'm now moving into the mapping phase, as well. Where do you get the software to do the mapping, or what type of program can I use?

GW

 

[amascuba]

Hi All,

I'm about half done with my DM. I'm now moving into the mapping phase, as well. Where do you get the software to do the mapping, or what type of program can I use?

GW

You don't have to use software. More than a few people made their notes on a slate and then transferred it to paper. I used a software application called 3Dfield.

 

[The Mushroom King]

I just used a cheapy photo editor program. I copied the shore area from google maps, then just used the paint brush and such to fill in the rest. But thats really more than whats required. You can do a great job with just some paper and some sharp pencils!

 

[creamofwheat]

Yeah, I did mine by hand. Software=not necessary.

 

[BWDscott]

I'm with Kraken... We used a fiberglass 300' reel tape measure (not as awkward as you may think) and 2 LARGE slates, and flew through the measurements. I had the advantage of working with a fellow DM candidate for the exercise, which was handy, as the vis was about 20' the day we were down. We organized some hand/tug signals, took some compass bearings and compiled a nice map of Lake Denton, in Avon Park, in one weekend. The next weekend we worked together to map the MV Castor out of Boynton Beach. Teamwork... ain't it great!!


Scott