Millbrook OW Checkout Sat/Sun 4/27-4/28

[Douglas Ward]

True. And once you start moving around its not bad at all with 7mm on.

It does get chilly waiting while others do skills and you're just hovering.


Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2

 

[EbbTideMike]

I ended up just buying 3mm gloves, am I going to be wishing I had something thicker?

Cool to see locals on this site. I live in dumfries/montclair area.

 

[HIGHwing]

I ended up just buying 3mm gloves, am I going to be wishing I had something thicker?

Cool to see locals on this site. I live in dumfries/montclair area.

3mm is probably the minimum for most, but the thickness of the material compared to 5/7mm gloves is a dexterity advantage during mask skills, etc. I have 3mm and 5mm gloves and generally grab the 3mm for skills intensive dives, such as OW. Obviously, individual comfort varies, but it may somewhat depend on the instructor as you don't have to go very deep to complete Open Water Diver. To achieve most performance requirements the instructor can choose the 15ft platform at Millbrook. The CESA and the free descent (for example) require exceeding 20ft, but otherwise there isn't much else that has deeper (i.e. colder) performance requirements. You'll be required to stay down :20 minutes or until you've breathed 50cu/ft of gas (whichever happens first) and most instructors keep the dive times down to have warm(er), happy clients (as tipping is always appreciated!). Using cold water dive sites is always a balance between giving a student an adequate exposure to scuba, and not over exposing them to the cold environment.

Please let us know how it goes!

 

[Barrod]

I used 2mm gloves for the whole thing and it took me 1/2 hour straight below 30' before I started feeling cold - and that was one dive four of the OW cert - the fun dive.



this was dive 3 - we did our compass work - Tim Amoroso was a great instructor.

I'll be diving around here probably after I get back from Hawaii.

 

[brysonjk]

46 degrees at Millbrook isn't too far from normal. I think it was 2 -3 years ago, but I hit 33 degrees (@ 80 ft. I think). I was hoping to find 32, but couldn't. Millbrook is great for drills, and skills. Very consistent on conditions. Always low viz, and always cold. Those are not bad things in my book. Just adds to the experience.

 

[EbbTideMike]

I did my check outs this past weekend 5/11 and 5/12

I had problems with my reg that had the computer on it, so I was relying on others for temp. I was told at just about 40 feet we were in 42/43 degrees. That was the only point I felt COLD to the point I wanted to go up a few feet.

Training there was certainly interesting. On Saturday visibility was worse than Sunday. I couldn't even see the entire platform from end to end. 10 minutes into my first dive I had a free flow reg caused by a 1st stage that didn't have the environment sealed unit installed. That was my fault as I actually left my rental reg at home (Lesson learned, never repack a bag early in the morning). I did the other dives with an apeks xtx50 and fell in love with it.

I'm debating on doing AOW there, although I may wait until it's much warmer out.