My Certification Dives

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Kriterian

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Location
Raleigh, NC
Part 1:

I started my certification check out dives for my SSI open-water class today. I know there are some out there on the boards that enjoy reading these, so I thought I'd post my experiences, trials and tribulations.

I arrived late, with everyone staring at me with that look your wife would give you if you stayed out late drinking. Something told me to arrive at the Rolesville, NC quarry (aka "Fantasy Lake") at 8am, but my map to the place said 8:30am and I went by that.

After introductions from the small 5 person group, we began pre-dive planning. The instructor (a different one from my pool training) was nice and regimented, which in these parts is known as anal, but at first glance seemed like the "Navy Seal-Rambo knife on thigh" kind of guy. Thankfully he wasn't.

After buddy and equipment checks we wandered down the rocky slope to the dive docks. A giant stride and a short 25 yard surface swim to the buoys later, we did another planning session to make sure every one understood the skills we'd be doing on the "platform" below. I was nervous as I had trouble equalizing in the pool and had to postpone later pool sessions because of a nasty ear infection (damn peeing kiddies!). THANKS to scubaboard and the great links on ears and diving, I equalized early and often and dropped down on top of the school bus. That's what the platform was, a big orange school bus. We performed the basics (mask clearing, regulator recovery etc) with no problems. We then played follow the leader, dropping down to peer inside the bus and then swimming over to an abandoned rock crusher. We were the last class in the water so the visibility was less than 4 feet.

The buddy group in front of my buddy and I followed the instructor and we followed them back to the bus. With the crappy vis and roto-tillers in front of me, I couldn't see a thing. My buddy and I arrived at the bus to see our buddy group heading on in up the steps like we were off to grade school! I was getting nervous, I thought maybe they were eager explorers and didn't see the instructor. After some quick communicating, I learned it was an authorized swimthrough. That was awesome! I had alot of trepidation but could tell I will love wrecks later in my dive career. I had fun just looking at the trapped air on the roofs inside.

After the swim through we headed back up to the top, and followed the rope up the buoy to the surface. My buddy and I went slowly but a girl from the first group popped the surface. Our instructor had jokingly said he liked to surface like a Navy Seal. He was parading and grand-standing, it was actually a good analogy. His bald head slowly slid up through the water and came out ever so slowly, demonstrating the slowness of the ascent. He then claimed we would launch that girl like a bottle rocket to show the enemy our location. The humor lightened the situation, and we all had fun. We swam back to shore for my first surface interval.
 
Holy crap, I didn't realise I would talk that much! Sorry about the longness. Now of course with my slight obsessive compuslive nature, I feel compelled to finish.

Part 2:

After an 75 minute surface interval, which included post dive debriefing and the filling out of logs. I filled out the entire page of the narrative portion (imagine that!) because I know I will enjoy looking back on it. The other students in our class were PADI referrals, and apparently didn't get SAC (surface air consumption) rate formula training. After a little explaining they got it. My buddy (an 18 year old surfer kid) and myself (overweight air guzzler) both had the same SAC rate at about 21.8 The girls were around 22 or so if I remember right.

The second dive was similar but I encountered my first bad experience on the top of a sunken glass bottom boat (our second platform). As we were settling on the bottom, my buddy did something with a flailing arm that sent the regulator flying out of my mouth. I was about to inhale and took in a bit of water, then the reg freeflowed and all I could see was bubbles. I paniced at first but remembered my Scubaboard readings and thought to myself (Stop, think, react). I did my reg recovery, and got it back to my mouth. Then I realised I couldn't blow the slightest air with none in my lungs to exhale so I pressed the purge button. I had got a slight blast of water since I had my tongue in the wrong place, but I just remained calm and swallowed it. All was good.

I really do credit Scubaboard for calmness during times of stress, I'm a firm believer in repetition. I've seen these things so much on here they're ingrained. As I have each type of emergency in real diving, I'm going to remember so-and-so's post on here and say, "Oh yeah, Dandy Don had this happen and he did this..."

After this dive and exploration of what are known as "rice bowls" because they look like satellite dishes, we headed to shore for a quick breather. We did a 15 minute surface interval so we could turn the second part of the dive into a seperate dive. I was glad I brought my Aeris Atmos 2 computer along for the heck of it. I later learned I also brought the manual with me on the dive, so it's now a soggy mess. The sad part is, I remember telling myself "Take it out of your swimsuit pocket dummy, or you'll forget!" Hah, I was right! Take that me!

Our third dive was the required SSI snorkel one, I mistakenly wrote "We did a 100 yr surface snorkel swim, using compass to nav to buoy" in my log book. My instructor thought it was funny, "100 year surface swim huh?". I thought to myself "That was kind of appropriate because it felt like that." hehe.

The only crappy part of the day was the instructor took out a single student after our last dives of the day. He was combo wreck/deep training for his trip to the NC coast. We had to wait for him to sign logs/student forms and He said "I'll be back before you guys finish packing up your gear" and after sitting in gnats and mosquitos for 45 minutes, they came back up top. Oh well, it's my fault for ignoring the bring bug spray written at the top of my map.

I was previously certified in the mid-90's with my then fiance, but we split up and I lost my will to dive. I decided recently that diving was something I need to do for myself and took it up again. When I did my dives in this same quarry, there were tons of fish, including a "mascot" 3 and a half foot albino catfish that was pure white. There are no more catfish but I did see bream (what I know as brim) and crappie. They were the reason our instructor had to wear a hood, he's had tons of nibbles on his bald head! :eyebrow: Makes you wonder if we're using the right bait!
 
Sounds like you're getting into it - Great!

I spoke with Olympus at Morehead City the other day, and they have a newbie boat Friday and Saturday afternoons - if they get enough divers to go - that does the Indra, a close, shallow wreck. Maybe you can get some ocean dives in before our Key Largo party in November?

I'll be there Oct 1-3 for the festival and AOW-required wreck diving. If you'll be around that part of the state, let me know.

I always have to remind myself that US#70 from Raleigh to Morhead is not really the same hiway that goes thru here. I see the sign instinctively start to drive it the way I drive it here, but 80 mph doesn't work there. :crafty:
 
My youngest child (now 13) says that anyone who dives in that quarry - automatically qualifys for credit for the limitied visibility diving course.
 
DeputyDan:
My youngest child (now 13) says that anyone who dives in that quarry - automatically qualifys for credit for the limitied visibility diving course.

Today, with my final two dives I can attest to that. Despite getting there super early and suiting up, we still got in the water third. We had a pretty intense pre-dive briefing though, so I don't mind, because our instructor wanted us to practice with the compass some more. We also got some land based compass practice which helped in the bad vis + silt from divers before us.

My buddy, yet again yanked my reg out of my mouth. This time it didn't bother me at all, just recover and replace.

My cool wildlife experience for the day:
After my buddy and I successfully navigated to the schoolbus, we had to wait for the others to catch up. I was kneeling on the top and all of a sudden a little bream swamp up, maybe 2 inches long. He hovered right at mask level about 8 inches away.
I took my reg out to blow bubbles and he swam forward a bit, intrigued by my good looks, I mean bubbles. I just stared and he kept getting closer and closer. At this point I was worried that maybe my nose was looking tasty, until I realised it was protected by my mask. He swam right up to my mask and started psyching himself up to attack by saying "Oh boy oh boy ohboy ohboy ohboy". I knew at that point he was about to charge so I backed up. Apparently that was the right response as he ate a piece of floating crap and left.

We got out just in time before the rain from Hurricane Frances hit us in a downpour. Of course it saved some for when I got back to Raleigh to turn in tanks and gear.

In the end I got my License to Practice (aka C-card) and I'm so hooked it's not funny.

Thanks for the support, everyone!
 
DandyDon:
Sounds like you're getting into it - Great! I spoke with Olympus at Morehead City the other day, and they have a newbie boat Friday and Saturday afternoons - if they get enough divers to go - that does the Indra, a close, shallow wreck. Maybe you can get some ocean dives in before our Key Largo party in November?

Thanks for the info Mr. Don. I'll check that out, as my days off are usually Thur/Fri or Sat/Sun. I guess I'd have to do one day or the other hehe.

Should I get regular dives in before then or is it safe enough to learn on those kinds of dives? Our local shop has a combo deep/wreck cert that I was probably going to take. The only problem is I have to hope my days off match up for the classroom/pool/cert dives or I'm out of luck.

I'm still trying to figure out if I can afford the Keys. It's looking to be upwards of 1000.00 with the flight, hotel and dives etc. I'm not sure if I can keep up my equipment purchases and save at the same time. I'll try though. Sounds like a fun place to go for my first trip.
 
My buddy, yet again yanked my reg out of my mouth. This time it didn't bother me at all, just recover and replace.
That boy is dangerous!

It's the G-storm that's providing your rain, BTW, as Frances is still out over the Leewards.

Congratultions. Hope you get a lot of warm weather practice, and meet us in Key Largo!



Addition:

Plane to Miami: $200
Local transportation: 100
4 nights hotel: 250
4 dive trips, 8 Reef dives: 250
Diving tropical reefs in warm water, warm weather, nice friends, in November: Priceless!

:dazzler1:
 
ROTFLMFAO! We've all been there, you just make it seem so funny! I look foreword to hearing more of your dive adventures.
 
Rolesville, NC quarry (aka "Fantasy Lake") is that near Raleigh i got fam up that way maybe if i get back up there this year i can give that place a try.
 
DIVER_11:
Rolesville, NC quarry (aka "Fantasy Lake") is that near Raleigh i got fam up that way maybe if i get back up there this year i can give that place a try.

Yep, Rolesville is only about 20-35 minutes away depending on what part of Raleigh you're in. Here is a link to an LDS that has directions. It's $15.00 per person for admission and there is a dive shop with fills/rentals/instruction etc.

Water temp was around 79 degrees above the thermocline and it dropped about to about 76 or so at 40 feet. I haven't been deeper but there is a drop off not far away, and the LDS owner said he knew a few spots that went to 95 or so. Visibility should be ok during the week but if classes are there (with roto-tillers like me) the vis will be crap on the weekends.
 

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