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- I'm a Fish!
This comes from a dive I did last night, on a 100 foot deep shipwreck, with 5 mph current, and everyone trying to see or video/shoot Goliaths spawning.....a Diver ( actually a scientist), swims up to me after about 30 minutes and signals for me to look at her depth guage....which appears to be at around 1000 psi.....She is not DIR, and is not strictly buddied to anyone in particular.....My buddy is Sandra and 2 other divers( Lew and Rich)... of course, Sandra is a top pro photographer, going for world class shots, and this means she is really never functionally DIR in awareness of me or Lew or Rich.....Rich is on her 100% of the dive like glue...and Lew is right there with both. I am shooting video within 10 feet of this group 90% of the time, never to exceed 20 feet at any time....right up until the scientist shows me her guage....As Sandra is both my wife and buddy, I flash her with my light, but she is in the midst of getting National Geo stuff, and does not react to the light....I know Sandra is next to Rich and Lew, both of them are watching her, no one is with the scientist, so my new job one is to deal with her Low on air scenario...
***note, she is not out of air, but at 1000 psi at 100 feet, in a 5 mph current, I don't like her not being attended to immediately...I am diving with doubles, so have massive extra gas.....So I begin the donation proceedure......
Here is the thing..... A.)..She refuses donation, later on telling me she just wanted me to know that when she dissappeared 5 minutes later, that it was because she knew she would need to go up, and she did not want me to worry about her ( surface talk prior to dive has everyone headed for surface well before the point she was at in gas left, but this is another issue).
B.) With all the video lights and and $10,000 of camera gear in my hand, donation is not nearly as instantaneous as it is on an exploration level dive, with no camera in hand. She was not OOA, so rather than the instant shoving of the long hose into her mouth, I spent maybe 4 seconds shoving my camera between my thighs so I could hold it there, and then had my hands free to be able to donate.....If this had been a REAL OOA scenario, I would have had to let go of $10,000 in camera gear, and then not have been able to complain about it later
My thought now....I think the big camera system needs a line that can be snapped on to it once you jump into the water, exactly like how we do this with a Gavin scooter... If an emergency pops up, I could instantly let go of the camera, and it is still connected to me.
Of course, for this particular night dive, you could say that there was much wrong with the planning.
I will just say, this is a once in a year science event, and it was a big deal...and we needed this scientist with us....While she is not DIR, she handled difficult conditions well, but unfortunately did not use the same gas management thinking that we do....But again, she was not one of my dive buddies, and was my responsibility only because of the scenario I just explained. She is also fascinating to listen to, and it was great to have her with us on such a science mission oriented dive.
When another science mission pops up, believe me she will have a mandatory buddy, and will follow a much more responsible gas management plan. This was "her trip", we were guests on this trip... However, I think she will be fine following more of a DIR or a GUE style dive plan for the next time....I also know that now I can approach her about this, without offending her...
......Her research, and her insights led Jim Abernethy and I to get the first "close to spawning behavior" last year ever seen by scientists.. see http://youtu.be/qeQp5aqy2_s?hd=1 if interested ) .. It will largely be her research that will stand out with the STRONGEST REASONS for why there must never be a "LEGAL SEASON" for killing/taking/harvesting goliaths. The commercial spearfisherman are pushing HARD for this now. She has a groundbreaking research paper that will be out of EMBARGO in about 2 to 3 weeks, and this will be our amunition to shut down the commercial guys with. It will basically refute virtually every single point they are trying to argue with
***note, she is not out of air, but at 1000 psi at 100 feet, in a 5 mph current, I don't like her not being attended to immediately...I am diving with doubles, so have massive extra gas.....So I begin the donation proceedure......
Here is the thing..... A.)..She refuses donation, later on telling me she just wanted me to know that when she dissappeared 5 minutes later, that it was because she knew she would need to go up, and she did not want me to worry about her ( surface talk prior to dive has everyone headed for surface well before the point she was at in gas left, but this is another issue).
B.) With all the video lights and and $10,000 of camera gear in my hand, donation is not nearly as instantaneous as it is on an exploration level dive, with no camera in hand. She was not OOA, so rather than the instant shoving of the long hose into her mouth, I spent maybe 4 seconds shoving my camera between my thighs so I could hold it there, and then had my hands free to be able to donate.....If this had been a REAL OOA scenario, I would have had to let go of $10,000 in camera gear, and then not have been able to complain about it later
My thought now....I think the big camera system needs a line that can be snapped on to it once you jump into the water, exactly like how we do this with a Gavin scooter... If an emergency pops up, I could instantly let go of the camera, and it is still connected to me.
Of course, for this particular night dive, you could say that there was much wrong with the planning.
I will just say, this is a once in a year science event, and it was a big deal...and we needed this scientist with us....While she is not DIR, she handled difficult conditions well, but unfortunately did not use the same gas management thinking that we do....But again, she was not one of my dive buddies, and was my responsibility only because of the scenario I just explained. She is also fascinating to listen to, and it was great to have her with us on such a science mission oriented dive.
When another science mission pops up, believe me she will have a mandatory buddy, and will follow a much more responsible gas management plan. This was "her trip", we were guests on this trip... However, I think she will be fine following more of a DIR or a GUE style dive plan for the next time....I also know that now I can approach her about this, without offending her...
......Her research, and her insights led Jim Abernethy and I to get the first "close to spawning behavior" last year ever seen by scientists.. see http://youtu.be/qeQp5aqy2_s?hd=1 if interested ) .. It will largely be her research that will stand out with the STRONGEST REASONS for why there must never be a "LEGAL SEASON" for killing/taking/harvesting goliaths. The commercial spearfisherman are pushing HARD for this now. She has a groundbreaking research paper that will be out of EMBARGO in about 2 to 3 weeks, and this will be our amunition to shut down the commercial guys with. It will basically refute virtually every single point they are trying to argue with
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