One of THOSE dives

[Darnold9999]

Had a reminder last night that diving up here is not the same as tropical diving. Got a little over confident having just spent a week diving every day.

First decided to reconfigure my thermal protection - decided that 4# of weight would be needed to offset the change. Went down to the water, checked my air, added a little air to the bc and the suit - everything is cool. Waded out leaned back to put my fins on and ended up with just my nose out of the water, reg freeflowing and with no fins, takes me 30 seconds or so to add more air to the drysuit, stand up and retrieve the reg - 500 lb gone. The dive goes downhill from there.

Swim out, get buddy to check mask, hair in the seal so I adjust. I must have adjusted the hood under the mask. We descend, I am way too heavy and my mask floods and will not clear. Vis is 10 feet the bottom 30 so I go to the bottom and try to figure out what is wrong. Give up, go to the surface, readjust the mask. At this point buddies are concerned that we should maybe call the dive. I figure we have had the three issues, the mask is clear and not leaking I am still comfortable and still have a reasonable amount of air so lets go for it.

Down we go, hoping that as usual the vis gets better below 30 feet or so. Nope - 10 - 15 feet the whole dive. Diving in pea soup. Of course murphy is not yet finished with me. First I am way overweight, the change requires less weight, and I added 4# need to pump up the suit and the wing just to stay nuetral - felt like a yo yo the whole dive. Then just for fun at the end of the dive before we hit the safety stop my primary light decides to pack it in. Three night dives on a full charge is a bit of a surprise but now I know how long the rechargeable batteries last. Switch to backup and call the dive - we were at 20 feet so no big deal but not my favorite dive.


Kudos to buddies they were patient through the whole dive. A lot of this in retrospect was attitude. Was not quite mentaly prepared for the difference in diving tropical 100' + vis and minimal thermal to 30# of weight, drysuit, cold water etc. etc.

Will adjust accordingly. Something to remember when returning from dive vacations. The water up here is much less forgiving and a mental gear change is required.

 

[TSandM]

I remember going to Maui when I had 9 dives under my belt, and spending three days feeling, "By gum, I think I'm getting this down!" Then I came home and climbed back in my dry suit and into the cold, green, murky water, and realized I had learned nothing. 80 dives later, I still don't do as well in our water as I do where it's warm, I need less exposure protection, and I can see forever.

There's a reason people say that, if you learn to dive where we dive, you can dive ANYWHERE

 

[mdb]

There's a reason people say that, if you learn to dive where we dive, you can dive ANYWHERE

Doctor T-spot on comment. Those divers who learn in cold water, with lots of gear/weight, often prove to be the most competent divers when they arrive at a nice warm and clear dive destination. Our ice diving friends have their own take on this as well. Diving in HI after Puget sound is quite a difference. Enjoy your weekend dives

 

[JohnW]

Our ice diving friends have their own take on this as well. Diving in HI after Puget sound is quite a difference.

Great comment, I just did my Ice Diver Cert this past Weekend, it was a humbling experiance(in a good way). After doing 20 Dives in HI over Christmas, I thought I had it all straight. Ice Diver has been the most physically demanding course so far.

 

[Vayu]

I feel the same way after diving 72 degree water, then getting into 68 degree water. Sometimes it is just not worth it.

-V

 

[spectrum]

I got to make a few 3mm and a swimsuit dive in a local pond last summer and I was astounded at how easy that was compared to my cold water gear.

To the original poster...
I like to say if you make a dive, come back with nobody hurt, all of the gear and having learned someting then it was a good dive. Maybe it was not your favorite but no real harm came from it and you learned a few things. Been there done that.

We are all human.

Pete

 

[bradshsi]

I feel for you.

I passed my OW in tropical water. Going to cold water diving was quite a shock. All that padding, bulk and lack of vis make every action much harder to perform well.

But as others have said, cold water diving is an excellent teacher.

 

[Darnold9999]

Thanks to all - agree it was educational, somewhat ego deflating, but we can all use that once in a while

as you say, came back with all my gear, me unhurt and buddies so was not all bad.

 

[jeckyll]

Darnold, I hope you don't mind if I add my comments (and yeah, I'm particularly glad you came back with your buddies ):

It certainly was the worst viz I've had diving that spot.

We often have < 10 feet on the first 10 or 20 feet but it usually clears up. I picked the descent spot, as we can get to about 20 feet and are generally through the soup and gather at the bottom. That night we were not entirely through it, as we would later note, viz was never more than 15 feet even at 80 fsw.

For a slightly different perspective, on descending I was closest to Darnold and could immediately see that something was not right, but couldn't put my finger on it. He just looked a bit out of sorts and was finning with his hands. He had his reg and air (I could see bubbles as he was breathing) and was on his knees so I wasn't too concerned but stayed right there in case... Had a quick look around for our other buddy who turned out to be about 5 feet or so above and behind me watching. As I turned back around I could see Darnold adding air and ascending slightly. But ... then he kept ascending. I was not expecting the ascent and didn't see a thumbs up. We went up to meet Darnold at the surface.

We gathered at the surface and discussed what had happened, whether to abort the dive and what to do next. Darnold chose to work out his mask issue and wanted to continue the dive. On the second descent we all signaled ok and completed the dive, aware of the extra air limitations.

The thing with the light ... well we were within 60 feet of our ascent point (read: the beach). Darnold's backup was on within seconds and we had a nice controled ascent after he called the dive. Lights fail, that's why we all carry backups, right? We still managed a 33 minute dive.

If I have learned one thing, it's to go with my instinct, if someone looks like something isn't right with them, it probably isn't