Outer banks Wreck diving

[tomfcrist]

Bill, this guy is not a tech diver. He has no buisiness diving beyond recreational limits, and that is why my advise to him would end there. Granted a 30cuft pony would be insufficient at 140 and beyond, it will be plenty of gas to get you safely to the surface on a 130' dive as long as you have no DECO obligation, which he should not have anyway. Im fairly positive he's not going to be diving wrecks in the tech range, especially with the way the boat operators are screening divers nowadays.

 

[billgraham]

Understood, Tom. I guess my feeling about these wrecks overall is that they ARE tech dives. I've certainly made my share of mistakes out there, and I was very, very happy to have the extra gas when the *&% hit the fan.

 

[tomfcrist]

MAybe thats our differance in opinion, i dont see most of those wrecks as tech dives, unless they lie beyond rec limits. I do believe however that most of the time, they are for experianced advanced divers only.....just due to currents, viz, and the size of some of our wrecks.

 

[billgraham]

MAybe thats our differance in opinion, i dont see most of those wrecks as tech dives, unless they lie beyond rec limits. I do believe however that most of the time, they are for experianced advanced divers only.....just due to currents, viz, and the size of some of our wrecks.

I've gotten lost, had the boat break loose, had the current double during the course of the dive, etc. All of those things can really mess up a plan for a no deco dive so I guess that's why I like having way more gas than I think I need. I should post the story of my grandest #$% up from about ten years ago as an illustration. Let's just say that I got lost on the Manuela, couldn't get back to my o-2 bottle (after 40 minutes on the bottom!), ended up spending two hours in the water, and everyone on the boat was scanning the horizon looking for my dead ass when I surfaced. Yes, there's more but maybe I'll just write the whole story. Ugh.

 

[tomfcrist]

I understand where you are coming from, believe me i do. Im just saying that a dive on the Manuela(160' dive) has far more inherent risk than a dive on the Spar at 120'. In the context of this thread, yes i agree that redundant air is damn near a requirement, but Im not going to tell this guy to sling an 80 to fill that requirement. He is not a Tech diver, and wont be needing the amount of redundancy that you or I would take on a deeper dive in the same area. I've seen people dive sidemount doubles with an 80 stagein 100ft of ocean, but as long as you arent planning a deco dive, its quite a bit of overkill. Most people i know that overkill their gear requirements just do it so they always have the same setup(comfort and kinesthetic memory).

 

[billgraham]

I understand where you are coming from, believe me i do. Im just saying that a dive on the Manuela(160' dive) has far more inherent risk than a dive on the Spar at 120'. In the context of this thread, yes i agree that redundant air is damn near a requirement, but Im not going to tell this guy to sling an 80 to fill that requirement. He is not a Tech diver, and wont be needing the amount of redundancy that you or I would take on a deeper dive in the same area. I've seen people dive sidemount doubles with an 80 stagein 100ft of ocean, but as long as you arent planning a deco dive, its quite a bit of overkill. Most people i know that overkill their gear requirements just do it so they always have the same setup(comfort and kinesthetic memory).

I agree, I was just picking an example where I could point out my own stupidity instead of someone else's. I was back at the anchor line at 30 minutes, decided to take a quick swim over to another piece of the wreck as I still had ten minutes left on my planned bottom time, got turned around once and I was lost. I learned later that the wreck is roughly in a "U" shape and I swam across the U.

My point overall is that it's a lot different from a quarry and I think you need to plan for the various things that go wrong and have enough gas and training to deal with them.

 

[tomfcrist]

I agree, I was just picking an example where I could point out my own stupidity instead of someone else's. I was back at the anchor line at 30 minutes, decided to take a quick swim over to another piece of the wreck as I still had ten minutes left on my planned bottom time, got turned around once and I was lost. I learned later that the wreck is roughly in a "U" shape and I swam across the U.

My point overall is that it's a lot different from a quarry and I think you need to plan for the various things that go wrong and have enough gas and training to deal with them.

Point noted.

 

[SephirothQ]

Boy I missed a lot of conversation in the past little bit.
I am getting 2 safety sausages or what ever you call them. I also ordered a 3 mill wet suit and gear for diving doubles. I have 2 lp95 tanks, and a 30 pony. I am not going to be diving doubles this time around. I will leave that for a later time. I am not a tek diver and want to keep within rec limits. I am not looking to push the boundaries or do anything out of my league. I am looking at 2 dives a day with a break inbetween.
I would like to think i know my limits and stay well within them. I am going with a captain dave summers, if anyone knows him. I have yet to meet him. there is talk of some spear fishing, but i don't know much about that either.

Thanks for all the pointers

 

[rlynch]

Your lp95 singles will be fine. for bail out or deco gas use a Al40 stage that gives you enough gas to ascent from rec profile if you occur some deco. Pick your gas for the deepest site (we ended up using 27% & 30% on different days). You MUST carry a reel in addition to an SMB incase the boat breaks loose you need to tie off to the wreck and ascent on your line, other wise your drifting, a spool will not handle it since they only have 150 of line at most. the closest dive shop for fills is in manteo and nagshead. which is an hour each way there is nothing in hatterras village.

 

[SephirothQ]

Well the trip is over, all too soon it seems. We had some pretty high seas, Tuesday they were reporting 12' waves so we didn't go out. the next day we had a pretty shift current and I found out that I get sea sick so that wasn't alot of fun. I got one dive in on the JC reef, but that was it. Thursday was better not being so sea sick and the waves and current settled down. Got to the British Splendour and the Dixie Arrow. And the final day the waves stopped us again. So it was 3 dives for the trip.