HenrikBP
Contributor
First of all I want to send out a huge Thank You!! to all the SCUBA Board members; I had gained a huge amount of very useful insight from all the basic diving threads prior to my trip, which made me aware of what to work on, keep an eye out for, practice etc. It really made a world of difference for me in these my first dives. So again - Thank You.
I just returned from a weeks vacation in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, where I finally got OW as well as AOW certified - and what a trip it was.
My training:
I had done my classroom and pool training with Panaqua Diving in New York City - Thanks Peter! (http://www.panaqua.com) and they had let me use their pool time by myself to practice buoyancy, kick techniques, doffing & donning gear etc. I felt I had a decent grasp on the basics, but was still a tad worried about the getting in the ocean, going deeper than the 12 feet in the pool etc.
But I shouldn't have worried. I had signed up for my referral dives and AOW with Dive Experience (http://www.divexp.com) in Christiansted, St. Croix and they took great care of me and gave me a great start diving. Friendly, patient, knowledgeable staff - all very skilled divers with an in-depth experience with the dive sites, marine life etc.
The skills for OW went smoothly, and we were able to do a good bit of sightseeing on all 4 dives, all while I got used to the water, the gear and slowly started to decrease the amount of weight I was using (prompted by the Dive Experience people).
Weighting and Such:
I wore an old and somewhat tattered 3 mm shorty am 5' 10" and weighs 185 lbs - mostly lean .I started out with 8 lbs on the weight belt, and the shop uses "compact 80" tanks, which are 4 lbs negatively buoyant when empty. During my OW dives I worked my way down to 6 lbs on the belt, and by the end of my AOW I had it down to 2 lbs. And what a difference getting closer to correct weighting, buoyancy and trim makes. On my first dive I was struggling to keep consistent depth, was battling BC slipping and tank making me roll left & right, my feet sinking, but with decreasing weight (and no doubt by relaxing and gaining a bit of experience) most of that went away. I'm still a bit foot heavy, but I'm betting I can trim that out with weight moved from the belt to up higher on the BC (I did shift the tank up but it didn't make enough of a difference).
Advanced Open Water:
I really enjoyed AOW as well (no need to open up that can of worms again - please). Navigation and Deep are mandatory, and I had opted for Peak Performance Buoyancy, Multilevel/Computer Diving and Night Dive as my optionals. I felt that those - Peak Performance Buoyancy in particular - would make a good foundation to further develop my diving skills. We did a bunch of great hovering skills that I can (and did) continue to practice.
In honesty, it's my feeling that the skills taught in AOW probably ought to have been included in the basic OW. AOW made a big difference to me, both in terms of the actual course material and plain diving experience. While I fully realize I'm just starting out and have much to learn and even more to work on before it becomes second nature, I felt a lot more comfortable in the water after the 4 daytime AOW dives.
Crunching the numbers:
Thanks to Bob Grateful Diver I also kept good track of my air consumption and made some calculations. These are all as I understand it, but please feel free to correct me if (when) I got it wrong:
Compact 80 tanks: 77.4 cu. ft. of air at 3300 PSI working pressure. Should give me a tank factor of 77.4 cu. ft./3300 PSI = 0.0235 cu. ft./PSI
SAC first dive, nervous/excited, struggling, with 8 lbs on the belt: tank pressure start: 3000 PSI End: 900 PSI. Dive time total: 38:20 minutes (my dive watch starts & stops counting at 4 ft. depth). Average depth: 9 m, Deepest depth 13.7 m. SAC = ((3000PSI - 900 PSI)/38 minutes)/(9 m + 1) = 29.09 PSI/min.
RMV first dive: SAC x tank factor; RMV = 29.09 PSI/min x 0.0235 cu. ft./PSI = 0.68 cu. ft./min.
During my AOW nav dive we did a long-ish swim to see nurse sharks (cool
), where I definitely felt I got a work-out. 6 lbs on the belt. These are my numbers for that dive:
SAC = 30.07 PSI/min ; RMV = 0.71 cu. ft./min.
My most relaxed dive - as per the numbers - with 2 lbs on the belt:
SAC = 20.13 PSI/min ; RMV = 0.47 cu. ft./min
Bob - thanks again for sending me your excellent handout, and I haven't forgotten that I promised you feed-back, but I ran out of time before the trip - getting ready, preparing for AOW etc. I will get back to you when I've had time to sit down with the calculator and really go through it all.
Thoughts on gear and diving style:
I'll probably continue doing only recreational diving - I'm a tad claustrophobic, so overhead environments, wrecks, caves etc. are out. That said I find that I like the more simple gear - BC in particular. I'm not sure I'm ready for full on DIR, BP/W etc., but certain concepts do make sense to me. I'm also not sure how well BP/W would be received on recreational dive boats?? May make some operators antsy if they're not used to that kind of set-up? Comments/experiences?
Of my basic gear I really liked my mask (Atomic Subframe). My Atomic Split fins less so; I had to get size XL due to foot size as well as style of booties, and I never felt I got a good flutter kick out of them. Frog kicks however, as well as I'm able to do them, were very comfortable and that was pretty much what I used on every dive. The fins were even worse for surface swimming for snorkeling. I may need to look into other brands/styles.
My UK eLed Plus back-up light was a positive surprise; great output considering the size, and the lens evens out the light well for a smoothly lighted field up to about 10 ft. Beyond that my rental light - a 4C Princeton Tec Halogen spotlight worked much better.
Stainless SS snaps are great for all manner of purposes
The rental BC - a mid-price Seaquest - was ok, but still a bit bulky up front with only 2 poorly placed D-rings and 2 fairly inaccessible pockets without D-rings or grommets. At this point I'm thinking a back-inflate BC with a simple, well laid out design would work well for me. I'll need to try some more brands and styles.
The compact 80 tanks seemed like a nice way of getting some weight off the belt.
All in all I had some *great* dives with some great people. Saw an amazing amount of marine life and thoroughly enjoyed diving. I *will* be back for more ... now I "just" need to figure out how to finance yet another expensive little hobby
Sorry for my long windedness and thanks for listening
Henrik
I just returned from a weeks vacation in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands, where I finally got OW as well as AOW certified - and what a trip it was.
My training:
I had done my classroom and pool training with Panaqua Diving in New York City - Thanks Peter! (http://www.panaqua.com) and they had let me use their pool time by myself to practice buoyancy, kick techniques, doffing & donning gear etc. I felt I had a decent grasp on the basics, but was still a tad worried about the getting in the ocean, going deeper than the 12 feet in the pool etc.
But I shouldn't have worried. I had signed up for my referral dives and AOW with Dive Experience (http://www.divexp.com) in Christiansted, St. Croix and they took great care of me and gave me a great start diving. Friendly, patient, knowledgeable staff - all very skilled divers with an in-depth experience with the dive sites, marine life etc.
The skills for OW went smoothly, and we were able to do a good bit of sightseeing on all 4 dives, all while I got used to the water, the gear and slowly started to decrease the amount of weight I was using (prompted by the Dive Experience people).
Weighting and Such:
I wore an old and somewhat tattered 3 mm shorty am 5' 10" and weighs 185 lbs - mostly lean .I started out with 8 lbs on the weight belt, and the shop uses "compact 80" tanks, which are 4 lbs negatively buoyant when empty. During my OW dives I worked my way down to 6 lbs on the belt, and by the end of my AOW I had it down to 2 lbs. And what a difference getting closer to correct weighting, buoyancy and trim makes. On my first dive I was struggling to keep consistent depth, was battling BC slipping and tank making me roll left & right, my feet sinking, but with decreasing weight (and no doubt by relaxing and gaining a bit of experience) most of that went away. I'm still a bit foot heavy, but I'm betting I can trim that out with weight moved from the belt to up higher on the BC (I did shift the tank up but it didn't make enough of a difference).
Advanced Open Water:
I really enjoyed AOW as well (no need to open up that can of worms again - please). Navigation and Deep are mandatory, and I had opted for Peak Performance Buoyancy, Multilevel/Computer Diving and Night Dive as my optionals. I felt that those - Peak Performance Buoyancy in particular - would make a good foundation to further develop my diving skills. We did a bunch of great hovering skills that I can (and did) continue to practice.
In honesty, it's my feeling that the skills taught in AOW probably ought to have been included in the basic OW. AOW made a big difference to me, both in terms of the actual course material and plain diving experience. While I fully realize I'm just starting out and have much to learn and even more to work on before it becomes second nature, I felt a lot more comfortable in the water after the 4 daytime AOW dives.
Crunching the numbers:
Thanks to Bob Grateful Diver I also kept good track of my air consumption and made some calculations. These are all as I understand it, but please feel free to correct me if (when) I got it wrong:
Compact 80 tanks: 77.4 cu. ft. of air at 3300 PSI working pressure. Should give me a tank factor of 77.4 cu. ft./3300 PSI = 0.0235 cu. ft./PSI
SAC first dive, nervous/excited, struggling, with 8 lbs on the belt: tank pressure start: 3000 PSI End: 900 PSI. Dive time total: 38:20 minutes (my dive watch starts & stops counting at 4 ft. depth). Average depth: 9 m, Deepest depth 13.7 m. SAC = ((3000PSI - 900 PSI)/38 minutes)/(9 m + 1) = 29.09 PSI/min.
RMV first dive: SAC x tank factor; RMV = 29.09 PSI/min x 0.0235 cu. ft./PSI = 0.68 cu. ft./min.
During my AOW nav dive we did a long-ish swim to see nurse sharks (cool
), where I definitely felt I got a work-out. 6 lbs on the belt. These are my numbers for that dive:SAC = 30.07 PSI/min ; RMV = 0.71 cu. ft./min.
My most relaxed dive - as per the numbers - with 2 lbs on the belt:
SAC = 20.13 PSI/min ; RMV = 0.47 cu. ft./min
Bob - thanks again for sending me your excellent handout, and I haven't forgotten that I promised you feed-back, but I ran out of time before the trip - getting ready, preparing for AOW etc. I will get back to you when I've had time to sit down with the calculator and really go through it all.
Thoughts on gear and diving style:
I'll probably continue doing only recreational diving - I'm a tad claustrophobic, so overhead environments, wrecks, caves etc. are out. That said I find that I like the more simple gear - BC in particular. I'm not sure I'm ready for full on DIR, BP/W etc., but certain concepts do make sense to me. I'm also not sure how well BP/W would be received on recreational dive boats?? May make some operators antsy if they're not used to that kind of set-up? Comments/experiences?
Of my basic gear I really liked my mask (Atomic Subframe). My Atomic Split fins less so; I had to get size XL due to foot size as well as style of booties, and I never felt I got a good flutter kick out of them. Frog kicks however, as well as I'm able to do them, were very comfortable and that was pretty much what I used on every dive. The fins were even worse for surface swimming for snorkeling. I may need to look into other brands/styles.
My UK eLed Plus back-up light was a positive surprise; great output considering the size, and the lens evens out the light well for a smoothly lighted field up to about 10 ft. Beyond that my rental light - a 4C Princeton Tec Halogen spotlight worked much better.
Stainless SS snaps are great for all manner of purposes
The rental BC - a mid-price Seaquest - was ok, but still a bit bulky up front with only 2 poorly placed D-rings and 2 fairly inaccessible pockets without D-rings or grommets. At this point I'm thinking a back-inflate BC with a simple, well laid out design would work well for me. I'll need to try some more brands and styles.
The compact 80 tanks seemed like a nice way of getting some weight off the belt.
All in all I had some *great* dives with some great people. Saw an amazing amount of marine life and thoroughly enjoyed diving. I *will* be back for more ... now I "just" need to figure out how to finance yet another expensive little hobby
Sorry for my long windedness and thanks for listening
Henrik
) to learn and experience more. 
