shadydiver
Guest
Had a great time at Dutch Springs this weekend for my OWC, (13th-14th) and I even managed to stay reasonably comfortable. Surface temp was around 47 degrees, but the temp was up at the 20' platform, (about 52). At 60' the temp was 45 per my divemasters dive computer. I was absolutely fine and comfortable with a 7mm farmer john, 5mm Bare gloves, full hood, bathing suit and a t-shirt under. It was windy and cold out of the water on Saturday, but I had a coat. I would recommend to anyone that you leave your suit on between dives but definitely bring a coat to put on, a wool hat, and dry winter gloves. (I tucked my hood and dive gloves into my wetsuit to keep them warm and that worked great as well. Visibilty was around 20' and the sun did come out around lunch time so that was great. I had a little bit of an issue with clearing my mask at the checkout platform as I pulled it off too much to flood it and got the seal on top of the hood. I just kept at it, gave my instructor the ok, (with a 3/4 full of water mask), and cleared and readjusted until I got it right. He waited for me to get squared up and then moved on. The cold water on the bare face was a slight shocker, but bottom line is that my reg was working fine and I could breathe so I didn't care too much.
On our first "wreck dive" at Dutch we went to the Cessna. I encountered an excellent training exercise that was not scheduled or planned. My dive buddy was having issues with bouyancy control, trying to adjust to backpack bc as well. We were at the cessna and my buddy was to my right about 5' away. There is a steep drop off just to the right of the cessna, (if you are at the rear of the cessna looking toward the front). I looked over at my buddy, we exchanged ok's, and I looked back at the plane. 5 seconds later, I looked over again, and my buddy was not there. I looked up, no buddy, and then I looked down. My buddy was descending down the drop off, and gave me an ok with eyes a little larger than normal. Without even thinking, I pulled on my bc inflator, (to dump air), pinched my nose to equalize and went after her. I got my hand on her bc strap, added air to my bc, we stopped descending and about this time she was gaining control of her inflator. We slowly ascended back up the drop off to the dive area, she was breathing through her reg, her eyes looked ok, and we exchanged ok's. One of the divemasters was directly over us, which I did not realize until we were back up and both of us nuetral.
Moral of the story:
Excellent, excellent training during the course, excellent instructors and helpers on the dive, (10 of them to 12 of us), and myself and my buddy are safe and better divers from the experience. The divemaster assigned to us observed the situation from start to finish and was there to correct the situation if we could not work it out. My buddy had an issue with over deflating her bc at a greater depth that we had dived as of yet. She handled the issue with out losing total control of the situation, (as she had identified the situation and started to fix it when I had hold of her.) I reacted quickly, to correct the situation as well and this to me is the bottom line. Training, training, and training, and you can still learn more. Watch your buddy, stay clam, and play through scenerios in your head and how you will react. I am starting AOW in two weeks, and then I am going to take the rescue diver course. From there, I am going to continue my classes, dives, and learning. I am addicted to this sport, I love it and I can't wait until next tuesday as I am going on a cruise and will be diving in Belize. After this weekend, I am changing my selected dive from a two tank, 80 foot dive to the beginner dive. (Two dives 50', and 30'.) I am doing this because although I feel comfortable, and confident in my newly learned skills, I am inexperienced and want to work my way up to bigger and better things. The ocean will still be there next time, and with training and practice so will I. Sorry for the mega long post but I felt it important to share.
Enjoy, and hopefully I'll see you on the bottom,
Shady
On our first "wreck dive" at Dutch we went to the Cessna. I encountered an excellent training exercise that was not scheduled or planned. My dive buddy was having issues with bouyancy control, trying to adjust to backpack bc as well. We were at the cessna and my buddy was to my right about 5' away. There is a steep drop off just to the right of the cessna, (if you are at the rear of the cessna looking toward the front). I looked over at my buddy, we exchanged ok's, and I looked back at the plane. 5 seconds later, I looked over again, and my buddy was not there. I looked up, no buddy, and then I looked down. My buddy was descending down the drop off, and gave me an ok with eyes a little larger than normal. Without even thinking, I pulled on my bc inflator, (to dump air), pinched my nose to equalize and went after her. I got my hand on her bc strap, added air to my bc, we stopped descending and about this time she was gaining control of her inflator. We slowly ascended back up the drop off to the dive area, she was breathing through her reg, her eyes looked ok, and we exchanged ok's. One of the divemasters was directly over us, which I did not realize until we were back up and both of us nuetral.
Moral of the story:
Excellent, excellent training during the course, excellent instructors and helpers on the dive, (10 of them to 12 of us), and myself and my buddy are safe and better divers from the experience. The divemaster assigned to us observed the situation from start to finish and was there to correct the situation if we could not work it out. My buddy had an issue with over deflating her bc at a greater depth that we had dived as of yet. She handled the issue with out losing total control of the situation, (as she had identified the situation and started to fix it when I had hold of her.) I reacted quickly, to correct the situation as well and this to me is the bottom line. Training, training, and training, and you can still learn more. Watch your buddy, stay clam, and play through scenerios in your head and how you will react. I am starting AOW in two weeks, and then I am going to take the rescue diver course. From there, I am going to continue my classes, dives, and learning. I am addicted to this sport, I love it and I can't wait until next tuesday as I am going on a cruise and will be diving in Belize. After this weekend, I am changing my selected dive from a two tank, 80 foot dive to the beginner dive. (Two dives 50', and 30'.) I am doing this because although I feel comfortable, and confident in my newly learned skills, I am inexperienced and want to work my way up to bigger and better things. The ocean will still be there next time, and with training and practice so will I. Sorry for the mega long post but I felt it important to share.
Enjoy, and hopefully I'll see you on the bottom,
Shady
