We went on a play, oops, training dive this morning and I should have dove wet. I was laughing so hard I would have wizzed in the suit.
I went with the other Gary on the team who just happens to be a relativity new member and a Fireman. He picked the spot and I picked the time.
We go to Corbin Park in Post Falls just about 4 miles from my house. It is an area we respond to a lot and make a lot of recoveries out of. Seems people like to get drunk and try to swim the river in Blue Jeans when they can't swim a stroke to start with.
So Gary wants to get a feel for what the area is all about. He tells me that this is a good time to go because it's good and calm. I say lets go.
We suit up and their isn't a ripple on the water, it's dead calm ;^) or so it appears. We hit the water planning on going in the up stream direction. But 10 minutes into the dive I have him surface and we were a 1/4 mile down stream. I wish I had a camera to capture the look on his face. Max depth so far has only been 12'.
We hug the far shore and wonder in and around huge boulders as we take our time going up stream. We get to the area we originally had planned on and set our compasses to make a bottom run around the rapids and back to the beach where we entered.
I have dove that area a lot and I can tell right where we are by the depth. I'm keeping a fairly close eye on the compass while Gary is just checking his every so often.
We get to 35' in almost totally calm water when I point in a southern direction. Gary disagrees so I say OK and follow him. I know what we are in store for and he doesn't have a clue. He is a good strong diver that has been very well trained to handle what we are about to get into, it is just going to catch him by surprise.
We move a little and catch a slight down stream current. He's thinking we are going to get a free ride back to the beach. I know we are in for it in the very near future.
About a minute later we are spinning like tops in the biggest eddy in the park. I signal him towards the center and we both get into the eye with a slow gentle spin. I know from the past if we keep the big rock we are passing every so often on our right we will head down stream. If it's on the left get a good bite on the reg and enjoy the ride.
Gary checks his compass again and guess who is 180 degrees off? We leave the eddy with the rock on the left. It's almost dead calm at 30' but I know we are under the rapids being protected by a rock cliff and overhang.
Being the adventuriest type that I am I signal to go up. At 10' we get shot out of a cannon and into the boiling whitewater. Once past the eddy we go back to the bottom for a nice comfortable ride back to the beach. About 100 yards shy of the beach we surface and scared the living daylights out of a fisherman. "Where the hell did you guys come from?" I said the city beach. "You guys know you went over the dam?" We chuckled and told him the truth.
A great 45 minute dive in a wide variety of conditions. Vis at best was 20' with a 68df temp. Gary said he has never been so exhausted and his legs were like rubber. I just kind of chuckled and said you need to let the water do a little more of the work.
Great early morning dive. I used the 50/50. Great suit but it's not for me as far as rescue work goes. I'll stay in the 350 and let someone else have the 50/50.
Here is the sat pic of the area. The water is a lot lower right now.
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=10&Z=11&X=2504&Y=26416&W=1
Gary D.
I went with the other Gary on the team who just happens to be a relativity new member and a Fireman. He picked the spot and I picked the time.
We go to Corbin Park in Post Falls just about 4 miles from my house. It is an area we respond to a lot and make a lot of recoveries out of. Seems people like to get drunk and try to swim the river in Blue Jeans when they can't swim a stroke to start with.
So Gary wants to get a feel for what the area is all about. He tells me that this is a good time to go because it's good and calm. I say lets go.
We suit up and their isn't a ripple on the water, it's dead calm ;^) or so it appears. We hit the water planning on going in the up stream direction. But 10 minutes into the dive I have him surface and we were a 1/4 mile down stream. I wish I had a camera to capture the look on his face. Max depth so far has only been 12'.
We hug the far shore and wonder in and around huge boulders as we take our time going up stream. We get to the area we originally had planned on and set our compasses to make a bottom run around the rapids and back to the beach where we entered.
I have dove that area a lot and I can tell right where we are by the depth. I'm keeping a fairly close eye on the compass while Gary is just checking his every so often.
We get to 35' in almost totally calm water when I point in a southern direction. Gary disagrees so I say OK and follow him. I know what we are in store for and he doesn't have a clue. He is a good strong diver that has been very well trained to handle what we are about to get into, it is just going to catch him by surprise.
We move a little and catch a slight down stream current. He's thinking we are going to get a free ride back to the beach. I know we are in for it in the very near future.
About a minute later we are spinning like tops in the biggest eddy in the park. I signal him towards the center and we both get into the eye with a slow gentle spin. I know from the past if we keep the big rock we are passing every so often on our right we will head down stream. If it's on the left get a good bite on the reg and enjoy the ride.
Gary checks his compass again and guess who is 180 degrees off? We leave the eddy with the rock on the left. It's almost dead calm at 30' but I know we are under the rapids being protected by a rock cliff and overhang.
Being the adventuriest type that I am I signal to go up. At 10' we get shot out of a cannon and into the boiling whitewater. Once past the eddy we go back to the bottom for a nice comfortable ride back to the beach. About 100 yards shy of the beach we surface and scared the living daylights out of a fisherman. "Where the hell did you guys come from?" I said the city beach. "You guys know you went over the dam?" We chuckled and told him the truth.
A great 45 minute dive in a wide variety of conditions. Vis at best was 20' with a 68df temp. Gary said he has never been so exhausted and his legs were like rubber. I just kind of chuckled and said you need to let the water do a little more of the work.
Great early morning dive. I used the 50/50. Great suit but it's not for me as far as rescue work goes. I'll stay in the 350 and let someone else have the 50/50.
Here is the sat pic of the area. The water is a lot lower right now.
http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?T=1&S=10&Z=11&X=2504&Y=26416&W=1
Gary D.
