Ques about Flower Gardens

[TwoBitTxn]

I needed to go fix dinner and pick up my daughter, so I didn't finish here.

The Gardens and Stetson are, first off, pretty deep at their shallowest point.

There are buoys that are less than 60 feet to the U-bolt, so deep is a realtive term.

How comfortable are you with doing a safety stop in the water column if this occurs and you lose your bearings? What about your navigation skills?

Changes in conditions from one dive site to another are very common. Ways to prevent becomming lost are covered in the dive briefing. Listen to your dive briefing. Compass navigation in the gardens can be very difficult due to the currents. Your headings may be perfect, but the currents can move you off course.

Finally, are you comfortable in all of this knowing you won't have a divemaster or guide around to assist you?

You do have your trip leader. Talk to your trip leader and stick with him/her if you need to.

I have said before, if you aren't comfortable in the water without a divemaster, you shouldn't make a FG trip.

TwoBit

 

[AustinPDDiver]

I'll add some input from a rather new diver's point of view. I got certified in Lake Travis in December of 2004. In January, I dove in Cozumel and Costa Maya Mexico. I returned and did more dives in Lake Travis. In August 05, I took my first FG trip aboard the Fling. I was nervous, however I am pretty comfortable in the water. I dove with an experienced FG diver for every dive, and this was an invaluable experience. There was one occasion that the current made a little nervous. I had to kick pretty hard to get to the trailing line from the downline, The currrent was ripping that hard. On the sideline we were like the proveribal flags in the breeze. But it all turned out well. Take your time, and be careful with your air consumption. Nitrox is a must in my opinion. Most of all....HAVE FUN.

P.S. The FG trip made my total number of dives around 27

Ryan

 

[fairybasslet]

I am booked for the Flower Gardens in October through Gulf-Diving. Now I am nervous. But thanks for providing the input, I will do more dives in the lake before I go now.

LOL. Trixiegirl, I was scared before just about every dive. After the first oil platform briefing, I didn't want to do the dive, but I'm so glad I did. It is an awesome, otherworldly experience. I was lucky in that my buddy was a very experienced diver who had been to the FG many times. Even though he was more interested in taking video than paying attention to me I just kind of tagged along with him. There were a lot of divers on the boat, so it was really kind of hard to get totally lost, except for one morning when we had about 20ft vis and we surfaced at the Fling instead of the Spree. Even if you do miss the line, they have dingys to come get you. We didn't have to take the "ride of shame" because we were up current from the Spree.
I'm really glad I did the trip, and I'm glad that the divers I was with had more experience than I. I only had 65 dives going into the trip, but I learned a lot from every dive. I would definitely do it again, and this time, I think I could enjoy myself more because I kind of know what to expect.
Have fun!! :07: