Well, I did my first local dive yesterday. It was a quarry dive and disappointing after two trips to Cozumel. It was also my first dive without my regular buddy (hubby) who is out of town. When I was putting on the 6mm wetsuit (farmer john with a long sleeved shorty over it) in 90 degree weather, I thought I was going to overheat in the water, but once I hit the thermocline, I really regretted not renting a hood and gloves.
Fortunately, my dive buddy yesterday understood that I am a beginner and he stayed right with me (as any good buddy should do). We didn't go deeper than 30' and because there were lots of beginners there silting up the lake (myself included), visibility was about 5'. In fact, my buddy and I lost each other when we first descended about 10' apart. Fortunately, we both had our dive lights with us so we used them as a locator beam to find each other quickly.
Since I hadn't gotten wet since February, we surface swam and dove various "sites" (sunken plane, training platform, submarine etc.) in the lake that were marked with buoys, and practiced skills (mask removal, buoyancy) while underwater. The LDS had rented me 30 lbs. in weight with a steel tank, but I think I was overweighted. I'm "naturally buoyant" and used about 20# with a 3mm wetsuit in Coz with aluminum tanks. I would be willing to bet that I could have done yesterday's dive on 25# at the most.
When we first descended, we went to about 20' with a slope and the thermocline was at head level as we reached the bottom. There were other divers up the slope from us and the silt was running down the slope toward us. Between being overweighted, cold head and hands from the thermocline, watching the silt flow down toward us, and a little slipping down the slope and descending further, I got pretty disoriented. I managed to keep my wits about me, but my buddy was concerned because I was very still as I concentrated on getting my bearings. (Even though I kept signaling I was ok, he must have seen the strange look on my face as I was concentrating.)
I inflated my BCD a bit to try and offset the overweighting issue, but the thermocline and lack of visibility really had me disoriented. After a few minutes of trying to re-orient myself, I made the ascend signal to my buddy but by this time I was feeling slightly insecure. I was watching my gauges and realized I hadn't ascended any, even though I felt like we had, so I took his hand and we ascended nice and slowly together.
On the surface, we discussed what I could do to help with the disorientation and we decided to stay shallow since I thought it was the thermocline that was throwing me off the most. We spent the rest of the evening surface swimming to the various sites, descending, and exploring until it was dinner time. We got in about 30 minutes total bottom time and I surprisingly didn't suck as much air as I normally do.
Overall, I think I will be ok with cold water diving in a heavy wetsuit (with gloves and hood), but I think I really need to get my weighting/buoyancy issues worked out before my California trip at the end of the summer. Is this something that just requires practice to work out? There's a Lake Superior diving trip coming up next month and I'd like to, but I'm afraid to sign up because I don't want to hold anyone else back because of my lack of skills. I'm at the point where I'm comfortable in Cozumel, but I would be willing to bet that it's significantly easier than cold water diving.
Comments? Critiques? Suggestions?
Fortunately, my dive buddy yesterday understood that I am a beginner and he stayed right with me (as any good buddy should do). We didn't go deeper than 30' and because there were lots of beginners there silting up the lake (myself included), visibility was about 5'. In fact, my buddy and I lost each other when we first descended about 10' apart. Fortunately, we both had our dive lights with us so we used them as a locator beam to find each other quickly.
Since I hadn't gotten wet since February, we surface swam and dove various "sites" (sunken plane, training platform, submarine etc.) in the lake that were marked with buoys, and practiced skills (mask removal, buoyancy) while underwater. The LDS had rented me 30 lbs. in weight with a steel tank, but I think I was overweighted. I'm "naturally buoyant" and used about 20# with a 3mm wetsuit in Coz with aluminum tanks. I would be willing to bet that I could have done yesterday's dive on 25# at the most.
When we first descended, we went to about 20' with a slope and the thermocline was at head level as we reached the bottom. There were other divers up the slope from us and the silt was running down the slope toward us. Between being overweighted, cold head and hands from the thermocline, watching the silt flow down toward us, and a little slipping down the slope and descending further, I got pretty disoriented. I managed to keep my wits about me, but my buddy was concerned because I was very still as I concentrated on getting my bearings. (Even though I kept signaling I was ok, he must have seen the strange look on my face as I was concentrating.)
I inflated my BCD a bit to try and offset the overweighting issue, but the thermocline and lack of visibility really had me disoriented. After a few minutes of trying to re-orient myself, I made the ascend signal to my buddy but by this time I was feeling slightly insecure. I was watching my gauges and realized I hadn't ascended any, even though I felt like we had, so I took his hand and we ascended nice and slowly together.
On the surface, we discussed what I could do to help with the disorientation and we decided to stay shallow since I thought it was the thermocline that was throwing me off the most. We spent the rest of the evening surface swimming to the various sites, descending, and exploring until it was dinner time. We got in about 30 minutes total bottom time and I surprisingly didn't suck as much air as I normally do.
Overall, I think I will be ok with cold water diving in a heavy wetsuit (with gloves and hood), but I think I really need to get my weighting/buoyancy issues worked out before my California trip at the end of the summer. Is this something that just requires practice to work out? There's a Lake Superior diving trip coming up next month and I'd like to, but I'm afraid to sign up because I don't want to hold anyone else back because of my lack of skills. I'm at the point where I'm comfortable in Cozumel, but I would be willing to bet that it's significantly easier than cold water diving.
Comments? Critiques? Suggestions?
