OKay, let me go into a little bit more detail. It was a learning experience, thats for sure.
First, we was told it was about 80 on the surface, and there was a thermocline at about 20 foot. I figured it was like Rolla, so I put on my 3 mil, no hood or gloves. Walked down the narrow path, and down the even narrower "steps" to get into the water. Got in, felt fine, no problems. We found the guide line that leads down the to platform. We started heading down that, and hit the thermocline at about 12 foot. Okay, no biggie. We kept going. It was a bit cooler than I expected, but I figured I could handle it. Well, we hit the platform, and saw the other swim line going straight down, so we started down. We got down around25-30 foot, and we hit another thermocline. At this point, I signaled up, because it was way to freaking cold for me. So we surfaced, I climbed out and put on my semi-dry suit, with hood and gloves, walked back down into the water again, and started to descend. I couldnt get down. Crap, I forgot to add more weight to my BC. So I slid it off, went back to my truck and got another 8 pounds. This whole time I was walking around mind you, it was about 90+ degrees, with midwest humidity. I was dying in that suit, and couldnt wait to get back down in the water again. Anyway, we finally made it down to the car below the platform. That was kind of cool, and then we just started swimming around the edge of the quarry. I guess we was staying at about 50 foot I think it was, maybe a little less. But it felt like I was diving in Mermet it was so damn cold. We circled the quarry, and didnt really see anything else, except a few beer bottles and an old mattress. Upon returning to the car, my cousin spotted and old computer, and brought it up on the hood of the car. I typed out B-O-R-I-N-G. He nodded, and he typed H-A-N-D-S C-O-L-D. Since there didnt seem to be much to see there, I typed R-O-L-L-A-? So we exited the water, packed up while getting eaten by mosquitos, and headed down to Rolla to do another dive. So we get down there, gear up and enter the water. We do the giant stride off the cliff, and go down to the bottom along the wall. My weight didnt seem right, and I couldnt figure out what it was. About 5 minutes into the dive, I felt my weight pouch fall out of my BC. I have no idea how this happened. So I stopped, and tried putting it back in. I have a Custom Divers BC, and the weight pouches are a little tricky to put in with all the velcro. When I couldnt get it, I handed my pouch to my cousin, and started to remove my unit like I was taught in OW class. I figured I would take it off, put the pouch back in, and we would be on our way. Well, I guess he didnt notice what I was doing, and he stopped me, and he tried to put it in for me. After fighting with it for a few minutes, he signaled to surface. So we went up, and he told me that the weight had slipped out. So I tried to get a reading on land of about where we was at, swam ashore to get some more weight, and then we started the search for the lost pouch. We searched for about 20 minutes or so. If anyone knows about Rolla, you know it doesnt take much to stir up the bottom there. Needless to say, it was stirred up bad. We finally decided to call it a day. We got out of the water, and I went in and told the people that run it what happened, and if anyone found it, to let me know. I went back to my truck to start packing it all up, and noticed my BC felt pretty heavy. Turns out my cousin had put the pouch inside my pocket. He wasnt familiar with how the weights go on the BC. His they go in the pockets. So I was releived that I had everything, but I was confused about what he had said he had dropped. But after that day, I was going to ask any questions. I was ready to go home.
What I have learned from this is this: If you are having a bad day, dont force the issue. Go do something else that day. Blowing bubbles just wasnt meant to be today.
