Started OW class this weekend

[gfisher4792]

Good luck, JC!

 

[JC Fedorczyk]

OW Checkout Day 1: THE TERROR AT TWENTY FEET​

The Tale of The Barracuda Brim​

It was a rainy morning in Charlotte when the 7 students met up at Diver's Supply to make the hour trip up to Bluestone Quarry with their instructor. All of the students exuded a quit excitment as they prepared for the trip up to the quarry. Little did they know that it would be a day fraught with terror at twenty feet! Join us now for the tale of (cue scary music!) :11: THE BARRACUDA BRIM!!!!!! :11:​

Our instructor signed us in and we loaded the gear onto the tram that took us out to the dive site. We went over a few quick details, hand signals, and what was expected of us. Everyone geared up, checked out the buddies, and prepared for a giant stride into the water. We did all of this by ourselves with the instructor wandering around looking over our shoulders but only helping if we asked. Everyone had everything on and ready to go in short time and the smart ones of the group, myself included, put on our hoods and masks and jumped into the water. My girlfriend wasn't keen on the idea of wearing a hood but I finally convinced her that it would keep her warm and keep her hair out of her mask. She grudgingly agreed and we were in the water. A short surface swim got us to the buoy that marked the platform at 20 feet.​

A discussion of what was expected while we were under and then the group of us dropped to the platform. Well everyone in the group dropped to the platform except me. I deflated the BCD, exhaled, and the top of my head just barely went under. My 6.5mm farmer john, boots, 5mm hood, and 3mm gloves were beating out my 18lbs of weight. Not to be discouraged and remembering some of the things I had read on this board I flipped around and did a head first descent. At about 10ft the pressure was enough to hold me down and I was able to sink/fin the rest of the way to the platform. One of the other women in the group had the opposite problem and as soon as she deflated her BCD she sank like a rock and shot past the platform to land in the mud at 30 feet. She realized her mistake, corrected her buoyancy and joined us on the platform with the help of her buddy​

Once we were all on the platform the harmless looking brim began to gather... First was the recon brim. His buddies sent him swimming through the center of our group to check out the situation and report back to the rest of the platoon. He surveyed the area and swam off into the green water to report his findings to fish HQ. The poor clueless students were on the platform doing a run through of mask and regulator clearing/retrieval and then it was onto the rotten fin pivots. With the group of us on the small platform, space was at a premium so everyone shuffled around while one person performed their skills. I was able to quite easily do the pivot from my knees using only my lungs, but as soon as I switched to trying it from my fins my trim would go to crap and I would be rolling over on my side. I think I would have done better if we had done the skill check with just hovering.​

It was at about this time that the Fish HQ had gotten their intel and had reached their destination. Platform 1A. It would be a classic military maneuver. One squad from the Brim platoon would move to the students' flanks and wait for the signal. The first squad of Brim would spearhead the attack. The targets without hoods and those in shorties were targeted as the primary point of attach. With a fin salute the fish broke into their assault teams. The students were back at the platform blissfully unaware practicing the out of air buddy drill when the first attack occured. While the hoodless student was watching another student group do their buddy drills the first wave hit. Ripe juicy ears were hit in rapid succesion, and as the student turned to defend his left ear the flanking fish squad struck hard and fast at the right ear. A feeble defense was mounted by the victims buddy waving at the fish as they came close. Some of the other fish broke off from the pack and stared down the other divers sitting right in front of their masks and daring them to interfere.​

Finally the signal to retreat was given by the instructor after everyone had completed their drills and it was up to the surface for some discussion on what our instructor had liked and disliked about our performances. The main victom of the fish offensive was sporting bleeding ears on the top of the earlobes and was immediately nicknamed "fish-food" by the rest of the group. Needless to say, he quickly made a trip to the dive store while we were getting tanks refilled for a hood.​

My buddy and I did well on our air and had 2000 left so we didn't need to refill. At the end of the day we realized that this was a mistake due to buoyancy issues with a near empty tank. Won't let that happen again. Those that hoovered their tanks got refilled and we made our way back into the water for some more skill drills and a quick swim around the wall of the quarry. We were second in line so there was already quite an amount of silt stirred up and nothing much to see but it was still neat to see the underwater rocks and fish hanging out in some of the crevices. It was about this time where the tank buoyancy got us. Girlfriend and I both hit 1000psi and she couldn't descend. The only thing holding her under the surface was me at 15ft and that was as low as I could hold it without finning down farther and losing her because she takes a while to equalize.​

We wrapped up the day tired but happy and my girlfriend thanked me for convincing her to wear a hood. I think tomorrow I will bring some cat food or a dog biscuit with my for the Brim. The way they immediately surrounded us once we were at the platform makes me think that these guys are fed on a routine basis. Definitely had a great time today and I'm looking forward to going back tomorrow and then again VERY VERY soon! This stuff is great!!!! ​

 

[ramgib]

g

 

[Donnie]

JC,

WOW!... Sounds like you really had fun! Congratulations on getting your cert.! I have spent a good portion of my morning sitting here, drinking coffee, and reading your posts. (I've enjoyed my morning thus far!) Thanks for the great "stories."

So... What are your plans now? Are ya heading off to warmer waters, as suggested by "Grier"? Or are ya just going to stuck around and dive your local area?

Great Posts!

Donnie

 

[JC Fedorczyk]

I don't want to turn this into a Divers Supply bash fest. The old manager of the store was not doing well and corporate replaced him with Rob. Rob seems to have his act together and I got to dive with him today at the quarry. Seems to be a straight forward type of guy and he has already improved a bunch of things at the shop like what ramgib mentioned and just in general. I think there was a lot of laziness present at the shop before Rob and that got passed down to the employees. With the exception of Dave (previous manager) I have to say that everyone there was extremely nice, very helpful, and very knowledgable. Rob is there for a reason. To clean up the mess. So far he seems like the right man for the job.
I haven't had a chance to be taught by Jerry Smith but I did get to meet him. He seems to be a very nice, thorough guy. I'll post some more about my last checkout dive tomorrow. I'm wiped out!

 

[JC Fedorczyk]

Final post about the last day of the OW checkout dives.

We arrived at the shop almost on time (Getting lost getting there was an adventure in itself) and got our tanks and gear loaded up again. As a group we decided to go to the same location since there are not as many people there and we are all familiar with that site from yesterday's dives. A few people were tired and grumpy from yesterday and expressed an interest in getting it done as soon as possible so they could go home. I just wanted to get underwater and play with the fish and practive floating around. I had a dog biscuit stashed in a ziploc bag in my BCD for later (For the fish not me).​

Everyone suited up, jumped in, and did their compass navigation with the instructor. That out of the way we practiced some snorkel/regulator exchange while swimming and then met at one of the buoys to drop to the platform at 20ft again. From there the group swam along the quarry wall and then across the quarry and back doing a square. I was aware of our locaton while we followed the wall but when we finally popped up I had no idea how we got there. Visibility was about 5 feet so my eyes were opened (so to speak) to how easy it is to get lost underwater when you can't see squat. I loaded up on some extra weight this time and with a total of 24lbs I was quite happy with my ability to control my descent and ascent. Near the end of the day I could feel my tank becoming more bouyant when I was at 10ft but at depth it was ok. From all I've read 24lbs seems about right for my weight of 185 with a 6.5mm farmer john, hood, and gloves.​

Back at the platform we did some more controlled ascents and the instructor would go down with us in pairs take one person up making sure they did everything right and then come back down for the remaining person. Went down with my buddy and the instructor took him up first. I just laid on my back on the platform and watched everyone floating on the surface waiting for the isntructor to come back down. After a few minutes he floats back down with 2 more students and I flip around and get ready for my turn. Instructor motions for me to wait on the platform so I return to my reclined postion and chill out. I think I sat down there for 10 minutes repeating the same "wait here" scendario every time he would bring down students. Couldn't figure out if he wanted me down there to keep an eye on things or what. I just kept an eye on my air and played with the fish till finally I got to come up.​

Everyone finished all the required drills and got out of the water so that air suckers could get their tanks refilled. Then it was back into the water to dive down and see the boat that was sitting on the bottom at about 40 feet. The instructor warned us that it would be cold and told the folks without hoods or gloves to surface as soon as their heads and hands froze. We dropped down and went through the first thermocline at 22 feet and then hit the next one at about 32. HOLY MOSES IT WAS COLD :errrr: and I even had on the 6.5mm farmer john, gloves, and hood. Girlfriend motioned to me that she was cold and I agreed completely and we headed up to the surface. Everyone else stayed down while we bobbed on the surface and the girlfriend tried to convince me to go back down. A quick discussion of diving is a team/buddy sport and I set her straight. Not to mention it was cold down there and there was nothing at all to see.​

Everyone else popped up after a few minutes and we made our way over to where we thought they had "parked" the mustang. We dropped down again but only found some metal bars anchoring the buoy so we looked at the rocks real quick and then made our way back up to the surface. At that point we were done for the day and the girlfriend and I headed back towards the stairs to drop under to about 10 feet and feed the fish the dog biscuit. When I was a child I remember watching a horror movie on TV that dealt with piranha. Can't remember the name of it but the scene that unfolded when I opened the bag and crushed up the dog biscuit reminded me of that movie. Brim everywhere! I was amazed when after they finished eating the pieces of the dog biscuit the fish continued to follow me around like dogs looking for more handouts. Don't know if that's normal behaviour for the fish but it sure was fun! ​

After that it was time to pack up our gear and take care of all the signatures that the log book requires from the intructor. Everyone passed and there wasn't anyone in the group that I would have considered subpar. Once all the signatures were complete we piled into our vehicles and made our way back to Charlotte to drop off the gear.​

The entire trip back I was already doing the math to figure out when I could come out again. The plan I've formulated is to do a few more quarry dives to work on the basic bouyancy skills and then the girlfriend and I are going to head to Myrtle Beach for a long weekend to take the AOW there. My thought process being that we've learned the basics in a confined water location and the next step up would be the AOW courses in an ocean environment since that is what we are mostly going to be diving.​

Now I just have to find a way to afford all the gear I want so that I can grab my stuff and go whenever I feel like it.

 

[MtnDiver]

Congrats to you and the GF JC! It is a great feeling of accomplishment, isn't it? My wife and I just finished our OWC this weekend too.