MichaelG
Guest
Anyone thinking of going for the AOW should read this....This is a good read with some examples of what not to do.....
I recently decided to take the Advanced Open Water certification. Prior to taking the AOW, I only had 8 dives under by belt with my deepest dive being 60 fsw and 6 of them being in Carribean waters and the other 2 in Dutch Springs.
The AOW class consisted of Night, Navigation, Search and Recovery, Deep and Wreck.
NIGHT DIVE
My first dive was a Night dive near and inlet to the ocean. We did the dive during slack tide and there were 4 students, 2 instructors and 2 experienced divers. The maximum depth was 20 feet. Going down was a uniques experience not being able to see 2 feet in front of you. The bottom surface was covered with hundreds of spider crabs.
The group tried to perform several activities, but the zero visibility and disorientation made a mess of things. I decided to surface when I could no longer see anyone or the glow of any lights. At the surface I met another diver who was also confused. We ultimately located the dive flag after it surfaced from being pulled under the water because the instructor did not let out enough slack. When the instructor finaly surfaced and everyone was gathered back together, it was decided to make another attempt.
Once reaching the bottom again, visibility was zero again because of all the silt being kicked up. This time we swam along the jetty for about 30 seconds until the party got split up again. Most of the time I could'nt see anything and once in a while I would see a rock (from the jetty wall). It was'nt until I saw what looked like a huge rock over my head that I decided it was time to surface. Upon surfacing, I was met by a fellow diver who was following me. This was the same diver I met on the surface earlier. When we surfaced, we immediately realized something was wrong. Looking around revealed some red lights, horns, bells and a bridge. Looking for the dive flag revealed that we were about 400+ feet from it. Apparently the current picked up and the tide was pulling us out of the inlet to the ocean. Luckily we surfaced when we did or we would have been out in the ocean god knows where. After locating the dive instructor and swimming back about 200 feet, it was decided to climb up on the jetty and walk our asses back.
All-in-all, this was a cluster F of a dive in which nothing was accomplished except for scaring the crap out of me and almost getting swept out to sea...
NAVIGATION DIVE
My second dive produced nothing unusual. It was a nice cold dive in which I had to navigate with poor visibility fighting a current.
SEARCH AND RECOVERY DIVE:
My third dive produced nothing unusual. It was a nice cold dive in which I learned how to use a wreck real to search and recover items. Unfortunately, nothing was recovered....
DEEP DIVE
My fourth dive and my first way out in the ocean. This dive was actually to a wreck USS Algol off the NJ coast. The seas were calm and the weather was warm. This dive started out okay until I realized that the dive shop had only filled my tank to 2700psi. I was really pissed off because the week before they gave me 3500psi. I really felt short changed but figured since this was my first of two dives, this would be shorter at a shallower depth so the second tank would prove to be more useful for the second dive.
Gearing up was a ***** on a crowded boat but entering the water felt great after doing a giant stride 4 feet above the water. When I finaly got to the anchor line, I wasted about 5 minutes waiting for one of the divers to descend. For some reason he just waited at the line waiting for some divers doing deco stops to move. I decided to freely descend below the divers decoing and the other diver and the instructor followed behind me. When we reached the point where the boat had anchored on to the wreck, it was 80 fsw and 47 degrees cold. It was actually a really cool descent because you could not see the wreck until you passed the thermocline and then things got REAL dark REAL fast and REAL cold. Visibility was still poor at about 10 feet but I could'nt recognize anything.
I kept informing my instructor of my air pressure and when I reached about 1000psi I began going for the anchor line. I ascended okay, but rather slowly. In fact, my ascent may have been too slow since I blew all my air going from 80fsw to 15fsw. When I hit about 15 feet, I began to perform my safety stop. It got so crowded on the line that I decided to free hang. When I informed my instructor that I had only 300psi left all of the sudden I could'nt get anything out of the tank. It was dead and no air was comming out of the reg. I informed my instructor and he provided me with his spare. In total, the safety-stop lasted about 8 minutes.
The swim back was a LOOONG one since we surfaced on the starboard side and the boat captain wanted everyone to swim around the port side to the rear of the boat. I always said I hate the snorkel and was looking for every reason to get rid of it, but I found the primary reason to keep it. The LOONG swim and NO air in my tanks required me to use the damn snorkel that I thanked myself for having.
WRECK DIVE
This was the second dive of the day and the plan was to go down to about 100fsw and maybe deeper. When I hooked up my second tank, I noticed it too only had 2700psi of air. At this point I was VERY annoyed. In fact, I was so annoyed because the shop where I got the tanks is the one that chartered the dive and they KNEW I was going on the wreck dive for my AOW. In fact, the guy who filled my tanks was on the boat diving as well. Lets face it, they gave me two weak fills knowing I would need all the air I can get.
This time, my instructor teamed me up with someone who had considerable more experience than myself and was also an advanced diver. The plan was to get down to 80fsw where the anchor line was as quickly as possible and then hook up a wreck reel to the railing and drop off the side to about 100fsw.
Going down to the wreck went real smooth and my buddy hooked up the line quickly and we dropped off the side. Immediately we went down to 104fsw. Visibility was till about 10 feet and I could'nt recognize anything of the ship at all. I followed my dive buddy as he led the way with his reel and I untangled him a couple of times. When I hit about 1500psi I notified my buddy so we can make our way back to the anchor line.
When I reached about 1000psi, I notified him again and this time I think he realized we needed to make our way back. I started to follow him back when I felt he was moving too slow and I would soon run out of air at 100fsw. At one point, I rose to about 80fsw figuring the anchor line would be right there because it all looked so familiar. All I can say is I was wrong and EVERYTHING looks familiar underwater. Little did I realize that me and my dive buddy had traveled quite far as he let out about 150feet of line. I got back to him and untanlged him a couple of times.
We finaly reached the anchor line when I had about 400psi left. I was still 80fsw down and needed to get up as quickly as possible. My previous dive revealed that at about 200psi, my tank would die. The general rule had been about 30fsw/minute but I decided I did'nt have enough air to do that so I went up as close to 60fsw/minute as possible. My dive buddy was going up much slower and I would have stayed with him, but I figured he had slightly more air than myself and we both would have been in trouble if I used his air as well. When I reached about 50fsw I realized I had about 300psi and any breath now I would be out of air so I rushed myself up the line and was preparing myself to blow the safety-stop knowing full well that I needed to. The entire time I kept thinking about the books I have read (the most recent was "The Last Dive") where well experienced divers blew their deco-stops taking the chances of DCS over death.
As I made my way up, I kept thinking to myself that I messed up big time and that I was taking a big chance on getting DCS if I blew my safety-stop. When I reached about 20fsw I noticed 2 divers who were part of my group. I immediately motioned to one of the divers that I was out and needed air. He provided me with his spare and I was able to do a 4 minute safety stop at 20fsw before he just about ran out too and had to surface. Having no air myself, I had to stop my safety-stop and surface as well.
It is important to note that on this dive I did 3 minutes at 80fsw and 6 minutes at 105fsw. Total dive time from entry to exit lasted about 21 minutes. After my surface interval of my previous dive, I entered the water in pressure group B. When I finaly made it aboard the dive boat I was extremely nervous about what just occured and all I could do was wait for DCS to kick in because of the speed I came up and the shorter than I wanted safety-stop. Checking my dive time revealed that I was now in pressure group Z. To make matters worst, when I called the dive shop the day before, I asked them if they had a pony-bottle for rent and they said they did, but when my wife went to pick up the regulater and tanks, they informed he they did'nt have any available and that I would not need one. I knew I should have had one because of my inexperience. And I certainly did need it.
LESSONS LEARNED
Well, it is now 36 hours after my last dive that was a complete mess and I am feeling every single ache in my body looking for signs of DCS. Right now, I have a slight headache, feel fatigued and my body is aching slightly. Particularly, the inner joints of my arms feel weak as if I had done bench presses.
I am contributing my headache to the fact the I way overslept this morning. The fatigure I figure is from the being of all my energy on a rocking boat in the sun all day long that was taken out of me, plus the 12 hours sleep I had last night. And the aching in my body is probably from the more than unusual workload I did in putting on/taking off the gear and weights and carrying all that crap around. It feels as if I had worked out (which I have'nt in months). I don't feel any real pain anywhere, just alot of fatigue particularly in my arms and the inner joints of my elbows. I would think it was DCS, but I am feeling the same weakness in both arms/joints. I will wait another 24 hours and if I don't feel any better, I will make my way to a doctor, but I just think my level of fitness is so low that all the exertion I did to myself on the boat dive is making me feel the way I do right now. Also the fact the my physical fitness is not all that great and probably just over did it.
Anyway, here are my lessons that EVERYONE should pay attention to: 1) NEVER run out of air. 2) Always use a PONY bottle if you plan on going deeper that 60fsw. 3) Before you leave the dive shop, make sure you know how much air is in the tank. 4) Never trust your dive buddy and think that they are experienced so you will be alright. If you get low on air and you need your buddy to get back, force them to leave with you. The only reason I stayed with him was because of my lack of experience and I did'nt know my way back to the anchor line. 5) PLAN your dive and DIVE your plan. I was following the directions of my dive instructor but never realised that it would be as unplanned as it was. I got caught up in the excitement of it all and never considered that I would get into trouble. I think my dive instructor thaught I had more experience than I actually did, but in all fairness to myself, I did tell him several times that I was going down low on air and he knew my level of experience since I repeatedly told him that I never went on a wreck dive nor did I ever go below 60fsw and this was my 12th dive. I think he should have made sure I stuck with him. 6) Rental regulators/tanks suck!! I can't help but to feel that a not-so-good regulator caused me to run out at 200psi. I'm not sure, but I thaught 200psi at 15fsw should still produce some air, but it did'nt.
--MichaelG
I recently decided to take the Advanced Open Water certification. Prior to taking the AOW, I only had 8 dives under by belt with my deepest dive being 60 fsw and 6 of them being in Carribean waters and the other 2 in Dutch Springs.
The AOW class consisted of Night, Navigation, Search and Recovery, Deep and Wreck.
NIGHT DIVE
My first dive was a Night dive near and inlet to the ocean. We did the dive during slack tide and there were 4 students, 2 instructors and 2 experienced divers. The maximum depth was 20 feet. Going down was a uniques experience not being able to see 2 feet in front of you. The bottom surface was covered with hundreds of spider crabs.
The group tried to perform several activities, but the zero visibility and disorientation made a mess of things. I decided to surface when I could no longer see anyone or the glow of any lights. At the surface I met another diver who was also confused. We ultimately located the dive flag after it surfaced from being pulled under the water because the instructor did not let out enough slack. When the instructor finaly surfaced and everyone was gathered back together, it was decided to make another attempt.
Once reaching the bottom again, visibility was zero again because of all the silt being kicked up. This time we swam along the jetty for about 30 seconds until the party got split up again. Most of the time I could'nt see anything and once in a while I would see a rock (from the jetty wall). It was'nt until I saw what looked like a huge rock over my head that I decided it was time to surface. Upon surfacing, I was met by a fellow diver who was following me. This was the same diver I met on the surface earlier. When we surfaced, we immediately realized something was wrong. Looking around revealed some red lights, horns, bells and a bridge. Looking for the dive flag revealed that we were about 400+ feet from it. Apparently the current picked up and the tide was pulling us out of the inlet to the ocean. Luckily we surfaced when we did or we would have been out in the ocean god knows where. After locating the dive instructor and swimming back about 200 feet, it was decided to climb up on the jetty and walk our asses back.
All-in-all, this was a cluster F of a dive in which nothing was accomplished except for scaring the crap out of me and almost getting swept out to sea...
NAVIGATION DIVE
My second dive produced nothing unusual. It was a nice cold dive in which I had to navigate with poor visibility fighting a current.
SEARCH AND RECOVERY DIVE:
My third dive produced nothing unusual. It was a nice cold dive in which I learned how to use a wreck real to search and recover items. Unfortunately, nothing was recovered....
DEEP DIVE
My fourth dive and my first way out in the ocean. This dive was actually to a wreck USS Algol off the NJ coast. The seas were calm and the weather was warm. This dive started out okay until I realized that the dive shop had only filled my tank to 2700psi. I was really pissed off because the week before they gave me 3500psi. I really felt short changed but figured since this was my first of two dives, this would be shorter at a shallower depth so the second tank would prove to be more useful for the second dive.
Gearing up was a ***** on a crowded boat but entering the water felt great after doing a giant stride 4 feet above the water. When I finaly got to the anchor line, I wasted about 5 minutes waiting for one of the divers to descend. For some reason he just waited at the line waiting for some divers doing deco stops to move. I decided to freely descend below the divers decoing and the other diver and the instructor followed behind me. When we reached the point where the boat had anchored on to the wreck, it was 80 fsw and 47 degrees cold. It was actually a really cool descent because you could not see the wreck until you passed the thermocline and then things got REAL dark REAL fast and REAL cold. Visibility was still poor at about 10 feet but I could'nt recognize anything.
I kept informing my instructor of my air pressure and when I reached about 1000psi I began going for the anchor line. I ascended okay, but rather slowly. In fact, my ascent may have been too slow since I blew all my air going from 80fsw to 15fsw. When I hit about 15 feet, I began to perform my safety stop. It got so crowded on the line that I decided to free hang. When I informed my instructor that I had only 300psi left all of the sudden I could'nt get anything out of the tank. It was dead and no air was comming out of the reg. I informed my instructor and he provided me with his spare. In total, the safety-stop lasted about 8 minutes.
The swim back was a LOOONG one since we surfaced on the starboard side and the boat captain wanted everyone to swim around the port side to the rear of the boat. I always said I hate the snorkel and was looking for every reason to get rid of it, but I found the primary reason to keep it. The LOONG swim and NO air in my tanks required me to use the damn snorkel that I thanked myself for having.
WRECK DIVE
This was the second dive of the day and the plan was to go down to about 100fsw and maybe deeper. When I hooked up my second tank, I noticed it too only had 2700psi of air. At this point I was VERY annoyed. In fact, I was so annoyed because the shop where I got the tanks is the one that chartered the dive and they KNEW I was going on the wreck dive for my AOW. In fact, the guy who filled my tanks was on the boat diving as well. Lets face it, they gave me two weak fills knowing I would need all the air I can get.
This time, my instructor teamed me up with someone who had considerable more experience than myself and was also an advanced diver. The plan was to get down to 80fsw where the anchor line was as quickly as possible and then hook up a wreck reel to the railing and drop off the side to about 100fsw.
Going down to the wreck went real smooth and my buddy hooked up the line quickly and we dropped off the side. Immediately we went down to 104fsw. Visibility was till about 10 feet and I could'nt recognize anything of the ship at all. I followed my dive buddy as he led the way with his reel and I untangled him a couple of times. When I hit about 1500psi I notified my buddy so we can make our way back to the anchor line.
When I reached about 1000psi, I notified him again and this time I think he realized we needed to make our way back. I started to follow him back when I felt he was moving too slow and I would soon run out of air at 100fsw. At one point, I rose to about 80fsw figuring the anchor line would be right there because it all looked so familiar. All I can say is I was wrong and EVERYTHING looks familiar underwater. Little did I realize that me and my dive buddy had traveled quite far as he let out about 150feet of line. I got back to him and untanlged him a couple of times.
We finaly reached the anchor line when I had about 400psi left. I was still 80fsw down and needed to get up as quickly as possible. My previous dive revealed that at about 200psi, my tank would die. The general rule had been about 30fsw/minute but I decided I did'nt have enough air to do that so I went up as close to 60fsw/minute as possible. My dive buddy was going up much slower and I would have stayed with him, but I figured he had slightly more air than myself and we both would have been in trouble if I used his air as well. When I reached about 50fsw I realized I had about 300psi and any breath now I would be out of air so I rushed myself up the line and was preparing myself to blow the safety-stop knowing full well that I needed to. The entire time I kept thinking about the books I have read (the most recent was "The Last Dive") where well experienced divers blew their deco-stops taking the chances of DCS over death.
As I made my way up, I kept thinking to myself that I messed up big time and that I was taking a big chance on getting DCS if I blew my safety-stop. When I reached about 20fsw I noticed 2 divers who were part of my group. I immediately motioned to one of the divers that I was out and needed air. He provided me with his spare and I was able to do a 4 minute safety stop at 20fsw before he just about ran out too and had to surface. Having no air myself, I had to stop my safety-stop and surface as well.
It is important to note that on this dive I did 3 minutes at 80fsw and 6 minutes at 105fsw. Total dive time from entry to exit lasted about 21 minutes. After my surface interval of my previous dive, I entered the water in pressure group B. When I finaly made it aboard the dive boat I was extremely nervous about what just occured and all I could do was wait for DCS to kick in because of the speed I came up and the shorter than I wanted safety-stop. Checking my dive time revealed that I was now in pressure group Z. To make matters worst, when I called the dive shop the day before, I asked them if they had a pony-bottle for rent and they said they did, but when my wife went to pick up the regulater and tanks, they informed he they did'nt have any available and that I would not need one. I knew I should have had one because of my inexperience. And I certainly did need it.
LESSONS LEARNED
Well, it is now 36 hours after my last dive that was a complete mess and I am feeling every single ache in my body looking for signs of DCS. Right now, I have a slight headache, feel fatigued and my body is aching slightly. Particularly, the inner joints of my arms feel weak as if I had done bench presses.
I am contributing my headache to the fact the I way overslept this morning. The fatigure I figure is from the being of all my energy on a rocking boat in the sun all day long that was taken out of me, plus the 12 hours sleep I had last night. And the aching in my body is probably from the more than unusual workload I did in putting on/taking off the gear and weights and carrying all that crap around. It feels as if I had worked out (which I have'nt in months). I don't feel any real pain anywhere, just alot of fatigue particularly in my arms and the inner joints of my elbows. I would think it was DCS, but I am feeling the same weakness in both arms/joints. I will wait another 24 hours and if I don't feel any better, I will make my way to a doctor, but I just think my level of fitness is so low that all the exertion I did to myself on the boat dive is making me feel the way I do right now. Also the fact the my physical fitness is not all that great and probably just over did it.
Anyway, here are my lessons that EVERYONE should pay attention to: 1) NEVER run out of air. 2) Always use a PONY bottle if you plan on going deeper that 60fsw. 3) Before you leave the dive shop, make sure you know how much air is in the tank. 4) Never trust your dive buddy and think that they are experienced so you will be alright. If you get low on air and you need your buddy to get back, force them to leave with you. The only reason I stayed with him was because of my lack of experience and I did'nt know my way back to the anchor line. 5) PLAN your dive and DIVE your plan. I was following the directions of my dive instructor but never realised that it would be as unplanned as it was. I got caught up in the excitement of it all and never considered that I would get into trouble. I think my dive instructor thaught I had more experience than I actually did, but in all fairness to myself, I did tell him several times that I was going down low on air and he knew my level of experience since I repeatedly told him that I never went on a wreck dive nor did I ever go below 60fsw and this was my 12th dive. I think he should have made sure I stuck with him. 6) Rental regulators/tanks suck!! I can't help but to feel that a not-so-good regulator caused me to run out at 200psi. I'm not sure, but I thaught 200psi at 15fsw should still produce some air, but it did'nt.
--MichaelG
