Three thoughts on the night between open water cert dives

[Litefoot]

I had 3-4’ seas on my first OW dive and I got pretty sick. So my biggest concern on the night in between was being careful what I ate and popping a Bonine before bed and another one in the morning. All was well the next day!

 

[undrwater]

My theory is the wetsuit takes the "shock" out of it, because the cold definitely hit during my mask flooding drills

A brand new wetsuit will be quite a bit warmer than an "experienced" one. If you keep this one, it will get more comfortable over time as it compresses. You could wear a thinner hood or gloves for now.

 

[SlugLife]

1. This is still the most amazing physical activity I've ever done.
2. The breathing-buoyancy relationship is hard.
3. Scuba Hell is other divers.

To elaborate point 3:
The same one kid who showed up late, was always the last one geared up, and thumbed the second dive early because he started with 2000psi and didn't tell anybody. Good on him for making it 20 minutes on 500 pounds though, the rest of us averaged double that.

Is it odd to find a 7mil too warm in the low 50s (Henderson Thermoprene)? I'm now leaning more toward the 5mil Bare Velocity Ultra

2) You're new and will get used to it with time and practice.

3) I often advocate divers seek their own redundancy. Yes, you shouldn't be diving solo until you get a good amount of experience and appropriate training, however, if something goes wrong with your equipment, you need air, but then your insta-buddy swam off to look at some fish, it doesn't really matter who is right or wrong in that situation, it only matters that you don't have air.

7mm) I think most people would be a little on the cold-side in an average 7mm wetsuit, though Henderson Thermoprene has some great reviews.

 

[rick00001967]

Stick with the 7mm. You can always try it without gloves or hood as temps vary. Be happy you are nice and warm. Most people are not.

Yes it can be frustrating when in a group if on lags behind. But pls remember it is a group or a team. So help each other to make it a better experience for all.

As for entering with less than a full tank.....where was the instructor? Where was the budfy? Again, pls remenber it should be a team effort, not every man for himself.

 

[Zef]

1. This is still the most amazing physical activity I've ever done.
2. The breathing-buoyancy relationship is hard.
3. Scuba Hell is other divers.

To elaborate point 3:
The same one kid who showed up late, was always the last one geared up, and thumbed the second dive early because he started with 2000psi and didn't tell anybody. Good on him for making it 20 minutes on 500 pounds though, the rest of us averaged double that.

Is it odd to find a 7mil too warm in the low 50s (Henderson Thermoprene)? I'm now leaning more toward the 5mil Bare Velocity Ultra

Regarding point 3:
Just wondering who did the buddy check with the kid before entering the water? Typically one looks at and displays their SPG while taking a few breaths to ensure the tanks valve is open, and also it is protocol to state tank pressure and content (e.g., I have 3000psi of air, I have 2800psi of 32% nitrox, etc.) during the buddy check.

If a buddy team or group entered the water with one diver low on air, the impact on the team/group is a shared responsibility because "didn't tell anybody" is equivalent to "no one asked or checked".

Now if you wrote that he lied about his starting tank pressure intead of "didn't tell anybody", then the feedback would be different.


Regarding point 2:
The breathing-buoyancy relationship is probably the most important challenge to master. With time and experience it will get easier. Congrats on being aware of this.

-Z

 

[Jim Lapenta]

1. This is still the most amazing physical activity I've ever done.
2. The breathing-buoyancy relationship is hard.
3. Scuba Hell is other divers.

To elaborate point 3:
The same one kid who showed up late, was always the last one geared up, and thumbed the second dive early because he started with 2000psi and didn't tell anybody. Good on him for making it 20 minutes on 500 pounds though, the rest of us averaged double that.

Is it odd to find a 7mil too warm in the low 50s (Henderson Thermoprene)? I'm now leaning more toward the 5mil Bare Velocity Ultra

1. it is pretty cool but after 14 years teaching and 18 certified, I found other things as well that were less expensive and more convenient.
2. If the student has sufficient pool practice and a competent instructor, it should not be. I never took a student to open water who hadn't got that part down well. Not perfect, but I never took a yoyo on checkout dives.
3. True and sometimes those others are "dive pros" who should not be.

As has been said, each person's tolerance to cold is different. Which is why those suggested exposure suit charts in some OW course materials are complete BS. There is no substitute for actual experience and trials. Which is why I never pushed a wetsuit as an initial purchase. Try different ones and see what works.
Locally I always waited until the water was over 70 degrees before doing checkouts. Then we'd start with a 7 mil. For some that was fine. For others it was too warm and we'd drop to a 5 for the second day. Since my students were taught to do a weight check before and after every pool session and before and after the 1st OW dive, switching suits like this only added maybe 5 minutes to the start of the 2nd days dives.
It should not be treated like a major issue.

 

[SlugLife]

As for entering with less than a full tank.....where was the instructor? Where was the budfy? Again, pls remenber it should be a team effort, not every man for himself.

Given this was an OW class, I too would be heavily critical of the instructor.

Buddy-checks are an important redundancy, but also not a very reliable one. There are many reasons they often aren't done very well. For example:

• The receiving-buddy may be resistant to the buddy-checks (for bad or good reasons).
• The checking-buddy has been "burned" by too many other divers who resist checks.
• The checking-buddy may be lacking knowledge, or sloppy. Perhaps they haven't dove in 2+ years. The checking-buddy may have bad eye-sight, is distracted, tired, etc.
• Divers may have equipment their buddy is unfamiliar with, such as CCR (rebreathers) or sidemount.

When you get out into the real world, and are paired with "insta buddies," you never know what you're going to get, and among that mixed-bag will likely be a number of inattentive dive-buddies. One hopes they never end up with the "buddy hazard" but that can happen too.

 

[feldomatic]

Day 2:

Late guy became early guy. We had time for a qualified dive after the cert dives were done and he and I were the only two that stuck around. It turned out he made for a much better buddy than the guy who I'd been with since pool training started (this crowd was all military and he and I had similar backgrounds, so the instructor paired us up) April fools' must have just been after him yesterday.

 

[TMHeimer]

On occasion I've just used the top to my farmer john. Have to deal with heavy legs though.

 

[Belzelbub]

As I recall it, student was having an o-ring issue with his tank, the DM went over and the instructor followed. Everyone else was starting on a fresh tank (and this guy should have been, maybe he lost some gas troubleshooting the o-ring?)

I was going to say to maybe cut the guy some slack, but I see that you did.

This might, however, be something to learn from. Dive accidents are most often a series of small incidents. Sounds like the diver had a couple of early issues. Running late, problems setting up gear (maybe, could be he was just double checking things), and an o-ring issue. That could mean a diver under stress. Given his low air consumption, sounds like he handled things fine.

Just something to think about for future dives.

Day 2:

Late guy became early guy. We had time for a qualified dive after the cert dives were done and he and I were the only two that stuck around. It turned out he made for a much better buddy than the guy who I'd been with since pool training started (this crowd was all military and he and I had similar backgrounds, so the instructor paired us up) April fools' must have just been after him yesterday.

Cool. Good he was able to turn things around.

Your point about other divers is still mostly correct. There are all sorts of divers out there. Some are good, some are bad. Some might be capable of improving, some think they know it all.

Actually, from the initial description, it sounds like he had his head on straight. He thumbed the dive when his air was low. Some may have, either extended due to the group, or not monitored closely enough and run out. The issue in this case seems to be that the instructor did not verify that everyone had a full tank.