Open Water Certification Dives

Well we finally did it! Passed the open water dives in the quarry at Bainbridge Sportsman's Club down along the river, camped there overnight to save the travel/sitting time and had a great time! I think it was the hottest weekend of the summer but a nice breeze on Sunday helped keep things pleasant. The "Tai Pan" Jeff proved as great a cook as instructor; scratch one shirt though… Thanks also to John (also a Great Instructor), it was a pleasure to work with you too, and thanks Annette for bringing up the rear on dive 4. Just more encouragement! I also had the new gear bag that I made, and hope to make a better one (with documentation). Also the wetsuit that was a "hand me over" from Chuck (Many thanks. You'd better believe I'll get my nickel's worth out of this one!). That received some extensive mod's; I took out the ankle zips and put in my own from the bottom of the inseam up onto the torso. Neoprene flap inside and trimmed makes it easier to get into and out of. Also opened the seam on each side from the ankle to up under the armpit and with it on figured how much overlap (marked with pen) with my brother's help. Cut to the marks, then fit it again to make sure. Contact cement, glue seam, zig zag across length of seam for strength, cover with Melco seam tape, and voila! Custom fit wet suit, no? The ankle zips I took out of the suit I put into the neoprene socks taking out some excess material in them as well. They fit much better now, and are loads easier to put on and take off. I hope to do this again someday but with the documentation to satisfy the curious among us. All in all, my mod's to the suit and socks worked ok and until a better solution presents itself I will be satisfied with this method.

	Above is the bag (fully loaded), cordura, mesh, web and a zipper. Left you can see one of the zippers, closed, in the right leg of the wetsuit (the left side of the pic). And on the right side of the pic is the melco seam tape to cover one of the seams where I removed excess material. Above is the ankle zip I took out of the suit and put in the el cheapo neoprene sock. It works much better!

13AUG2005:
 
The first day's dives didn't seem too difficult but I was really tired at the end of the day. Transferring into and out of the water was easier, I just rolled the prone cart into the water on the beach until I was laying about 6 or 8 inches above the surface and rolled in. Getting out required a push, no traction on the fine stones. The initial weight check and descent were a little dodgy but not a complete disaster (What I'd give for just the occasional fin kick!). O.W. dive nr. 1 was fairly easy though and near the bottom or just moseying along things went really well. It's almost relaxing being neutral and just swimming along, looking around. When everything's in it's place it just feels "right". It was the first time in the water where we weren't in a pool and the visibility, fish and gak floating on the surface were all new but not too bad, although the viz was getting perty bad during day 2. Jeff suggested that a successful first ow dive means just coming out alive; I'm not sure but I think we did ok? It was definitely a relief getting in the water because the air temp was very high, not a hundred but near enough. And descending through a thermocline definitely provided refreshment.
 
 
 
Made much better descents on dive 2, it's a bit tricky though going down a line hand over hand, while trying to equalize and add air to the bc. Lot's to keep track of but dive 2 went much better in that regard. Some of the skills we covered in dive 2 were tired diver tow, cramp removal, mask flooding and using alternate air source. Everything went very well, but by the end of the tired diver tow I think the wrong diver was tired! Mask flooding (and later removal) is not too bad but it takes me longer with the gloves and hood. Sometimes the seal doesn't seem quite right and making sure the hood is not under the mask seal takes a minute or two. Just keep breathing while goofing off with the mask! Dive 2 included more exploration and it was very exciting swimming along a wall where the bottom dropped off into eternity! Well all right, it wasn't that deep, but when the depth exceeds the viz it seems as though it just may… Also, swimming through dead trees in the murk was almost spooky, no that's not quite right- eerie is the word- when they rise up out of the darkened depths and disappear up above you they seem sadly eerie. Like weary old ghosts standing watch for some long forgotten purpose.

We saw some nice bass and underwater objects. It's sometimes difficult to tell what's a boat or a collapsed shed; muck covers all. There's lots of sunny's too. Reminds me of catching them as kids… in a later dive we came across about a dozen sunny bono's (bluegill) nesting on the bottom. That was neat! A bowl shaped depression about a foot in diameter cleaned out of the stones rocks and mud with a nice bono hovering over each one. The bowl's were almost touching and strung out along the incline roughly side by side. You could reach out to them but they would always escape by a couple of inches. The ones over the nests were all of a real nice size. The bono's were all over the quarry, but not as nice as the ones over the nests, and although none nipped me, Fearless Leader was nibbled on his ear!

On a sad note, I drowned John on this dive. I couldn't get the alternate second stage out fast enough on the alternate air drill. I had the slates clipped there and also the hose clip had a keeper over it and I just couldn’t fumble my way through it in time. Lesson learned on that one although his passing will haunt me forever…
I also need to pay more attention to the details for logging- pressures, times, depths, and temps. It seems difficult remembering all the numbers when yer havin' too much fun.

14AUG2005:

The toughest and most memorable challenge on dive 3 was the CESA! I think we did it 3 times and my ascents were better and better, seemed almost natural but every time I reached the surface I would have trouble keeping my head up out of the water to get a breath of "fresh" air. It was one of those times a couple of fin kicks would have been a great help. We worked through it though with some difficulty and refreshments (swallowed water), well all right, that sucked but it wasn’t catastrophic!

I also have continuing problems with weight removal and replacement on the surface. [Rick is using a weight integrated bcd] The removal isn't too bad but I think I would benefit from larger toggles on the releases. It's the replacement that hangs me up. The pouches go in half way then just seem to bunch up like a soggy noodle and even on the shore those devils were somewhat stubborn to shove home. I think I could sew up some pockets that may be a bit smaller and put in some soft weights that would work better; A little slimmer yet stiffer. The weight thing didn't seem so much a challenge, as it was just a frustration that shouldn't be.

We did some more exploration and it's interesting some of the original debris that's laying around- chunks of cable, collapsed sheds (they don't saw much lumber like that anymore), pipes and bars sticking out of the bottom that must have served some purpose once upon a time… We also saw some catfish, a crawdad and a couple of impressive bass that must've been 16" long, too bad they didn’t stick around!
 
 
On dive 4, more hovering/pivoting, mask removal, navigation. For some strange reason I still, on occasion, end up in a feet up vertical position while descending and sometimes it doesn’t bother me, but on this dive I got ahead of myself and my left ear didn't equalize. I signaled to John though and ascended, worked it out, and continued the dive. It was unsettling when it happened but I now think it was a good thing. The experience will be memorable; we delt with it the right way and got on with things! As it should be.

The navigation part was interesting. My first attempt ended me up in pismo beach (was that a left turn in Albuquerque?). Later on I did better. A couple of strokes, well sometimes 3 or 4, and then check the compass, then more swim… It was almost a surprise coming up on John at the buoy.

We dove down and saw the porpoises, which where a neat surprise, Jeff was slightly above me and kept signaling to descend. Well ok… Kept going down, I believe through 2 thermoclines to the plaque! It was quite chillier there, and although I didn't mind the short stop I don't know if I could have lasted there too long. Should have checked the temp!

Wow! By this time, things were picking up in the quarry and viz was down to a foot or two depending where you were at. Went over a couple of divers on the wall of the quarry and not sure they knew we were there. John was leading and Jeff and me were teamed with Annette following and it was real interesting! I'm not sure what kind of voodoo John was using to navigate but he did an incredible job! It's surely no mystery now how people get lost. Day 1 was more troublesome as I was really wiped out tired but for some reason day 2 didn't seem so rough and I was somewhat more "there" or is it "here"? Anyway, dives logged, some papers signed, and YeAAAAA!
 
I now diver, yes? You bet buddy! Horray!!!

Rick Posing for his C-Card

 
The weekend was a terrific success, and I hope for many more. Jeff says I have very good air consumption for a student. Used 1600 to 1700 psi out of a 63 cf aluminum tank for each dive that averaged around 45 - 50 minutes per… still had plenty left when we were done with each dive. It was nice using the smaller cylinders, they were easier to handle and I think trim was easier to maintain. I still have some drills to polish, or at least be able to muddle through without too much trouble. And I also have some gear to work on. At some point I'd like to try a dpv although the price is somewhat prohibitive. Hopefully we'll do the nitrox class next week, so all in all the successful certification signifies not so much a goal or an end, but rather Progress with more to be made. To keep ascending that ladder of interest, learning and skill development! It seems to me that this is one of the many things that help give Life to the living.
 
R