Ah well, onward and upward! This was an easy chapter in the book, RDP, computers, emergency decompression, and a lot of "propaganda" (I won't say who that quote is from). Swimming, we did the removal of the bc and weight removal (while on the bottom) which was interesting. The nice thing is we tried the heavy suit 7mil, 2pc, and although it did fit "too loose" it was the first time I didn't come out of the water shivering, sweet!

It did take a considerable amount of weight though, 26 pounds total, which made it fun removing and replacing the bc as it had all the weight in it. After hanging upside down from the shoulder straps for a minute thinking "this ain't right" and looking at the instructor for guidance- all Jeff did was signal me to get down into it, and lo and behold I did just that! I didn’t think I could, but after I did it was perty cool! Just kinda pulled myself down and into it- we didn't take any pic's cause Jeff was instructing me, but it's one of the things I plan on doing again for the video as I think it was one of the more "challenging" things we did.

The weight removal went ok. I almost dropped the weight because with the gloves on you do lose some dexterity. I wanted to comment more on these gloves, the ones I have allow your fingertips to stick out and I was fortunate to get the right kind. I have seen others that totally enclose your hand like a large paddle and would give you more surface area for swimming, but you wouldn't be able to perform many of the necessary tasks; undoing QD buckles, weights, operate low pressure inflator… Even with the gloves I have it makes it a little more difficult when you can only feel the tips of your fingers. Jeff gave me the heads up on this in our initial briefing, and he's right on the money, and at least in this case, bigger isn't necessarily better!

We were trimmed real nice till the air was running down and I started getting light in the "tail". The leaky mask is an ongoing problem although I think the hood was contributing to it this week.

QuickTime Video - High Resolution 5.1 MB or QuickTime Video - Low Resolution 1.7 MB

We won't be able to do our open water dives this year, it'll just have to wait. I wish we could have but am glad we got as far as we did. Frankly I need about 4 or 6 weeks of serious "down time" because driving down to Hershey every week was a little too much for my ass.

There's much to do this winter, try sewing heavier material like Cordura and Neoprene. I got a cheap bc on ebay for $55 but it’s a little too short in the cumberbund and I want to add some length there. Also put a couple more d-rings on the shoulder straps and try to figure a way to put a bigger pocket on the thing. Some brainiac at Seaquest must have measured the RDP and decided it would be his joke on mankind to make the pockets 1/2-inch smaller; Thanks. I'd also like to try to put zippers full length into a neoprene farmer john, up each leg, and see if I can't get a tighter fit. Without being able to hold my legs stiff it makes it tough struggling into these things, tougher than the diving drills! And I'm sure I'll be sewing some more skinsuits as they show some wear when you crawl around poolside with them on. The one in the pics with the green sleeves I bought on ebay for 24 bucks and had to do some mod's to it; add length in the crotch and put more zipper in the front, and it was still a little too snug in the shoulder armal area, so I just laid it out on a table as flat as possible on some posterboard and traced around it giving a little more room in the places that needed it. Cut the pattern out (with 5/8" seam allowance), lay it over some lycra, mark with a sliver of soap, cut and zip it through the serger… and voila! Oh yeah, I also have to figure out some sort of gators for the drysuit, which I hope I will get to use in the spring of '05.

That is all;
for now!