SeaCat
Hey, my Halo is smoking
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2003
- Posts
- 15,378
This morning I hauled my gear down to a local dive boat for a mid week dive trip.
Several hundred pounds of gear later I was sitting on board sipping a cup of coffee and chatting with the D.M. while waiting for the others to arrive. It was 0730 and a nearly perfect day.
By the time the others, a couple of people from a dive class and their instructor, showed up I had finished my coffee and set up my gear. They climbed aboard and we were off. I sat in the stern talking abit more with the D.M. and my wife as I watched the students stumbling about getting ready.
The group was a small young one. A couple in their early twenties and a female who was maybe thirty. All were students in the same dive class. This was their graduation dive, they had already passed the class and were on their last dive with the instructor before going out on their own. I smiled to myself as I watched them rigging gear. Gods, was I ever that inexperienced? I had to keep from laughing as I listened to the boyfriend talking about how he would take care of both of the young ladies. Their instructor and the D.M. just shook their heads.
When wew received the five minute warning I skinned into my wetsuit and rechecked my gear. Hawking a lugey into my mask I rubbed it around and then rinsed it. (That keeps it from fogging a hell of a lot better than any commercial crapski. It also doesn't burn if you get wtare into the mask and then into your eyes.) Done with this I sat in front of my rig and slid into it. Clipping the buckles I rocked forward and pulled it free from the mounts. Leaning down I pulled on my fins then checked my regs and gauges one more time. Done I struggled to my feet, damn that rig is heavy. (Flotation Vest, Al 80 tank, Al 30 tank, Regulators for both, Safety Sausage, Lift Bag, Line Reel with 150 feet of line, 2 lights, Snips, Goody Bag, Signal Mirror and Flares and an emergency mask. The whole rig weighs in at just over 100 pounds.)
When everyone was up and ready we started dropping into the water. Instructor, the students, the D.M. and then myself. As soon as I was underwater the weight vanished. I rolled forward after taking another test breath and dropped towards the bottom. Below me I could see the rest of the group as their bubbles rose away from me, carried on the current. Reaching to the bottom of my tank as I decended I flicked on my strobe, this would give anyone who got seperated a nice homing beacon. After clearing my ears a couple of times I was coming close to the bottom. Puffing air into my vest I slowed my decent until I waas floating just off the bottom. Now I could control my depth just by my breathing. Inhale a nice lungful of air and I rose almost a foot. Exhale and I dropped the same amount.
Looking around me i counted people and found everyone was in sight. Cool, now the dive was on as we drifted along the side of a Coral Reef. The visibility was perfect, maybe 80 feet and maybe even more. I could clearly see the fish and other wildlife around me as we drifted in the current. Every minute or so I checked my gauges and then checked on the rest of the group. I wasn't using air, I was just relaxing and drifting. Every once in a while I gave a casual kick just to check out something not in my direct line of drift.
The reef was alive and well in this area. The fish were more than numerous and all around us. At one point we came across a drifting Sea Turtle seemingly asleep.
Before I had reached the halfway point on my tank I saw the instructor signaling for the ascent. This meant that at least one of the students was down to 1000 pounds of air in their tank. (We had all started out with 3300 PSI, at least one of them was down to 1000 PSI. I checked and found I was at 2200 PSI.) Up we went.
After an hours surface interval during which we swapped out tanks and I had a cup of coffee it was time to once again hit the water. The students had watched as I peeled out of the top of my suit and left it hanging around my waist as I dried and warmed up in the sun. They didn't do so. They smiled as I struggled back into the top of my suit then geared up. The male smiled and made a couple of comments when he saw me struggle to stand once again. Smiling I ignored him and waddled to the bow where we were lining up. Another step and the water was closing over my head.
This time we dropped into a hole in the reef. Picture a bowl roughly 100 feet across and maybe twenty feet deep in the middle of the reef. There was no current in the hole but the water was a bit cooler than that outside. (I was reading 68°F in the hole.) As I sank towards the hole I could hear the anchor drop from the boat down current from us.
Once again the visibilty was about perfect. I could see all the way across the hole. We stayed down there and poked around the holes and crannies in the walls of the depression. All around us were rainbow colored fish. Angels and Wrass. Cobia. Along the walls were Anemonies and fan corals. In the cracks you could see anything and we did. I found and pointed out several Morays to the students as well as an Octopus. I pointed out a Lion Fish and then warned them away from it. Their instructor was happy to let me teach as I drifted them down to the bottom and pointed out such things as Glass Shrimp.
Rolling over I looked above us and pointed as a school of Barracuda swam past the hole. I'm sure their heart rates went through the roof as a small Scalloped Hammer Head swam past. (By small I mean it was maybe three feet long.)
Again their inexperience was showing though. They hadn't rehydrated on the boat nor had they warmed up from their first dive. They were getting chilled in the cooler waters and their breathing rates were going up. The boyfriend was the biggest of the group. A muscle bound Beach Boy. I grabbed his gauges because I knew he would use air a lot faster than the women. He was down to 1500 PSI. I signaled to the instructor and he nodded. It was time to head back up. (We had only been down for 30 minutes, and the water depth was only 40 feet.)
When we reached the surface I signaled to the boat that we were okay and ready for pickup. He motored over to us and put out the lines as the students headed for the ladder. I held onto the line as I watched them make their way to the ladder one by one and then struggle to remove their fins and hand them up. As they climbed the ladder the Captian or my wife grabbed their tank valves and helped steady them as they climbed aboard. Finally it was my turn.
Instead of swimming up the line I just pulled myself hand over hand. When I reached the ladder I slipped out of my fins and handed them up before climbing the ladder. As I settled into my place on the bench and shrugged out of my vest I watched the others. All three of the students were shivering in their wetsuits as they racked their rigs, but they were smiling. They watched as I quickly skinned out of my wetsuit and moved into the sun. They smiled to themselves at this until they watched their instructor and the D.M. do the same thing.
They moved into the sun and started skinning out of their wetsuits. That's when they learned an important lesson about diving. Wetsuits are tight and when wet they stick a little bit. If you happen to be wearing something like a bikini or a loose bathing suit it has a nasty habit of coming off with the wetsuit. In this case both of the women lost their tops. (Damn it I want a waterproof camera.) Once they were settled in the stern of the boat the captain started heading for shore.
My wife dug into my gear bag and pulled out both thermos bottles I had carried aboard. One was filled with Hot Coffee and the other with Hot Chocolate. These were shared around which surprised the students.
The male started asking me about my gear. He wanted to know why I seemed to be carrying a lot more gear than they were, especially the second tank. I explained that I usually dove solo and he perked up. The Instructor saw this and told him to slow down. He explained that he had known me for a couple of years and had even gone through some of my dive logs.
He told the students that while this was their first loggable dive I had over 15 years of experience with an average of 24+ dives a year. He had even tried to get me to help teach some of his classes in things like Navigation, Dive Rescue and wreck diving. (I have so far refused.) He then told them that if they doubted my comfort level underwater they chould check their tanks air pressures and then check mine. The male being Mr. Macho did just that.
The highest student air level was almost exactly 1000 psi. The instructor had 1500 psi. My tank had 2500 psi.
Needless to say I had a fun couple of dives today even if they were cut short.
Cat
Several hundred pounds of gear later I was sitting on board sipping a cup of coffee and chatting with the D.M. while waiting for the others to arrive. It was 0730 and a nearly perfect day.
By the time the others, a couple of people from a dive class and their instructor, showed up I had finished my coffee and set up my gear. They climbed aboard and we were off. I sat in the stern talking abit more with the D.M. and my wife as I watched the students stumbling about getting ready.
The group was a small young one. A couple in their early twenties and a female who was maybe thirty. All were students in the same dive class. This was their graduation dive, they had already passed the class and were on their last dive with the instructor before going out on their own. I smiled to myself as I watched them rigging gear. Gods, was I ever that inexperienced? I had to keep from laughing as I listened to the boyfriend talking about how he would take care of both of the young ladies. Their instructor and the D.M. just shook their heads.
When wew received the five minute warning I skinned into my wetsuit and rechecked my gear. Hawking a lugey into my mask I rubbed it around and then rinsed it. (That keeps it from fogging a hell of a lot better than any commercial crapski. It also doesn't burn if you get wtare into the mask and then into your eyes.) Done with this I sat in front of my rig and slid into it. Clipping the buckles I rocked forward and pulled it free from the mounts. Leaning down I pulled on my fins then checked my regs and gauges one more time. Done I struggled to my feet, damn that rig is heavy. (Flotation Vest, Al 80 tank, Al 30 tank, Regulators for both, Safety Sausage, Lift Bag, Line Reel with 150 feet of line, 2 lights, Snips, Goody Bag, Signal Mirror and Flares and an emergency mask. The whole rig weighs in at just over 100 pounds.)
When everyone was up and ready we started dropping into the water. Instructor, the students, the D.M. and then myself. As soon as I was underwater the weight vanished. I rolled forward after taking another test breath and dropped towards the bottom. Below me I could see the rest of the group as their bubbles rose away from me, carried on the current. Reaching to the bottom of my tank as I decended I flicked on my strobe, this would give anyone who got seperated a nice homing beacon. After clearing my ears a couple of times I was coming close to the bottom. Puffing air into my vest I slowed my decent until I waas floating just off the bottom. Now I could control my depth just by my breathing. Inhale a nice lungful of air and I rose almost a foot. Exhale and I dropped the same amount.
Looking around me i counted people and found everyone was in sight. Cool, now the dive was on as we drifted along the side of a Coral Reef. The visibility was perfect, maybe 80 feet and maybe even more. I could clearly see the fish and other wildlife around me as we drifted in the current. Every minute or so I checked my gauges and then checked on the rest of the group. I wasn't using air, I was just relaxing and drifting. Every once in a while I gave a casual kick just to check out something not in my direct line of drift.
The reef was alive and well in this area. The fish were more than numerous and all around us. At one point we came across a drifting Sea Turtle seemingly asleep.
Before I had reached the halfway point on my tank I saw the instructor signaling for the ascent. This meant that at least one of the students was down to 1000 pounds of air in their tank. (We had all started out with 3300 PSI, at least one of them was down to 1000 PSI. I checked and found I was at 2200 PSI.) Up we went.
After an hours surface interval during which we swapped out tanks and I had a cup of coffee it was time to once again hit the water. The students had watched as I peeled out of the top of my suit and left it hanging around my waist as I dried and warmed up in the sun. They didn't do so. They smiled as I struggled back into the top of my suit then geared up. The male smiled and made a couple of comments when he saw me struggle to stand once again. Smiling I ignored him and waddled to the bow where we were lining up. Another step and the water was closing over my head.
This time we dropped into a hole in the reef. Picture a bowl roughly 100 feet across and maybe twenty feet deep in the middle of the reef. There was no current in the hole but the water was a bit cooler than that outside. (I was reading 68°F in the hole.) As I sank towards the hole I could hear the anchor drop from the boat down current from us.
Once again the visibilty was about perfect. I could see all the way across the hole. We stayed down there and poked around the holes and crannies in the walls of the depression. All around us were rainbow colored fish. Angels and Wrass. Cobia. Along the walls were Anemonies and fan corals. In the cracks you could see anything and we did. I found and pointed out several Morays to the students as well as an Octopus. I pointed out a Lion Fish and then warned them away from it. Their instructor was happy to let me teach as I drifted them down to the bottom and pointed out such things as Glass Shrimp.
Rolling over I looked above us and pointed as a school of Barracuda swam past the hole. I'm sure their heart rates went through the roof as a small Scalloped Hammer Head swam past. (By small I mean it was maybe three feet long.)
Again their inexperience was showing though. They hadn't rehydrated on the boat nor had they warmed up from their first dive. They were getting chilled in the cooler waters and their breathing rates were going up. The boyfriend was the biggest of the group. A muscle bound Beach Boy. I grabbed his gauges because I knew he would use air a lot faster than the women. He was down to 1500 PSI. I signaled to the instructor and he nodded. It was time to head back up. (We had only been down for 30 minutes, and the water depth was only 40 feet.)
When we reached the surface I signaled to the boat that we were okay and ready for pickup. He motored over to us and put out the lines as the students headed for the ladder. I held onto the line as I watched them make their way to the ladder one by one and then struggle to remove their fins and hand them up. As they climbed the ladder the Captian or my wife grabbed their tank valves and helped steady them as they climbed aboard. Finally it was my turn.
Instead of swimming up the line I just pulled myself hand over hand. When I reached the ladder I slipped out of my fins and handed them up before climbing the ladder. As I settled into my place on the bench and shrugged out of my vest I watched the others. All three of the students were shivering in their wetsuits as they racked their rigs, but they were smiling. They watched as I quickly skinned out of my wetsuit and moved into the sun. They smiled to themselves at this until they watched their instructor and the D.M. do the same thing.
They moved into the sun and started skinning out of their wetsuits. That's when they learned an important lesson about diving. Wetsuits are tight and when wet they stick a little bit. If you happen to be wearing something like a bikini or a loose bathing suit it has a nasty habit of coming off with the wetsuit. In this case both of the women lost their tops. (Damn it I want a waterproof camera.) Once they were settled in the stern of the boat the captain started heading for shore.
My wife dug into my gear bag and pulled out both thermos bottles I had carried aboard. One was filled with Hot Coffee and the other with Hot Chocolate. These were shared around which surprised the students.
The male started asking me about my gear. He wanted to know why I seemed to be carrying a lot more gear than they were, especially the second tank. I explained that I usually dove solo and he perked up. The Instructor saw this and told him to slow down. He explained that he had known me for a couple of years and had even gone through some of my dive logs.
He told the students that while this was their first loggable dive I had over 15 years of experience with an average of 24+ dives a year. He had even tried to get me to help teach some of his classes in things like Navigation, Dive Rescue and wreck diving. (I have so far refused.) He then told them that if they doubted my comfort level underwater they chould check their tanks air pressures and then check mine. The male being Mr. Macho did just that.
The highest student air level was almost exactly 1000 psi. The instructor had 1500 psi. My tank had 2500 psi.
Needless to say I had a fun couple of dives today even if they were cut short.
Cat
