I spent this weekend, July 7-8 2007, at Dutch Springs doing 5 dives for my Advanced Open Water Certification. The conditions were perfect. The temperature was in the mid 80’s, the surface water temperature was about 72 degrees, the sun was out and the sky was blue. Absolutely perfect.
We had met the Thursday prior, to go over the knowledge and information pertaining to the 5 dives: Deep Dive, Multi-level using the Wheel, Underwater Navigation, Search and Recovery, and Peak Performance Buoyancy. Now that the classroom work was done, we were ready to get our gear on, and head out to the quarry for a dip.
I arrived at Dutch Springs around 8am, paid the entrance fee, and we began to unload the van and set up ‘camp’. I dove with RU Scuba headed by John Lister, one of the many Dive instructors at RU, and so far one of the best. The first dive of the day was the Multi-Level Dive using the Wheel, and we were going deep, so it was a full 7mm wet suit, with boots, gloves, and a hood. My starting tank pressure was 2900 psi, I had an additional 22 lbs of weight in a 6×5x5×6 configuration, and I was psyched to get back into the water after almost a month without diving. We entered the water and it immediately felt great. In order to conserve air, and make the most out of the dive, we swam along the surface about 200 yards out to the buoy marker of the tanker. It was a *long* swim. When we all arrived at the tanker buoy, we buddied up and gave the signal to go down. I was having a much easier time equalizing this dive than my previous Open Water cert dives, and I was able to dive without need of the reference line. After a few kick attempts, I was able to get past the initial 10 ft of water, and then I could feel myself starting to sink. We met at the platform, about 25 ft deep, and it was already chilly. I equalized again and tried to regulate my buoyancy. We then continued down to about 65 feet, pausing only once when a member of our group (there were 7 of us) was having an issue. It was COLD down there. You could easily feel the thermoclines, and we went through two different zones of temperature. It’s amazing how sharp the temperature change is, as you go down, half your body is in one temperature zone, the other is about 10 degrees colder. We arrived at the tanker, checked our depth and air pressure, and just sat there a bit, working on control and stability underwater. Our instructor then handed us rope to try and tie knots underwater. The bowline was the main knot of the dive to learn. Rope behaves much differently underwater, and it was interesting to try to tie a knot with 7mm gloves in the cold and the rope flowing like wet spaghetti. I was able to tie the bowline on the second attempt. We only spent about 15 mins at that depth, but it was enough for me, as it was cold, dark, and there wasn’t much to look at.
After everyone tied the bowline, we moved on to the second level of the multi-level dive arriving at around 50 ft. We passed through another thermocline, and the new feeling of warmth was greatly appreciated. We stopped at this level for about 15 mins, and worked on buoyancy again. We then followed a rope up to the next platform, and passed through another thermocline, and again, appreciating the warmer water. The bottom slopes along the way from the tanker to the platform, so we were close to the bottom the entire time, and the visibility was great, until someone bounced off the bottom and kicked up some silt. But, we were all still pretty new divers, so it wasn’t a big deal. Personally, I was feeling much more confident in my buoyancy skills, and decided for my next dive, I would drop some weight.
After an hour surface interval we went back into the water, and I used 18 lbs in a 2×2x5×5x2×2 configuration. I should have moved the 5lb weights to the front, however, I didn’t know this at the time, and learned it the hard way. In the water, the weight was too far back, and I had to make adjustments. However, this dive was the Peak Performance Buoyancy dive, and we worked on skills to try and remain neutrally buoyant at different depths. This was a great dive as I attempted to learn how to control my breathing and respiration so that I could hover in the water and not sink or float. We spent about 30 mins in the water at platform depth working on hovering and trying to hold ourselves in place on the platform with one finger. We then attempted to swim all around the platform, going from 40ft to 25 ft and attempting to maintain neutral buoyancy. All in all, a great dive.
After another hour surface interval, we went back in the water for the navigation dives. We started off calibrating 100ft of water with time and kick cycles. I can swim a 100 ft in the water about 35 seconds and 41 kick cycles. However, this is something I should repeat every now and then as I get better at breathing and buoyancy. We then took a compass bearing, swam 100ft, and returned on the reciprocal heading, the goal being to end up where we started. I did ok, and was off by about 10 ft, and I was also 10 ft deeper. The third dimension underwater is a very interesting concept to get the brain to learn. We spend most of our time navigating on land, where you aren’t too concerned about height above sea level, but underwater it’s a completely different story, and is an extra variable to consider. Did I mention I LOVE diving? =) We also worked on natural navigation, navigating by using the sea floor and rocks. Wasn’t a good idea to use fish as a navigation reference! We also swam a 75 ft square utilizing our calibration. So for me, I swam 30 kick cycles, turned 90 degrees, and repeated to make a square. I ended up almost where I started, except, again, I was deeper than I had started. My buoyancy skills were pretty good, however, I was more negative boyuant and tended to drift down as I swam. The navigation dives ended the Saturday dives, and I returned home exhausted and tired. I slept well Saturday night!
Sunday morning, we started off with the deep dive. This dive took us to 80 ft, my deepest depth yet. It was very, very cold! And there wasn’t much to see. We then slowly went back up, did some work on the platform, performed a safety stop at 15 ft, and ended that dive. I again used 18 lbs, but this time in a 5×4x4×5 arrangement. The fish were out in force this morning. There were numerous large mouth bass, blue gill, and very colorful koi. The fish there are very passive and curious. They will swim right over to you and check you out, and few times, I found them schooling with me as I swam through the water. They were huge too!
Well, not really this big, this shot is from one of the dive instructors who had an Olympus point and shoot and an underwater package. The whole image is in focus, so the fish looks gigantic! =)
The last dive of the day was the Search and Recovery dive. This was neat. Our instructor dropped a 5lb weight somewhere, and we had to find it and retrieve it. We also used a 35lb weight which we had to retrieve, but we needed to use some rope, rigging, and a dive balloon for this much weight. We used a circular rope search for the low weight. Basically, one diver stays still and feeds a line to another diver, who swims in circles looking for the ‘treasure’. The pivot diver lets out rope on every full circle, and is responsible for keeping an eye on the line as well as current conditions. For the heavier weight, we used a U-pattern search, which is a series of straight lines, forming U’s. Once we found the weight, we needed to make a bowline around the weight and the balloon, and use our alternate air source to inflate the dive balloon and retrieve the goodies, however, we had to make sure it was a controlled ascent.
All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. I plan on making a dive off of Pt. Pleasant sometime next week, and hopefully catch me a lobster or two! My next set of dives after that will be the Rescue Diver in August, however, I need to renew my CPR and First Aid certifications. I don’t actually plan on becoming a dive instructor or a rescue diver, but the skills we learn in the Rescue course could come in handy. And I would feel much more confident about diving without an instructor if I keep my skills up to date and continue to learn more.
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