Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Animal on December 11, 2002, 02:38:50 PM
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I know there are some divers here so I thought I'd share this story.
This was my first big wreck dive, so I was kind of nervous. I was warned that the currents were strong so I decided to take a Nitrox tank, to have that extra oxygen help me fight my way thru it.
If you have done dives in St. Thomas, you know it can get treacherous (and I'm not talking about the cheap booze and accompanying cheap potatos by the harbor), so I called a buddy with plenty of experience to do the dive with me, and to serve as a mule to carry a small extra tank, just in case.
Two flashlights - check
My trusty watch - check (xoxoxo Pulsar)
Titanium knife - check
Dramamine pills - check
Since I don’t have a boat, and renting a plane, landing, and then diving, is not a very good idea, we booked spaces with a diving school that makes expeditions for tourists. It was actually a good idea, since most tourist divers actually have a LOT of experience and are very good at it.
...not the case with this group.
On the two hour trip from Fajardo to St. Thomas, I think I saw like 9 different shades of vomit flying past me, and the symphony of gags and moans was taking its toll on my stomach, so I decided to go chit-chat with the cap'n, who turned out to be a pilot for the Puerto Rican Police, so we had a lot to talk about.
We finally get to the dive site, and I prepare myself, double check my equipment and that of my buddy, and we decided to be the last ones to jump so we can have some extra air in case something bad happens.
As predicted, the current was very strong. You had to hold on tight to the anchor line, and use it to dive. We did so and swam directly to the sunken ship, which was MUCH bigger than I expected. Two experience tourists who were also using Nitrox tanks tagged along with us. Before we creeped into the ship, we checked our flashlights and made sure everything was OK. Now everyone turned to me and expected me to go first. I wouldn’t normally have a problem with this, but to get inside the ship you had to make your way into the ship thru a chimney-like hole on the deck.
It was pitch dark inside, you could only see what you were pointing at with your flashlight, very creepy and cool. I was expecting to find some corpses or treasure, but all I could find was some tires, ropes, and empty beer bottles (http://www.alienvisuals.com/daedalus/beer1.jpg)
That is the only picture I have of the boat inside as all others didn’t come out well.
It was an awesome dive all around. The sealife was very healthy. We encountered rays, turtles, and barracudas, among other less interesting creatures. Here are some pics of the boat. I didn’t take these.
(http://www.blueislanddivers.com/uwimages/0124-32.jpg)
(http://www.blueislanddivers.com/uwimages/0104-3.jpg)
(http://www.blueislanddivers.com/uwimages/0118-5.jpg)
After a while I began asking myself where the hell was everyone else. There was only four of us enjoying the dive. So I signal that we go back to the school boat and find it where the hell everyone go.
Going up the current was INSANE. Holding on to the anchor line was hard, I thought all of my equipment would detach from my body and be swept away by the current. All other three were also trying to hold on and pull their way up into the boat. It didn’t occur to me that if we were going thru so much trouble, this was the reason none of the inexperienced divers managed to make their way.
After a good 15 minutes we finally made it to the ship, and out of 40 divers, only 25 were on board, and all of them were either sitting down moaning, or yelling names trying to communicate with the other divers.
The current had swept them away more than a mile from the boat, and they were moving away fast, the ones we COULD see.
The captain could not raise anchor and go rescue them until he was sure the remainder divers that DID manage to complete their dive were inside the boat. We explained to him that we were the last ones down there who weren’t swept away, but he decided to stay longer just in case. He was calling other boats nearby by radio for help and only two small yachts responded, one of them had already rescued three divers. The other had spotted a few who were holding on together and was on the way to pick them up. In total they rescued about 8 of them, who where scared toejamless, even more pale than hblair in an Assassin convention.
We found another two who cleverly used their camera flashes to signal us their position. That was a good idea on their part and I recommend all divers do that if they don’t have a dive flag like they are supposed to. Problem was, that they were so tired fighting the current that they could not swim their way back into the boat, so we had to jump into the water to help them in. First time I saw a group of grown men cry like lost children in a mall.
We couldn’t find the other five, so the Dive Master for the school decided to dive to look for them, I decided to go with him. We actually found them underwater, they were not even aware that the current had swept them away. They were idling around admiring some corals and turtles, taking pictures like happy Disney goers. We signal them to follow us up. When we make it to the surface, the dive master fired a flare for the boat to pick us up, as we were already about half a mile away. I wasn’t expecting the flare, let alone the lost divers who began to panic immediately. I checked and they were almost out of air. These are the kind of divers that need a dive master down there to baby-sit them the whole time. If we hadn’t found them on time, they would have run out of air in the middle of their picture taking tour.
Everyone was OK miraculously, so we headed to island so that they could sit on some firm ground and shake their panic off.
On the island we ate at Hard Rock cafe, where all these tards were enthusiastically cheering and telling their wonderful tale of adventure, sharing pictures from their digital cameras, which was what almost caused their deaths. Most of them got swept away as they verified and prepared their cool super expensive cameras. You lose grasp of the anchor line for two seconds and you are already out of reach.
This was the dive of their life. My friend wasn’t enjoying himself as much, He still could not understand how happy and cheery they were after they were so close to death.
I was cool about it, I’ve done my share of idiocy both diving, driving, and flying, so I just laughed and smiled as they bought me beers and slapped my shoulder as a hero "GOOD WORK AMIGO!"
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good work amigo! aye caramba!;)
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I've never been diving one of those things I've always wanted to do but haven't gotten around to.
This kinda story scares me, I think those people just weren't taking it as seriously as they should (that's how many people die in many different ways)
anyway some really pretty pics (sept for the first one)
I have to wonder from this how many people have any clue how close they get to death sometimes..
Glad you all made it out of there okay and managed to help the clueless.
Btw it's winter here and the waters are mostly gray and choppy so it's a nice escapist story.
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Thank you.
And I strongly believe the first pic was fantastic.
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Nice post, Beetle. I'll read up on it when the Cliff's Notes edition comes out.
SOB
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Originally posted by Animal
Thank you.
And I strongly believe the first pic was fantastic.
Yes...we know you do...
Anyway, good story.
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That happened to me in the keys twice...
It was the deepest dive we had when we were there, I buddied up and hit the water.
This was probably like my 4th or 5th dive, I had fun, didnt see anything interesting really, but none the less we had fun. Returning to the boat's anchor, I saw the guide, He had a writing tablet and told us to surface. I used the anchor rope to ascend, and noticed about a quarter of the way up there was a lot of slack on the rope. I got about halfway up and noticed I couldnt see the sillouhette of the boat, About 10 feet from the surface I realized there was no boat.
I stuck my head out of the water and there was the boat about 300 yards away!! Me and my buddy waved and they drove over to us. By the time they got to us most of the divers were just floating there.
They had the nerve to ask us why we were so far from the boat!!
The second time it happened it was me and my buddies fault. And we ended up swimming against the current on the surface. Boy was I beat.
Anyway, Good read Animal.
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My last dive was in the Grand Cayman. I think the site was called Hammer Head Hole. Had a nice wreck there too! The only problem I had was the next day. Two 50 foot dives left me with lousy hearing for about a day. Spent several hours pulling anchor rope out of the palms of my hands. No gloves were allowed on the dive, so as to discourage touching the environment. It was a marine park and under protection.
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Is that Ricky Martin?
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Originally posted by 2Slow
My last dive was in the Grand Cayman.
My only dive was there - was a hell of a lot of fun - really enjoyed it. It was my first and only dive - I hope to get back into it someday.
It was a basic dive - no ship wreck - maybe 30-35 feet at most - just admiring the local sea-life.
We had a younger boy, maybe 13 or 14 that they let dive (I understood his father, who was also present, to be certified) who freaked out, spit out his mouth peice and ended up trying to claw his way back to the surface after about 25 feet - needless to say the dive master dragged him down by his leg and stuffed his mouthpeice back in.
Either way, it was a great experience for me - crystal clear water - and what I always loved about Grand Cayman was that the water didnt even taste like salt... big improvement over the Jersey shore... :D
Good show Animal.
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currents can kill.
my worst dive ever.. 0 vis, and I mean zero vis!
could barely see the flashlight (weak dim glow) when held against my face mask.
current so strong you had to be tied down...
why you ask, did I dive there? Job in the Coast Guard.
where: ship yard in Mobile alabama...
had stuff bumping up against me that moved.. was told they were huge catfish.
moral of the story: don't volunteer to be a coast guard diver !
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Cool story Animal. Dives like that are the ones you remember forever. Had a similar experience with strong current. Two of us had to tow the third who lost his fins. Long story short, we never should have dived in such rough water and we were all glad to be alive after that dive. Wish I could say that I learned my lesson from it. ;)
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Good story -- I'm amazed that the dive master let ya'll in the water w/o some serious talkin-to. Very lucky not to lose anyone!
Two suggestions if you are going to do more wreck dives: More knives. I carry one on hip, ankle and chest. Overkill? Wait til you get an arm and tank pinned by invisible steel leader (lots of it on wrecks) and can't reach your (only) knife. You might even want to carry more. Cyalume sticks: attach to 2nd stage -- easier to see buddy when you penetrate the wreck and is good when your flashlight fails (I carry 3, two regular lites and a small LED light)...oh, and carry a whistle on your bc--great for calling those boats at three hundred yards when you're exhausted...sounds like you had a blast tho!
dh
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Serious hit man...I only just had a chance to read the whole thing.
I've never experienced that kind of current diving and that sounds like a terrifying experience. Glad it worked out okay. Way too stay cool and deal with the situation James (Bond) ;)
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Good job keeping your composure Animal.
Be careful around those wrecks. Only go into an overhead environment with someone you know well 'underwater' and have known for no small number of dives.
I was a DSO for several major universities for a few years. As a result of that job experience (and because of where I grew up) I've logged a few thousand dives, the majority of them being at night and/or in 'bad water' (very cold and/or low visibilty and/or strong current).
For a couple of years I'd get the yearly overview/summary of all diving related deaths and serious injuries for all U.S. based certification agencies. #1 cause of tragedies was lack of experience - 'in a situation beyond the experience and/or proficiency of the diver'. A very close second was overhead environments - regardless of experience.
If you live in P.R. and grew up there you're most likely at least 1 part fish (a good thing - good composure underwater more likely than not) but you made a dangerous assumption - your ideas re: tourist divers.
They may have some experience, but a high % of that experience is in 'nice' water (warm, high visibility, etc. - not many people will pay to go on vacation to dive in poor visibility). Also, they dive on vacation (as opposed to for a living and/or every day recreation) - boat dives mostly. Not alot of rough surf entry/exit time (a very high % of diving related deaths take place on entry/exit in rough surf in less than 4' of water - inexperience leads to panic when someone gets hammered by the surf - the # of divers who drown in less than 4' of water with a functioning air supply is heartbreaking), and their physical condition is lacking when it comes to diving related emergencies (I immediately noted your comment about people completely destroyed by the 'against the current ascent').
Alot of 'vacation diving' operations are nearly criminally negligent. Australia is one of the exceptions - if you were going on a wreck dive in Australia, they'd check your logbook to see if you needed a 'babysitter', no matter what type of CCard you were carrying.
Nice work. Don't go in on a wreck again unless you know who you are diving with. Also, no matter how warm the water wear a light suit on all wreck dives probably.
If you're still living in P.R. (I love P.R.), when I get headed home I'm going to use some of my massive accumulation of leave and cruise around having fun for awhile. Odds are I'll wind up in P.R. for at least a few days. We should hook up.
Those people owed Yourself and that Divemaster alot more than a couple of beers. The Captain should have had a more Divemasters on hand (if not a couple of experienced Instructors - the more time you spend teaching the better you are able to judge someone's competency when you have limited time available for judgment) if she knew she had divers of unknown capability diving on a wreck.
How far did You and the Divemaster travel underwater before you found the last group? How did you spot them? What were the visibility and light levels? All I can think is that the last group was lucky beyond belief to be found - not faulting your search ability, just that the ocean is a big place.
Mike/wulfie
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Hey wulfie:
We found the divers about 30 yards from the wreck, in the direction the current was flowing to. They were behind some corals, and it seems the huge profile of the sunken ship prevented the currents from taking them further. The dive master pretty much had a good idea of where they would be. The visibility was excellent as it always is around these areas, and the divers were using bright equipment.
The miracle was not that we found them as they were relatively close to the wreck -- it was that they didnt run out of air.
Now my tale is fairly long but everything happened quite fast, I guess as soon as they jumped into the water, most of the divers were swept away. The ones we found underwater had no idea what had happened, they were just enjoying the dive. Had they known they were in some kind of danger, then it would have been a tragedy for sure, as they would have panicked and spent their air supply faster. Or maybe they would have tried to rush their way up and you know what would happen then.
The reason I was not wearing a wet suit is that I was feeling nauseated from all the puking going around, and the pressure from the suit would have made me feel worse.
Good call on the tourists, and I hadnt though about their experience that way. I guess you are right about most of their dives being nice dives with the help of babysitters. They dont check logbooks around these parts, so as long as you show your card, you can rent a tank and go dive anywhere you please.
My buddy wich I talked about in the story is a very good diver, we have been diving together for more than four years now so we dont even have to comunicate much to know what each other is doing. We can even tell whats going on with each other just by looking at our swimming and movements. He is a big safety freak, so he was very distressed with everything that happened and vowed to never dive with these people again. We usually dive with a highly experienced group and this was our first time with this St. Thomas school.
I dont know how they risk taking tourists to this wreck but they definetly should not. And I'm not going back there unless every single diver on my group I can trust to help me if I am the one in distress.
If you take a trip around these parts - give me a holler. It would be a pleasure to do a few dives with you, I always enjoy diving with the experienced guys. No matter how good I think I am, I always end up learning new tricks and safety lessons.
When it comes to Scuba and Aviation, I much rather learn my lessons from others mistakes and not my own. So if you have a few good tips, let me know so I can learn them and pass them on to my friends.
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Heh Animal - no penetration? Wreck diving without prenetation can be compared to sex without penetration - you're missing a pretty important bit :D.
Plus, must be a wussy dive. What, you're not wearing a dry suit. No double tanks. No decompression. 30 meter visibility and no cold. Come to DK if ya wanna experience REAL wreck diving. It is my biggest passiona nd I can show ya some wrecks that'll make that many hair on your chest stand up :)
Seriously, welcome to the world of wreck diving! Sounds like an excellent first wreck dive - I warn you though. Within two years you'll have specialist training (and I don't mean PADI wreck diver here, I'm talking IANTD or GUE). Then, you'll start spending lots of money on gear. You'll throw out the BCD you own now and replace it with a simpler bladder-harness system. You'll get more and bigger tanks. Suddenly, decompression diving will seem like a good idea. In short, you'll be very short on money if the wreck diving bug bites ya :D.
I have some questions about the dive though - hope ya don't mind answering them?
This was my first big wreck dive, so I was kind of nervous. I was warned that the currents were strong so I decided to take a Nitrox tank, to have that extra oxygen help me fight my way thru it.
Pretty shallow dive then eh? In my experience you get enough oxygen with normal air. Pressure increases, so does o2 levels. I'm usually so lazy that I will not exert myself underwater to such a degree that I am huffing. Did the boat operator not drop you in front of the boat so you'd just slide with the current to the boat? Or did ya want nitrox for swimming around the wreck, or to increase no decompression time?
Titanium knife - check
had one of those. Lost it. Now I have a cheap arse knife that gets replaced every 10th dive on my hip and a small one placed on the harness near my chest. Titaium knives are very flashy and good status symbols, but I just CANNOT afford to lose another one :D.
...not the case with this group.
This is the reason i stay away from dive operators. They HAVE to go by lowest common denominator and adjust the dive accordingly for it to be safe. Sometimes it means you're virtually herded around like sheep, with the inexperienced doing really stupid things, destroying visibility and generally preventing you from having fun. But, sometimes you have no choice but to go with dive operators :/.
It was pitch dark inside, you could only see what you were pointing at with your flashlight, very creepy and cool. I was expecting to find some corpses or treasure, but all I could find was some tires, ropes, and empty beer bottles
That is the only picture I have of the boat inside as all others didn’t come out well.
Ah you did do some penetration. What kind of penetration - PADI standard 'keep sight of the exit at all times'? If not, did ya carry guidelines with ya? Redundant gas and regulators? Penetration without the proper gear is extremely dangerous - about as safe as B.A.S.E jumping.
Going up the current was INSANE. Holding on to the anchor line was hard, I thought all of my equipment would detach from my body and be swept away by the current.
Oh man, I've tried that once. That stuff is toejame hard and extremely tiring. No way they should have put inexperienced divers in the water under those circumstances.
Regarding the rescue: you're absolutely right - that's a life threatening situation right there. The dive operator should be fined and have his licenses revoked. If you read rec.scuba on the usenet you'll find more than one story about people getting lost at sea because of strong currents - and not found again.
Animal, a group from my dive club are going to PR in two weeks time. I couldn't afford it this time around. But there's another trip next time which I will be on. I'll send ya a mail at the time so we can go diving together, eh?
It's a good way to kill someone. Scuba diving accident.
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scuba tards eventually become examples of Darwin's law
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One of my associates here was an underwater welder for many years. He just got back from Bikini Atoll. He saved for years to go and dive there.
I guess they only allow 10-12 people at a time on the island, and they dive the wrecks from the Atomic test of 1946-7?
He had pics of the Saratoga and an Avenger.. cool stuff. I will see if I can get something scanned in here.
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If you are in a kicking current at that depth, and you have to work to do to acomplish what you want to do, Nitrox sure doesn't hurt.
Wreck diving is so dangerous, Animal. I've been a little deep, 120 ft., but to me it becomes actually not fun at that depth if you go inside something. Simple things become emergencies very fast.
I have gone (penetrated) two rooms away from the light. My wife, more adventerous then I, went further, into a room with a large cuda that only wanted to get away from us noisy things.
He kicked real hard past my wife and stirred up mud. He zoomed past me on his way out and bumped my mask, breaking my seal. It was not the end of the world, but we were both blind. My wife panicked, and I could hear her yelling underwater.
We had plenty of air, but we did more intense hugging there in the dark than ever before or since. I will never go inside a wreck, a barge, a ship, nothing, ever again. Aint worth it.
Now if I can get my wife to not spear everything she sees, I will be at equilibrium...
glug glug,
Gunthr.
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Originally posted by Wlfgng
scuba tards eventually become examples of Darwin's law
Jumping out of a perfectly good boat is almost as stupid as jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. :)
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Hey Santa, this is the Caribbean, only newbies wear dry-suits :)
Well seriously, I really dont like wearing my wetsuit unless I'm going under 60 feet. The deepest I registered in this dive was 54 feet and that was when picking up the stranded tourists.
Now I'd love to do some scuba around DK sometime, but it would be more for the experience than to have fun. To tell you the truth I'd be scared as hell.
Originally posted by StSanta
I have some questions about the dive though - hope ya don't mind answering them?
This was my first big wreck dive, so I was kind of nervous. I was warned that the currents were strong so I decided to take a Nitrox tank, to have that extra oxygen help me fight my way thru it.
Pretty shallow dive then eh? In my experience you get enough oxygen with normal air. Pressure increases, so does o2 levels. I'm usually so lazy that I will not exert myself underwater to such a degree that I am huffing. Did the boat operator not drop you in front of the boat so you'd just slide with the current to the boat? Or did ya want nitrox for swimming around the wreck, or to increase no decompression time?
I wanted Nitrox for two reasons. First, it was my first wreck dive and I wanted to stay around for a while and enjoy it. Second, I was told the currents were strong, and Nitrox really does help you make more effort until you are exhausted.
Titanium knife - check
had one of those. Lost it. Now I have a cheap arse knife that gets replaced every 10th dive on my hip and a small one placed on the harness near my chest. Titaium knives are very flashy and good status symbols, but I just CANNOT afford to lose another one :D.
I have a titanium obsession. Titanium watch, titanium everything. I use my knife not just for scuba, but for camping and other stuff. Ive had it for a while now and its still good as new. I love that alloy.
...not the case with this group.
This is the reason i stay away from dive operators. They HAVE to go by lowest common denominator and adjust the dive accordingly for it to be safe. Sometimes it means you're virtually herded around like sheep, with the inexperienced doing really stupid things, destroying visibility and generally preventing you from having fun. But, sometimes you have no choice but to go with dive operators :/.
Tell me about it. I have learned my lesson now.
It was pitch dark inside, you could only see what you were pointing at with your flashlight, very creepy and cool. I was expecting to find some corpses or treasure, but all I could find was some tires, ropes, and empty beer bottles
That is the only picture I have of the boat inside as all others didn’t come out well.
Ah you did do some penetration. What kind of penetration - PADI standard 'keep sight of the exit at all times'? If not, did ya carry guidelines with ya? Redundant gas and regulators? Penetration without the proper gear is extremely dangerous - about as safe as B.A.S.E jumping.
Well then I guess I was kind of stupid here. The only security measure I had was the backup tank I brought with my friend, and two flashlights each. It was pitch dark, but I didnt dare to go deep into the boat, we left 8 glowsticks around the area we entered and we never wondered too far off where we could have gotten lost. Besides, I only had a chance to explore the boat for 10 minutes before I started to wonder where the hell everyone was and went to look for them, and the ordeal began.
Going up the current was INSANE. Holding on to the anchor line was hard, I thought all of my equipment would detach from my body and be swept away by the current.
Oh man, I've tried that once. That stuff is toejame hard and extremely tiring. No way they should have put inexperienced divers in the water under those circumstances.
This is where the Nitrox may have been the difference between making it to the boat or being one of the drifters.
Animal, a group from my dive club are going to PR in two weeks time. I couldn't afford it this time around. But there's another trip next time which I will be on. I'll send ya a mail at the time so we can go diving together, eh?
It's a good way to kill someone. Scuba diving accident.
I'm not gonna be here in two weeks, but if you do make it for the next time, YOU BETTER send me an email. We will do some nice relaxed sightseeing dives, maybe some fishing, and then we'll go and have fun around town.
That is, if you already have a job and can afford coming to America :-P
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Originally posted by Gunthr
If you are in a kicking current at that depth, and you have to work to do to acomplish what you want to do, Nitrox sure doesn't hurt.
Wreck diving is so dangerous, Animal. I've been a little deep, 120 ft., but to me it becomes actually not fun at that depth if you go inside something. Simple things become emergencies very fast.
I have gone (penetrated) two rooms away from the light. My wife, more adventerous then I, went further, into a room with a large cuda that only wanted to get away from us noisy things.
He kicked real hard past my wife and stirred up mud. He zoomed past me on his way out and bumped my mask, breaking my seal. It was not the end of the world, but we were both blind. My wife panicked, and I could hear her yelling underwater.
We had plenty of air, but we did more intense hugging there in the dark than ever before or since. I will never go inside a wreck, a barge, a ship, nothing, ever again. Aint worth it.
Now if I can get my wife to not spear everything she sees, I will be at equilibrium...
glug glug,
Gunthr.
Sounds like a scary experience. Did your wife guide your way back to the surface? I would have been scared toejamless.
I'm still not confident enough as a diver that I will be cool and confident enough when *I* am the one in an emergency, that I can stop and think calmly for a solution, in a situation like that.
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Funked said:
"Jumping out of a perfectly good boat is almost as stupid as jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. "
There ain't such a thing as a perfectly good boat or plane :D.
Why did the skydiver jump outta the plane? The door was open. :D
The dangers are overstated. They're obvious, which is why these sports get a reputation as being dangerous. SPLAT if you hit the ground with bad chute, gurgle if you're trapped and run outta air.
But you can go SPLAT in a number of ways in life - they're just not so obvious.
Penetrating wrecks is the most dangerous thing I do v- and I am acutely aware of the dangers. A clusterdiddly inside a wreck means you're hard pressed to survive. But how can you NOT do such things? It's the spic of life. I become depressed if I can't go skydiving or scuba diving. Life seems bland without meaning, with little purpose except enter the rat race and eventually die.
It might kill me. But life itself is SURE to do the same, so why not have some fun in between birth and death? :D
Gunthr, good example of why penetration is dangerous. I don't go into a wreck unless I got a) a qualified buddy with more than 150 wreck dives on his/her belt b) enough gas. 1/3rd for the penetration, 1/3rd for me in case of emergency and 1/3rd for my buddy. C) redundancy. Extra knives, tanks, regulators and lights. D) guideline. Absolutely necessary.
Been called a whimp for refusing to penetrate with some of my dive buddies, but I will NOT go if I know I can further reduce the risks.
I won't do B.A.S.E jumping either. You just got one chute and a minor error in packing it might see it deploy, twist 180 and then smack you into the mountain. Hell, I'm FOND of my life, unlike those nutters that BASE jump. And they say about me "man, you need to LIVE life. I'd be bored outta my skull if I couldn't .
ANimal, come dive in Norway with me. It'll be much like where you dive (i.e good visibility, plentiful wildlife, good numer of wrecks) except it'll be a bit colder. On dives down to 100 feet you can easily use a wetsuit. You can dive to 140 with a wetsuit too, except then you get cold unless it's made of crushed neoprene. You'll love it - best diving I've ever done has been in Norway. In the fjords they got sheer cliffs dropping thousands of meters straight down. Very humbling experience to be as deep as you can go and know there's a virtually bottomless pit below ya :).
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Wow...
Up here in BC we have sunk some 50s era destroyers in 80ft of water to make reefs out of them. I wouldnt dream of going inside...
very cool story. Man the current can be a squeak! There is one dive site in town called 10 mile point and it is like a moter bike ride you go arround the wall so fast in the current..have to time your exit or you could be walking quite a bit....
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"Sounds like a scary experience. Did your wife guide your way back to the surface? I would have been scared toejamless.
I'm still not confident enough as a diver that I will be cool and confident enough when *I* am the one in an emergency, that I can stop and think calmly for a solution, in a situation like that."
"
Well, it wasn't as bad as it sounds. I just cleared my mask kneeling on the deck and my light was on a lanyard, so it wasn't an actual life threatening situation. My wife was ok, and we weren't far from the outside - just two doors away with no wrong turns possible. Its just that the funny feeling in your stomack when panic is trying to bloom... it was too close, and I don't want to do it again.
Don't have to anyway. Plenty of fun to be had in less than 70' around here, even for spearing fish.
St. Santa - you cold water divers! Anybody can dive in warm water! I did a good bit of diving in the Great Lakes around Michigan, some wrecks at 80 ft, in current, some deep river diving where you fly along the bottom and get picked up a mile down river at a bend in the river, in early spring with dry suits after the ice goes out, and 6 foot tether with your buddy due to low visibility. I did one ice dive - bottom only at twenty feet depth uder the ice to see what it was like. (cool ;)) I remember the burning icey fire around your face and the shock on entry, and trying to get the breathing under control.
I can tell you when I first experienced subtropical waters around 1972, in fact the first time I'd ever been in salt, I knew I had to move here. The life in warm ocean around here makes the cold water that I've been in look sterile. I never come home without food for the table, unless I'm just sightseeing.
Anyway, I feel very lucky being privy to the beauty that exists in
the ocean. I think if you dive, you wind up having a feeling of concern for the environment no matter where you dive.
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Theres a reason those with out wreck and cave certs should stay out of over head inviroments!
Ya did good dude.
Hey Animal you ever go over to the BVI?
Beeen there 5 times ans ST John once.
Love it there.
Ofcourse had to do the RHONE LOL!!
PI Is a great place ( you lucky bugger).
Have Fun Be safe.
Ps Im a PADI divemaster with over 800 dives and I do not ever do deep penetrations.
Like Clint Eastwood said.( a mans got to know his limitations LOL)
:eek: