Scuba Diving

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TPRJones
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Re: Scuba Diving

Post by TPRJones »

TheCatt wrote:Can anyone else just open up an ear muscle and the equalization happens?
I wish I couldn't. I'm on a CPAP for sleep apnea and apparently I do this in my sleep because I wake up every morning with my ears hurting from the pressure differential. Easy to fix once I turn off the machine by opening up again, but it stays sore for awhile.
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Re: Scuba Diving

Post by GORDON »

Our big 2017 is going to be Grand Canyon and stuff, we've been light planning for over a year.

I just learned Lake Mead is a popular scuba spot.

https://www.nps.gov/lake/planyourvisit/scuba.htm

My wife is so thrilled.
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Re: Scuba Diving

Post by GORDON »

"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
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Re: Scuba Diving

Post by GORDON »

The wreck dive off Wilmington was a success, overall. We dove in the ocean. The massive seasickness was a bonus. Will post pics and tell more stories when I get home.
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Re: Scuba Diving

Post by GORDON »

The ocean dive was a big learning experience, and no one died, so I am marking it a "success" in spite of our four major problems:

1. The aforementioned seasickness. Puking right over the side, but we still did a dive.

2. Rough seas. You could still feel the wave surge 20 feet down, to the top of the wreck. The sea life down there was swaying hard. The dive shop actually had 2 charters scheduled that day, and they cancelled the one with the smaller boat due to a coast guard small-craft advisory. Clear blue skies, 12 knot winds, 4 foot swells.

3. Visibility sucked. 10-15 feet of visibility, under the surface. I guess when the waves are coming in from a certain direction it churns shit up, and all you saw of other people at 10 feet was a silhouette. This made a 400 foot shipwreck seem VERY huge. This particular one was actually in 3 big chunks spread over a football field of space, but we couldn't even see the other chunks from the chunk the dive boat was anchored to, and we didn't have a compass or a line, so we stayed on our big chunk. This was fine. Our first time in the ocean, heavy seas, ocean surge, buoyancy issues.... let's not push our luck. Which brings us to...

4. We were too light. The guy at the dive shop.... I suspect he may be new.... gave me all kinds of bad advice on how much weight we needed. I told him we've only dove fresh water, and I then had 12 pounds of weight and the kid had 8, and how much should we adjust for salt? Since salt water is more dense, you need more weight. And at first this guy was telling us we needed less weight, and I, the fucking n00b, had to argue a little bit.... and after a while he consulted with the other guy, and we decided 14 for me and 10 for the kid. And that wasn't enough. We were barely able to submerge with full tanks, and after a little over a half hour we were thinking about coming up (was at that point in our air supply), and when we came up to 20 feet to get our bearings, the shallower water made us even more buoyant and we both popped up to the surface. Not cool, but we couldn't control it... as you use air, your tanks get lighter.

Visibility was so bad that when we started looking for the anchor line, we couldn't find it. We knew it was tied to the bow of the ship, and we were near that, but couldn't see it. Then the kid started popping to the surface, and I tried to stop him but I was having my own issues, and when I saw that in spite of all effots we had gone from 20 feet to 8, I just decided fuck it, let's surface and see where we were. Visibility was so bad that I was surprised when we surfaced 6 feet from the dive boat.

So yeah..... not an optimal dive, could have been calmer water, better visibility, and fewer equipment issues, but as I said, we learned a hell of a lot, and in spite of the hellish seasickness when we were out of the water, I have the kid excited about doing more ocean diving.... "Just be under water as often as we can where we aren't sick." We are thinking about the Florida Keys next summer, and Hawaii the Summer after that.

Here are a few pics. I have more, but apparently I lost my phone ---> PC cable, and can't get them off for a few days until amazon delivers a new one.

Image

Image

Typically colors get washed out of stuff at 50+ feet, due to light waves being absorbed by the water... blues and greens get absorbed last... shit was so murky it was already washed out by 20, here. I have a couple vids with the flashlight as we were peeking into enclosed spaces, and I didn't notice at the time, but when the light flicked across those corals and stuff, all of a sudden *COLOR.* If I'd noticed at the time, I'd have deliberately cast light on more stuff.
Image

Image

And here's a little video. Not smooth, I was always feeling and adjusting for the wave surge, but all four of the problems I talked about are visible in this one video. This is in the first 5 minutes of the dive, and when the kid is above me, that's when we were figuring out we were too light. I can see him trying to dump air out of his BCD that just wasn't there, trying to get heavier.

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Re: Scuba Diving

Post by TheCatt »

Whoa, that's some murky water. (I've never dived anywhere but the Caribbean). Sucks about the seasickness. I got hit once, I was doing great, bobbing in 4 foot swells at the top of the water, waiting to get the boat, I poked my head down to take off my fins and the world just started spinning... I got on the boat, got strapped in, dropped my BCD, and puked. But, had some drink after that and was fine.
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Re: Scuba Diving

Post by GORDON »

In my teens I dove in the Keys, very clear.

The dive shop warned me that visibility may suck, so it was expected. Youtube vids of previous dives on that wreck showed much of the same... maybe not QUITE as bad. But that is where that particular shop PADI certifies peeps, and I wanted a nice, "easy" dive for the kid's first foray into the ocean. Mission accomplished. He'll be that much more impressed by the crystal clear water of the Keys, Caribbean, and Cozumel, when we get there.

I've been on reefs where you had a serious current to fight, and I was a 16 year old track star, then. I didn't want my 10 year old getting swept away.

Funny aside: as sick as we were, as newb as we are, and as young as he was, we were by far one of the better dive teams on the charter. 16 people: one woman was so sick she couldn't gear up at all. One guy had to inflate his "rescue me" flag way off our port bow, I never heard why. One dive team jumped in, didn't grab the trailing rope to pull themselves down to the wreck, and after a while of trying to fight the waves the cap'n had to throw out the rescue ring to pull them in. One of them had also doubled up his o-ring between the tank and regulator, figuring it would work better. He was leaking air like crazy. There was a family, 7 or 8 people, on the second dive one of the pairs went down and came back up within 5 minutes. I didn't pay attention to why. One OLD man came up with the back of his hand gashed where he'd slammed into the coral.

Peeps were snickering at us for puking over the side, but we were fucking experts compared to a lot of them. We had buoyancy issues but not so bad that we were completely fucked like some of these people..
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Re: Scuba Diving

Post by TheCatt »

Holy crap. Certification should mean more. Talk to me when you hit the clearer waters :)
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Re: Scuba Diving

Post by GORDON »

My instructor SAID he cared more about making sure we learned shit instead of just taking the money and looking the other way, but that's what you expect them all to say so I took it with a grain of salt. But then during certification he was kind of a dick about little things, so maybe he's legit. I still don't like him very much. :-)

The problem with the other people on the charter, the ones screwing up, was that they didn't follow instructions, especially the ones who didn't grab the rope when they jumped off the boat. The cap'n was straight-up cussing at them for not following directions.

What is your certification level?
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Re: Scuba Diving

Post by TheCatt »

First level, PADI 60'. Whatever that's called. I wanted to get more, but my wife has no interest.
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Malcolm
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Re: Scuba Diving

Post by Malcolm »

TheCatt wrote:I wanted to get more, but my wife has no interest.
I hear most married men have that problem.
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Re: Scuba Diving

Post by TheCatt »

Malcolm wrote:
TheCatt wrote:I wanted to get more, but my wife has no interest.
I hear most married men have that problem.
Clearly you haven't met my wife... where's that poll I always link to about her? stupid search.
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Re: Scuba Diving

Post by Leisher »

I'd like to dive my in law's lake. Pretty sure it'd be murky though.

I'd be interested to see the spring that feeds the lake, where the different fish are hanging around, and search for my first wedding ring (lost while water skiing).
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Re: Scuba Diving

Post by GORDON »

How deep is it?
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Malcolm
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Re: Scuba Diving

Post by Malcolm »

GORDON wrote:How deep is it?
He's still a free man, isn't he?
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Re: Scuba Diving

Post by Leisher »

Deep Lake map

This map doesn't show the three channels or the hidden creek area. They say it's approx 50ft deep, but I've seen fish finders and talked to folks up there for years who say 60-70. (Over at the end with the muck bottom.)

The ring is somewhere north of that small circular sandbar in the southern middle of the map. It's been 10 or so years since I lost that ring. I wonder how far it has moved and how deep it's buried at this point?

DNR stocks the lake and trout are on the right side. There's also carp, large and small mouthed bass, croppie, lake salmon, pike, rock bass, a few doghead, etc. Peeps setup ice houses on it during the winter and fish the trout big time then. During the summer, it's mostly sport fishing for the bass.
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Re: Scuba Diving

Post by Vince »

Gordo, tell your kid that I am not only impressed with him diving, I was pleased to discover he was willing to carry on the whole "puking while on vacation" without me.
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Re: Scuba Diving

Post by GORDON »

Vince wrote:Gordo, tell your kid that I am not only impressed with him diving, I was pleased to discover he was willing to carry on the whole "puking while on vacation" without me.
I told him and his exact words were, "hashtag epic skillz with a z on the end."
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Re: Scuba Diving

Post by GORDON »

Leisher wrote:Deep Lake map

This map doesn't show the three channels or the hidden creek area. They say it's approx 50ft deep, but I've seen fish finders and talked to folks up there for years who say 60-70. (Over at the end with the muck bottom.)

The ring is somewhere north of that small circular sandbar in the southern middle of the map. It's been 10 or so years since I lost that ring. I wonder how far it has moved and how deep it's buried at this point?

DNR stocks the lake and trout are on the right side. There's also carp, large and small mouthed bass, croppie, lake salmon, pike, rock bass, a few doghead, etc. Peeps setup ice houses on it during the winter and fish the trout big time then. During the summer, it's mostly sport fishing for the bass.
That would actually be doable. Even my kid has been down to 55', NBD. Unless you knew EXACTLY where to look though, I can't imagine we'd have much luck sifting sand for a ring buried a quarter inch under it.

But fuck it, it's an excuse to dive. :-D
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Re: Scuba Diving

Post by TheCatt »

Underwater metal detector may help.
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