Only one pic at the surface. We didn't think conditions were good enough to
take the camera.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sfldir/HollywoodBeachDiveAndClamBake
I arrived at Johnson Street on Hollywood Beach to meet Lee and Carmen.
We were there early enough to get good parking. On our site check, we
saw conditions were going to be a little challenging. There were some
little waves about 1-2' and wind. Not rough enough for
whitecaps/surfing but you could tell viz was going to be sketchy. We
planned to try it for 10 mins and if viz didn't clear up we would
thumb the dive. My goal for this dive was a gear check since I was
diving a AL backplate with a new harness and weight belt instead of a
SS plate, a canister light and my very own standard AL 80 instead of
the borrowed neutral 80. I figured out that I would need a 4lb belt
after making these changes but only one way to find out.
About 50% of my first 2 years of diving took place on Hollywood beach.
I asked to lead the dive/take the flag since the others had not been
there plus I wanted the task loading. Task loading for me at this
point is key as I build up my awareness for more advanced dives and
also training/guiding. I did ask the team to double check my NAV and
stop me if they saw something different than the plan.
We would start by going E off Johnson past the reefline and then SE to
find the rock pile. Out to the end and then back to the reef. Lee led
us through GUE EDGE as we made our way to the water. We had a bouncy
surface swim through the swells and started the dive in about 5' of
viz. We stayed almost shoulder to shoulder for this first part of the
dive as we swam out east in search for better viz. At 5 mins it had
not improved much and we started seeing reef/fishies. I figured I
would give it 5 more mins before thumbing it and that's all it took
because the further east we went it cleared up nicely to about 25'
with little to no current and the surge was minimal to none at the
deepest section (max depth 26')
At 20 mins we reached the concrete blankets just past the rockpile and
headed East to the end. Lot's of things to see here and we dodged
about 4 jelly fish that were in open water. I am glad that I looked
up otherwise I would have been wearing it like a hat. It's time to go
hood shopping because that would not have been fun. At the end of the
blanket, Lee spotted a Guitar Fish (I called it a Skate).
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Descript/AtlanticGFish/AtlanticGFish.html
We headed back W past the Rock Pile and the viz started to drop and
the surge picked up as we got closer to shore. We finished up the
Rock pile and back on the Reef we were side by side again in 5' viz
and it was getting worse. I pulled out the wet notes and wrote "touch
contact" hoping my team would know what it meant. I figured Lee would
since he had cavern training and it turns out that Carmen figured it
out from my note. Knowing that our team was locked in, I was able to
navigate back to the beach with very limited viz to about 5'. The
surge caused the bottom to stir up and even though we were inches from
the sand, it might as well had been 100' because it was disorienting
in between each surge when you lost sight of the bottom. After a
couple of those and seeing we were at 5' I thumbed the dive.
At the end of the dive, we talked about needing to review
communication prior to the dive. It was great that we figured out
touch contact from wetnotes but ideally we should have reviewed it
before hand since we knew viz could be bad. I certainly would like to
keep it as a Standard Practice when the viz goes bad.
Good viz...we loosen up. Bad Viz...we tighten up. No Viz...touch
contact. No need for notes...if you can't see grab the leader :)
We also had an entertaining talk about communicating gas supply. I
know some folks like to flash "5,5,5,5,2" to indicate 2200 psi. Others
will show one number for thousands and a second number for hundreds
(Straight or Horizontal for 1-5 or 6-9).
My favorite is "I'll show you mine and you show me yours" That way
there's no misscommunication and we clearly see how much gas each of
us has. I found this works well from OW students to Cave 2 level
dives with Stages.
Anyone remember the Cindy Crawford Pepsi commercial?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcroQsUN60s
As we walked out of the water looking for a place to rinse, Carmen
leaned her head back and used a Jet fit to rinse off. Lee and I both
looked at each other and I felt just like the kids in this commercial.
Wow...look at that jet fin use!
We walked around the clam bake and grabbed a bite to eat. This was a
pretty nice event.
Hey Carmen, You don't suck! This was a pretty challenging dive and
we worked very good as a team through the good parts and the bad. It
was nice to dive with another SFL-DIR member who is also using a
single tank.
Lee, I like your Dive and Eat plans lets do more of them. Thanks for
being a great back up brain and an extra set of eyes out there. Good
job on recruiting.
William
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Meet-Swim-Dive West Palm Beach Sep 6 2008
The Meet-Swim-Dive in West Palm Beach was very successful. Marc, Lee
and I met at the Aquatic Complex
(http://www.pbgfl.com/resident/aquatic/aquatic.asp). Each of us swam
and exceeded our targets. We then tried the breath hold and went
further than the target of 60', also. The facilities were very nice
and we only waited about 10 mins for lanes to clear.
A short 20 mins later, we showed up to Blue Heron bridge and met with
Henry and Keat to set up our gear for review. This walk through of our
gear with the team was very helpful to help us get on the same page
and point out any differences between the set ups. Since I am just
getting back into diving and still acquiring gear, I had the most
different rig than the rest of the team. Yoke reg/K-valve valve was
the biggest difference and that's my first priority to change and it
will be happening very soon now that I found some tanks. I also see a
doubles set up in my near future, too.
We also talked a about back up hose routing for doubles and necklace
type (Permanent 1 zip tie, 2 zipties or Not Permanent). We walked
through stage deployment and shared our versions of training and there
are some differences there, too. The 45 mins or so walking through
this stuff was excellent and much better to figure out above the water
to get on the same page.
The teams split up by equipment set up. Team1: (DBL AL80s and 40
stage)Henry, Marc and Lee. Team 2: (No stages) Keat and William We
agreed to start the dive with some drills and shoot video. Team 1
worked on air shares and switching to stages. Team 2 worked on air
share and lift bag deployment. The viz was not ideal but we were able
to get some video of each diver doing a skill. (I am happy to shoot
video of anyone that wants it.) Once the skills were complete we
started our dive with a plan to do one more drill while on the dive.
Keat and I were pretty close for most of the dive because the viz was
about 20-25' with a green haze. Frakenlight died about 20 mins into
the dive and I got to use my brand new LED Scout. (That's more
practice on switching to back up). At one point Keat went over some
of the wreckage and I went around. When I turned to see him about 20'
away looking in a hole checking out the critters, I wondered if I
could make it to him on one breath. I took out my reg and started
swimming over flashing the emergency signal. About 5' away Keat saw
the flashing and had the reg ready for me. I had pretty much exhaled
all of my gas by that time and used the purge button plus dropped to
the bottom for a second before I could inhale and regain my buoyancy.
Maybe I should change from exhaling "Ahhhh." to "Eeeeeeeee" for this
drill ïŠ
We got into position and started swimming back towards the bridge and
I heard Frakenlight and clips banging around on my harness. It
happened a couple of times and I thought it was Keat readjust his grip
on my arm or fiddling around with something. We continued to swim and
I felt Keat making us ascend a couple of feet but thought it was way
too early since we had plenty of sand before having to go up and over
the wreckage. I continued to swim until I felt it again and finally
turned to see what the fuss was all about and that's when I saw a hook
and weight getting reeled up. I signaled line to Keat and thought he
saw it, too. The banging and ascending was because Frakenlight had
been hooked while it was stowed. Not sure how it managed to get in
between us because we were in touch-contact doing an air share. Later
I would find out the Keat was just following me up thinking that I
wanted to ascend and when I have the signal for line he didn't see the
line but knew something was wrong when I looked back. For future
communication the better signal should be entanglement or
Hold/entanglement.
The rest of the dive only had one more air share without any fishing
hooks this time. I also swapped to my back up mask and had a good
reminder that I need to defog both masks before each dive. We
wrapped up the dive with some trash clean up and made our way back to
the entry point to chat about the dive and wait for the other team.
We wrapped up the SFL-DIR Meet-Swim-Dive with a group photo.
Check out the Pics and Videos. I have added them to the site.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sfldir/MeetSwimDiveSep2008
(Please let me know if
this works correctly for you. I am being prompted to enter my Google
user id and pass but I think it's only affecting me because I have
multiple accounts open and about 6 windows both in IE and Firefox)
Feedback on the videos is encouraged…please feel free to post helpful
hints or let us know if you are doing it differently.
Now that we have completed this in West Palm Beach, I'd like to start
promoting a SFL-DIR Meet-Swim-Dive for next month that will be an open
invitation for anyone to join. Sunday Oct 5th has a high tide of
12:57 PM which should work pretty similar to this one.
Anyone have a conflict with that Date?
I like the idea of every 3 months since it will give us flexibility
for the holidays and tides. Plus we can set up team dives in between
Meets.
William
and I met at the Aquatic Complex
(http://www.pbgfl.com/resident/aquatic/aquatic.asp). Each of us swam
and exceeded our targets. We then tried the breath hold and went
further than the target of 60', also. The facilities were very nice
and we only waited about 10 mins for lanes to clear.
A short 20 mins later, we showed up to Blue Heron bridge and met with
Henry and Keat to set up our gear for review. This walk through of our
gear with the team was very helpful to help us get on the same page
and point out any differences between the set ups. Since I am just
getting back into diving and still acquiring gear, I had the most
different rig than the rest of the team. Yoke reg/K-valve valve was
the biggest difference and that's my first priority to change and it
will be happening very soon now that I found some tanks. I also see a
doubles set up in my near future, too.
We also talked a about back up hose routing for doubles and necklace
type (Permanent 1 zip tie, 2 zipties or Not Permanent). We walked
through stage deployment and shared our versions of training and there
are some differences there, too. The 45 mins or so walking through
this stuff was excellent and much better to figure out above the water
to get on the same page.
The teams split up by equipment set up. Team1: (DBL AL80s and 40
stage)Henry, Marc and Lee. Team 2: (No stages) Keat and William We
agreed to start the dive with some drills and shoot video. Team 1
worked on air shares and switching to stages. Team 2 worked on air
share and lift bag deployment. The viz was not ideal but we were able
to get some video of each diver doing a skill. (I am happy to shoot
video of anyone that wants it.) Once the skills were complete we
started our dive with a plan to do one more drill while on the dive.
Keat and I were pretty close for most of the dive because the viz was
about 20-25' with a green haze. Frakenlight died about 20 mins into
the dive and I got to use my brand new LED Scout. (That's more
practice on switching to back up). At one point Keat went over some
of the wreckage and I went around. When I turned to see him about 20'
away looking in a hole checking out the critters, I wondered if I
could make it to him on one breath. I took out my reg and started
swimming over flashing the emergency signal. About 5' away Keat saw
the flashing and had the reg ready for me. I had pretty much exhaled
all of my gas by that time and used the purge button plus dropped to
the bottom for a second before I could inhale and regain my buoyancy.
Maybe I should change from exhaling "Ahhhh." to "Eeeeeeeee" for this
drill ïŠ
We got into position and started swimming back towards the bridge and
I heard Frakenlight and clips banging around on my harness. It
happened a couple of times and I thought it was Keat readjust his grip
on my arm or fiddling around with something. We continued to swim and
I felt Keat making us ascend a couple of feet but thought it was way
too early since we had plenty of sand before having to go up and over
the wreckage. I continued to swim until I felt it again and finally
turned to see what the fuss was all about and that's when I saw a hook
and weight getting reeled up. I signaled line to Keat and thought he
saw it, too. The banging and ascending was because Frakenlight had
been hooked while it was stowed. Not sure how it managed to get in
between us because we were in touch-contact doing an air share. Later
I would find out the Keat was just following me up thinking that I
wanted to ascend and when I have the signal for line he didn't see the
line but knew something was wrong when I looked back. For future
communication the better signal should be entanglement or
Hold/entanglement.
The rest of the dive only had one more air share without any fishing
hooks this time. I also swapped to my back up mask and had a good
reminder that I need to defog both masks before each dive. We
wrapped up the dive with some trash clean up and made our way back to
the entry point to chat about the dive and wait for the other team.
We wrapped up the SFL-DIR Meet-Swim-Dive with a group photo.
Check out the Pics and Videos. I have added them to the site.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sfldir/MeetSwimDiveSep2008
(Please let me know if
this works correctly for you. I am being prompted to enter my Google
user id and pass but I think it's only affecting me because I have
multiple accounts open and about 6 windows both in IE and Firefox)
Feedback on the videos is encouraged…please feel free to post helpful
hints or let us know if you are doing it differently.
Now that we have completed this in West Palm Beach, I'd like to start
promoting a SFL-DIR Meet-Swim-Dive for next month that will be an open
invitation for anyone to join. Sunday Oct 5th has a high tide of
12:57 PM which should work pretty similar to this one.
Anyone have a conflict with that Date?
I like the idea of every 3 months since it will give us flexibility
for the holidays and tides. Plus we can set up team dives in between
Meets.
William
Blue Heron Dive - Aug 31st 2008
Sunday morning started with a radar check and it looked like we would
be able to dive in between storms. Lee decided to skip it and I don't
blame him because the Radar showed Miami was getting pretty beat up.
I arrived to meet up with Marc, Keat and Henry. The weather was
actually nicer than the Saturday. I also found out that Bill and
Susan were showing up and gave them a quick call to see where they
were at since we were gearing up. They had flags and buddies so we
went ahead and planned our dives with out them.
I made adjustments to the harness since it was pretty loose the
previous day. I thought my last dives were with a dry suit but
actually it was back when I gained a lot of weight 2 years ago. (Joan
and I started Weight Watchers in Jan 09 and so far I lost 40lbs! down
from 200 to 160 which is my Army Basic training weight.) Also Marc let
me borrow a 35W HID Frankenstein canister light and I need to add that
to the rig. Today I would also be taking my camera housing which I
had dropped and cracked part of the frame. I didn't think it would
affect the integrity of the seal but better to test before having to
replace the camera, AGAIN.
The group had 2 photographers and we decided to team up 1 photographer
per team. Team 1:Marc and Keat. Team 2:Henry and William. We planned
on some short dives since some were diving the same tanks as the
previous day. This worked out great for me since these were still
shake down dives testing equipment plus diving with photographers
usually means they'll stop to point out stuff that I would normally
miss. We went through GUE EDGE planning part at the bench and
finished up in the waist deep water.
As soon as I went under, I immediately felt very comfortable with
buoyancy, trim, balance, etc. Adjusting the rig to properly fit made
a huge difference and I was smiling right from the start. Henry led
down to tie off the flag and as I watched, I would see Fraken-HIDlight
start to flicker. I gave Henry the Light is F*CK#D signal (point at
light, give middle finger and mouth the word through the regulator).
I deployed the back up scout and turned off/stowed the dead light.
Henry saw the yellow old style scout and handed me the new LED scout
light. I couldn't believe the difference. I put away the yellow
light and continued to dive with the LED knowing that I was going to
buy one. Once we went under the bridge, I started to think a pair of
these LEDs would work great for Joan and I as Primary lights until we
save up from some HID canister lights. I was really impressed with
it. (Actually, I am on my way to buy one at Jupiter Dive Center right
after sending this report)
Today's dive certainly felt like an extension of yesterdays. Henry is
a great team member with excellent communication and team awareness.
We swam around stopping to look at all sorts of crevices for some
pictures and I was able to enjoy peeking into stuff I would normally
swim right over. About half way through the dive, I wanted to switch
to a back up mask that Marc let me try because it was very low
profile. The switch went well (I didn't surface or hit bottom) but
the mask was a little tight around the nose. It was ok for the last
15 mins of the dive and in case of emergency but i'll stick with my
current back up which is a little bigger.
Henry and I continued into the shallow areas and surfaced to chat
about the dive and wait for the rest of the group. That's when I felt
some rubbing/grabbing on my legs and it was Bill Barnes coming to say
hello. How did he recognize my butt after so many years? I probably
don't know :) Later on the surface I also got to see Susan and
their Big Truck...wow that thing is huge.
The dive today confirmed that I am back and ready to go shopping for
new toys. Hope to meet the rest of the SFL-DIR group for a dive soon.
I have been very spoiled by some excellent team diving with Keat, Lee
and Henry over the last 2 days and looking forward to doing some more.
I also talked with Marc about kick starting SFL-DIR monthly meets to
meet the other members and also invite folks that are interested in
joining.
Dive soon,
William
P.S. Camera housing had no leaks and I hope to take it out on the next
coupe of dives. I like to shoot pics and video of divers which will
be a great tool for feedback after dives on things like "Dead Primary
light" or "Switch to Back up Mask" like I did today.
be able to dive in between storms. Lee decided to skip it and I don't
blame him because the Radar showed Miami was getting pretty beat up.
I arrived to meet up with Marc, Keat and Henry. The weather was
actually nicer than the Saturday. I also found out that Bill and
Susan were showing up and gave them a quick call to see where they
were at since we were gearing up. They had flags and buddies so we
went ahead and planned our dives with out them.
I made adjustments to the harness since it was pretty loose the
previous day. I thought my last dives were with a dry suit but
actually it was back when I gained a lot of weight 2 years ago. (Joan
and I started Weight Watchers in Jan 09 and so far I lost 40lbs! down
from 200 to 160 which is my Army Basic training weight.) Also Marc let
me borrow a 35W HID Frankenstein canister light and I need to add that
to the rig. Today I would also be taking my camera housing which I
had dropped and cracked part of the frame. I didn't think it would
affect the integrity of the seal but better to test before having to
replace the camera, AGAIN.
The group had 2 photographers and we decided to team up 1 photographer
per team. Team 1:Marc and Keat. Team 2:Henry and William. We planned
on some short dives since some were diving the same tanks as the
previous day. This worked out great for me since these were still
shake down dives testing equipment plus diving with photographers
usually means they'll stop to point out stuff that I would normally
miss. We went through GUE EDGE planning part at the bench and
finished up in the waist deep water.
As soon as I went under, I immediately felt very comfortable with
buoyancy, trim, balance, etc. Adjusting the rig to properly fit made
a huge difference and I was smiling right from the start. Henry led
down to tie off the flag and as I watched, I would see Fraken-HIDlight
start to flicker. I gave Henry the Light is F*CK#D signal (point at
light, give middle finger and mouth the word through the regulator).
I deployed the back up scout and turned off/stowed the dead light.
Henry saw the yellow old style scout and handed me the new LED scout
light. I couldn't believe the difference. I put away the yellow
light and continued to dive with the LED knowing that I was going to
buy one. Once we went under the bridge, I started to think a pair of
these LEDs would work great for Joan and I as Primary lights until we
save up from some HID canister lights. I was really impressed with
it. (Actually, I am on my way to buy one at Jupiter Dive Center right
after sending this report)
Today's dive certainly felt like an extension of yesterdays. Henry is
a great team member with excellent communication and team awareness.
We swam around stopping to look at all sorts of crevices for some
pictures and I was able to enjoy peeking into stuff I would normally
swim right over. About half way through the dive, I wanted to switch
to a back up mask that Marc let me try because it was very low
profile. The switch went well (I didn't surface or hit bottom) but
the mask was a little tight around the nose. It was ok for the last
15 mins of the dive and in case of emergency but i'll stick with my
current back up which is a little bigger.
Henry and I continued into the shallow areas and surfaced to chat
about the dive and wait for the rest of the group. That's when I felt
some rubbing/grabbing on my legs and it was Bill Barnes coming to say
hello. How did he recognize my butt after so many years? I probably
don't know :) Later on the surface I also got to see Susan and
their Big Truck...wow that thing is huge.
The dive today confirmed that I am back and ready to go shopping for
new toys. Hope to meet the rest of the SFL-DIR group for a dive soon.
I have been very spoiled by some excellent team diving with Keat, Lee
and Henry over the last 2 days and looking forward to doing some more.
I also talked with Marc about kick starting SFL-DIR monthly meets to
meet the other members and also invite folks that are interested in
joining.
Dive soon,
William
P.S. Camera housing had no leaks and I hope to take it out on the next
coupe of dives. I like to shoot pics and video of divers which will
be a great tool for feedback after dives on things like "Dead Primary
light" or "Switch to Back up Mask" like I did today.
Blue Heron Dive - Aug 30th 2008
Thanks again for the great intro back into diving today. It was good
to meet Marc, Keat, Lee and Henry from SFL-DIR along with a group of
friendly divers that Marc invited to join.
Driving down I could see plenty of lightning in the direction of Blue
Heron bridge and I was happy to see that it was blowing away. A
combination of the clouds and early morning made this seem like it
would be a night dive which would have been tough on a little scout
light (non-LED).
I arrived to meet Marc and Keat who arrived first and were already
looking up radar info on the storm but by the time we figured out how
to view it on the cell phones it was already blowing away. The rest
of the group started to show up and we decided to go for it since most
of the black clouds were now in the distance and heading away from us.
We geared up and made our way towards the shallow water on the east
bridge. The team walked me through Equipment checks (GUE EDGE) and I
was playing catch up to make sure my gear set up matched theirs. I
moved the back up mask from the left pocket to the right (Won't be
able to do that with a drysuit since I still have the flat pocket on
there for wetnotes only) and mentioned to the team that I did not have
my lift bag and spool on this dive because I was hoping to keep it to
an extended gear check without much task loading (some people might
call that a "fun" dive).
As we were getting ready to enter after doing the checks I asked what
was GUE EDGE because I didn't realize that's what we had just done.
These guys were great to take a second to explain that's what we just
did and then started to mention what it stood for.
I'll need to update my wetnotes from SADDDD to GUE EDGE
http://www.rueg.org/diving%20articles/gue%20edge.htm
During, "U...Unified Team". I looked around and couldn't see
Henry....so that's where we stopped and I thumbed the dive in less
than 4' of water. Since I was the only one wearing singles, I
volunteered to walk back to the car and yell a bit. HENRY!!! People
setting up pointed to the water and said he was already in. I went
back to the rest of the group and we started a lost diver drill. Marc
had a scooter and would make a run to the dive flags to track him
down. Keat, Lee and I walked over to the other bridge keeping an eye
out for Henry. Marc popped up to tell us he found the flag on the
other side and would go dive with him. Later we clarified the mix
up when we saw Henry at the end of the dive.
Henry...I would start a lost diver drill in McD's if you went to the
bathroom without a buddy. I tend to flip out pretty easily :)
Keat, Lee and I agreed to dive as a 3 person team with Keat in the
lead with the camera, Lee as the flagman and I would stick right next
to Keat since I did not have a canister light only a Scout back up
light. The dive started pretty good and I could feel the current from
the rising tide which made it a little tough to stay in place but gave
me some reverse kick practice. I could tell that I was breathing
heavy and working to stay in position while maneuvering around the
pilings. It took me a good 20 mins to get comfortable and shake off
the rust. Once we were done at the bridge and headed out the sand the
current had stopped and we had more daylight instead of using lights
to see under the bridge and the rust had been shaken off. I really
started to enjoy the dive at that point and my focus went from working
to enjoying.
Keat was working that camera like a pro. I hope he got some good
pictures because that was a lot more than my point and shoot (many
times) technique. Lee and I were glad to see him with a camera cuz it
gave us a chance to catch up. I couldn't figure out how he was moving
some much quicker when I had the single tank set up...I guess I need
to keep working the frog kick to get more power out of it.
We wrapped up the dive and hung out at the surface for a bit to chat
and then put the gear away. I had to run down to Miami to pick up
family at noon and could not make it to the after party for some food.
Overall, a very good intro back into diving and I am looking forward
to diving with Keat and Lee as a team again. These guys made me feel
very comfortable diving as a team with them.
I'll see ya next time...let's see what the weather brings these next
couple of days.
Dive soon,
William
to meet Marc, Keat, Lee and Henry from SFL-DIR along with a group of
friendly divers that Marc invited to join.
Driving down I could see plenty of lightning in the direction of Blue
Heron bridge and I was happy to see that it was blowing away. A
combination of the clouds and early morning made this seem like it
would be a night dive which would have been tough on a little scout
light (non-LED).
I arrived to meet Marc and Keat who arrived first and were already
looking up radar info on the storm but by the time we figured out how
to view it on the cell phones it was already blowing away. The rest
of the group started to show up and we decided to go for it since most
of the black clouds were now in the distance and heading away from us.
We geared up and made our way towards the shallow water on the east
bridge. The team walked me through Equipment checks (GUE EDGE) and I
was playing catch up to make sure my gear set up matched theirs. I
moved the back up mask from the left pocket to the right (Won't be
able to do that with a drysuit since I still have the flat pocket on
there for wetnotes only) and mentioned to the team that I did not have
my lift bag and spool on this dive because I was hoping to keep it to
an extended gear check without much task loading (some people might
call that a "fun" dive).
As we were getting ready to enter after doing the checks I asked what
was GUE EDGE because I didn't realize that's what we had just done.
These guys were great to take a second to explain that's what we just
did and then started to mention what it stood for.
I'll need to update my wetnotes from SADDDD to GUE EDGE
http://www.rueg.org/diving%20articles/gue%20edge.htm
During, "U...Unified Team". I looked around and couldn't see
Henry....so that's where we stopped and I thumbed the dive in less
than 4' of water. Since I was the only one wearing singles, I
volunteered to walk back to the car and yell a bit. HENRY!!! People
setting up pointed to the water and said he was already in. I went
back to the rest of the group and we started a lost diver drill. Marc
had a scooter and would make a run to the dive flags to track him
down. Keat, Lee and I walked over to the other bridge keeping an eye
out for Henry. Marc popped up to tell us he found the flag on the
other side and would go dive with him. Later we clarified the mix
up when we saw Henry at the end of the dive.
Henry...I would start a lost diver drill in McD's if you went to the
bathroom without a buddy. I tend to flip out pretty easily :)
Keat, Lee and I agreed to dive as a 3 person team with Keat in the
lead with the camera, Lee as the flagman and I would stick right next
to Keat since I did not have a canister light only a Scout back up
light. The dive started pretty good and I could feel the current from
the rising tide which made it a little tough to stay in place but gave
me some reverse kick practice. I could tell that I was breathing
heavy and working to stay in position while maneuvering around the
pilings. It took me a good 20 mins to get comfortable and shake off
the rust. Once we were done at the bridge and headed out the sand the
current had stopped and we had more daylight instead of using lights
to see under the bridge and the rust had been shaken off. I really
started to enjoy the dive at that point and my focus went from working
to enjoying.
Keat was working that camera like a pro. I hope he got some good
pictures because that was a lot more than my point and shoot (many
times) technique. Lee and I were glad to see him with a camera cuz it
gave us a chance to catch up. I couldn't figure out how he was moving
some much quicker when I had the single tank set up...I guess I need
to keep working the frog kick to get more power out of it.
We wrapped up the dive and hung out at the surface for a bit to chat
and then put the gear away. I had to run down to Miami to pick up
family at noon and could not make it to the after party for some food.
Overall, a very good intro back into diving and I am looking forward
to diving with Keat and Lee as a team again. These guys made me feel
very comfortable diving as a team with them.
I'll see ya next time...let's see what the weather brings these next
couple of days.
Dive soon,
William
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