weights and 3mm suits

[Woodsmaster]

Well, after looking at the thread, time to put in my two cents.

 

We were, at one time, all new divers. That is an absolute. I was in 1973. I lucked into my original gear for a low price and it was used gear. No BCD's...we used horse collars and backpacks...... I missed using the doublehosed regulators (aka Seahunt). No loss. we used weight belts and a baby turtle 5/16" wetsuit that saw more time on surfboards in California than underwater. I wouldn't dive without a BCD again. They make it so easy.

 

Now onto my comments.

 

If you have not taken an advanced dive class, go read the curriculum.....It isn't that hard to be certified as an advanced diver. Just learning some new skills in some cases and practicing and improving other skills. The designator advanced diver can be misleading to others who do not know your diving ability.

 

Think of some of the areas that PADI sets out for advanced divers to accomplish (pick five):

 

boat diving,

deep diving (over 80 feet.....may be 60 if Jr. Divers are with you),

night diving,

nitrox (EAN),

navigational diving,

bouyancy development,

fish ID

video cameras,

photography,

environmental,

etc.

 

They are areas that you can study, work with your instructor and get finished in one weekend.....not that hard to become an advanced OWD. It is not difficult to become an experienced and safe diver if you work at that as well.

 

Moving up in your skills and training is an important one to accomplish, but it is not necessary to be a good and safe diver. Until you begin working on Rescue diver or higher, your focus should be on improving your own skills and dealing with how you dive and how you deal with yourself in the underwater environment. Get all the safe dives you can. Plan, Plan, Plan. Dive within your own abilities and dive your plan. You will never know when you have something come up that is an "emergency" to a lot of unprepared divers, but is just a "situation" for you if you have planned your dives and have prepared yourself as much as you can to be a safe diver.

 

I have made entries on trips with a new wetsuit. It was a 3mm full suit. I normally use 14 lbs in salt water with a 1mm full, so I increased my weight to 18. No big deal. I was a bit overweight at that point, but my BC has 44 lbs lift so what the hay.....

 

I do agree that if you have the chance to go to the pool, a local lake, or if you have good salt water, to the ocean, and gear up and play with your gear before yu head out on charters and dive trips. My younger brother was just certified in June of this year and he is learning. He asked if he could go with us to the Flower Gardens on July 4 weekend..... Although his instructor was going to be with us, my son and myself (along with 15 other divers) and my brother handled himself quite well in his class and the open water dives he had made, I told him it would not be prudent considering that there may be currents and the shallowest dive of our 11 in three days was 74 feet. He was smart enough to know that it was out of his skill level. When we were diving in the Caribbean in late July of this year, he felt ill after sucking in some salt water and missed the second tank dive in St. Marteen.... I asked him if he felt like he could make the dive, he told me that he just didn't feel good and that he did not want to be a hinderance or danger to anyone else. He dove within his own constraints. No one can make the diving decision for you. It is yours and yours alone. No on made fun of him or ragged him around because of it either. It will happen to you eventually if you dive enough and suck up sea water.

 

Remember one thing....... The biggest cause of dive accidents is diver error or poor judgment by the diver.

 

You just need to be prepared, don't let other divers goad you or embarass you into making dives that you are not ready to make or that you are uncomfortable with attempting. Sit down with your dive partner or take the divemaster to the side and discuss your concerns. If they are professional and do their job right, they will help reassure you about the dive, try to get a different dive profile for you, or they will take extra care of you on the dive. If you still do not feel comfortable with the profile or the dive, sit it out. Don't get into the mode of "...hell, I paid for it and its expensive so I have to make the dive". That will get you or someone that tries to help or save you if you panic hurt.

 

I have quite a few dives..... We didn't even log them when I started. We kept little spiral notebooks for our weights, depths, and time in the water/air consumption...... The old j-valve tanks were the staple of the day.

 

I always have my regulators annualed or worked on if they are out of tweak in the slightest. That is your life line to your air supply. However, even doing that, this year I have had my Oceanic Zeta run away at 70 feet at the start of a dive. I did not panic. I tried to get it to stop, it wouldn't, I wrote a note on my slate to my dive buddy and paired him with another diver that I knew, and I used my octopus to surface normally. I had my back up regulator (a TUSA) run away on entry for the night dive that same day, turned it off, got back on the boat, swapped tanks, reentered and it ran away again....swam back to the ladder, got out and decided that I wasn't supposed to make that dive on Stetson Bank. Everyone else was in the water and already down and diving. I sat on the boat and relaxed.

 

I have had the opportunity to help distressed divers, other divers with equipment failure, and just plain old tired divers. While I won't put myself in danger (to where I jeapordize my own safety - except for my children) to help another diver, I am not personnaly offended by someone that has equipment problems such as weighting issues as I have been there myself. If you dive enough, it will happen to you. I have a tendency to overweight in an unknown dive location because if I get a strong current and there is a hard bottom, I want to be able to descend pretty quickly. I also know when to flare out and to add air in my BCD to halt my descent and not trim the coral.

 

The more time you get in the water, the more comfortable you should become, but I have seen experienced divers make some pretty stupid choices in diving and take some chances that I would never contemplate, as it is recreation and they did potentially place themselves and others in danger.

 

I have seen spearfishermen descend to 150 chasing a big ling. I have seen some of them refuse to let go of a spear gun when the big fish was dragging them below 130-150 feet.

 

Pay attention to your own instincts and training. If you do not have a computer, dive the tables, don't dive someone else's computer. If you are pushing the envelope and learning your technique in a sloppy manner, you will eventually make a mistake that will get you or someone that is diving with you hurt.

 

Take only your memories (now available in digital format), leave only your bubbles. Have a great dive.

[Chevdiver]

Wow... awesome diving today. Pt. Lobos was incredible. Surface like glass, vis at 35+. Water temp 54. we dove the middle reef down to 60 feet then followed the reef back in and up to 30ft. surfaced after 3 minute safety stop. Everything was perfect and we new feel ready for the cruise and diving with Alison. I heard from another diver yesterday that he got stung a lot by thimble jellies in Coz so looks like the 3 mil's we come in handy.

[starsjohn]

Chevdiver,

 

Are you wearing a dry suit in that cold water? I went diving in Alaska at that water temp in a 7 mil suit and was a bit cold.

 

Wanted to do a shore dive in Laguna Beach, So Cal, but the red tide and jelly fish are in. The record for one lifeguard was 1800 jelly fish sting treatments on the tourists.

 

Getting ready for a month on the Tahitian Princess and lots of diving.

[jetskier]

ChevDiver

Tell Alison Dave and Michelle Thomas says hello and that we will see her on Sept 6th and again in Nov. She is a great person to dive with. Sort of like a mother hen looking after her chicks.

Dave

[cruzegirl]

Lot's of good info. Woodmaster....... love hearing stories from other people.... Let's us all know we have been in the same boat at some point/time....lol..

I did my last night dive for my adv. class last saturday... And chevdiver, I thought of you and your wife the whole time....lol.. the surface wasn't that rough but these huge, big rolling waves.... But so much to see at night..... And this time I exited vertically.....But also practiced the crawling.... Just in case... lol.......

Well it looks like for Hawaii I'm only going to be able to take my regulator/computer..... It's 3 girls sharing a cruise.... I don't think I'll have enough room for my gear and then to rinse/dry.....ugh.... So if I rent a BC from the dive shop they'll help me with a weight check right? I've used them before in class...

[Chevdiver]

I can't see why they wouldn't be more than willing to help you out. Might be a good idea to take a few extra pounds with you to the dive site. Better to have it and not need it than to be too light and have to stuff your pockets with rocks. Hope you have a wonderful time in Hawaii.

[Chevdiver]

We dive with 7mm two piece suits, 7mm hoods, 5mm gloves and boots. we were down about 40 minutes and were just starting to get cold. we did see a bunch of jellyfish and did our best to avoid them. If you ever get up to the Monterey area in Northern California, I would highly recommend scheduling in a dive stop at Point Lobos State Reserve. You need reservations since they only allow 15 dive teams per day. you can find them by searching for Point Lobos State Reserve on Google.

[Chevdiver]

Hey Dave, Unfortunately Alison will be on vacation the day we are there. we will be diving with Carlos and Chucho. I will bring cookies from the ship and I am sure we will have a great time anyway.

 

Ed

[jetskier]

Ed,

Alison was picking the other day wondering who started the "bring her cookies to ensure a good dive" thing. She thought it was Kathy and Alan but I see in another post that John is doing it also. Not to jinx us, we are placing a special order before we leave ship on Sept 6th.

Dave

[Chevdiver]

Since we don't dive until Thursday, I will have pretty much all week to graze and collect for our trip. There are two more divers from the Explorer joining us so Chucho and Carlos will have a nice supply to take home with them.

 

I think it is a cool tradition. The CC divers we will become known as the cookie divers.

 

Hard to believe that this time next week we will be getting ready for our first formal night. I can't believe it is less than a week away......