 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
From Jess Zellers . . .
Size does matter!! A whole lot. Yes, you need to know what you're doing with it. But if it's bigger you can do it longer and that's always enjoyable. Using Kulp's 120 Sat led to some great diving, what did you think I was talking about with the size stuff..... this is a dive report, dirty minded divers! Saturday Greg Kulp and I hit Wabank. Bryan Palmer and the Rock showed up before we got in. As the day went on and the weather got better, drier and warmer more people started showing up.... nawnawnw. Weather shouldn't be a factor in weither you go diving, just remember it's not raining once you're under. Kulp and I had planned to do Ms Peaches, sailboat and the loop to the right from there, doing a good 90mins (for anyone looking at tables, yes we profiled). The bottom time was close, but the nav deveated a just a little. Viz is awesome right now, at Wabank at Myerstown. Get out and dive before the alge blooms... and before ALL the classes start with checkouts.
And Tom Pritchard’s Version . . .
Thursday nights at Willow are slowly getting back to normal, but we're still a little out of whack on the food thing. With the exception of Rich Root's subs, no none brought food, but hot food is on the menu for this week. So bring something. The star of the evening was Jay Bell's new dive trailer, which he converted from a pop-up camper. It looks like George Heck's trailer, but it has more - err - personality. Good job Jay! If anyone finds a yellow-handled wrench near the platform, it belongs to Jay, but don't bring it back. He almost blew his rotator cuff throwing it in. Jay, for your next tool throw, heave it like a grenade, or as Jose Mesa would call it, a fast ball. Jess and I made a foray to the outhouse - and then we went diving. Or was it the other way around? Yes, it was. We made a 69 minutes round trip from the lobster shack to the outhouse through viz that ranged from 5-15 feet. Great dive but we didn't see many fish! Dave Balley's old but bright truck will soon join the other metallic litter in the quarry, so viz (if not good taste) should be good in its vicinity. If memory serves, Anaerobic Andy Price did an 80 minute dive (with Dave Bally?) with an aluminum 80 and came back with 1000 psi - or something equally spectacular. Andy saw a school of several hundred perch parade past him, which may explain why Jess and I didn't see any fish. Wild Bill Siwiec and Gerhard Maree, with Mild Bill Hockley in the lead, crossed the quarry on compass, but faster than Dubya can say, "Nooculer Weapons," Mild Bill lost them. Mild Bill never wanted to be a DiveMaster anyway. Terry Martzall, Linda Sackrison, and Dave Hoshauer were charged with unexcused absences; two more and they'll be looking at probation - and you know what that means! Get Out and Dive!
Tom’s report on the weekend rescue class . . .
Denny and Barb Gallagher, Nate Brommer and yours truly, with Instructor John Gross and the able assistance of DM Pete Bohling, did the Rescue Class this past weekend at BCS. If you haven't done Rescue Class, it's worth taking. A lot of useful skills and a lot of fun It also gives you the opportunity to log four dives, even though you spend the whole weekend standing in knee deep water. One word of advice: Don't take the course from John Gross. Every time I started to give Nate mouth-to mouth resuscitation, John would start yelling, "No tongue!!" But we had fun anyway and then went home to see if our wives were still made about our diving on Mother's Day.
And from John Gross . . .
This weekend my divemaster, Peter Bohling, and myself conducted a Rescue class at Bainbridge on Sat & Sun from 9 AM to 5PM. The following people were in the class: Barbara & Denny Gallagher, Nate Brommer, and Tom Pritchard. Mary Nicholson was supposed to be in this class she called Pete around 5PM to report that she was ill and unable to come to the class. Mary you missed a really great class. Get well soon! Of course Barbara & Denny were a dive team and Nate & Tom were another dive team. When it came time to do rescue breathing one of my dive teams actually did mouth to mouth. I'll let you figure out which team that was. Everyone did a great job and as soon as I get confirmation of everyone's CPR rating we will have four more Certified Rescue Divers. If you get the opportunity to dive with any of these four divers you can rest assured that you are diving with some of the best! Pete did an excellent job of cooking while we did our classroom work. Our last skill on Saturday included a search or a missing diver (BCD with weights served as the missing diver). Pete came out of the water and reported his buddy missing. Everyone jumped into action and they were so convincing that one person, that was not part of our class, offered to go spot for bubbles. I asked her if she new this was a class and not a real rescue. She was surprised because everyone reacted as if it were a real rescue. It took the class about 25 minutes from when Pete reported his buddy missing until the BCD was rescued! Since this was there first attempt at running a rescue a few things were missed.
Sunday found us back at it and we practiced the skills needed to do a rescue. During lunch on Sunday I came down with an extreme case of DCS. My students were perplexed since I had on been to a depth of 10 feet for about 5 minutes but they responded by treating my DCS with O2. At one point I stopped breathing and rescue breathing was started. I'm note sure how they did it but I'm sure I felt a tongue in my ear during the rescue breathing. I think that was to make Bud jealous. Anyone who has done a rescue class with me knows that I like to come up with a different scenario for the final rescue. This time Pete and I entered the water as a buddy team. We were in the bowl area at access "A" and we proceeded to the boat along side the pipe. Pete positioned himself under the deck with his head sticking up through the square opening. Pete had written on his slate that he was stuck. I then proceeded back to shore and walked out asking if anyone had seen my buddy. The class jumped into action. Tom managed the rescue with Nate posted as spotter and Barb and Denny the in-water searchers. They proceeded out on the surface under Nate's direction and descended to find Pete. Imagine their surprise when they found Pete stuck in the boat. After freeing Pete from boat Pete became unconscious and had to be brought to the surface. After surfacing and establishing buoyancy Nate threw a rescue line to Denny and Pete was on shore in seconds. After rescue breathing Pete started to breath and was put on O2. From beginning to end the rescue took about 15 minutes. Great job!
After I returned to Lancaster I found Smokey working outside and he told me there was a tornado watch all day. That was the first I knew anything about a tornado watch. Six people were involved in my rescue class, Barb, Denny, Nate, Tom, Pete and myself, we all had phones and no one called us to let us know about the tornado watch! Gee, do you think our wives were upset that we were diving on Mothers Day?
If you haven't done a rescue class and want to get in on this fun I have another rescue class scheduled for July 12th and 13th.
From Uptown Jim Brown . . .
What a day it turned out to be on Saturday! The thunder, lightening and rain at 6am didn't deter our departure one bit. We had our doubts about the surface weather in Bethlehem but we knew our dry suits would keep exposure to a minimum.
Vern and I joined Doug Harmer, Ralph Spayd, Bob Davis and Mark Zevtchin for the OW cert dives for a class. Captain Dan Crowell and Jenn Samulski of the Seeker were our instructors for the TDI Solo class. Its funny how you can get a Solo cert without doing a solo dive! Anyway, safety considerations, equipment configuration/use, emergency protocols, planning dives, diving plans, surface swims, surface protocols and more made up the morning's activities. We did two cert dives to 71' for 30 minutes, in 43F water with almost limitless vis. We actually had to use an RDP and find the R.A.T.! What's that!? We capped off a great morning of training and fanfare with a wholesome lunch! Really! Weenies cooked on a rusty grill with an even rustier dive knife, artery-clogging sweet bologna with cream cheese, slim jims, muenster cheese, Miss Patty's wholesome awesome sandwiches on mini potato rolls (she's an angel) and more. The surface weather cooperated nicely complemented by two tours of the east end of Dutch Springs. The pump station, large pipes, on/off, piers, bass, catfish and more were enjoyed on the bottom at 75'. Did I mention the vis was just awesome?
Vern and I packed up and moved over to the peninsula on the west side for our afternoon fun dive. The crowd was thinning so we had plenty of room when we entered the water at 3:10pm. A short surface swim to the Sikorsky started the dive with a descent right on top of, and into, the big suspended whirly bird. Just as we broke the surface we could see the entire bird, nose to tail, about 35' down and 65' end to end. This is the way to start a fun dive! Vern disappeared into the belly of the big beast and I dropped in right behind him. It was clean as a whistle while Bean went to the tail and I eased up to the nose and slipped out through the cockpit. We had a brief celebratory hover gazing at the monster behind us and gestured to one another at a PG-13 level.
Off to the west we went, directly for the island and Cessna. Note to self, never ask Vern which way he wants to go around the island, the LONG way! After a marathon swim around the south side of the island the crane came into view as expected. This was the first time I could see the whole crane, stem to stern, or something like that. I tried to squeak through the con but the door has succumbed to underwater forces and rests across the exit point. I backed out easily and could see Vern all the way up on the boom. It looked like he was playing with a Tonka truck or something, with that childish grin and water filling his mask. We turned west yet again in search of the trolley but missed it to the north. The vis dirtied up here as particulates appeared to be filtering in from the west. We turned NE and hit the wall, passing the huge training platform in front of the west entry point, then proceed directly to the Silver Comet, a huge metal boat on the bottom at 60'. This is a fun swim through, bow to stern. Another check on gauges and we were off to the Island and Cessna, this time ascending to 22' to actually see the plane sitting on top. Did I mention the vis was spectacular?
An easterly heading retraced our path back to the Sikorsky just hovering in the water, beckoning another penetration. We smiled at the large Palomino trout cruising beneath the ship, obliged the penetration gracefully and proceeded NE up over the ridge, just west of the huge wooden cruiser, dropped in the hole and hooked up with the line to the school bus. School was in session for a very pregnant Palomino who let us get within inches of her inside the bus (for those with wandering minds, this had nothing to do with the double penetration on the Sikorsky!). She led us out the back end of the bus and our air level told us it was time to make way to the exit. We turned at the small training platform on a SW heading, missed that exit and cruised right past the Silver Comet to the far west exit. The usual safety hang allowed us to look over the landscape and observe the zebra mussels eluding our presence by withdrawing into their shells. Vern was enamored with this phenomenon and vows to capture the ritual on video during his next visit to Dutch.
All in all a great diving day filled with fun and frolic, not to mention additional training and skills development. We will plan another adventure to Dutch as the water warms a bit. BUT, now is the time to go to enjoy the pristine vis! I'm game to make day trips if anyone is interested. The ride home was long but embellished by a stop at Outback Steakhouse in Wyomissing to feed the hungry beasts.
Diving rules!
From Kent Hirsch . . .
Intreprid cave divers, yours truly, Dr. Deco and Lobster Boy Mike Nast, headed south to sunny Ocala Florida and Hall Watts' Forty Fathom Grotto. We had a date with instructor Gary Taylor for Trimix certification.
The Ocala region is quite pleasant. We had great accomodations at a Fairfield Inn for $62 a day and the area was saturated with restaurants- Chili's, Hooters, Olive Garden, Cracker Barrel, Ruby Tuesday's, etc. We didn't go hungry. This is horse breeding country and the economy shows it. Then there's Forty Fathom Grotto. Don't get me wrong, the place is wonderful, but Hall Watt doesn't spend a lot on upkeep. Lots of trailers on site. They have one trailer used as a bunkhouse for the ecomony minded (cheap) where you can crash for $15.00 a night. I'd stick to the name brand chains.
After doing the paperwork and the necessary lecture, we strapped on doubles filled with trimix and headed down the line to 200 ft. The Grotto is about 1/2 the size of Wabank. The surface is covered with duckweed over every inch. They've devised a clever way of dealing with this weed. At 40 ft they have a bubbler streaming air up to the surface. This pushes the duckweed back 20 yards for clean entries.
Of course, where we made our descent was out of reach of the bubbler. After a surface swim across the grotto, we all looked like Chia Pets. Our dive team consisted of Mike, myself, instructor Gary Taylor and Larry- a good old boy from Houston. Gary and Larry had just finished Larry's cave certification before we arrived. Larry is one of those divers who is clueless as to their lack of skill. We think Larry spends too much time learning to dive and not enough time actually diving.
Our first dive was to 200 feet. A simple descent down a fixed rope and then a slow ascent with decompression stops. Helium is a great gas for deep diving. It makes 200 feet feel like 83 because it eliminates nitrogen and its narcotic effects. It also makes equalizing easier because it is more compressible than air. It also makes breathing at depth easier for the same reason. To help us appreciate helium, Gary had us breathe air at 200 ft. Within 3 breaths I was buzzing. At 6 breaths I was looped. Then back on trimix and my alertness reappeared just as quickly. Amazing stuff. The only downside of helium is its expense- $80.00 for a double fill. Ouch- that only gives you one dive. Plus stage bottle fills, entry fees and I was thinking that Disneyworld would have been a cheaper alternative. By the way, I dove the new APEKS atx200 regulator. Very nice unit. It is light-weight and very easy breathing on the surface or at depth. Drop by the shop for a demo. I think is give the Mares Abyss a run for the money.
Viz is a good 30-40 ft in the Grotto and water temps are a constant 66-68. There are training platforms set at varying depths to accommodate classes from open water through technical diving. There is plenty of room on floating docks for pre-dive gear set up. The Grotto has lines like Wabank and Willow Springs to help you stay oriented and to help with depth control.
We continued our routine of class and diving for four days. We bottomed out at 240 feet on Sunday. We had many dive skills to perform on the platforms as well. Air shutdown drills, out of air drills, stage bottle manipulation exercises.
The good news is that Mike and I both passed (Larry, too). I also became a "Grotto guide". I am now approved to bring divers down for check-outs. Not a bad deal- warm, clear water and no weather related cancellations. Bring the family and spend a few extra days in Orlando (off gassing before you fly home). I'll be available anytime we can get a group together. As always, see you on the bottom and dive safe.
Get Out And Dive - LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
|
|
||||
Home | Classes | Events | Equipment | Clothing | Instructors | Staff | Members
|
||||