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From Tom Pritchard . . .
Every DIT, as part of the DM program, has to lead a group of certified divers on a dive. With Wild Bill coming to Willow last night, I figured I'd take JameZ on the tour. A small group of three in a quarry I know like the back of Gerhard's hand; what could go wrong? Well, Jay Bell needed a dive buddy, so the group of three became a group of four. Then Liz and Kulp, aka Mayhem and Chaos, saw an opportunity for fun at my expense - and who can resist that? - so they joined us making it a group of six. It's tough to keep four divers together in the low viz of Willow; five is a cluster f$&%&#@k!! - and six is the El Grande of all cluster f$&%&#@ks!! As goofballs and screwballs go, I had the Willow All-Star Team - and every one of them was scheming to make my guided-tour as "interesting" as possible. While I was busy checking out Liz, I noticed her low pressure inflator hose was disconnected and her air wasn't on. But she was the best behaved of the crew under water. Jay and Bill led by stampeding the silt; only dragging a mattress could have made a bigger mess. JamesZ carefully calculated how fast the group was moving and adjusted his speed to half. Kulp didn't officially get separated from the tour, but was the group caboose and at one point he satisfied his need to get away by swimming under the cement mixer. Bill made careful note of all the lapses in my dive briefing - and then dove the loopholes by turning the wrong way here and the wrong way there. Sometimes the group followed him; sometimes just Jay. I finally herded the All Stars back to the platform and signalled that we should ascend and stop at 15 ft for 3 minutes, and then exit. As we started up JameZ hung at the platform. I came back; OK, Yes. Up, Yes. I left again; JameZ stayed. I returned, repeated the pantomime, and left; JamesZ stayed. By the 3rd time I was shining the Light of God in his face to see if he was awake. James was awake, but he had a dull Dubya-like, caught in the headlights, look on his face. I finally coaxed JameZ to the surface. Yes, the Willow All-Star team put me through my paces. Anything that could go wrong, goes wrong - by design - in Smokeys DM and AI classes, which is why our divers and DMs are so-well trained. I plan to do my best to make sure that JameZ has a first-class learning experience when he does his guided tour in a few weeks!
From Uptown Jim Brown . . .
Most of you won't believe it but this will be a quick report as other priorities have my attention...for those who were in the know, I kept my job this week amid deep (sales) cuts at BMS. Thanks for your support!
Steve Halliwell joined Joe Dormer and I on a deep run Wednesday night, 9/15. Mike Nast led Sharon and Handsome on the return trip from the deep boat because of a crotch malfunction in his dry suit. Yea right. Steve, Joe and I proceeded south to the pumphouse where Joe calmly assisted me with my free flow. This is a good time to reinforce the value of a pony bottle (with air Sharon) for "self-rescue" in these situations. Joe turned off my main while I ascended unassisted to 30'. He turned the main back on and I breathed it for the remainder of the dive. If you dive locally and other deep, cold destinations, have a redundant air source (with air) for just such occasions. It makes a a huge difference in the process and outcome. We had a nice 45 minute dive to 95'.
Saturday, 9/18 - Post-Ivan rain brought divers out of the woodwork. BSC was really busy and we had a cast of hoodlums: Darth, Huck, Kent, Mike Nast, Sharon, John Gross, Pete, Frank Herring. Dive One separated the group upon descent down the north wall. We toured the Barn, deep boat, stairs, step van, tanker and the infamous 210 heading in search of the tool box. After an IP adjustment, my reg performed flawlessly on this dive. A great tour on 32%, 101ffw, 59 minutes. Dive Two took Frank and I on the surface to the vicinity of the Barn. We planned to go to the east wall and tour the cutout. Upon a free descent to 94ffw, my reg flowed again. Frank helped with the main valve, we waited, turned it back on, flowed again. I switched back to my pony, turned off the main, snapped a pic of the NEW discovery tool box (eat your heart out Handsome!) and we ascended to 30'. The main worked fine up here and we naved to the north wall, hopped up and over and finished the dive through the lagoon/road to the beach exit. A shallow dive is better than no dive at all! More nitrogen to 94' for 57 minutes.
Wednesday, 9/22 - Sharon was the only diver to join me at Upper A. We geared up and were wet by 6:32pm. Our plan was to search for the infamous 210 tool box from the tanker. We passed the dozer, deep boat, step van and at the tanker, fixed our heading. We skimmed the bottom all the way across at 210 and found no tool box. Chris, what compass are you using? It was an awesome cruise across the cloudy bottom; made for a good narc. Sharon missed out on the fun as she had a 28 mix in her tank. We turned west at the south wall, directly at the blossom tree, ended up at the south 60' platform, turned to the deep boat, and made our ascent to the dozer, Pennsy and Bowl exit. I had to play out a little hang to satisfy my Aeris and Suunto Mosquito deco obligations on air. It was a great dive. We eased up the slope to the steep path and encountered numerous catfish, sunnies, pumpkinseeds and jellies on the way. ...a great tour and further testament to Sharon's comfort in the water and progress, 95' for 46 minutes, and she had 1220psi remaining in her steel 100. But, did she have air in her pony?
Wednesday eve diving is slated to conclude with on October 13th's dive.
I'll be at BSC Sat/Sun with John Gross for a Rescue Diver class. Donna is joining me Saturday around 5pm for a shallow, comfy dive. We are planning to camp at BSC Saturday night and Gregg Minnich, Rescue Diver participant, is planning to camp as well. Anyone is welcome to join us (no, bring your tent!) The water is great - join us for the local adventure!
From Mark Myers . . .
I was actually out at Bainbridge on Sunday morning to do a "shakedown" cruse before our ocean dive next month on the Surface Interval. As John Gross' advanced class can attest, it was apparently a good idea. After lots of grunting, sweating and gear problems, I finally managed to catch up with the class and head down the line to the deep boat. James Boyer, and Bill Rogers did a great job - heading for the platform, then down to the deep boat where visibility was around 40 ft. After a quick tour around the boat, we headed up the rise and over to the bulldozer for a second quick visit, then up the line for a three minute hang.
While James and Bill headed off to try and find the ever elusive Cement Block - which they reported was entirely uncooperative with it's rescue - I got to experience one of those "firsts" that you only get once in a life time. My daughter Savannah turned 8 last spring, and I got my AI certification over the summer. That means that I could take her out the road at a max depth of 6 ft as a "Bubblemaker" for her first dive. She thoroughly enjoyed the jelly fish, but was a little disappointed that all the blue gills seemed to be elsewhere. We headed about half way out the road to "B" before turning around and coming back. Savannah took great pride in signing my log book as "Buddy."
Keep on diving and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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