Vegas

After finishing my training and earning my certifications on Thursday...I went on my first post-cert technical dive today! ....practice practice practice, right?

We did a beautiful dive - I loved it! - to a max of 160' -
total dive time was 71 minutes. Back gas was Air, deco on EAN50, O2 carried for reserve.

It was at the same site that I dove at back in July....it's a neat site, with deep cliff faces and little ledges that hold all kinds of treasures. Large cables, and the occaisional huge eye-bolt sticking out of a rock...strange remnants from construction of the Hoover dam mingle in with the modern and not-so-modern treasures that turn up on the bottom of the lake - the occaisional sandal, a liquor bottle dating back to the late 50's...and yet another anchor (yes, we retrieved it...who can resist yet another anchor? - at least my friend has an excuse...he has a boat! me? I've brought home three anchors - still have no boat! LOL!)

Of course, back in July, our dive was to a max depth of 130'.
There is this curious tree sticking out horizontally from the cliff face right at 130' - in July, arriving at that tree, looking around for a few minutes, then coming close to our NDL, and the dive at that depth was just about done...that tree signified the edge of our limits.

Today that same tree signified the beginning of our dive, not the end of it. we dropped down, down, down to it, looked around, shined our lights around it, then dropped below it ten feet, then ten more, then ten more!
...then we started horizontally along the ledges and cliffs that make up that part of the canyon.

God, it's exciting! I absolutely love it.
My instructor was amazing, and his training shows, I'm told. My gas switches went smoothly, my gear is streamlined and getting dialed in better and better each dive. I felt comfortable with my skills, gear, contingency plans, and environment.

The vis was about 25', water temp 56 degrees. The wind chill on the surface had us scrambling around the boat trying to get dry as quick as possible when we were done!
Thank heavens my buddy knew what to expect with the breeze, and had brought us each some hot soup in a thermos! - He's a great guy, a great friend, and great diver. (and even has a boat with a great name! She's affectionately called the "Narcosis"! lol!)

Thanks for letting me share my little dive report!

__________________
-The power behind me is greater than the task before me.

Scuba Mama

Congrats on the cert. You know the most important thing there is to know. Practice, Practice and more Practice.

Congrats, you now have a full set of gills.

Scuba Mama

Vegas

LOL!!
And you guys have been here for me since before I splashed into my Open Water class!!

I don't think you guys could really know how much all your help and encouragement means to me!
...it's true! I don't even know how to say thank you enough to you!


....and the really Ironic part? Now that I have my gills...I also have a drysuit! it was an amazing, one in a million find on Craig's list....She had it custom made last year, dove it for 4 hours, and decided she just couldn't stand the cold water. ... and she was EXACTLY my size!!

I just spent a little bit of time in my friend's backyard pool trying it out. came out dry as can be! feet cozy warm, not a drop of water made it inside. ...my hands were SCREAMIN Cold though! - (did I mention the water in the pool was 44 degrees?)

__________________
-The power behind me is greater than the task before me.

MgicTwnger

Congrats on the cert.
Now practice your new skills in that drysuit, it took me about 6 months to feel comfortable diving mine: you now have to deal with two bags of air.

__________________
I am not the one who needs mental help. I just need to vent.

h2odragon1

congratulations on you new cert. as Ken said keep practicing.

Scuba Mama

Guess we both had strange way of picking up a dry suit. Mine came as a divorce special. The dive shop I worked for the owner got divorced and I got a dry suit out of it. I won't mention what he said about the ex when handing me the suit. Yes, take time to learn how to work in the suit it has to be second nature when your doing the deep deep dives. It took me about six months to get to use to mine also. BTW the suit was not free he had not paid me for six months of work. I love my drysuit when I have to do the deep training dives. I can last but I feel for my students in wetsuits. Do you wear rock boots or are the boots built in? Mine are rock boots and found out this year after getting new fins they did not fit over the rock boots. Good thing I had brought my old pair to the dive site. I will wear them when in the dry suit and the new ones in all other diving conditions.

Scuba Mama

Vegas

The drysuit has turned out to be much easier to manage than I thought it would be! I love it! Wow! who knew what a difference it could make! Holy Toledo!

With a run time of 97 minutes the other day, in 53 degree water, I truly savored the feeling of wiggling my toes - not for warmth like I always had before, but just to enjoy the feeling of my warm tootsies inside my DRY fuzzy warm wool socks! LOL!

I am utterly amazed..

I love how I can adjust my trim by just gently sticking my legs out a little and letting just a bit more air 'leak' into my boots....that is SO COOL...

Every dive I have done in it has left be absolutely tickled pink!! LOL!

....and I was specifically told by my drysuit instructor that when diving with people in wetsuits the MOST important thing to remember is after the dive, pick up a towel, rub it on your hair, then exclaim "Ah! nice and dry now!" - then toss the towel to the guy shivering the hardest.

...Okay...so that advice almost got me thrown off my friend's boat the other day (LOL!) ... but otherwise I have no complaints at all!

What a beautiful thing!

__________________
-The power behind me is greater than the task before me.