Would you dive with me?

[sabbath999]

The other question that popped into my head immediately is that I would ask you why half of your diving career consists of pool dives? I don't mean this in any judgemental way, but I would want to know why a beginning diver in your position has more pool dives than I have (and I work in the pool regularly as a divemaster candidate)?

I don't log pool dives, I log open water dives... so really I suppose you could count them as 1/3 of my dives but that would put me at over 150 dives if you were counting pool dives (again, I am not logging them so you can mark em off the list)... I just mentioned it because I have spent a lot of time in the pool.

Why?

Well, frankly, I was certed in the fall, and it got too cold for me to dive so I spent a LOT of time over the winter in the pool rather than just waiting until the water around here warmed up enough to dive wet. When all I owned was a 3 mil wetsuit, a pool dive looked a lot better on January 18 than nothing at all.

I decided early on that I wanted to be "that guy" that other divers look at and say "Man, I wish I could dive like that guy"... and there's no way to do that but spending time in the water.

I haven't been in a pool diving in about 4 months, though... as soon as I could hit the open water I did. We often get to the quarry at opening and stay until close, getting in four full dives in a day, and do that both days of a weekend. I think we have 8 weekends this year where we did at least 8 full dives (and went through a LOT of tanks of air)... more if night diving was available on Saturday nights.

EDITED: Sorry, I didn't catch your edit

 

[RAWalker]

1. yes
2. yes
3. no
My answers have as much to do with my own experience and skills as with yours or an instabuddy. When you say rough seas and strong currents the need to know the dive site and the people you are diving with increase so you can make a more informed decision. Under those conditions I might opt not to dive at all regardless of the divebuddy.
I'd have to ask you to either shoot on the fly or not take your camera on the drift dive but being a shutterbug myself with an understanding of the need to stay paired up for that type of dive all would be good.

 

[StreetDoctor]

Tell me about your idea of what rock bottom is and how you calculate it. A matter of fact calculate rock bottoms for me on dive #3 to a depth of 90'. Figure we're diving steel HP100's. Probably the most important question and I don't believe anyone has asked it yet.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

I'd dive with you (1,2, & 3), although I'd like to substitute a warm Hawaiian coral reef for a cold dark quary if it's ok with you

In fact, drop me a pm if you return to the Big Island and if it works out maybe I really will dive with you (but if your navigationally-challenged, I'll lead ... or not, sometimes the coolest stuff is found during those "lost" moments ).

Best wishes.

 

[sabbath999]

Tell me about your idea of what rock bottom is and how you calculate it. A matter of fact calculate rock bottoms for me on dive #3 to a depth of 90'. Figure we're diving steel HP100's. Probably the most important question and I don't believe anyone has asked it yet.

I would call it 1094 psi (more or less), not that I am an expert on gas management or anything (just assuming a 2.0 cu ft/min usage due to emergency stress).

 

[Abaco24]

My 2 cents, no for all 3, for a person to have to actually ask this is question , I can't see the desire to answer, which totally contradicts my response, but I digress

 

[Thalassamania]

I'd dive with you on all of the three as long as you demonstrated to me the ability to stay within arm's reach without bumping into me constantly.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

I would gladly dive with you on all three.
If you had an experience like I had with a certain individual, ANYBODY would be a premium dive buddy in comparison.
It sounds like you would make a fine dive buddy.

Click here to read about the ultimate disaster dive buddy.
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/near-misses-lessons-learned/298428-close-call-newbie.html

 

[Nemrod]

OK, here's something a bit different, a little game for anybody who cares to play.

I am curious who would, and who would not, dive with me (as in be my dive buddy), and why.

I don't mean this to be a personal thing about me... I mean it to be about whether you would or would not dive with ANY person with my experience level and equipment, given the information that I am going to list below, and I am going to give three scenarios that I would like you to answer "Yes, I would dive with you" or "No, I would not" in those conditions. All three of the conditions are ones that I personally WOULD dive without hesitation.

First, about me.

Personal: I have a bit over 100 total dives in (including 20+ training dives) plus at least 50 pool dives where most of the "coursework" is done. I was certified in September, 2008, so at the time of this posting I have almost one year's worth of diving in. I learned to swim three weeks before my open water class and passed the PADI swim test... but I am not a strong surface swimmer. I am a big guy but I am also a cyclist who rides 25-30 miles a day so I am in excellent cardio shape (even though I look a bit like the Pillsbury Dough Boy). I am level headed and not prone to panic (although I do realize that ANYBODY can panic).

Training & skills (or lack thereof): I have taken and passed the PADI OW, AOW and Rescue class plus have 8 other specialty cards at the moment, most of which are silly and pointless. Of those classes, I do feel that the Rescue class was of great value. I would rate (for my number of dives and experience) my underwater swimming skills as average, my buoyancy skills as significantly above average (I concentrate on underwater photography, and buoyancy is my thing) and my buddy skills as average. My navigation skills are horrible.

Diving experience: Most of my dives have been made in fresh water cold water in 15 foot visibility or less with no current or surge. I have about 20 dives of 40 minutes or more with visibility 5 feet or less. The coldest water I have dove in was 58 degrees on the surface and 48 below the cline (I dive wet... kids, do not try this in a 3 mil farmer john without hood or gloves like I did... worst 42 minutes of my diving life). The warmest I have dove in is 84 degrees. The deepest I have dove is 112 feet (while doing Deep Dive training) at Kona. I regularly dive within 8 feet of the surface taking pictures, spending nearly entire dives at that level. When diving above 60 feet and not rushing about all over the place, I have a SAC that will allow me to get an hour or more on an AL80. I am strictly open water, and I generally do not dive below 60 feet unless there is a reason for me to go lower (like, say, garden eels... I like garden eels). I have dove in swells up to 6 feet, in moderate (but not strong) current and in some very strong hurricane generated surge. I have about 20 open ocean dives.

Equipment: I wear a Transpac/wing with 5 foot hose primary to pass and bungied alternate, dive wet (although I am going dry this month so let's assume I can dive dry for the purpose of this game). I wear (for the purpose of this game) split fins (I actually DO wear them a lot in the cold water). I wear a non-AI computer, a bungied wrist compass and I wear a snorkel

OK, here are the three Scenarios:

ONE: Quarry dive, the visibility is 15 feet above the 'cline, 1 foot through the 'cline and 35 below it. Temperature is 76 at the surface and 68 below the 'cline. Would you dive as my buddy (or anybody else's for that matter).

TWO: Drift dive, warm water, 100+ foot vis (something I have absolutely no experience whatever with) in a group containing one DM of unknown quality.

THREE: Spiegel Grove, rough seas and strong current, average visibility. Dive plan calls for us not to exceed 90 feet or penetrate the ship.

OK, would you dive as my (or somebody with similar training & equipment's) instabuddy any or all of these dives

If so, would you have any concerns. If not, would you share why not (things like "I only dive DIR and you are not DIR" or "I don't dive cold water" or "I don't dive with people with your experience level" or whatever would be great).

Is this like a trick question?

N

 

[stefo2]

There are three methods of diving in current from an unanchored boat where you drift with the current. All three are commonly called "drift diving" although it is usually a misnomer.

Drift diving is rarely used. A weighted line, often the anchor line, is dropped to the desired dive depth. Divers descend along the line to the desired depth, holding on the line as the boat drifts along, they are always connected to the boat.

Live boating is common in Mexico, especially Cozumel. It is a fairly risky method. Divers descend and drift with the current. The boat “follows the bubbles.” Using this method, it is easy to lose divers or to accidentally strike a diver with the boat. Since safety sausages have become available, live boating has become safer.

The preferred method is float diving. It is similar to live boating, except one of the divers has a reel attached to a float, which the boat follows. Divers stay close to the diver with the reel and therefore do not get lost. Divers ascend next to the line and stay next to the float until acknowledged by the boat crew. They then swim away from the float for pickup. This ensures the boat does not strike divers.
That's a float dive.

Thanks, Walter, for these definitions. In my reply to the OP, when I said "maybe" to #2, I was thinking of float diving, and stressing the point that we need to stay close to the DM / diver with the float (so no dawdling with the camera if the group moves on). I would actually prefer having my own reel and float, even though I must admit I don't like holding it on the dive
Those dives can easily turn into live boating if you get separated from the group, or worse, as the boat crew won't even look for your bubbles but keep following the float. Unfortunately, I was kind of involved in a search for a group of divers once (DM and 4 recently certified OWD). The group with two DMs split up into two groups half-way through the dive (planned, as others from that boat later confirmed, but apparently without informing the crew) but only had one float... Even more unfortunately, these divers were never found, so we will never know what happened exactly, whether or why they didn't have proper surface markers / acoustic device to attract the attention ofthe boat crew etc.