Aquamaniac
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After months of procrastination, I finally decided to further my education and take on another Dive class. I contacted a local instructor, whom I had heard good reports about.
A trip to the quarry to Tune Up, and then we headed south to Gods Country.
So as not to upset or offend anyone, I wont mention names or places.
Upon arrival at the site, I was rather amazed at how well the place was setup. Registration was a breeze, the guy doing fills was knowledgeable, gave me a good fill, and most importantly, did it with a smile.
It was only 7.00am so not too many people around. There were a few vehicles around that indicated a rescue team was doing some training work.
As the fog cleared I could stand on the dock and look down into the clearest water I had EVER seen, It truly was a sight to behold, even the coral lagoons back home didnt get this clear on the balmiest of days.
We geared up, did a few drills on land, and headed down. It was a good dive, mainly a sightseeing dive to check out the entrance, do a few skills and get familiar with the hole. Total dive time did not exceed 40 mins. As we departed the cavern a few divers were headed in, a mix of OW and Cave/Cavern. Of the six divers in the cavern, 4 of them spent 90% of the time with Fins in the silt, by the time we had finished a 3 min stop, The vis had dropped substantially. I was a little disappointed, but had hopes that it was just an isolated incident, and it would clear up.
We surfaced at the exit point, and upon breaking the water, I actually gasped at what I saw.
In the 40-50 mins of bottom time, the surface had transformed from a tranquil setting to something resembling Grand central station at 6.00pm on a weeknight. There were divers everywhere, mainly students, and mixture of cert divers. Getting out was a mission, there was a queue of student lined up at the ramp, and a very nice instructor, whom upon seeing us, asked his students to step aside and give us some room. I did get some rather weird looks but Im becoming accustomed to that.
Now, what you have to remember here, is that I grew up in a small Oceanside town, I had my first boat when I was 16, and have been in the water ever since. There are Charter dive boats at home, but they are for the tourists, and we tend to keep as far away from them as possible, there is a mutual respect between locals and Charter skippers.
As a result, the most divers I have ever seen in one place was when I had a momentary lapse of reason, and had 6 divers on my boat on one trip. It kind of threw me into a spin at the time, so it never happened again. Now here I was, in this tiny rock pool with about 100 other divers, at various stages of experience. To say I was rather taken back is an understatement.
I went back to the car stripped down and just sat and watched for about an hour, it was rather amusing at times. I did even hear a few whispers from a couple of divers commenting on how old my gear was, the old webbing style was one comment. How I ached for another DIR/Hog diver so I could at least not be singled out.
We had a bite to eat, did a few more land drills and hit the water again for more work.
By now the water was soup, it was really upsetting to see it go from pristine to poor in a matter of hours. As we descended the reasons became obvious. I did see an instructor tugging at a students fins to show him what he was doing to the silt, but it was a vein attempt, 30 others around him were doing the same thing, I even saw a couple of people sitting in the silt, sculling even more, without a care in the world.
I dont mean to be overly critical here, we were all students once, but as others have mentioned on this board, some instructors dont really care. Looking at the gear configuration on some of them, its easy to see why.
We proceeded to the cave entrance, in the hope that the cavern would offer some form of isolation, alas that was not the case, the crowd at the entrance was also a sight to behold, I was blinded a few times by handheld HIDs, not too bad though, the vis cut the light down pretty well
The entrance to the cave system was like the pearly gates of heaven, offering un-crowded clear water. It was almost magical.
I can now understand why Cave divers dont complain about the O/W crowds too much, apart from entering and Deco, the actual system offers a tranquil place away from the pandemonium of the basin.
We did our drills and got out of there, Exiting the water, I passed another guy, about to enter who was diving DIR, he gave me nod, and I no longer felt like an outcast in my almost DIR configuration.
The long drive back to Atlanta gave me a good chance to reflect on the day and realize a few things, first how lucky I am at home to not have to worry about crowds, and second, how lucky yall are here to have these facilities that are open year round, and largely unaffected by weather.
A dive in a soupy low viz basin is better than a day at home waiting for the wind to drop enough to get the boat out.
As bad as it was, Im counting the hours and days until Full Cave Certification, it just seems so far away.........
Dave
A trip to the quarry to Tune Up, and then we headed south to Gods Country.
So as not to upset or offend anyone, I wont mention names or places.
Upon arrival at the site, I was rather amazed at how well the place was setup. Registration was a breeze, the guy doing fills was knowledgeable, gave me a good fill, and most importantly, did it with a smile.
It was only 7.00am so not too many people around. There were a few vehicles around that indicated a rescue team was doing some training work.
As the fog cleared I could stand on the dock and look down into the clearest water I had EVER seen, It truly was a sight to behold, even the coral lagoons back home didnt get this clear on the balmiest of days.
We geared up, did a few drills on land, and headed down. It was a good dive, mainly a sightseeing dive to check out the entrance, do a few skills and get familiar with the hole. Total dive time did not exceed 40 mins. As we departed the cavern a few divers were headed in, a mix of OW and Cave/Cavern. Of the six divers in the cavern, 4 of them spent 90% of the time with Fins in the silt, by the time we had finished a 3 min stop, The vis had dropped substantially. I was a little disappointed, but had hopes that it was just an isolated incident, and it would clear up.
We surfaced at the exit point, and upon breaking the water, I actually gasped at what I saw.
In the 40-50 mins of bottom time, the surface had transformed from a tranquil setting to something resembling Grand central station at 6.00pm on a weeknight. There were divers everywhere, mainly students, and mixture of cert divers. Getting out was a mission, there was a queue of student lined up at the ramp, and a very nice instructor, whom upon seeing us, asked his students to step aside and give us some room. I did get some rather weird looks but Im becoming accustomed to that.
Now, what you have to remember here, is that I grew up in a small Oceanside town, I had my first boat when I was 16, and have been in the water ever since. There are Charter dive boats at home, but they are for the tourists, and we tend to keep as far away from them as possible, there is a mutual respect between locals and Charter skippers.
As a result, the most divers I have ever seen in one place was when I had a momentary lapse of reason, and had 6 divers on my boat on one trip. It kind of threw me into a spin at the time, so it never happened again. Now here I was, in this tiny rock pool with about 100 other divers, at various stages of experience. To say I was rather taken back is an understatement.
I went back to the car stripped down and just sat and watched for about an hour, it was rather amusing at times. I did even hear a few whispers from a couple of divers commenting on how old my gear was, the old webbing style was one comment. How I ached for another DIR/Hog diver so I could at least not be singled out.
We had a bite to eat, did a few more land drills and hit the water again for more work.
By now the water was soup, it was really upsetting to see it go from pristine to poor in a matter of hours. As we descended the reasons became obvious. I did see an instructor tugging at a students fins to show him what he was doing to the silt, but it was a vein attempt, 30 others around him were doing the same thing, I even saw a couple of people sitting in the silt, sculling even more, without a care in the world.
I dont mean to be overly critical here, we were all students once, but as others have mentioned on this board, some instructors dont really care. Looking at the gear configuration on some of them, its easy to see why.
We proceeded to the cave entrance, in the hope that the cavern would offer some form of isolation, alas that was not the case, the crowd at the entrance was also a sight to behold, I was blinded a few times by handheld HIDs, not too bad though, the vis cut the light down pretty well
The entrance to the cave system was like the pearly gates of heaven, offering un-crowded clear water. It was almost magical.
I can now understand why Cave divers dont complain about the O/W crowds too much, apart from entering and Deco, the actual system offers a tranquil place away from the pandemonium of the basin.
We did our drills and got out of there, Exiting the water, I passed another guy, about to enter who was diving DIR, he gave me nod, and I no longer felt like an outcast in my almost DIR configuration.
The long drive back to Atlanta gave me a good chance to reflect on the day and realize a few things, first how lucky I am at home to not have to worry about crowds, and second, how lucky yall are here to have these facilities that are open year round, and largely unaffected by weather.
A dive in a soupy low viz basin is better than a day at home waiting for the wind to drop enough to get the boat out.
As bad as it was, Im counting the hours and days until Full Cave Certification, it just seems so far away.........
Dave
