Scubastud16
Contributor
So Scubafool, Litehedded, and InkDiver met at the gate around 9:15 AM this morning (I was a little late). We signed in, and drove to the parking lot to gear up. Scubafool and I geared up at the cars while LH and ID went down to the pavilion. We took our sweet time, and made our way down to the run. Quite a few people in the park today. These were also to be my first dives with my new BP/W.
On the first dive, flow seemed down since my last trip (last year), and we made it down to the sign pretty easily after an S-drill. We could not see even a single hint of light from LH and ID who were at the bottom, and only caught a glimpse of their lights when they were about 25 feet away from us. They stuck around with us in OW while I played with my weighting and trim. SF and I played around in some of the crevices, as much as we could with so little light. I thumbed the dive at 800 psi to check buoyancy near the surface with around 500 psi. Did a deep stop at 30', 3 minute safety stop at 10 feet (both practicing mask-off drills), and moved to a very shallow part of the basin for me to check weighting. 5 pounds was a little too much. Max depth of 62' with a run time of 50 minutes even.
We drifted the run back, and had a nice surface interval talking and eating, and entertaining the locals (they were very interested in our equipment; I was the only one diving single tanks, but we were all on 7' hoses and bungied octo's, etc.).
Second dive was after a surface interval of just over an hour. We geared up, I switched tanks, and we headed back to the water. This time we had to literally fight our way through a crowd of people to get into the water. Waded up to the basin and relaxed our back/shoulders from the long walk. Talked a bit, and descended. LH and ID went back into the cavern zone, while SF and I hung out in the OW zone again, playing with the flow. Mask off drills, S drills, buoyancy checks, etc. 4 lb's of weight this time, and absolutely perfect. Turned at 800 again, did another deep stop and safety stop. Floated down the run and almost went headfirst into a manatee (really low visability). We turned around immediately and pull-n-glided back up stream to go around them. The volunteer was pretty nice about it, kind of annoying. Told me that "we had to go around to the other ladder" about 6 times in a 30 second conversation. Max depth of 60' with another run time of 50 minutes. SF and I noticed that flowed seemed to increase considerably between the first and second dives. Anyone else heard of this?
All in all, a good day of diving. My first time in the water since early-December. I had a massive emergency abdominal surgery that kept me out of the water for several months. SF had been dry for about a month, ID and LH dive all the time (I wish). I was on 32%, and kept it real conservative.
Wish I had pics for everyone, but I can't even afford a reel for my cavern class, let alone a camera set up!
Danny
On the first dive, flow seemed down since my last trip (last year), and we made it down to the sign pretty easily after an S-drill. We could not see even a single hint of light from LH and ID who were at the bottom, and only caught a glimpse of their lights when they were about 25 feet away from us. They stuck around with us in OW while I played with my weighting and trim. SF and I played around in some of the crevices, as much as we could with so little light. I thumbed the dive at 800 psi to check buoyancy near the surface with around 500 psi. Did a deep stop at 30', 3 minute safety stop at 10 feet (both practicing mask-off drills), and moved to a very shallow part of the basin for me to check weighting. 5 pounds was a little too much. Max depth of 62' with a run time of 50 minutes even.
We drifted the run back, and had a nice surface interval talking and eating, and entertaining the locals (they were very interested in our equipment; I was the only one diving single tanks, but we were all on 7' hoses and bungied octo's, etc.).
Second dive was after a surface interval of just over an hour. We geared up, I switched tanks, and we headed back to the water. This time we had to literally fight our way through a crowd of people to get into the water. Waded up to the basin and relaxed our back/shoulders from the long walk. Talked a bit, and descended. LH and ID went back into the cavern zone, while SF and I hung out in the OW zone again, playing with the flow. Mask off drills, S drills, buoyancy checks, etc. 4 lb's of weight this time, and absolutely perfect. Turned at 800 again, did another deep stop and safety stop. Floated down the run and almost went headfirst into a manatee (really low visability). We turned around immediately and pull-n-glided back up stream to go around them. The volunteer was pretty nice about it, kind of annoying. Told me that "we had to go around to the other ladder" about 6 times in a 30 second conversation. Max depth of 60' with another run time of 50 minutes. SF and I noticed that flowed seemed to increase considerably between the first and second dives. Anyone else heard of this?
All in all, a good day of diving. My first time in the water since early-December. I had a massive emergency abdominal surgery that kept me out of the water for several months. SF had been dry for about a month, ID and LH dive all the time (I wish). I was on 32%, and kept it real conservative.
Wish I had pics for everyone, but I can't even afford a reel for my cavern class, let alone a camera set up!
Danny
