SuPrBuGmAn
Contributor
After some backtracking and getting back on the road, jwhitlock put the peddle down on I-65 to make up for some lost time(had to run back to his house to drop off a babyseat). We made excellent time though and pulled up to ABWA around 10:30AM. Dive_Aholic was already onsite, making it 15-20 minutes earlier than us. It was overcast and we caught some light rains earlier, but forcasts were calling for some heavy thunderstorms later on. We drove north, to dive(??), so jwhitlock could complete his Advanced Nitrox and Deco course under Dive_Aholic's teaching. The Gulf was blown out and any spring accessible spot with the OW depths required were blown out due to the recent downpours. So here we were, at a quarry, far north of ordinary.
It didn't take us long to settle in, signed some waivers, got a few fills, and started loading gear down to the entry docks at the water. Parking was wide open and we were right up front. DUI had a big trailer out, in preperation for Dog Days starting on the next day(Friday 4/3). Bigken and BamaMedic were onsite, leaving out to Marianna to take Cavern and Intro to Cave with KennyP(they passed!), so it was nice to finally meet them.
The three of us knew the water would be cold, it wasn't going to be any suprise. Dive_Aholic wore his warmer drysuit, jwhitlock doubled up wetsuits and wore a hood, I even put on my hoodvest(and some borrowed gloves - I forgot my own). We hit the water, glad to see 20' of visibility on the surface and we swam off to the far wall. I'd be just hanging out with the class. Once they went over there dive plan once more, we started our decent down the wall. At about 20' we lost our pleasant mid-60F temps and by depth of 130' or so we were clear into the low-mid-50sF. Suprisingly enough, we still had plenty of ambient light and visibility opened up to a good 40' without much particulate(very nice compared to the one other trip I've made to this site where I had 5' visibility at depth). Once at depth, we continued along the bottom for a bit until a predetermined time was reached(or gas turnaround) and we'd begin our ascent while making a slow headway towards our entry. I ended up with a depth of 132' for a total dive time of 34 minutes, which included a stop or three with the team(diving off a table plan). I did get on O2, just for practice, not out of necessity or even prudence, as my computer had cleared long earlier. Whitlock got some pointers on where he needed to improve and he'd have another dive to perfect a few skills.
I considered not doing the second dive, but we enjoyed a warm surface interval with enough breaks in the clouds to let the sun pour through and warm me up. So I joined the class for another dive, just a bit after 2 hours of an SI, we were plunging back into the deep. This would be a slightly shallower profile and I'd end up breaking away to swim through the school bus and check out the sailboat before rejoining the team on the way back to the entry platform. The plan for jwhitlock was to have a max depth of 110', which he adhered to despite some coaxing from his dive buddies - good for you whitlock! He also shot his bag and made all his stops, gas switches, and air shares without incident - blowing his first dive out of the water as far as performance went. I had a max depth of 116' for a total dive lasting 33 minutes. Water on the bottom was 53F with surface water tempertures about 10F higher. Air temps were in the upper 70sF with a mix of overcast skies and sun peaking through on occassion.
As we geared down, thunderstorm warnings blared on the TV in the fill station so we packed up, settled the bill and headed out. I did make jwhitlock pull over to grab some Popeyes chicken for lunch - love dat chicken from popeyes! We caught a bit of bad weather on the way home as expected, but beat it to the water, so no delays on the class were to be had. jwhitlock would be out of the country for work shortly, but we started getting plans for a few dives when he gets back, as well as some more classes to continue his tech training. It was a great day of diving, despite the cold waters, and questionable weather and I think we all had alot of fun. It was great diving with Dive_Aholic again and jwhitlock enjoyed his classes and was totally psyched about continuing his diving skills.
It didn't take us long to settle in, signed some waivers, got a few fills, and started loading gear down to the entry docks at the water. Parking was wide open and we were right up front. DUI had a big trailer out, in preperation for Dog Days starting on the next day(Friday 4/3). Bigken and BamaMedic were onsite, leaving out to Marianna to take Cavern and Intro to Cave with KennyP(they passed!), so it was nice to finally meet them.
The three of us knew the water would be cold, it wasn't going to be any suprise. Dive_Aholic wore his warmer drysuit, jwhitlock doubled up wetsuits and wore a hood, I even put on my hoodvest(and some borrowed gloves - I forgot my own). We hit the water, glad to see 20' of visibility on the surface and we swam off to the far wall. I'd be just hanging out with the class. Once they went over there dive plan once more, we started our decent down the wall. At about 20' we lost our pleasant mid-60F temps and by depth of 130' or so we were clear into the low-mid-50sF. Suprisingly enough, we still had plenty of ambient light and visibility opened up to a good 40' without much particulate(very nice compared to the one other trip I've made to this site where I had 5' visibility at depth). Once at depth, we continued along the bottom for a bit until a predetermined time was reached(or gas turnaround) and we'd begin our ascent while making a slow headway towards our entry. I ended up with a depth of 132' for a total dive time of 34 minutes, which included a stop or three with the team(diving off a table plan). I did get on O2, just for practice, not out of necessity or even prudence, as my computer had cleared long earlier. Whitlock got some pointers on where he needed to improve and he'd have another dive to perfect a few skills.
I considered not doing the second dive, but we enjoyed a warm surface interval with enough breaks in the clouds to let the sun pour through and warm me up. So I joined the class for another dive, just a bit after 2 hours of an SI, we were plunging back into the deep. This would be a slightly shallower profile and I'd end up breaking away to swim through the school bus and check out the sailboat before rejoining the team on the way back to the entry platform. The plan for jwhitlock was to have a max depth of 110', which he adhered to despite some coaxing from his dive buddies - good for you whitlock! He also shot his bag and made all his stops, gas switches, and air shares without incident - blowing his first dive out of the water as far as performance went. I had a max depth of 116' for a total dive lasting 33 minutes. Water on the bottom was 53F with surface water tempertures about 10F higher. Air temps were in the upper 70sF with a mix of overcast skies and sun peaking through on occassion.
As we geared down, thunderstorm warnings blared on the TV in the fill station so we packed up, settled the bill and headed out. I did make jwhitlock pull over to grab some Popeyes chicken for lunch - love dat chicken from popeyes! We caught a bit of bad weather on the way home as expected, but beat it to the water, so no delays on the class were to be had. jwhitlock would be out of the country for work shortly, but we started getting plans for a few dives when he gets back, as well as some more classes to continue his tech training. It was a great day of diving, despite the cold waters, and questionable weather and I think we all had alot of fun. It was great diving with Dive_Aholic again and jwhitlock enjoyed his classes and was totally psyched about continuing his diving skills.
