My first oil rig dive

So I decided to do my first oil rig dive on the Eureka in Huntington Beach. The weather was sunny (86* I believe) and the seas were very calm, considering the shores where we departed from were experiences 5-6+ ft. surf with many beaches in the red-flag designation. It was such a spectacle to pull up besides the rig in the middle of the open ocean with clear blue waters. Such a change from green I'm used to seeing shore-side.

So we receive our briefing: no spear guns, must remove the meat of the scallops but not take the shells (too heavy), and we have only the south side of the rig to dive at and do not go inside the pilings. After that, gate open.

I giant-stride into the ocean, signal okay and then wait for my buddy to enter and there she is. There is a nice current, only 30 seconds and we are drifting far from our desired drop point. So we make a little swim and drop and head towards the wester corner. Is this really Southern California, I think to myself? Visibility is astounding. If the pilon (is that the correct word)? is 30 ft. from each other, than viz was easily 60-70 ft. They pilons are covered with white things (I cannot identify much of what I saw, it was all new to me) and lots of scallops and clams and so on. We saw a three Garibaldo nests. I have never recognized one before, so it was pleasant to see my first ones.

But look out for that current. It was in all different directions. I usually like to think of myself having good bouyancy and for the most part I do, I dive with technical divers or at least those who have been through GUE-F or UTD-Essentials (I take my own Essentials course next month). So I've obsorbed some of the skills. But nothing could have prepared me for this. The current/swell/whatever would push me down as much as 30 ft. and then immediately back up to the surface before I had a chance to compensate for my bouyancy. There was a strong suction trying to pull us into the pilins and holding on to a piece of uncovered metal, I barely could keep a grip. This dive lasted about 20 minutes before we both called the dive and returned to the boat.

It was actuall on the ascent where I had the depth issues. At the safety stop, I shot to the top and then went down to complete the safety stop, at 18 ft. I dropped to 55 and then before I could react to compensate for the bouyancy I felt the same force that pushed me down push me up straight to the surface. So I skipped that safety stop. The majority of the dive was at 40' otherwise. I felt very nautious. But that was a great experience.

I did two more dives after that, one at Italian Gardens on Catalina Island and the other at Long Point. The conditions were mostly the same at Italian Gardens and the current was ever present. We drop down and try to keep this one simple. I have better control of my bouyancy now than the previous dive. Visibility was closer to 25-30'. The only thing truly remarkable about this dive was the 3 giant sea bass that we encountered. Two swam above us ever so gracefully and 1 below us off to the side. We were with a newer diver who joined us but was having difficulty with her weighting (using something like 26 lbs) and struggling in the surge with a loose BCD. We called the dive and headed to the boat.

I ran out of water and the boat didn't have any more, either. So had to start drinking soda. I don't usually drink anything non-water based. I can't begin to express how ill I bagan to feel after finishing the soda. I could not even eat lunch, so I finished my fruit that I brought with me instead (bananas, plums, grapes and strawberrys) but I did have a roll from the boat.

What's that I hear? Gate open? Time to gear up. Long Point had very little current but otherwise similar conditions to Italian Gardens and was much shallower at about 45' ft. We ventured too far towards the point and encountered the current and spent most of our dive fighting it vigorously. About the only thing remarkable about this dive was an octopus that I found (having a 21w canistor light seems to really bring out the octopi on my dives, I could never find them with my other lights). It had was hanging off the side of a cliff 10 ft. from the bottom (the cliff itself was about 30 ft. tall) wrapped around a some kind of shell (snail like thingy) larger than itself, sucking something out of it (the snail). We observed for about 5 minutes then returned to the boat.

On my way back, after doing the requisite 3 minute safety stop, my computer wanted me to do another 8 minutes deco. Can't figure out why but I did so. So I returned to the boat and tried to relax on the bed for the trip home.

After returning home I broke a fever and headache. Could do nothing to keep cool enough even leaving my house at room temperature (86*) would help. But about 2am the fever went away leaving me with a headache and dark yellowish pee. Never saw anything like it before.

The next day (today) I had headache all day long and same discoloration. Googling seems to indicate severe dehydrations. So I'm pounding my fluids but I'm otherwise okay.

It will be a long time before I return to the rigs, you really have to be on top of your game and a lot can go wrong. One guy lost he new camera, housing, and strobes when the current pulled the cord right off his hand.


Happy Diving,
Shawn

It sounds like you really need to keep hydrated. When I was in boot camp 10 years ago, we were told to drink water untill you pee clear as water, then keep drinking water at the same rate. Yes, you have to pee a lot, but it's better than a trip to the ER for an IV. The guy with the new camera, that really sucks, I almost lost mine a while back, and I feel for him. I was able to drop back down and find mine, though. Please, PLEASE keep hydrated, dehydration can lead to a DCS hit, and trust me, you don't want that.

Rig diving can be specacular indeed. My favorite is High Island 389, 100 miles off the Texas Coast. The grand thing is that particular platform is in the corner of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. As such, there are more stringent guidelines about how often they can "clean" the legs and sub-structure of the platform. Subsequently, there is a HUGE buildup of growth and that, in turn, attracts a lot of reef fish that normally wouldn't be seen on a platform. Those reef fish attract larger predators and a lot of pelagics, and there you have it...an "island" reef hosted by tons of steel. Since it's far from shore, the visibility usually exceeds 100 feet, and it's stunning to look down to see the legs disappear into the blue, knowing that the bottom is 450 feet below.
Very true, the currents can be capricious and heavy, but on those rare days when current is NEARLY absent (you actually need a small amount of current to keep the boat from drifting into the rig) and the seas are flat, it can be a magical place to dive.

Spoke with DAN. They do not seem concerned about DCS, I have no symptoms and my profiles were not overly provocative. I was advised to seek my physician and if she thinks it is diving related, I should refer her to DAN medical consultation if she has questions. Otherwise, I just need to take it easy and hydrate. I still have a headache but I'm otherwise becoming my normal self again.

I have made several dives at High Island 389 aboard M/V Fling. I agree it is truely a remarkable dive.

I have a profound respect for current. When we dove the rigs a year ago, we had probably 100 feet of viz (judging from how far down we could see) but we did have significant current, and it was hard not to get slammed against the structure. Luckily, we didn't have strong up and down-wellings, but I've been in those on walls in Indonesia, and there is very little you can do to avoid being thrown around. So don't beat yourself up about your buoyancy control -- the sea is bigger and stronger than any of us.

We did Italian Gardens last year, and I loved that dive. Every little rocks and crevice had something interesting in it, including a couple of very curious octopuses.

Sorry you were ill at the end of the day, but it sounds like you came through it okay. It's easy to underestimate the fluid needs we have when we do three or four dives in a day.

Yah, the rigs can have some spectacular viz. I only have two dives on Eureka, but one had at least 100 feet of vertical viz.

And yes, the currents were brutal this weekend in the channel, at least around noon.

After a calm dive on the caissons, we anchored on the Moody (fairly close to the rigs). Three divers jumped in and promptly clamored for the granny line. I handed one diver a scooter, he triggered up to 5th speed and pretty much equaled out the current.

They got out, and we decided to try to hit a different wreck, but naturally the anchor was stuck. So the other non-exhausted diver (Rainer) and I made the recovery dive. Fully geared up, clipped on deco gas, and jumped in with scooters in hand. We clipped everything off and pulled ourselves hand over fist down the anchor line to 140 feet, located the anchor which was wrapped up pretty handily in some 1" rope, freed it within about 10 minutes, and then had the brilliant idea to try to make a dive out of it. But the current was almost as bad at depth as it was above, so we thumbed it without much delay.

The ascent was pretty much the same as the descent in reverse: hanging onto the anchor line like flags in the wind. It made the switch to deco gas interesting. Wasn't until about 20 feet that it calmed down enough to allow us to use scooters rather than just grabbing the line. We padded our deco obligation by 5 minutes due to the sub-optimal conditions (working deco).

Hi Shawn, Thank you for the report. I've not done a oil rig dive, however, one day I would very much like to. So, your report and the comments/posts of those who've experienced it is very helpful and interesting.

I'm glad you're feeling better.

leabre

I am by no means an expert on anything but I did read on scubaboard somewhere about a guy that did a dive well within all rec limits and appeared to take a DCS Hit. He too was very dehydrated. Some one there posted something about saltwater aspiration syndrome. Again I am not saying anything from a professional or any kind of a knowledgeable standpoint. Here is a link with information about it. Take from it what you will but I thought about this when I read how sick you got.

Saltwater Aspiration Syndrome

Here is the thread that I found it on.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/near-misses-lessons-learned/291540-one-dive-too-many-zenobia.html

The ascent was pretty much the same as the descent in reverse: hanging onto the anchor line like flags in the wind. It made the switch to deco gas interesting.

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I was actually thinking about this, as we did our first staged decompression dives yesterday. We had significant current on the second one, and the plan was to drift our deco, but as luck would have it, we actually drifted TO the anchor line, and I thought about putting us on it, but I was a little worried about how I'd manage a gas switch while hanging on desperately with one hand, so we drifted instead. I came up with the idea of trying to hook the line with an elbow. Anybody have any better ideas?