First drift dive with Jupiter Dive Center

Hey guys,

New to scubaboard but been diving for about 2 years now with 16 dives total to date. My friends and I have pretty hectic schedules so it's hard to find time to dive unfortunately. Anyway, I just thought I would relate my experiences with the dive and also with JDC.

JDC:

Nice shop. A little overpriced as expected at the LDS. The staff were friendly and professional. The rental gear was the best I've seen thus far in my diving career. Overall they seemed to run a tight ship. I had my own gear, but my buddy was renting.

My gear:

Oceanic Excursion BCD
Mares abyss / Aeris A2 / Aeris Atmos 2 computer
force fins
rash guard
AL80 (rental)
6lbs lead shot

This was my first time diving the Oceanic excursion. Prior to this I've used a Scubapro jacket style, a Zeagle Ranger, and a sherwood jacket style. The excursion was pretty comfortable, and fairly streamline (except for the weight pockets). The integrated weight system seemed foolproof and very robust. Between the excursion and the Zeagle Ranger, I felt like the ranger was more comfortable, and I like the ripcord weight system. So far the Ranger is probably the best BC I've used for overall comfort, trim in the water, and construction. My problem with the ranger is that it seemed huge, and I wanted something more streamline. There was a guy on the boat with a bp/w setup, and I'd like to try something like that next.

The Dive:

The first dive went off without a hitch. I set a max depth alarm (no real need for this on this particular dive) and a dive time alarm (as a backup to my computer telling me how much time I had left at each depth). We followed our dive guide while drifting through the current. Whenever she saw something noteworthy, she would clank her tank and point it out. Overall it was a good experience. Once we got to the surface (after a nice slow ascent and 3 min safety stop at 20ft) I had a little difficulty with my back inflate pushing me face forward. I tried laying on the bladder but was having some trouble. Some trim weight in the back would have helped I think, but I didn't have any 1 lb weights to do 2 lbs in each front ditchable pocket and 1 lb in each rear trim pocket. I'm sure diving a steel tank instead of AL probably helps as well. The rolling ocean started to make me feel a little sea sick as we were waiting for the boat, and it just got worse when I was on the boat. What really compounded things was the boat doing s-turns and u-turns to pick up divers and crossing over its wake.

Long story short I ended up getting numbness and tingling in my fingers, forearms, lips, and head. It seemed to get progressively worse, so I decided to mention it to the dive master just in case. She asked me about my symptoms and told me that it sounded like sea sickness. She talked to the Captain and they both asked me about my dive profile and if I violated my plan or anything. I told them I stuck to the plan and I believe they checked my computer to be safe. The Capt. told me its most likely just sea sickness and that I should head to the bow to get some air. A few seconds later I was puking over the side of the boat. I haven't gotten sea sick since I was a kid so this was a little unexpected. My apologies to the rest of the divers for having to put up with that. Not too long after I puked over the side, someone else puked as well (probably my fault, as puking can cause a chain reaction sometimes).

I tried drinking a lot of water which helped a little bit, but the water tasted like the compressed air I had been breathing. I'm not sure exactly how to describe the taste but I've experienced the same taste on other dive trips with different charters. Either way the taste made me a little nauseous as well.

So after puking I felt better, the tingling and numbness went away, and the Capt. told me I should do the second dive, as I would just continue to get sick, and being on the boat would be a hell of a lot worse then being in the water. So I did the second dive, it was much like the first. My breathing was a little off under water but my consumption wasn't too much more than usual. We ascended with another group of divers so the boat was right there when we hit the surface. Right as we got to the 5ft range and felt the ocean swell again I immediately began puking in my regulator. I puked about 5 times before hitting the boat. After hitting the boat I drank some more water and then sat on the bow. I was pretty much in hunched over feeling like crap mode for the rest of the trip and still feel a little queasy today.

Overall, my experience with JDC was positive. I haven't done a lot of diving yet in my career but they were probably one of the better run outfits that I have been with. I enjoyed the reefs a lot more than the reefs I explored in the keys and drifting a long was kind of a neat experience.

Lessons learned:

1. dramamine. I don't always take dramamine but I definitely should have in this case. I didn't anticipate all the slow speed turning the boat would be doing and wasn't prepared for it. In the future I will medicate prior to the dive so I won't get sick again.

2. If I can find a LDS that provides "tasty air" consistently, then I think it might be worth it for me to buy my own tanks and have them filled. I really don't like breathing weird tasting air. It's a minor complaint, but I've had air that had no taste to it enough times, that I don't see why it can't all be like that. In fairness to JDC, I've had air that was orders of magnitude worse than what they provided. It really wasn't a big deal, I'm just being idealistic here. If anyone can clue me into why there is different taste in air from shop to shop let me know. I don't think its related to my personal equipment since I've had air with no taste plenty of times.

3. I think I need more practice with a back-inflate and I think I want to go to bp/w, for the simplicity of it, if nothing else. The guy diving the bp/w had a setup from deep sea supply that seemed pretty nice and compact. JDC had some halcyon and scubapro setups in the shop but they were pretty spendy.

4. This wasn't really a lesson learned but one thing I don't remember being taught in my open water class was to dump air prior to ascending. I noticed on a previous dive with two of my friends who are new divers as well (padi cert, I'm ssi) they both started an uncontrolled ascent as we neared the surface because they still had air in their bladders. I don't remember being taught about using the pull dumps as well (just the power inflators). Do to the depths we were diving it wasn't a big deal, but I could see it being a problem in the future.

If anything I've said is incorrect or bad practice let me know as I am still learning and appreciate constructive criticism.

I've never had compressed air/nitrox/trimix have any taste at all. Perhaps that was what was making you sick. Did you discuss it with the shop? Trace amounts of contaminates at the surface at 1 ATA can become problematic on a dive at 2 or 3 ATA, effectively doubling or tripling their concentration.

Belize Aggressor squirts some sort of mint spray in your regulator, if you want, to give it that fresh taste. I tried it once and then realized it could also cover up a bad air taste. Not saying that is what they were doing, just the way my thought process works.

I just finished my SSI OW. My instructor went over all of the different air dumps many times. He let us all try different ways of dumping air to find out what we are most comfortable with. Myself, I like the shoulder dump. If you have neutral buoyancy prior to ascending, you would dump air as you go up to keep a nice slow ascent. We were taught to use the inflator for this by holding it up with your left hand while ascending.

That's interesting that no one else has experienced the bad air taste. I've done 6 dives with Capt's corner out of Key West, and I like diving with these guys, but the taste of the air was down right nasty. My other dives have been fresh water, blue grotto, devil's den, gennie springs, etc and the air had no taste. Also, when I did my certification I don't remember the air having any taste either.

Acget,
I agree with you, JDC is one of the finest scuba diving operations in the country. In that no one else on-board appeared to suffer the same symtoms as you, along with your prior issues of "bad air" I suspect you have some hyper sensitivity issues with your respiration system. JDC is extremely well run and sure to change filters, Ect. on schedule or well before...

Scott,

I agree. JDC is well run, equipment is great and clean (I checked my buddies gear). The air I breathed at Capt's corner was enough to make me nauseous after a couple of breaths on the surface. I didn't notice it while diving. The air I got from JDC had a hint of that same odor and it was enough to make me notice and I thought If I took a few breaths it could make me a little nauseous.

I probably do have some hyper sensitivity. I brought this air "flavor" up more out of curiosity as to what causes this taste, rather than to complain about it. I really can't say enough positive things about the JDC shop. They are the best I have dove with thus far in my short diving career.

I have an Excursion also. I don't use the dump-able weight pockets at all. In fact, I leave them on the boat. I place all of my weight in the trim pockets. I typically only dive with 4 to 8lbs of weight and I've found that placing them in the trim pockets greatly reduced the face down tendency when on the surface.

You're only using 6 lbs of weight with an AL80? Perhaps you can try a steel tank on your next dive. Depending on size, you may not need any additional weight at all and I think you may enjoy the trim benefits of employing that setup. I only dive steel tanks and the weight I place in my BC is generally for trim only. Give that a try...

Quick question, does JDC operate their own dive boat? I did a dive down that way last year on a vessel called the Blue Tang. I don't recall which shop I was using but the boat crew was very professional under some fairly trying circumstances. I was impressed.

Levigarrett:

Quick question, does JDC operate their own dive boat? I did a dive down that way last year on a vessel called the Blue Tang. I don't recall which shop I was using but the boat crew was very professional under some fairly trying circumstances. I was impressed.

Click to expand...

JDC operates two good sized vessels. The Blue Tang is owned and operated by Scuba Works, a LDS also in Jupiter. Th Blue Tang has a wonderfull crew and is extremely fast (30+kts)..

I have dove with JDC several times over many years. I have always found them decent, friendly, good boats, nice shop. Like many Flariduh shops they tend to have a few to many rules, lol, but frankly they are a great dive center and a great place to dive with.

N