munselln8
Registered
Hey all,
Just thought I would take minute to post up on today's diving at Gilboa. My wife and I (who have done all of our dives together-30 ish) went out to Gilboa today and my wife specifically stated that she wanted to swim over to the north end (deep end) to see if we could spot some paddlefish. I had tried to get her to swim over there before, since someone mentioned the paddlefish liked to hang out around 30', but she would never do it because she knew the mgmt required a dive plan and approvals before going over there. So, I told her: "Listen this guy, Mike, I hear he is really strict and hardly let's anyone go over to the deep side"...this I had heard here on the boards. I had even heard some straight "tirades" about what a jerk he is for not letting "highly qualified" divers dive the deep end.
But she wanted to try it so when we got there we filled out our "deep dive" profiles and were told we would have to run them by Mike for approvals (apparently he has sole authority to approve or deny diving on the north side of the quarry).
At this point we see Mike...He has been busting his *ss filling tanks at the fill station. I mean, literally, he is filling 12 tanks at a time and has 16 more lined up waiting. So, we wait until he gets the next 12 tanks set up and we introduce ourselves.
Now, at this point I should outline our "deep dive" profile. We planned on descending to the platforms then swimming out to the tubes and dropping to around 40', then travelling due north for 4 minutes and then NE for 4 minutes before reversing our path; returning to the platform to do some OOA and SMB deployment drills during our safety stop. Total Dive time: 35 min... Max Depth: 40'.
Immediately Mike said...."well, I already have some concerns...." He talked about our number of dives, the depth on the deep end, our gear (which is good, but not totally suited for "real" deep diving)...He also asked us a lot of questions: How many dives have you done together? How is your Bouyancy? What if your reg free flows? What should your buddy arrangement look like?
All the while he seemed genuinely concerned that we should be safe at the end of the day. we answered all of his questions and, in the end, he approved our dive profile for the deep end. I kept thinking that he was gonna go off on us and deny the profile (since I had read the negative write-ups on this forum), but all the while he was respectful, yet concerned. Polite, yet very honest. He didn't like the number of dives in our log, he DID like that we had dived all of them together, He didn't....etc...etc...
I guess the point is...I felt like Mike did nothing less than I would have done to try my best to ensure that I was paying due diligence in keeping all of my souls safe. I am having a hard time reconciling all of the negativity I have read here on the board with the experience I had today...Mike just seemed like a really good guy who, yeah, has to worry about insurance companies and liabilities, etc...but also a guy who said, several times, that he had to be able to "go to sleep at night" knowing he did everything he could to keep his divers safe.
In the end we DID see our paddlefish. Two of them actually, or maybe the same one twice. But mostly I wanted to give Mike a big "Thumbs Up" for being concerned, critical and polite all at the same time. Thanks Mike! We had a great dive!
Just thought I would take minute to post up on today's diving at Gilboa. My wife and I (who have done all of our dives together-30 ish) went out to Gilboa today and my wife specifically stated that she wanted to swim over to the north end (deep end) to see if we could spot some paddlefish. I had tried to get her to swim over there before, since someone mentioned the paddlefish liked to hang out around 30', but she would never do it because she knew the mgmt required a dive plan and approvals before going over there. So, I told her: "Listen this guy, Mike, I hear he is really strict and hardly let's anyone go over to the deep side"...this I had heard here on the boards. I had even heard some straight "tirades" about what a jerk he is for not letting "highly qualified" divers dive the deep end.
But she wanted to try it so when we got there we filled out our "deep dive" profiles and were told we would have to run them by Mike for approvals (apparently he has sole authority to approve or deny diving on the north side of the quarry).
At this point we see Mike...He has been busting his *ss filling tanks at the fill station. I mean, literally, he is filling 12 tanks at a time and has 16 more lined up waiting. So, we wait until he gets the next 12 tanks set up and we introduce ourselves.
Now, at this point I should outline our "deep dive" profile. We planned on descending to the platforms then swimming out to the tubes and dropping to around 40', then travelling due north for 4 minutes and then NE for 4 minutes before reversing our path; returning to the platform to do some OOA and SMB deployment drills during our safety stop. Total Dive time: 35 min... Max Depth: 40'.
Immediately Mike said...."well, I already have some concerns...." He talked about our number of dives, the depth on the deep end, our gear (which is good, but not totally suited for "real" deep diving)...He also asked us a lot of questions: How many dives have you done together? How is your Bouyancy? What if your reg free flows? What should your buddy arrangement look like?
All the while he seemed genuinely concerned that we should be safe at the end of the day. we answered all of his questions and, in the end, he approved our dive profile for the deep end. I kept thinking that he was gonna go off on us and deny the profile (since I had read the negative write-ups on this forum), but all the while he was respectful, yet concerned. Polite, yet very honest. He didn't like the number of dives in our log, he DID like that we had dived all of them together, He didn't....etc...etc...
I guess the point is...I felt like Mike did nothing less than I would have done to try my best to ensure that I was paying due diligence in keeping all of my souls safe. I am having a hard time reconciling all of the negativity I have read here on the board with the experience I had today...Mike just seemed like a really good guy who, yeah, has to worry about insurance companies and liabilities, etc...but also a guy who said, several times, that he had to be able to "go to sleep at night" knowing he did everything he could to keep his divers safe.
In the end we DID see our paddlefish. Two of them actually, or maybe the same one twice. But mostly I wanted to give Mike a big "Thumbs Up" for being concerned, critical and polite all at the same time. Thanks Mike! We had a great dive!