Building on OW cert

[JackD342]

This Cleobulus Tomb discussion reminds me of Turtle Tomb.
Turtle Cavern - Sipadan
I had the opportunity to do this dive several years ago during a side trip on a visit to Singapore. They explained it in detail, including all of their safety precautions. (I think they set a couple of extra cylinders inside "just in case", IIRC)

Thought hard about it, thought hard again, then took a hard pass.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

This Cleobulus Tomb discussion reminds me of Turtle Tomb.
Turtle Cavern - Sipadan
I had the opportunity to do this dive several years ago during a side trip on a visit to Singapore. They explained it in detail, including all of their safety precautions. (I think they set a couple of extra cylinders inside "just in case", IIRC)

Thought hard about it, thought hard again, then took a hard pass.

Good call. Hate to get in there and “oops! We forgot to put the cylinders in there” or “oops! The valve was open and the reg was leaking slowly, so there isn’t much gas inside.”

Overheads are not to be underestimated.

 

[MichaelMc]

Yeah, no on that passage.

Lots of really dark passages in there. A lot of people hanging vertical kicking down at that silt. Some kicking it up already. Not real comfy on how they will handle any issues. I'm not cavern trained, its on my list for next, but my standard rig is sidemount. I'm not seeing a reason to do that dive, not with that crew, and especially not with that gear.

 

[Darcimus]

My 2 cents...
I also bought a Go Pro, put it in the corner of the pool and watched the video afterwards to improve my trim and frog kick.

Great idea. Going to try that one out next pool session. Did you just zip-tie it to a weight?

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Great idea. Going to try that one out next pool session. Did you just zip-tie it to a weight?

I'd suggest a weighted down tripod

 

[Divingblueberry]

Great idea. Going to try that one out next pool session. Did you just zip-tie it to a weight?

Nope. No need ; the weight of the camera was enough to keep it at the bottom. I put the camera in the corner, trying to cover as wide as possible and just practiced. I must admit it was quite helpful.

 

[Graeme Fraser]

Personally I had a not so good experience doing my AOW right after my OW.

Even though I told my instructor that I have very little experience and still issues controlling my buoyancy, he didn’t kept a check on me and left me with less than 50 bar after telling me to follow him during the deep dive. My buddy gave me the thumbs up after seeing my gauge as he didn’t know that the instructor planned to give me his octo later on.

With the confusion I didn’t stop for the full three mins at 6m and at some point lost control and went to the surface.

The instructor had lost me at this point and surfaced a lot later as he went to look for me./QUOTE]

Hi Bluetrin. I know this is a late reply to an old post, but I was flicking through this thread and was quite shocked to read of your AOW experience.

I must have this wrong, but are you saying that your instructor continued the deep dive knowing full well you did not have enough air and would need to use his alternate air source before the end of the dive?

 

[BlueTrin]

Yes he went to find the other guys as we were 5-6 students with 2 other divemasters if I remember correctly.

As soon as he left, my buddy arrived. I tried to signal that the instructor told me to wait a bit. But my buddy just told me to ascend.

Now that I have more experience, I realise my buddy was right.

At the surface my instructor said that he would have gotten back to me and given me his octo but now with the additional experience I think the instructor was just plain wrong.

Just the fact that he started screaming and looked so stressed when he ascended just prove that he thought he had lost me underwater.

It is possible that one of the divemasters was with me but the first person I saw coming to me wasn’t the DM but my buddy.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

I think the instructor was just plain wrong..

Yes he was. But hopefully he learned from it on managing a group of students

 

[Graeme Fraser]

Yes he went to find the other guys as we were 5-6 students with 2 other divemasters if I remember correctly.

As soon as he left, my buddy arrived. I tried to signal that the instructor told me to wait a bit. But my buddy just told me to ascend.

Now that I have more experience, I realise my buddy was right.

At the surface my instructor said that he would have gotten back to me and given me his octo but now with the additional experience I think the instructor was just plain wrong.

Just the fact that he started screaming and looked so stressed when he ascended just prove that he thought he had lost me underwater.

It is possible that one of the divemasters was with me but the first person I saw coming to me wasn’t the DM but my buddy.

Full credit to your buddy for being on the case. Sounds like it's difficult to know exactly what happened in a confused situation with, what I assume, was limited viz. As wetb4 said, hopefully your instructor learned a valuable lesson. I won't ask you who the school was but, as you're in London, was the site at the end of the runway of a very large airport?