Divemaster Mapping Project - Tips anyone?

[jldodd]

Those are some great tips! Thanks!

Graph Paper.
Protractor
Clipboard and Pencil
Compass.
300' reel with knots every ten (20,30, depends on vis) feet.


Run Reel out from entry point and note, depth and structures at every knot. Stick to a course heading on your compass in a straight line. Come back to double check your data.

Once on shore, use the protractor to note direction/heading on graph paper using the graphing intersections to represent a knot on the reel. Move five degrees (depending on vis) to the right (I guess I should mention to start at far left if not doing a 360 degree map). and repeat.

Doing this exercise in a team is great.

At the end of this exercise, you should have some good compass skills, better reel skills, better UW cartography and should know every nook and cranny of that dive site. If you did it in a team fashion ... you should have also developed better team building skills which is essential in dive training and leadership.

jcf

 

[--tom--]

Ooooh, I love all this analog stuff!
Get your clip board/wet notes/slate (to mark the why you are putting flags on your download-able dive profile in your computer). Put your GPS on a float and a tow line. Sync the GPS time to your computer timer and do frequent touches to the bottom/feature - keep notes while you are towing the GPS (that will give shape + depth and/or height of the feature). Take the GPS coodinates, overlay it on Google maps (remember magnetic vs true North corrections) and use land features for line-of-site triangulation navigating with the added benefit of accurate distances. Then mark in the features/POI on the overlay.

The mapping project I was involved in was about 400 yards off shore & it took about 12 dives each with 3 members in the team. We verified our results with a night dive. It's a really fun project.

 

[wannabedivin]

Try this link. There are several DM maps

Puget Sound Diving and Hood Canal Dive Site Maps and Directions to Washington Dive Sites

 

[junior2725]

I'm getting ready to start my mapping project and everyone's advice has really helped. Thanks for all of your recommendations. I'm looking forward to getting this done.

 

[twashowich]

What agency requires this to be Dive Master? I just completed Dm and never heard of anything like that.....I am NAUI...

 

[junior2725]

What agency requires this to be Dive Master? I just completed Dm and never heard of anything like that.....I am NAUI...

I'm not sure about NAUI or any other agency, but I am working on my Padi DM and we have to do a mapping project as part of our DM

 

[fisherdvm]

I did mine in a small lake. I chose three major shore structures, and combined that with a satelite map that matched the seasonal maximum water level when I dove.

I triangulated the major structures to pinpoint their location, and applied the triangulated angles to the map with the 3 structures. I did fin kick count of the distances to smaller structures. I carried a cheap disposable tape ruler to measure dimentions of structures.

With a buddy, we did a couple of passes to determine depth at various distances, but it wasn't very accurate... it is hard to do kick count with varying depths and with a stupid large tablet I had in my hand. So use a very small tablet if you were out to write notes, so you'd have less drag than I did.

It took me 3 tanks to finish the project.