I rarely "follow the crowd" but decided I'd share my OW cert dive info too since I seem to have read a bunch of them today.
I did my dives on Memorial day weekend (May 31st weekend for those not in the USA) here at Millbrook quarry in Virginia with a referral from a dive shop out in Arizona. I had a bit of annoyance with the dive shop because they quoted me a price which they intimated would include certain rentals (but not all) and then charged me for the rentals that were implied as covered in the referral cost. No big deal, mis-communication, but one more reason us newbies should be very clear in our understanding going into a class/shop situation. Another thing I found was the shop didn't give a lot of info in the way of suggestions for keeping warm, as I've read many of here on the board (like hot water for between dives) but they did give good info about getting to the quarry and what was (or more specifically wasn't) available there.
The quarry usually stays in the mid 40s (Fahrenheit) below the thermocline and is in the mid 50s above that with surface temps around 75 or so. I get cold very easily so I layered up my suits to have a ton of wet coverage.
So Saturday morning I got to the quarry and found my instructor. Only one other student with me and the instructor and two other DMs who were tagging along (which we didn't know about until after the first dive), so a really great ratio of "instructor" to student, which turned out to be fantastic.
Pre-dive discussions were good and the instructor was very clear about our objectives for the dive.
The other student had issues getting her mask seated properly and tried to bail but the instructor was very patient and I was in no hurry so we finally got her situated and comfortable then started our dive. I became the de-facto "tag along" so the instructor could give the other student a little more personal attention, which I found scary as hell but a little reassuring at the same time. Reassuring because the instructor obviously felt comfortable with my apparent comfort level to trust I would follow his instructions and do what was necessary. Scary because I hadn't done this before but I was sure excited.
We do a quick dive down to the platform get settled then do a "swim around" without really doing significant skills checks. The instructor was very good about looking back at me and checking my comfort but primarily focused on his other student. I did have significant issues with fogging and constantly had to clear my mask. On one occasion I went vertical to do so and kept kicking without realizing it, and shot to the surface. That's when I found out the DMs were following us because one grabbed me and kept me down and helped me out. After the dive, we had a lot of good comments and suggestions. Apparently I was fairly good about movement conservation and checking my console often, which I was trying to be diligent about since I was really comfortable with the swimming and breathing and couldn't see well enough to be distracted by anything else. I missed a lot of the sights.
The second dive on Saturday was a more thorough skills check and I tried some other defog goop, which helped a bit. I also dropped 2 pounds of weight because I was clearly overweighted at depth. I was cold by the end of the day though despite having a ridiculous amount of neoprene on my body.
Max depth for both dives (I was a little overweighted) was about 35 ffw for me and temp at depth read 46 on my computer.
Sunday arrived and we had two extra students but picked up two more DMs also so we still had a very good ratio. We had another very good pre-dive brief and went through our drills. We did a shared air ascents (again) and once again I had another inadvertent ascent while following along behind my instructor and the same student. I've determined that I obviously need work on buoyancy but a big factor was the amount of neoprene I was wearing. With 13 mm on my core I had a big difference in buoyancy as I went deeper and I'm just not experienced enough to compensate properly.
Our final dive was strictly a navigation dive and I got partnered with my fellow student from Saturday while the instructors just watched the students. I was far more comfortable navigating because I do it regularly above the surface so she primarily watched depth while I watched heading. We did switch off but we were essentially swimming in straight lines so it wasn't too difficult. I did find I really enjoyed the comfort of having her hold onto my arm the whole time.
By the end of our last dive, however, I was beginning to shiver significantly and was really going through my air quickly as a result. Our last skill was to do an OOA ascent and I went first since I was within 100 pounds of reaching our 500 pound limit anyway.
After all was said and done, the dives turned out great and I was very pleased with the instruction. Any time I needed help I got it, and the communication above and below the surface was great. Having an obvious comfort level between the instructor and various DMs was reassuring for me and seemed to be for the other student(s) as well.
I still don't like cold water but I'll probably be diving in the quarry occasionally just to get some more practice with buoyancy and general skills. Now the goal is to find people to do those local dives with and of course upcoming trips to warmer climates.
I did my dives on Memorial day weekend (May 31st weekend for those not in the USA) here at Millbrook quarry in Virginia with a referral from a dive shop out in Arizona. I had a bit of annoyance with the dive shop because they quoted me a price which they intimated would include certain rentals (but not all) and then charged me for the rentals that were implied as covered in the referral cost. No big deal, mis-communication, but one more reason us newbies should be very clear in our understanding going into a class/shop situation. Another thing I found was the shop didn't give a lot of info in the way of suggestions for keeping warm, as I've read many of here on the board (like hot water for between dives) but they did give good info about getting to the quarry and what was (or more specifically wasn't) available there.
The quarry usually stays in the mid 40s (Fahrenheit) below the thermocline and is in the mid 50s above that with surface temps around 75 or so. I get cold very easily so I layered up my suits to have a ton of wet coverage.
So Saturday morning I got to the quarry and found my instructor. Only one other student with me and the instructor and two other DMs who were tagging along (which we didn't know about until after the first dive), so a really great ratio of "instructor" to student, which turned out to be fantastic.
Pre-dive discussions were good and the instructor was very clear about our objectives for the dive.
The other student had issues getting her mask seated properly and tried to bail but the instructor was very patient and I was in no hurry so we finally got her situated and comfortable then started our dive. I became the de-facto "tag along" so the instructor could give the other student a little more personal attention, which I found scary as hell but a little reassuring at the same time. Reassuring because the instructor obviously felt comfortable with my apparent comfort level to trust I would follow his instructions and do what was necessary. Scary because I hadn't done this before but I was sure excited.
We do a quick dive down to the platform get settled then do a "swim around" without really doing significant skills checks. The instructor was very good about looking back at me and checking my comfort but primarily focused on his other student. I did have significant issues with fogging and constantly had to clear my mask. On one occasion I went vertical to do so and kept kicking without realizing it, and shot to the surface. That's when I found out the DMs were following us because one grabbed me and kept me down and helped me out. After the dive, we had a lot of good comments and suggestions. Apparently I was fairly good about movement conservation and checking my console often, which I was trying to be diligent about since I was really comfortable with the swimming and breathing and couldn't see well enough to be distracted by anything else. I missed a lot of the sights.
The second dive on Saturday was a more thorough skills check and I tried some other defog goop, which helped a bit. I also dropped 2 pounds of weight because I was clearly overweighted at depth. I was cold by the end of the day though despite having a ridiculous amount of neoprene on my body.
Max depth for both dives (I was a little overweighted) was about 35 ffw for me and temp at depth read 46 on my computer.
Sunday arrived and we had two extra students but picked up two more DMs also so we still had a very good ratio. We had another very good pre-dive brief and went through our drills. We did a shared air ascents (again) and once again I had another inadvertent ascent while following along behind my instructor and the same student. I've determined that I obviously need work on buoyancy but a big factor was the amount of neoprene I was wearing. With 13 mm on my core I had a big difference in buoyancy as I went deeper and I'm just not experienced enough to compensate properly.
Our final dive was strictly a navigation dive and I got partnered with my fellow student from Saturday while the instructors just watched the students. I was far more comfortable navigating because I do it regularly above the surface so she primarily watched depth while I watched heading. We did switch off but we were essentially swimming in straight lines so it wasn't too difficult. I did find I really enjoyed the comfort of having her hold onto my arm the whole time.
By the end of our last dive, however, I was beginning to shiver significantly and was really going through my air quickly as a result. Our last skill was to do an OOA ascent and I went first since I was within 100 pounds of reaching our 500 pound limit anyway.
After all was said and done, the dives turned out great and I was very pleased with the instruction. Any time I needed help I got it, and the communication above and below the surface was great. Having an obvious comfort level between the instructor and various DMs was reassuring for me and seemed to be for the other student(s) as well.
I still don't like cold water but I'll probably be diving in the quarry occasionally just to get some more practice with buoyancy and general skills. Now the goal is to find people to do those local dives with and of course upcoming trips to warmer climates.
