Dody
Contributor
We were three: the DM, me and my wife and partner in dive.
Everyone with a 12 liters steel tank pressurized at 210 bars. No pony. Just a cylinder with reg and octopus at safety stop (5m) on the anchor line.
Sunny weather air 27 degrees C. Water temperature 26 degrees C.
Calm water at the surface.
(Small fishing) Boat dive.
This was the last SSI deep dive training session.
Back roll entry then regroup at the surface and descend to a 12 meters underwater sand platform. I am glad that I finally managed to continuously equalize my ears as the first 6 meters have been awful in a handful previous dives. No problem this time. Kneeling at the bottom: Buoyancy control: ok, mask integrity: ok, breathing rhythm: ok. SPG: ok. Computer: ok. Viz: 20 m. The dive starts at a slow pace. It is actually a slope dive where you gradually descend. So gradually that my eyes fail to inform me ( I need to work on that). If my ears did not let me know every 0,3 or 0,5 bar pressure increase, I would dive oblivious of the descent (without the gauge and computer). The dive plan is clear, we start shallow (less than 20 meters) for a very limited time so that we are comfortable with our sensations then if everyone is ok, we go deep. 10 minutes after water entry, the DM gives the descend sign. SPG at 180/ 190 bars for everyone ( strangely, in our last dives, the three of us seem to have almost the very same gas consumption). It is still a slope. The scenery and aqualife are mesmerizing at such a point that I am surprised when my computer alerts me that I am approaching 40 meters. I must have equalized mechanically. We still have light from the surface. I was expecting dark, cold temperature, a new world but nothing really. No Nitrogen narcosis ( I was disappointed as I said that I wanted to face it and beat it. Don't call me fool please. I like making jokes). My previous max depth was 33.4 and as we stop at 40.5, there is no new feeling. However, for a recreational diver, 40 is the saint barrier. The ultimate psychological goal. And we are happy ( Even if it is not the first time for the DM, he played along). As we are congratulating each other (40,5 m might not be much for some but it was an achievement for my wife and I), computers start beeping: 1 minutes to NDL. WTF! We must have descended too slow and spend too much time between 30 and 40.
Damned! We can’t stay any longer. And we forgot the camera ( no picture to immortalize the moment). SPG at 150/ 160 and going down fast. We started to ascend parallel to the wall reef that was the end of the dive and guess what? Impossible to reach the reef. An adverse strong horizontal current has decided otherwise. I knew it was too easy before. You need to deserve it. No panic ( Good Lord, bless the dive briefing), my wife and I decide not to fight the current and slowly ascend while being dragged ( we have a boat at the surface and the "skipper" is very good). At some point my wife joins hands and then the macho surfaces
. You wife count on you, man. Don't f... up! Show confidence and control. As we ascend, I monitor my depth and realize that we are not progressing. It must have been 30 seconds that we are flipping upwards and we only moved from 40 to 37. What's wrong? Usually, it is the other way around. We must slow down not to ascend too fast. Is there a physical bareer that no one on SB told me about? Is the situation serious? Then my brain takes over. What if? What if we can't ascend as planned? What should I do? Is there a down current (not uncommon)? Think, think, think fast? Your wife's life depends on you. Don't panic, don't get exhausted, think then act accordingly. I decided to increase the amplitude of my flips but not the frequency so that I could keep my breathing steady. I fought the urge to inflate our BCDs (we are still breathing and we have air so there is no immediate emergency) and I made a very quick calculation (worst case scenario, we consume 5 times our SAC. 5x11 l/min round to 12, it is 60 l/min. with 150 bar that is 1800 liters, we have 30 min so no need to panic). So we continued to fin. Then, the computer again. Stop at 20 meters: 2 minutes. At this point, I would have been happy to be at 20 meters but I realized that I was at 28. Relief. We continued finning calmly and at about 25 meters, we saw the most magnificent reef we had ever seen. Wonderful colors but mainly yellow. Never seen such a beautiful scenery even at the Louvres. My wife released my hand grip and we swam towards the reef as there was no current there. I decided that we would do the stop there and inform the DM. The DM was slightly above us, still in control. I don't know how long we stayed there but probably more than 2 minutes. Then the computer said: 12 meters - 2 minutes stop. So we ascended, complied with the stop and went to 5 meters for the 5 minutes stop (computer said 2 minutes). We surfaced with 40 bars without using the safety cylinder.
Summary:
Total dive time: 40 minutes.
Max depth: 40,5 meters
When we surfaced, I was the proudest man underseas. My wife said: this is the most enjoyable dive we've had (so far, all my dives have been with her). It was WONDERFUL!!! And then I said: it was hot at some point when you took my hand and she replied: I was enjoying it so much, our first real challenging dive, a real wonderful dive, that I wanted to physically share it with you. I loved it. Let's come back tomorrow. So much for the guy who thought he was the hero of the day.
We do not intend to go deeper than 40 meters anytime soon unless we decide to go for tech diving one day ( not before 2021 H2). We do not even intend to go back to 40 meters just for the sake of it but only if there is something to see but this dive has been an achievement, a consecration and a confirmation that diving will now be a big part of our life.
It’s been a wonderful 50 days journey from the day we visited a dive shop for the first time to now AOW with 37 dives. And that's only the beginning. Even if we are both 51 years old.
Everyone with a 12 liters steel tank pressurized at 210 bars. No pony. Just a cylinder with reg and octopus at safety stop (5m) on the anchor line.
Sunny weather air 27 degrees C. Water temperature 26 degrees C.
Calm water at the surface.
(Small fishing) Boat dive.
This was the last SSI deep dive training session.
Back roll entry then regroup at the surface and descend to a 12 meters underwater sand platform. I am glad that I finally managed to continuously equalize my ears as the first 6 meters have been awful in a handful previous dives. No problem this time. Kneeling at the bottom: Buoyancy control: ok, mask integrity: ok, breathing rhythm: ok. SPG: ok. Computer: ok. Viz: 20 m. The dive starts at a slow pace. It is actually a slope dive where you gradually descend. So gradually that my eyes fail to inform me ( I need to work on that). If my ears did not let me know every 0,3 or 0,5 bar pressure increase, I would dive oblivious of the descent (without the gauge and computer). The dive plan is clear, we start shallow (less than 20 meters) for a very limited time so that we are comfortable with our sensations then if everyone is ok, we go deep. 10 minutes after water entry, the DM gives the descend sign. SPG at 180/ 190 bars for everyone ( strangely, in our last dives, the three of us seem to have almost the very same gas consumption). It is still a slope. The scenery and aqualife are mesmerizing at such a point that I am surprised when my computer alerts me that I am approaching 40 meters. I must have equalized mechanically. We still have light from the surface. I was expecting dark, cold temperature, a new world but nothing really. No Nitrogen narcosis ( I was disappointed as I said that I wanted to face it and beat it. Don't call me fool please. I like making jokes). My previous max depth was 33.4 and as we stop at 40.5, there is no new feeling. However, for a recreational diver, 40 is the saint barrier. The ultimate psychological goal. And we are happy ( Even if it is not the first time for the DM, he played along). As we are congratulating each other (40,5 m might not be much for some but it was an achievement for my wife and I), computers start beeping: 1 minutes to NDL. WTF! We must have descended too slow and spend too much time between 30 and 40.
Damned! We can’t stay any longer. And we forgot the camera ( no picture to immortalize the moment). SPG at 150/ 160 and going down fast. We started to ascend parallel to the wall reef that was the end of the dive and guess what? Impossible to reach the reef. An adverse strong horizontal current has decided otherwise. I knew it was too easy before. You need to deserve it. No panic ( Good Lord, bless the dive briefing), my wife and I decide not to fight the current and slowly ascend while being dragged ( we have a boat at the surface and the "skipper" is very good). At some point my wife joins hands and then the macho surfaces
. You wife count on you, man. Don't f... up! Show confidence and control. As we ascend, I monitor my depth and realize that we are not progressing. It must have been 30 seconds that we are flipping upwards and we only moved from 40 to 37. What's wrong? Usually, it is the other way around. We must slow down not to ascend too fast. Is there a physical bareer that no one on SB told me about? Is the situation serious? Then my brain takes over. What if? What if we can't ascend as planned? What should I do? Is there a down current (not uncommon)? Think, think, think fast? Your wife's life depends on you. Don't panic, don't get exhausted, think then act accordingly. I decided to increase the amplitude of my flips but not the frequency so that I could keep my breathing steady. I fought the urge to inflate our BCDs (we are still breathing and we have air so there is no immediate emergency) and I made a very quick calculation (worst case scenario, we consume 5 times our SAC. 5x11 l/min round to 12, it is 60 l/min. with 150 bar that is 1800 liters, we have 30 min so no need to panic). So we continued to fin. Then, the computer again. Stop at 20 meters: 2 minutes. At this point, I would have been happy to be at 20 meters but I realized that I was at 28. Relief. We continued finning calmly and at about 25 meters, we saw the most magnificent reef we had ever seen. Wonderful colors but mainly yellow. Never seen such a beautiful scenery even at the Louvres. My wife released my hand grip and we swam towards the reef as there was no current there. I decided that we would do the stop there and inform the DM. The DM was slightly above us, still in control. I don't know how long we stayed there but probably more than 2 minutes. Then the computer said: 12 meters - 2 minutes stop. So we ascended, complied with the stop and went to 5 meters for the 5 minutes stop (computer said 2 minutes). We surfaced with 40 bars without using the safety cylinder.Summary:
Total dive time: 40 minutes.
Max depth: 40,5 meters
When we surfaced, I was the proudest man underseas. My wife said: this is the most enjoyable dive we've had (so far, all my dives have been with her). It was WONDERFUL!!! And then I said: it was hot at some point when you took my hand and she replied: I was enjoying it so much, our first real challenging dive, a real wonderful dive, that I wanted to physically share it with you. I loved it. Let's come back tomorrow. So much for the guy who thought he was the hero of the day
.We do not intend to go deeper than 40 meters anytime soon unless we decide to go for tech diving one day ( not before 2021 H2). We do not even intend to go back to 40 meters just for the sake of it but only if there is something to see but this dive has been an achievement, a consecration and a confirmation that diving will now be a big part of our life.
It’s been a wonderful 50 days journey from the day we visited a dive shop for the first time to now AOW with 37 dives. And that's only the beginning. Even if we are both 51 years old.
