mruseless
Contributor
So after my previous two posts detailing my Fundies quest, I have another report!
We stuck with our plan, which was to
(1) practice skills while on the Cayman Aggressor, then
(2) take GUE Drysuit after returning to Colorado, and finally
(3) finish our Drysuit and Fundies at the same time in Rock Lake, NM
Drysuit was an easy class compared to Fundies, no math! I experienced a LOT of squeeze in the pool, especially in the crotch while at the surface. It was almost unbearable. However, I was wearing only board shorts and a T-shirt so that may have been some of the problem. A speedo or at least athetic underwear would help, um, keep everything where it is supposed to be.
The following weekend we drove the 5 hours to Rock Lake, and both Shelley and I were very excited to get in the water and get going. Water temp was 60 degrees F. We were a little nervous since this would be our first real drysuit dives and with more substantial undergarments. Our weighting was a real question mark.
Rob had Tech 1 students there too, so he went on a deep dive with them while Shelley and I took a couple short dives (30 min each) to sort out our buoyancy and weight with the drysuit and run through some skills. I noticed the squeeze I was dreading was not nearly as bad now that I had proper undergarments on. I fiddled a lot with the dump valve, trying to find the right amount of air in the suit. I had a rented TLS350 from Rob's shop. It was a stock Large and fit me perfectly, however, I felt that it was very easy to get too much air in the legs. Eventually I just settled for keeping the valve all the way open and dealing with some sqeeze and being a touch cold. I was wearing 14 pounds with an aluminum backplate and STA. The other students were surprised I was wearing so little weight.
Then out came the dreaded video camera. Why is everything more difficult with a camera in your face? Shelley and I did 4 more dives that day (Saturday), the longest being 35 minutes and shortest at about 18 minutes. We ran pretty much along the dive schedule listed in the Fundies class materials. Kicks, and S-Drills on every dive, along with Basic 5, SMB, and shared-air propulsion, shared-air maneuvering, and shared-air ascent. All the while getting better with drysuit trim and buoyancy. On the last dive of the day we focused on the drysuit skills (suit inflator disconnect, wing inflator disconnect, managing a runaway ascent and feet-first ascent, and freeflow reg). 6 dives in a day, I was definitely getting better at getting in and out of a drysuit if nothing else
That night we all had dinner together, then a couple beers while doing video review of both the Tech 1 students and our Fundies class. It was very interesting watching the drills and skills the Tech 1 divers were working on. Shelley was intrigued too, but not enough to express interest in re-doing Fundies in doubles Overall we looked pretty good, especially considering it was our first real dives in drysuits. The only real problem we experienced was on a shared-air SMB ascent. Shelley was the donor and so was shooting the bag. She had some buoyancy issues when heavily task loaded and almost had an out of control ascent. I was almost trying to hold her down by the long hose. But she got it under control and we finished the dive. She was a little pissed, though.
Sunday we got started early so we could get in a couple more dives before driving back to Denver. The plan was to do either one longer dive or two short dives. We decided on one dive to 60 feet (the max depth for Fundies work), turn the dive at 1500 psi, ascend to 40 feet and return. We would do an S-Drill at the very start, and an air-share at about 3/4 of the way back. Then one of us would shoot an SMB while sharing air, tie it off to the rocks at 40 feet. We would then swim, still sharing air, back to the dock. The other team member would then shoot a bag and we would do a shared-air ascent up the line. Shelley shot the first bag, and had buoyancy issues again. Not as bad as the day before, but still not good enough. I had no problems with my bag and our up-the-line-ascent went well.
Out of the water, Shelley was really upset about her performance. Rob at this point gave her a choice. He said that since everything was very solid except for that one skill, she could either get back in the water with him and try one more time, or get a Provisional and come back later to test again. I told Rob that if she gets a Provisional then I should get one too, after all, we are a team. She decided to give it one more try since she was already suited up. Good thing she did, she nailed it!
Rob gave us both a Rec Pass, which he said is quite rare and he's only given a full Pass a couple times previously.
Yes, I know this is only the beginning and not the end, but I have to say Yeehaa! and I've very proud of what we were able to accomplish!
We stuck with our plan, which was to
(1) practice skills while on the Cayman Aggressor, then
(2) take GUE Drysuit after returning to Colorado, and finally
(3) finish our Drysuit and Fundies at the same time in Rock Lake, NM
Drysuit was an easy class compared to Fundies, no math! I experienced a LOT of squeeze in the pool, especially in the crotch while at the surface. It was almost unbearable. However, I was wearing only board shorts and a T-shirt so that may have been some of the problem. A speedo or at least athetic underwear would help, um, keep everything where it is supposed to be.
The following weekend we drove the 5 hours to Rock Lake, and both Shelley and I were very excited to get in the water and get going. Water temp was 60 degrees F. We were a little nervous since this would be our first real drysuit dives and with more substantial undergarments. Our weighting was a real question mark.
Rob had Tech 1 students there too, so he went on a deep dive with them while Shelley and I took a couple short dives (30 min each) to sort out our buoyancy and weight with the drysuit and run through some skills. I noticed the squeeze I was dreading was not nearly as bad now that I had proper undergarments on. I fiddled a lot with the dump valve, trying to find the right amount of air in the suit. I had a rented TLS350 from Rob's shop. It was a stock Large and fit me perfectly, however, I felt that it was very easy to get too much air in the legs. Eventually I just settled for keeping the valve all the way open and dealing with some sqeeze and being a touch cold. I was wearing 14 pounds with an aluminum backplate and STA. The other students were surprised I was wearing so little weight.
Then out came the dreaded video camera. Why is everything more difficult with a camera in your face? Shelley and I did 4 more dives that day (Saturday), the longest being 35 minutes and shortest at about 18 minutes. We ran pretty much along the dive schedule listed in the Fundies class materials. Kicks, and S-Drills on every dive, along with Basic 5, SMB, and shared-air propulsion, shared-air maneuvering, and shared-air ascent. All the while getting better with drysuit trim and buoyancy. On the last dive of the day we focused on the drysuit skills (suit inflator disconnect, wing inflator disconnect, managing a runaway ascent and feet-first ascent, and freeflow reg). 6 dives in a day, I was definitely getting better at getting in and out of a drysuit if nothing else
That night we all had dinner together, then a couple beers while doing video review of both the Tech 1 students and our Fundies class. It was very interesting watching the drills and skills the Tech 1 divers were working on. Shelley was intrigued too, but not enough to express interest in re-doing Fundies in doubles
Overall we looked pretty good, especially considering it was our first real dives in drysuits. The only real problem we experienced was on a shared-air SMB ascent. Shelley was the donor and so was shooting the bag. She had some buoyancy issues when heavily task loaded and almost had an out of control ascent. I was almost trying to hold her down by the long hose. But she got it under control and we finished the dive. She was a little pissed, though.Sunday we got started early so we could get in a couple more dives before driving back to Denver. The plan was to do either one longer dive or two short dives. We decided on one dive to 60 feet (the max depth for Fundies work), turn the dive at 1500 psi, ascend to 40 feet and return. We would do an S-Drill at the very start, and an air-share at about 3/4 of the way back. Then one of us would shoot an SMB while sharing air, tie it off to the rocks at 40 feet. We would then swim, still sharing air, back to the dock. The other team member would then shoot a bag and we would do a shared-air ascent up the line. Shelley shot the first bag, and had buoyancy issues again. Not as bad as the day before, but still not good enough. I had no problems with my bag and our up-the-line-ascent went well.
Out of the water, Shelley was really upset about her performance. Rob at this point gave her a choice. He said that since everything was very solid except for that one skill, she could either get back in the water with him and try one more time, or get a Provisional and come back later to test again. I told Rob that if she gets a Provisional then I should get one too, after all, we are a team. She decided to give it one more try since she was already suited up. Good thing she did, she nailed it!
Rob gave us both a Rec Pass, which he said is quite rare and he's only given a full Pass a couple times previously.
Yes, I know this is only the beginning and not the end, but I have to say Yeehaa! and I've very proud of what we were able to accomplish!
