devolution365
Contributor
I was PADI certified 7 years ago, but hadn't been diving since then. After a few snorkeling trips my fiance decided to get certified before we went on our wedding cruise in January and I took a refresher at the same time. Well, we're back. Here's the story of our first ocean dive...
The alarm went off on Tuesday morning at an hour that was never meant to be seen by vacationers. Luckily, the excitement of our first "real" dive enabled us to get out of bed, grab our gear, and meet the other divers at the dive shop aboard Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas.
At the ship's dive shop we rented 3mil shorties for $10 apiece. The rest of our equipment we rented from the land-based dive shop, Water World Outfitters. After getting off the ship, we did a brief stop at their store for some people to pick up masks, snorkels, and fins, then we headed for the dive boat "Reef Safari" owned by Underwater Safari.
On the dive boat our equipment was all set up already. The Dive Master just showed everyone to a BC and tank that would fit them and we were underway. From here I had no idea what to do, so I just watched everyone else. We unpacked our bag, piled our mask, snorkel, and fins out of the way, clipped our whistle and Sensus Pro's to our BC's with some carabiners I brought along, then I put my EMT shears, flashlight, and DiveRite notepad in my BC pocket. The didn't dive with the sausages we brought -I had no idea where to clip them. We figured we'd play with them next time we went to the quarry.
Shortly after we were underway, the DM started handing out weight. Neither Ed nor I knew how much we needed, so the DM made his best guess. I (5'2", 135lbs) had 12lbs, which was perfect. Ed ended up needing 2lbs more on the 2nd dive, but that's still pretty accurate!
Next came the pre-dive briefing which we listened to as we started getting into our wetsuits. The DM explained that there were something like 18 divers on board, 6 students and 12 certified divers. We'd dive as 2 groups, each going a different direction on both dives. We would do both a reef dive and a wreck dive without the boat moving in-between. They explained in detail how the dives would go, then showed us the fresh water that was available onboard and encouraged us to keep hydrated. A drybox was available and they pointed that out as well as the safety equipment: oxygen, the CB set on the emergency channel, and a cool little capsule that'd deploy if the boat sank which would send out our location via GPS so that we could be found.
Soon after he was done talking, we arrived at our dive spot where we were the 3rd boat I think. The other boats just had snorkelers aboard, so they said the sites wouldn't be croweded at all.
Ed and I started gearing up. -We pretty must just continued to watch the others and we did what they did the whole time. When it came time to get the BC on, the DM was there to help. When I needed help finding the reg, the DM was there again. He checked me over, I checked my pressure guage (3100psi) and jumped in. The water was a nice warm 80 degrees. Much better than the 70 degree quarry with it's 55*F thermocline we were in in September! -This was also my first dive with a camera, so the DM was also nice enough to hand that down to me after I jumped in because I had no idea how to hold it along with my guages, mask, reg, etc. Shortly after I was in, Ed jumped in, and we switched from our reg to our snorkels to conserve air while the others got in the water.
When everyone was in, the DM gave us the okay to go down. While waiting for everyone to get down Ed and I adjusted our BC's to get neutral. The DM soon signaled for us to follow him. The "reef" was basically a pile of rocks with some coral and sponges growing on them. There was enough to see, but it wasn't nearly as nice as some I've seen while snorkeling. We saw plenty of yellowtails, though, along with some squirrelfish, a big blowfish, and a small sea turtle! There were some bright purple sponges (at least I think they were sponges), coral, sea fans, etc that made for nice scenery too. -I took pictures here and there, but my #1 priority was maintaining buoyancy, so sometimes I missed pictures instead of bouncing off the bottom or floating up towards the surface. Others in our group were less careful, though -a couple people were seen standing on rock piles to take pictures or accidentally bumping into coral. Gah! Anyway, we toured around a bit, then our ascent was slow. Max depth was around 65 feet and we were down for about 40min including a 3min safety stop which I held without any problems. Ed had to swim a bit to hold the stop because he was slightly underweighted, but he did it without too much trouble.
After surfacing both Ed and I had big grins on our faces. I struggled to get my fins off at the ladder (I might need to get some spring straps), handed them to the DM, and climbed back on board. Wow that equipment is heavy! Climbing the ladder was difficult with all that weight, but again the DM was there to help pull me up once I got up a step or two so he could reach me.
The assistant DM helped me out of my equipment, then Ed and I headed for a sunny spot to warm up. After a short break while our BC's were switched to fresh tanks we put the equipment back on, Ed got 2 more pounds of weight, and we jumped off the other side of the boat for the wreck dive.
The wreck we dove, the DM told us, was a drug boat originally sunk by the coast guard in about 80-100 feet of water. After a hurricane threw it up on land, in ended up back in the water where it now sits in 3 pieces at about 40-50 feet. A short swim brought us to the hull where Ed gave me "ok" signs with both hands and had a big grin on his face that could be seen even behind his regulator! We toured this piece for awhile and saw lots of sargeant major fish swimming around. Again, there were a couple of idiots standing on the wreck taking pictures. Some coral had started to grow on the boat, but not a whole lot. I'm sure the divers thought they weren't causing damage, but I can definitely see why we weren't taken to a better reef. I also understand the complaints about new divers, "reef divers", divers with cameras, etc. They're definitely a minority, but they make all of us newbies, photographers, and WWW's look bad.
After touring the hull, the DM banged his tank to signal us to follow him again. This time we saw the engine room. 2 engines were clearly visible (Ed and I are car geeks, so we thought they were cool) and as we were looking around someone ahead was pointing at something down inside the wreck. We swam towards them and finally I saw what they were pointing at. It was a barracuda -about 3 feet long! He poked his head out from down inside the wreck and slowly swam out so I could get his picture! ;-)
After that one by one we made our way over to the engine room where the ship had been broken in two. During the briefing for this dive, the DM explained that there was a small swim-through -entirely optional. I was hoping all along for a swim-through and Ed and I discussed the "what-if" incase we had the opportunity -what would we be comfortable with as new divers? Well, we were both okay with this one! We just had to swim inside an empty room about 8 feet square and the whole side where we entered was open for escape. The DM was inside, standing under the 2.5-3 foot hole. We swam up to him, took a deep breath to start ascending up towards the hole, and the DM gave our tank a little push to help us out. It was easy, and a lot of fun. When everyone had gone through the DM banged his tank again and we headed to the 3rd piece of the ship for a quick look. There we saw more yellowtails, sargeant majors, and more purple sponges.
Another bang signaled that it was time to head back to the boat. As we swam we heard a low humming noise and everyone started looking around. It grew louder and louder and finally I saw a boat moving fast straight above us. We had no dive flag -I assumed the area was marked off so that boats didn't go through it, but I guess not! Anyway, we were still at about 30 feet, so we were all fine, but it was a little scary!
The rest of the swim back was non-eventful and we slowly ascended as we swam so when we got back to the boat we just held our safety stop. Both Ed and I easily held 20 feet whole time although several of the other divers stayed down and horsed around the whole time despite the DM trying to get them to get back with him at 20 feet.
After that we boarded the same as before and Ed and I agreed we'd be diving again ASAP -including more practice at the quarry this summer. Neither one of us can wait to dive again!
Newbie mistakes: I didn't check that my BC was inflated before jumping in. I also didn't breath from the reg and watch the pressure guage before taking the plunge to make sure my air was on. I made both mistakes on both dives out of sheer excitement to get into the water. I'll be more carefull next time.
Things we did right: Maintained proper buoyancy the entire time including the safety stop and stuck together -we had lost each other on the first OW dive because we swam one behind the other, this time we swam side-by-side and never lost sight of one another.
Other conclusions: a 3mil shorty in 80*F water is perfect for both of us; on a guided dive, a notepad is probably unnecessary; my flashlight didn't do much at 40 feet; and I either need to get closer to any subjects I want to photograph or I need a strobe ;-)
Comments and suggestions welcomed. I just wanted to let you all know about our first dive. This board has been very helpful for answering all my pre-dive questions. Thanks everyone for your help. Being prepared meant less stress and more fun on this dive!
Pictures are posted in my gallery.
The alarm went off on Tuesday morning at an hour that was never meant to be seen by vacationers. Luckily, the excitement of our first "real" dive enabled us to get out of bed, grab our gear, and meet the other divers at the dive shop aboard Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas.
At the ship's dive shop we rented 3mil shorties for $10 apiece. The rest of our equipment we rented from the land-based dive shop, Water World Outfitters. After getting off the ship, we did a brief stop at their store for some people to pick up masks, snorkels, and fins, then we headed for the dive boat "Reef Safari" owned by Underwater Safari.
On the dive boat our equipment was all set up already. The Dive Master just showed everyone to a BC and tank that would fit them and we were underway. From here I had no idea what to do, so I just watched everyone else. We unpacked our bag, piled our mask, snorkel, and fins out of the way, clipped our whistle and Sensus Pro's to our BC's with some carabiners I brought along, then I put my EMT shears, flashlight, and DiveRite notepad in my BC pocket. The didn't dive with the sausages we brought -I had no idea where to clip them. We figured we'd play with them next time we went to the quarry.
Shortly after we were underway, the DM started handing out weight. Neither Ed nor I knew how much we needed, so the DM made his best guess. I (5'2", 135lbs) had 12lbs, which was perfect. Ed ended up needing 2lbs more on the 2nd dive, but that's still pretty accurate!
Next came the pre-dive briefing which we listened to as we started getting into our wetsuits. The DM explained that there were something like 18 divers on board, 6 students and 12 certified divers. We'd dive as 2 groups, each going a different direction on both dives. We would do both a reef dive and a wreck dive without the boat moving in-between. They explained in detail how the dives would go, then showed us the fresh water that was available onboard and encouraged us to keep hydrated. A drybox was available and they pointed that out as well as the safety equipment: oxygen, the CB set on the emergency channel, and a cool little capsule that'd deploy if the boat sank which would send out our location via GPS so that we could be found.
Soon after he was done talking, we arrived at our dive spot where we were the 3rd boat I think. The other boats just had snorkelers aboard, so they said the sites wouldn't be croweded at all.
Ed and I started gearing up. -We pretty must just continued to watch the others and we did what they did the whole time. When it came time to get the BC on, the DM was there to help. When I needed help finding the reg, the DM was there again. He checked me over, I checked my pressure guage (3100psi) and jumped in. The water was a nice warm 80 degrees. Much better than the 70 degree quarry with it's 55*F thermocline we were in in September! -This was also my first dive with a camera, so the DM was also nice enough to hand that down to me after I jumped in because I had no idea how to hold it along with my guages, mask, reg, etc. Shortly after I was in, Ed jumped in, and we switched from our reg to our snorkels to conserve air while the others got in the water.
When everyone was in, the DM gave us the okay to go down. While waiting for everyone to get down Ed and I adjusted our BC's to get neutral. The DM soon signaled for us to follow him. The "reef" was basically a pile of rocks with some coral and sponges growing on them. There was enough to see, but it wasn't nearly as nice as some I've seen while snorkeling. We saw plenty of yellowtails, though, along with some squirrelfish, a big blowfish, and a small sea turtle! There were some bright purple sponges (at least I think they were sponges), coral, sea fans, etc that made for nice scenery too. -I took pictures here and there, but my #1 priority was maintaining buoyancy, so sometimes I missed pictures instead of bouncing off the bottom or floating up towards the surface. Others in our group were less careful, though -a couple people were seen standing on rock piles to take pictures or accidentally bumping into coral. Gah! Anyway, we toured around a bit, then our ascent was slow. Max depth was around 65 feet and we were down for about 40min including a 3min safety stop which I held without any problems. Ed had to swim a bit to hold the stop because he was slightly underweighted, but he did it without too much trouble.
After surfacing both Ed and I had big grins on our faces. I struggled to get my fins off at the ladder (I might need to get some spring straps), handed them to the DM, and climbed back on board. Wow that equipment is heavy! Climbing the ladder was difficult with all that weight, but again the DM was there to help pull me up once I got up a step or two so he could reach me.
The assistant DM helped me out of my equipment, then Ed and I headed for a sunny spot to warm up. After a short break while our BC's were switched to fresh tanks we put the equipment back on, Ed got 2 more pounds of weight, and we jumped off the other side of the boat for the wreck dive.
The wreck we dove, the DM told us, was a drug boat originally sunk by the coast guard in about 80-100 feet of water. After a hurricane threw it up on land, in ended up back in the water where it now sits in 3 pieces at about 40-50 feet. A short swim brought us to the hull where Ed gave me "ok" signs with both hands and had a big grin on his face that could be seen even behind his regulator! We toured this piece for awhile and saw lots of sargeant major fish swimming around. Again, there were a couple of idiots standing on the wreck taking pictures. Some coral had started to grow on the boat, but not a whole lot. I'm sure the divers thought they weren't causing damage, but I can definitely see why we weren't taken to a better reef. I also understand the complaints about new divers, "reef divers", divers with cameras, etc. They're definitely a minority, but they make all of us newbies, photographers, and WWW's look bad.
After touring the hull, the DM banged his tank to signal us to follow him again. This time we saw the engine room. 2 engines were clearly visible (Ed and I are car geeks, so we thought they were cool) and as we were looking around someone ahead was pointing at something down inside the wreck. We swam towards them and finally I saw what they were pointing at. It was a barracuda -about 3 feet long! He poked his head out from down inside the wreck and slowly swam out so I could get his picture! ;-)
After that one by one we made our way over to the engine room where the ship had been broken in two. During the briefing for this dive, the DM explained that there was a small swim-through -entirely optional. I was hoping all along for a swim-through and Ed and I discussed the "what-if" incase we had the opportunity -what would we be comfortable with as new divers? Well, we were both okay with this one! We just had to swim inside an empty room about 8 feet square and the whole side where we entered was open for escape. The DM was inside, standing under the 2.5-3 foot hole. We swam up to him, took a deep breath to start ascending up towards the hole, and the DM gave our tank a little push to help us out. It was easy, and a lot of fun. When everyone had gone through the DM banged his tank again and we headed to the 3rd piece of the ship for a quick look. There we saw more yellowtails, sargeant majors, and more purple sponges.
Another bang signaled that it was time to head back to the boat. As we swam we heard a low humming noise and everyone started looking around. It grew louder and louder and finally I saw a boat moving fast straight above us. We had no dive flag -I assumed the area was marked off so that boats didn't go through it, but I guess not! Anyway, we were still at about 30 feet, so we were all fine, but it was a little scary!
The rest of the swim back was non-eventful and we slowly ascended as we swam so when we got back to the boat we just held our safety stop. Both Ed and I easily held 20 feet whole time although several of the other divers stayed down and horsed around the whole time despite the DM trying to get them to get back with him at 20 feet.
After that we boarded the same as before and Ed and I agreed we'd be diving again ASAP -including more practice at the quarry this summer. Neither one of us can wait to dive again!
Newbie mistakes: I didn't check that my BC was inflated before jumping in. I also didn't breath from the reg and watch the pressure guage before taking the plunge to make sure my air was on. I made both mistakes on both dives out of sheer excitement to get into the water. I'll be more carefull next time.
Things we did right: Maintained proper buoyancy the entire time including the safety stop and stuck together -we had lost each other on the first OW dive because we swam one behind the other, this time we swam side-by-side and never lost sight of one another.
Other conclusions: a 3mil shorty in 80*F water is perfect for both of us; on a guided dive, a notepad is probably unnecessary; my flashlight didn't do much at 40 feet; and I either need to get closer to any subjects I want to photograph or I need a strobe ;-)
Comments and suggestions welcomed. I just wanted to let you all know about our first dive. This board has been very helpful for answering all my pre-dive questions. Thanks everyone for your help. Being prepared meant less stress and more fun on this dive!
Pictures are posted in my gallery.
