Stuart,
It was a great class, a bit of remedial sidemount training, but fortunately my instructor also dives an Xdeep Stealth Tec (and cave trained by Steve Martin), so my bottle handling skills improved ten fold. To start things off, we added stage bottle removal and replacement (not drops) just to address any lack of skill with diving with 2 stage bottles in sidemount (if anyone says I should have figured that out prior, I won't disagree, but sometimes you run out of time. Fortunately my instructor took the extra time to address that). We added other things like broken mask and replacement, which on first attempt made me attach a small ring to the top zipper of the butt pouch as it took me forever to find it without it. Mind you, I'm in dry gloves. I now have my backup mask and backup light in pouch that's accessible from the top zipper with a small ring so I can do it by feel faster.
People told me the difference in narcosis on the first day of dives would be monumental. It was. The next day was a little more challenging due to current. When swimming on the surface, we were being pushed out, so when we dropped, we went hand over hand until we dropped over the ledge. First dive on 21/35 to 175 we had the largest dogfish that I've ever seen. Normally those things take off when I shine a light on them, but this one was circling us for a bit. Due to the current though, we didn't stay down too long due to increased gas consumption rate. So we slowly ascended at an angle (had to counter the current and we slightly overcompensated, but just drifted back where we started).
I will say, sharing air ascents without a mask are not fun in cold water. But you've got to be able to do it obviously, though if that ever happened, I'd quickly switch masks after getting a reg.
With everything, it was a great class. I learned a lot, I was challenged, and I improved. The only thing I didn't like was the gas bill! I don't think I'll be doing a lot of trimix diving, but just occasional just to keep the skills fresh. When it comes to advanced trimix, I'l study that material academically, but I won't go below 60m/200ft on OC. That for me is closed circuit depths. Sure it can be done, but I'm not rich. But I'd like to learn more about how isobaric counter diffusion is addressed below 80 meters.
