At the urging of WW, I'm posting my latest achievement. While I was on vacation, I helped out Mel Frechette(BottomTime Charters) with his young students of a prep camp. They are from all over the world and their parents send them to Lake Champlain for the summer. 2 students were from Mexico and 1 from Ireland. They were just doing dives 1-4 for Open water cert. I was the dive flag keeper (and surface babysitter). For the help Mel gave me a good deal on the Advanced Nitrox class. With a stage bottle in tow, we dove at my Great Uncles dock-there's an old sunken dock there from where a ferry used to come in and out back in the early 20's, and then over by Valcour Island. I learned a lot!! Different kicks, more math then I care for and learned my SAC. I didn't care for diving with a stage bottle as it makes me lean to the left a lot and screws up my bounency. But I also found I could swing it in front of me and kind of hug it and it would sit centered and keep me more streamlined. Being that my Zeagle isn't the greatest BC to clip a stage to, it was very close to me all the time, but this also meant I could very easily see the valve and gauge. My SAC is off a bit I think because diving with the stage makes me use more air in my BC and the weight and drag of it too! But I did real good in the exam and I'm glad I completed it!! I also got a lot of informal rebreather training too! Something else to think about next.
Mishelle
