Ocean dives 3 and 4 today. Finally, a day where the weather was not terrible, and the seas were not rough. The air was South Florida's version of chilly, and I was thankful to be diving dry (especially when everyone else was freezing between dives).
Things are definitely coming along. After re-configuring things a couple of times, hose management is much better. I am able to find things on the unit easier, and I can do things like deploy and stow my light without always seeming to get into a tangle as I did before.
Buoyancy is improving. On the bottom, I was better at staying neutral even when changing depths (including ups and downs along the wreck profile) while keeping within a decent window on the PPO2 range.
Trim is okay. I can stay horizontal pretty well in most cases. My fins are up nice and high, and I was modified frog kicking along most of the time. Even when we would stop, I could stay in good position.
We practiced operating in SCR mode for about 15 minutes or so on the first dive. I can tell that I am still not efficient in how I flush the loop. Flushing is where I think I am weakest of all skills at this point.
The hypoxia drill went okay except, again, for feeling like I am wasting too much gas on the loop flush. However, I improved by staying closer to constant depth during the drill. I finally figured out that I could vent from both the counterlung and my mouth. Duh!
At the end of our first dive, during ascent, I was able to hold my stops pretty well until after I got above 10 feet. From that point to the surface, I felt like I could not hold my stop at any point (though I was not rocketing to the surface). I thought about it for a bit during the surface interval, and I came up with a better plan of attack for the coming dive that I would try.
On the second dive, we spend about fifteen minutes or so simulating the solenoid being stuck in the open position. One new thing I learned on this dive is that I am not good a math multi-tasking. I was trying to track how many breaths I could take after cracking the oxygen tank valve. Then, I decided to try to use the HUD to monitor my PPO2 instead of using the hand set. So far, I can't do both at once without losing track of my breaths.
We also simulated water in the loop a couple of times. This also seems to be coming along though I can tell that I still need some more work on this one. I am rolling okay. However, I think I must look pretty bad when I am shaking the water into the counterlung.
During this ascent, we bailed out to open circuit so that we could practice venting the wings, the drysuit and the counterlung (without breathing from it while the gas expands). No problem.
We went back on the loop at about 20 feet or so. This time, I vented gas much better in the shallows, and I was able to swim along under the boat, at about six feet of depth, all the way to the ladder.
I am up to about 550 minutes on my Optima. Some things are clicking. I am learning something on every dive. That's my goal at this point: to learn something, and to do better at something on every dive. No doubt, this is challenging. However, it is fun!
6Gill was on the boat diving with us. One disclaimer: Anything bad that he saw is a lie.
Edited by ScubaDadMiami, 05 February 2006 - 05:29 PM.
