Only one pic at the surface. We didn't think conditions were good enough to
take the camera.
http://picasaweb.google.com/
I arrived at Johnson Street on Hollywood Beach to meet Lee and Carmen.
We were there early enough to get good parking. On our site check, we
saw conditions were going to be a little challenging. There were some
little waves about 1-2' and wind. Not rough enough for
whitecaps/surfing but you could tell viz was going to be sketchy. We
planned to try it for 10 mins and if viz didn't clear up we would
thumb the dive. My goal for this dive was a gear check since I was
diving a AL backplate with a new harness and weight belt instead of a
SS plate, a canister light and my very own standard AL 80 instead of
the borrowed neutral 80. I figured out that I would need a 4lb belt
after making these changes but only one way to find out.
About 50% of my first 2 years of diving took place on Hollywood beach.
I asked to lead the dive/take the flag since the others had not been
there plus I wanted the task loading. Task loading for me at this
point is key as I build up my awareness for more advanced dives and
also training/guiding. I did ask the team to double check my NAV and
stop me if they saw something different than the plan.
We would start by going E off Johnson past the reefline and then SE to
find the rock pile. Out to the end and then back to the reef. Lee led
us through GUE EDGE as we made our way to the water. We had a bouncy
surface swim through the swells and started the dive in about 5' of
viz. We stayed almost shoulder to shoulder for this first part of the
dive as we swam out east in search for better viz. At 5 mins it had
not improved much and we started seeing reef/fishies. I figured I
would give it 5 more mins before thumbing it and that's all it took
because the further east we went it cleared up nicely to about 25'
with little to no current and the surge was minimal to none at the
deepest section (max depth 26')
At 20 mins we reached the concrete blankets just past the rockpile and
headed East to the end. Lot's of things to see here and we dodged
about 4 jelly fish that were in open water. I am glad that I looked
up otherwise I would have been wearing it like a hat. It's time to go
hood shopping because that would not have been fun. At the end of the
blanket, Lee spotted a Guitar Fish (I called it a Skate).
http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/
We headed back W past the Rock Pile and the viz started to drop and
the surge picked up as we got closer to shore. We finished up the
Rock pile and back on the Reef we were side by side again in 5' viz
and it was getting worse. I pulled out the wet notes and wrote "touch
contact" hoping my team would know what it meant. I figured Lee would
since he had cavern training and it turns out that Carmen figured it
out from my note. Knowing that our team was locked in, I was able to
navigate back to the beach with very limited viz to about 5'. The
surge caused the bottom to stir up and even though we were inches from
the sand, it might as well had been 100' because it was disorienting
in between each surge when you lost sight of the bottom. After a
couple of those and seeing we were at 5' I thumbed the dive.
At the end of the dive, we talked about needing to review
communication prior to the dive. It was great that we figured out
touch contact from wetnotes but ideally we should have reviewed it
before hand since we knew viz could be bad. I certainly would like to
keep it as a Standard Practice when the viz goes bad.
Good viz...we loosen up. Bad Viz...we tighten up. No Viz...touch
contact. No need for notes...if you can't see grab the leader :)
We also had an entertaining talk about communicating gas supply. I
know some folks like to flash "5,5,5,5,2" to indicate 2200 psi. Others
will show one number for thousands and a second number for hundreds
(Straight or Horizontal for 1-5 or 6-9).
My favorite is "I'll show you mine and you show me yours" That way
there's no misscommunication and we clearly see how much gas each of
us has. I found this works well from OW students to Cave 2 level
dives with Stages.
Anyone remember the Cindy Crawford Pepsi commercial?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
As we walked out of the water looking for a place to rinse, Carmen
leaned her head back and used a Jet fit to rinse off. Lee and I both
looked at each other and I felt just like the kids in this commercial.
Wow...look at that jet fin use!
We walked around the clam bake and grabbed a bite to eat. This was a
pretty nice event.
Hey Carmen, You don't suck! This was a pretty challenging dive and
we worked very good as a team through the good parts and the bad. It
was nice to dive with another SFL-DIR member who is also using a
single tank.
Lee, I like your Dive and Eat plans lets do more of them. Thanks for
being a great back up brain and an extra set of eyes out there. Good
job on recruiting.
William
