Mark's Dive Log

While at the quarry this weekend for my Rescue Diver certification, we did the PADI Night Diver certification dives.

We started out with a descent to one of the training platforms at 20'. From there, each buddy team used a compass to navigate to one of the other training platforms. Once we were all at the second platform we swam around for a while, swam through some tubes and along the quarry wall. The visibility was pretty bad, even with all of those lights.

After a short surface interval we went to the bottom and turned off our lights for a few minutes. I suppose some people might have trouble with that, which is why they do it, but I found it fairly relaxing. I just lay down on the bottom and waited. After a full day of Rescue training, and a dive just for fun late in the afternoon, just doing nothing was nice.

Finally the lights came back on and we swam around some more looking for fish.

Probably the easiest course I've done so far. Next on the list, Search and Recovery.

I finished my PADI Rescue Diver training this weekend. It's been a long time since I've done a weekend quarry trip. It was a lot of fun, but I was pretty much exhausted by the time I got home.

I've heard others who have gone through Rescue Diver training say that it's the most fun of any of the classes they had taken. I would have to disagree with that. I've also heard people say it was the hardest. I suppose if you do OW, AOW, and Rescue, but nothing else, it may be the hardest. I think AOW was harder for me, but then again, I hadn't been diving in 10 years when I took it, so that might have something to do with it. Rescue was definitely the most physically demanding. Towing a diver to shore while giving rescue breaths and removing the diver's equipment will wear you out. I didn't really notice how tired I was until I was done, but then it hit hard.

We had a pool session before the quarry weekend to learn all of the new skills and review the self-rescue skills. Apparently this is a relatively new thing. I think it's a great way to do it. Our instructor said that it cuts out about two hours from each day. My viewpoint is that it's a better method for learning since you aren't trying to cram everything into a two day weekend.

I took the test today, expecting to pass, but not with a great score. The problem was that I had bought the book two or three years ago with the intention of doing the class then, but I never managed to find the time. They changed the book last year, so there were some new things and subtle differences between what I was studying and what the current course teaches. I didn't realize this until I got to the quarry on Saturday. Regardless, I decided to take the test today so that maybe those differences would stick out in my mind more. I went through the questions twice and counted six that I was unsure of the answer. In the end, I only missed two (both from the new/changed material), so I was pleasantly surprised.

So I got my temporary "card" and it's on to the next thing. My dive shop is starting a Divemaster course in January, so I guess I'll look into that. I don't have the 60 logged dives yet, but I'll have them before the course is over. I'm shooting for 40 logged dives by the end of the year. Since I'm going to do the drysuit course in a few weeks, I might be able to dive into November, so getting up to 40 shouldn't be a problem. Maybe I should look into the PADI Ice Diver specialty...

Tracie and Christina did their Open Water certification dives this weekend. Jeff, their instructor, did a great job with them, especially Tracie. Having a fear of water, especially water that you can't see in very well, makes it tough to scuba dive. Well, I'm proud of her. She made it through the whole weekend with only marginally more trouble than a water lover.

I only dove with them on their last dive. I hung out with other groups for the other dives. Since I'm thinking about doing the Divemaster course next year, I figured it would be a good opportunity to watch what instructors and divemasters. I even managed to be useful on one dive. They had an odd number of students so they needed an extra for the navigation dive.

On the last dive I dove with Tracie and Christina and took a bunch of pictures of them so they can look back and remember the occasion. When it was all over, Christina and I went down for her first non-training dive. Tracie was too tired, so she waited on surface. I took her on a short tour of the quarry. We started out with partial tanks, so we didn't get a full dive, only about 25 minutes, but it was enough. We were both pretty beat from a weekend full of diving. We just went until we reached 500 PSI, then surfaced and swam back.

I wish Tracie had gone too, but I'll see if I can get them to come out on my Search and Recovery dive weekend so she can get some non-training dives in before the end of the season.