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Hi all
Had my first drysuit experiences on Saturday (courtesy of Ian {exnavyboy} and John {j.w.}) and thought I would share the experiences.
John and Ian were nice enough to pick me up from Cambridge and deposit me in Guildenburgh in front of a bacon sandwich and a coffee. Having finally woken up a bit, Ian and myself donned kit and carried out a weight check. My first time being in water in a drysuit taught me two things, 7 degree water is still pretty cold against the face and it is a funny feeling being shrink wrapped.
I had a little difficulty getting the right weighting. 11 kg felt about right but couldn't descend with 50bar, so I opted for 12kg for the dives. The idea being that once I relaxed about the drysuit/water temp etc I might be able to drop a kg or two.
So having got fills we all got ready and headed in for our first dive. We had a pleasant bimble around the lake, only pausing for me to have a bit of a play with the suit (fin pivots, a bit of a hover, orientating myself in the water etc). After about 20 mins, John and myself got seperated from Ian, as the vis was quite low (ca 2m) we didn't find him and surfaced. I noticed on the way up that at around safety stop depth I was having difficulty dumping air fast enough to stay down. After a short wait on the surface we found Ian and headed back. Turns out Ian had been having some trouble dumping air from his new wing and his suit had developed a mystery leak.
The second dive started with Ian having a play with his new wing on one of the platforms (tank wrapping appeared to be the most likely culprit). The dive seemed to go quite well, but with the vis dropping to <1M at times it was getting difficult staying together on the lines running through the lake. Unfortunately at one point I got a little bit disorientated in the poor vis and started to ascend before I realised it. By the time I did realise it I had a bit of difficulty dumping air quick enough and ended up at the surface (Doh! note to self, figure out how to dump from neck/wrist with hood/gloves). Once on the surface I chilled out for a few minutes waiting on the others to surface.
A passing instructor checked if I was ok and then off he went. After a few minutes I could hear some garbled loud speaker announcement, through the hood/wind etc it took a minute to realise that it was the shore checking if I was ok, I signalled back that all was ok. They then asked where my buddy was, I did my best to signal that I had two and they were still together. less than a minute later the rescue boat was out and patrolling the lake (notably they didn't approach me and ask about my buddies again), shortly afterwards the guys surfaced a little confused by the boat.
What had happened below was.....due to the vis all we could make out were shadows. When I popped up off the line it was difficult for the other guys to tell one shadow from another, and as I was in the middle of the line it was only when they reached the end point and regrouped that they realised I was gone. They then searched back along the line for me, reached the start point and started to ascend (extra carefully now due to the boat over head).
I guess the boat was sent out because you would normally expect a buddy to surface within a couple of minutes of the first diver, but due to a combination of vis and diving in a three it took longer.
Besides that little bit of drama it was a really enjoyable day, had fun with the drysuit (although I still have a lot to learn).
Thanks again to Ian and John for a great day, especially for the banter (don't worry Ian I won't mention any of the Donald duck or Tango comments .....Doh!)
Cheers
Conor
Hi all
Had my first drysuit experiences on Saturday (courtesy of Ian {exnavyboy} and John {j.w.}) and thought I would share the experiences.
John and Ian were nice enough to pick me up from Cambridge and deposit me in Guildenburgh in front of a bacon sandwich and a coffee. Having finally woken up a bit, Ian and myself donned kit and carried out a weight check. My first time being in water in a drysuit taught me two things, 7 degree water is still pretty cold against the face and it is a funny feeling being shrink wrapped.
I had a little difficulty getting the right weighting. 11 kg felt about right but couldn't descend with 50bar, so I opted for 12kg for the dives. The idea being that once I relaxed about the drysuit/water temp etc I might be able to drop a kg or two.
So having got fills we all got ready and headed in for our first dive. We had a pleasant bimble around the lake, only pausing for me to have a bit of a play with the suit (fin pivots, a bit of a hover, orientating myself in the water etc). After about 20 mins, John and myself got seperated from Ian, as the vis was quite low (ca 2m) we didn't find him and surfaced. I noticed on the way up that at around safety stop depth I was having difficulty dumping air fast enough to stay down. After a short wait on the surface we found Ian and headed back. Turns out Ian had been having some trouble dumping air from his new wing and his suit had developed a mystery leak.
The second dive started with Ian having a play with his new wing on one of the platforms (tank wrapping appeared to be the most likely culprit). The dive seemed to go quite well, but with the vis dropping to <1M at times it was getting difficult staying together on the lines running through the lake. Unfortunately at one point I got a little bit disorientated in the poor vis and started to ascend before I realised it. By the time I did realise it I had a bit of difficulty dumping air quick enough and ended up at the surface (Doh! note to self, figure out how to dump from neck/wrist with hood/gloves). Once on the surface I chilled out for a few minutes waiting on the others to surface.
A passing instructor checked if I was ok and then off he went. After a few minutes I could hear some garbled loud speaker announcement, through the hood/wind etc it took a minute to realise that it was the shore checking if I was ok, I signalled back that all was ok. They then asked where my buddy was, I did my best to signal that I had two and they were still together. less than a minute later the rescue boat was out and patrolling the lake (notably they didn't approach me and ask about my buddies again), shortly afterwards the guys surfaced a little confused by the boat.
What had happened below was.....due to the vis all we could make out were shadows. When I popped up off the line it was difficult for the other guys to tell one shadow from another, and as I was in the middle of the line it was only when they reached the end point and regrouped that they realised I was gone. They then searched back along the line for me, reached the start point and started to ascend (extra carefully now due to the boat over head).
I guess the boat was sent out because you would normally expect a buddy to surface within a couple of minutes of the first diver, but due to a combination of vis and diving in a three it took longer.
Besides that little bit of drama it was a really enjoyable day, had fun with the drysuit (although I still have a lot to learn).
Thanks again to Ian and John for a great day, especially for the banter (don't worry Ian I won't mention any of the Donald duck or Tango comments .....Doh!)
Cheers
Conor
