Advanced Diver 1-3 Sept 2013

My first Lake Tenkiller trip.  An entire scuba weekend.  I can hardly wait. I stayed up WAY too late Thursday night, I'm exhausted and fall right asleep Friday night; contrary to most nights before travel.

A thunderstorm wakes me 5 minutes before my alarm Saturday morning.  Not a bad way to wake.  I don't think I have mentioned that my scuba classes have mostly been in the rain.  It doesn't bother me that I will be diving in rain.  Going to get wet anyway.  Who cares?  Plus, looking at the surface while it's raining is pretty rad.  I'm loading up the car and grab a few extra items.  Cooler, first aid kit, and camp chairs.  You just never know, at the lake.  Time to head to the shop.  I volunteered to bring breakfast, so I stopped and got sausage biscuits and burritos.  Not very healthy fair, but stick to your ribs.  I'm glad about this later.

I'm the first to get to the shop.  I have this weird thing about being late.  Scuba time apparently runs a little slow. Our timing seems to work nicely.  As we drive to Tenkiller, about 2 1/2 hours from OKC, it starts to really pour.  I'm not talking like cats and dogs, I'm talking Noah's Ark.  At 40 mph, I can't see the end of my car.  I have to slow way down on the highway.  Once we hit the last leg of the trip, though, it starts to clear up, slightly, and I'm able to open the windows and loosen my death grip on the steering wheel.

We check into the little motel in Gore, Oklahoma and head for the water.  As it's raining steadily, again and no one wants to get out of their cars, where it's warm.  The equipment truck backs up to the scuba park and we start to unload.  Getting into my wet suit this time is easier, and I shave off a few minutes it usually takes to get into it.  Down to about 35 minutes now.

Our objective on dive 1 is to swim out to a buoy and descend on the line.  The water is a warm 77 degrees.  Warm to me, anyway.  We head down the line and it gets darker.  And darker.  I pull out my flashlight.  Darker.  Darker.  An eerie sight blooms out of the dark water.  Tree skeletons.  They are completely intact and look like they would in the winter.  Like a little warmth and light and they would spring back to life.  I feel a pressure on my head and get pinned between a tree and... Another diver.  Landed on again.

I make it all the way to 83 feet.  We have to perform a check to see how the depth is effecting our brains.  We are led to a rock wall and instructed to use hand signals to count to ten, then back down to 0.  Easy peasy.  I have a feeling that we are under an overhang and my breathing gets a little erratic.  Flashback to August when my assignment while the Scubabros were in Fiji was to watch a bunch of scuba movies.  Sanctum really stuck with me.  Cave diving is something that will come late in my scuba career.  We dive along the rock wall and Mike takes us right back to the start point.  I need to learn how to do that.

Next up is a wreck dive.  We descend and I get a chance to swim through the bus.  It's in pretty shallow water, so I am able to see through the wreck.  Still, I use my flashlight.  It feels like a light saber underwater, it's so bright.  Next up is the plane.  You enter through the side and exit out the top.  Deep breath to get positively buoyant and rise up out of the wreck. I might have misjudged the space and banged my tank on the side.  Whoops.  Last, we head to the helicopter.  You have to enter through the ramp in the back and exit the side.  All done for the day.  Here's another video that will give you an idea.  Again, not me, but divers!


No one parties like scuba divers.  One of our mantras:  
Surprisingly, I am able to function in the morning.  Hooray!  The day has dawned crisp and clear.  First up, a recreational dive with my divemaster buddy, Stevie. We are going to the solo boat and try a square.  I feel pretty nervous about this square.  I even borrowed a compass from the shop and practiced.  Imagine, in the evening, I'm across the street at the school playground walking squares.  I can get pretty close on land.  As we gear up for the dive, a diver who is visiting the lake asks to tag along, since she doesn't have a buddy.  It's Stevie's call, since she's the ranking DM.  The three of us head into the water.  The vis is pretty limited.   We start at the boat and I set my heading.  I've determined we will count kick cycles and use the same for each leg of the square.  20 on each should give me enough room.  I start out and make the first turn no problem.  When working with a compass and a square, you have to turn the bezel opposite of the way you are turning.  Think about the steering wheel of a car on a left hand turn.  Instead of turning the way you want to go, you turn opposite.  Needless to say, at the 3rd turn, I was confused as to which way to turn.  There were no landmarks, just murky green water.  I have to stop and ask directions.  Lucky Stevie was there to assist.  We got the third turn and about the time I am ready to give up, the boat materializes from the gloom.  I did it.  Yay!  I write my name in the algae on the boat in celebration.

My last dive of the day is the actual nav dive with Mike.  I'm instructed to count kick cycles down a predetermined length of rope, make my first turn, take the same number of kick cycles to the 2nd turn, then use natural navigation to make my way back to the start point.  I make the first leg, no problem.  Just following a line.  The second leg gets a little hairy when I run out of room.  I'm up on the boat ramp before my kick cycles run out.  Crap.  I make the turn and go a little deeper, trying to find my way back.  I basically made a funky lopsided square.  But, making it back to the start is the point of the exercise.

I finish the day soaking up the sun and chatting with my fellow divers.  Not a bad way to spend a weekend!

Key West, October 2013

Our vacation to Key West, Florida was a fluke accident.  One I hope happens every year.  We booked a trip with my sister-in-law to Washington D.C.  Then, the government shut down.  We decided to go to the beach instead of our originally planned vacation.  Best. Decision. Ever. 

I started with a shop called Dive Key West.  I did not have a buddy, but had called ahead to make sure that could be accommodated.  I was put in a group with a couple from Germany and was buddied with a Divemaster.  At this point in my diving adventure, I have been landed on every dive.  This dive was no exception.  We explored an area called the Haystacks.  The coral formation looked exactly like a haystack, hence the name.  There was lots of fish to look at, and even my personal favorite, barracuda.  

The second dive that day was in The Cut.  Named because the reef cut back and forth like fingers in the sand.  This dive was incredibly shallow, at 20 feet, and there was lots of surge.  I  saw my first nurse shark while scubaing, and played fisticuffs with a lobster.  Add a few barracuda and it wraps up as a nice dive.

I hooked up with a different shop for the remainder of my dives: Southpoint Divers.  I was very impressed my them.  Our first dive of the day was the Vandenburg.  I will tell you right now, this has been my favorite dive to date.  FAVORITE.  Because of that, I am going to go into minuscule detail.  

Preface:  My instructor has always been an advocate of wearing a snorkel at all times.  I have picked up this habit.  Never know when you are going to need it.  

I head to the shop pretty early in the morning.  I'm the first one there.  Shocker, I know.  I enjoy the beautiful morning sunrise, studying my Advanced book.  When the shop opens, I get my boarding pass and head to the dock.  It's a little boat ride to the dive site.  

As I'm suiting up, I'm about to giant stride into the water and one of the divemasters says, "Hey, let me take your snorkel, it will whip around in the current."  I am reticent to give it up, again, never know when you might need it.  I just reply, "It's ok, I can manage."  To which he says, "Really, I promise, you won't want it."  Alright, I give it up.  I jump in and quickly grab the trail line.  This current is STRONG!  3 knots, I find out later.  The water is also pretty choppy.  Everyone's in the water but 1 person.  He's monkying with some equipment or another.  The rest of us are struggling with the current and equipment.  We have to put our regs in at the surface.  I call up to the divemaster, "Really wish I had my snorkel!" We all had a good chuckle.  Finally all in.  We descend to the traverse line to get to the bow of the boat.  The water is clear, but deep.  It just turns to darker and darker blue.  I can see lines of bubbles streaming from different points.  We then use the mooring line to pull ourselves hand over hand down to the wreck.  Slowly, the hull creeps into view

Not my exact view, but pretty close.  There was a moment of truth where we had to let go and descend rapidly into the ship without getting caught in the current and swept away.  Exhilarating!  Inside the ship, I see a lion fish taking a nap and a cucumber on the ceiling.  We can only spend a little while at this depth (max 95 ft), so we make our way back outside.  The most enormous barracuda is chilling just out of reach.  Awesome.  My diving spirit fish makes an appearance.  Here is a cool Youtube video from Southpoint Divers.  

The next day, dives are back to the reef.  We first dive Sand Key.  Easy 30 ft depth, mild current.  On the ride out, I saw a flying fish and a turtle from the surface.  As I am looking back in my logs, I am noticing my air consumption is pretty good.  Those 2 Vandenberg dives only used 1/2 the tank.  This one was excellent.  My whole group ran out, so I surfaced with them.  This is where I got my first non-Scubabros diving compliment.  How long had I been diving?  You have great buoyancy.  I gushed.  Even sent the compliment back to my instructor.

Last Florida dive:  Rock Key.  This is where the barracuda becomes my favorite.  The divemaster had a pool toy, a torpedo.  He pulled it out and started playing with it.  When he tossed it, it would go up, then shoot fast in some direction to the bottom.  The barracuda love this toy.  They chase it.  The DM tossed the toy and it headed straight for me.  It shoots a little past me and as I turn, there is a barracuda not 5 inches from me.  Cool!!
There is a resident sting ray here named Stubby.  Can you guess why?  Yep, no tail.  I caught a glimpse of him, lucky me.  There was another woman in my group that tried to bolt for the surface on this dive.  I held on to her jacket and let all my air out.  I was able to calm her down.  That was a very good feeling, a little scary, but good.  She had to hold my hand the rest of the dive.  

All in all, this was a magical trip.  I will be going back.

Lake Tenkiller April 2014

First lake trip of the season.   This one is going to be a long entry, so you're aware. I'm packed with my almost full equipment set.  First time I get to use my BC.  The Pilot has been my favorite jacket to wear while diving.  It is a wrap around style rather than the Classic, which is a vest style, and popular with my dive team.  The pockets are pretty roomy and it's just so comfy.  Here's a stock photo.

I am also sporting my very own wrist computer, the XP10.  This is the same one I used last year in Key West and Cozumel.  I am familiar with it and comfortable using it.

Enough about equipment and on to the diving.  The day dawned cool and quiet.  The water was calm and blue, a color which is unusual in Oklahoma.  Our dirt is red, so is our water.  This early in the season, there is nothing growing yet to color the water.  The truck is being unloaded with rental gear.  Wet suits, BCs, tanks, weights, you name it.  I am renting an extra 3 mil suit to go on top of my own 3 mil.  6 mil total to combat the chilly water.  I had enough sense prior to this trip to pick up a heavier hood and gloves.  

Imagine, if you can, the first time I tried on a wet suit.  It was pretty comical.  I am in no way a bikini ready individual, and in the hot Oklahoma sun, you start to get pretty moist just sitting around.  It took me about 30 minutes to get in that suit.  It took me about that long each time I put it on.  I researched tricks online, much to the consternation of my instructor.  "Just put it on, Jen", he would say.  I will say that the baby shampoo made my skin slick enough to slide right into the suit, while turning it inside out and rolling it up didn't really make a difference.  Fast forward back to Tenkiller, and my suit, which is now broken in quite nicely slips right on.  Now, the trick is to get another suit on top of that one.  I had a parallel to a Christmas Story when all zipped and tucked.  Time to get in the water.

 

My dive buddy and I plan our first dive.  This is the first time I have ever planned a dive myself, without the supervision of my instructor.  My current depth record is 95'.  I would like to give that a run for its money.  We plan to go to the bottom of the lake.  124'.  That gives me a little jolt of adrenaline.  I check the dive tables to see how long we can stay at that depth and plan to come up to the wrecks on site to finish out our tanks.  We get all our gear on, head to the water, and wade in.  My boots are the first to leak water in, but I'm so hot with all this on, it's pretty nice.  Instructor Mike has a group he's taking out to the wrecks, then over the edge to about 70' and we get swept up in the group instead of our planned dive.  I enjoy diving with Mike, so I don't care where we go.  Time to descend.

20'.  That's how far I made it down before my traitor left ear decided it was too chicken to go down.  I try to signal one of my buddies (I have 2 on this dive) that it's just my left and I need a minute to adjust.  He just nods and signals to ascend.  No, no, no.  Just wait a minute, this ear WILL get on board.  My buddy signals trouble back, but I don't understand.  I grab my slate, only to find that he is having pressure trouble, too.  He needs to go take some decongestant.  OK.  I signal, "You, ascend, other buddy and I will stay and hover."  My other buddy did not look like a deeper dive than 35' would be in his best interest.  By this time, we've been under for about 18 minutes,and my ear finally gets on board.  Jerk ear.  We cop a squat and finish our dive.  Here comes Mikes group we separated from.  Someone ran out of air and is sharing air with Mike.  Seems like he has to do that a lot.  Haha.  Curse of his good air management skills.  My buddy has one of those pulse guns that are all the rage this scuba season.  Basically a scuba toy.  It's hooked up to your tank and shoots air rings.  Entertaining!

We spend our decompression stop watching air rings shoot to the surface.  I end the dive with 1300 psi.  Plenty for a second dive on the same tank.

This time, Mike's group is going to the wrecks for Advanced class.  Only one of my buddies is going with this time.  No problems descending this time, jerk ear.  We descend on the bus and head to the helicopter by way of the plane.  The plane has been visited several times already and has been stirred up quite a bit.  No visibility.  We pass the plane and head to the helicopter.  Mike and one of the advanced students enter the helicopter and my buddy and I are next.  I signal to my buddy, who has just finished Open Water class to swim through.  He replied back with a vehement head shake, "NO!"  It was stirred up with no vis, so I can understand.  I don't want him to miss out on a wreck dive.  Somehow, I have clipped my flashlight all wonky on my BC and can't get it out to lend to him.  Next best thing, have him hold on to me and we will go through together.  With him holding my calf, I slowly go in the back of the wreck.  Trying not to kick him in the face with my fin was the name of the game.  My flashlight was no help here, lucky I can see the light through the busted out windows.  We slowly make our way to the door and exit.  Fun!  

Back to the shore for a surface interval.  And scuba snacks! 

 

Time for my rescue class check out.  My first tank is at 750, so not going to use that one.  One of my buddies offers me the rest of his 1st tank, 1300.  Good enough!  The objective is to find an object in a certain area of the scuba park.  Mine was a weight belt.  There was an Advanced student going with me for Search and Recovery.  He had a fancy dive computer with a digital read out compass.  I asked him if he would rather navigate or search in our buddy team.  Navigate, he said.  I plan the search: start at the tree, which is the southern boundary, head to 25 feet straight west, then turn north and search to the rope, the northern boundary.  Then, we will use the U pattern search to come shallower between the boundaries.  20 minute time limit.  Good plan, let's go.  We get to the southern boundary, I signal for descent and away we go.  I notice that my buddy is still on the surface.  I just watch from the bottom, knowing he's not weighted properly.  He signals for me to surface.  We wait for him to swim back to shore to get more weight.  The chill is setting in for the first time, that or adrenaline is making me shake.  We pass the time by bobbing and finning in circles.  Decent, take 2.  I get us to 25 feet at the southern boundary, and hand over nav to my buddy.  Here's where it gets messy.  He's having trouble with his computer, stirring up the bottom, and his mask is full of water.  I try to get him to stoop so he can purge his mask.  I have to signal several times to stop.  By the time I look at my computer, we're in 33 feet and at a yellow rope.  Crap.  Is yellow the same as red?  Do we keep going north?  I have to get my slate out again and ask Mike.  Yellow is tied to red, we're just too deep.  I head up the rope, back to 25 feet.  I signal to my buddy to clear his mask again,  but Mike swoops in and fixes his hood, which is under his mask, making it leak.  I should have thought of that.  Ok, back south we go.  By this time, I realize I have no idea where we started.  I have to signal a surface to get my bearing.  I signal for my buddy to stay and that I am going to surface and look.  When I do surface, I am back at the southern boundary, YES!!!  Here comes my entourage, surfacing.  Dang.  Signal another decent and I ask my buddy to count kick cycles back to the rope while I navigate back north.  We get back to the rope (fancy bit of compass work on my part, and as I have been completely inept at this skill previously, it feels good!)  in 25 kick cycles.  Great.  Now I know how far to go back south.  He stops me at 25 and we turn around.  Back to the rope.  I keep checking my air as the needle slowly creeps to the 500 psi mark, aka out of air.  That would be a terrible fail.  To get this far, then run out of air, never finding the belt?!?  As we turn at the rope again, I spot the belt!  This signals the end of the search part and the beginning of recovery for my buddy and rescue for me.  Mike signals wait for my buddy to surface the object, then we will continue to rescue an unresponsive diver underwater.  My buddy from the wreck has been with us the entire time.  I'm at 500 psi.  I signal wreck diver buddy to share air while we wait for Advanced buddy to surface the object.  Once that is done, it's time for me to do my thing.  Done and done!  This was the exercise I was most worried about, because of the compass work.  I feel much better about using the tool, now.

Last rescue scenario: Unresponsive diver at the surface.  Not something I excelled at in practice.  Since the I have watched several youtube videos and practiced in my head.  I'm ready for this one.  

Nailed it.

Last dive of the trip: my first nitrox dive.   It was like a victory lap.  Smooth and calm dive.  I found out later I forgot to zip up my 2nd wet suit.  No wonder it was chilly!

All in all, a great trip to open the season.  When do we get to go back?

Emergency Plan for my Rescue Diver class

Lake Tenkiller

Gore, Oklahoma 35.60 N, -95.03W

Contact Emergency Services

Nearest cell phone: On the dashboard of the Scubabros truck.

Nearest Landline: Ranger’s office at the corner of Cedar Ridge and Tenkiller Dr (SE of scuba park)

Inform Emergency personnel if there has been a diving accident by saying:  “Hello, there has been a scuba diving related incident.  The victim is at the scuba park at Lake Tenkiller NW of Highway 100.  We are providing oxygen/first aid.”

Emergency 911                                              DAN Emergency Hotline  1-919-684-9111 Emergency Sheriff 1-918-775-9155                     Radio VHF-FM Channel 16 (156.8 MHz)

First Aid and Medical Assistance

Scubabros vehicle: Black Ford F350 truck

First Aid Kit - In the green case in the back of the Scubabros truck.

Emergency O2 - In the green case in back of the Scubabros truck. Emergency oxygen lasts approx 40 minutes

Nearest Medical Emergency Services Sequoyah Memorial Hospital (33 mins) (918) 774-1100 213 E Redwood Ave Sallisaw, OK 74955 Head southeast toward OK-100 E 0.6 mi.  Turn left onto OK-100 E 3.4 mi.  Turn right onto OK-82 S 8.4 mi.  Turn left onto US-64 E/Schley St Continue to follow US-64 E 10.9 mi.  Turn left onto N Maple St 0.2 mi.  Take the 3rd right onto E1070 Rd/W Redwood Ave.  Destination will be on the left 0.5 mi

    

New Equipment

How can a simple trip to OCCC dive night incite so much scuba smile?  Start off with some afternoon studying the rescue book in the sun, riding down with the bros in the truck, and trying out my new reg.  More than an hour later, and I'm spoiled on my R195. It's smooth.  Turns out to be a great purchase.  End with celebratory beer, add some OTB and you have a great night. Scuba smile.