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!
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