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?
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