Evansville Scuba Club

Any Trip reports coming on the houseboat diving?

Less than 2 weeks to go! On Aug 29, 16 brave souls from Aquatech will be setting out from the Tri- State to dive & explore the famous Galapagos Islands. From reports coming in, it will be cold water, heavy current diving rewarded by seeing very large animals (whale sharks, hammerheads, silky & Galapagos sharks, manta rays, orca, sea lions & the list goes on. I will be taking my lap top with me to keep a journal of our adventures- sorry, I still do not have an underwater camera, so there will only be top side pictures from me. I will not have internet access until we get back to mainland Ecuador (we will be a week on a live aboard boat), but as soon as I can will post the journal.

So,…. what got you interested in diving? With me, I was on a cruise ship that called on the port of Georgetown Grand Cayman. Discover Scuba was offered & I thought, ”why not? it would be cool”. After about 30 min. of lecture, 30 min. in the pool to teach us a few basic skills, the took us out on a reef just off shore to about 30ft. WOW! that was so cool. To breathe underwater, be weightless & to see the beauty of the reefs there, I was hooked. When summer rolled around, I signed up for a course & got certified. After 4yrs & about 400 dives, I am now an instructor & working towards acquiring my Full Cave Diver certification. So how or why did you get started? What have you gotten out of diving?

The need for a redundant air supply on deep cold water dives-
A couple of Sundays ago, while at the quarry, a group of us (4) decided to do a deep dive. The quarry reaches depths of 115 ft with temperatures in the low 40’s below 60 ft. We decided that 1 buddy pair go one way & the other would go another. I was diving double 108’s & my buddy was diving a single steel 104. We descended without much problem. The other team leveled off at about 70 ft & started on their way. I am not sure what size/ type tanks they were diving only that they were singles with no redundancy- which IMO is crazy in that environment; I also thought this same thing with my buddy; but we’re all divers & should know what we’re getting into. My buddy & I dropped down a little further & leveled off at about 90 ft. After giving each other the OK signal, I started to lead the dive as planned.

Not even a minute later (we were about 5 min into the dive) my buddy signaled me with his rattle & pointed to his regulator. It took me a couple of seconds to realize what he was communicating,… a free flow was starting. The bubbles weren’t too bad at this point, I immediately deployed my long hose primary to him, but he wouldn’t take it, he just stared at me,…. I’m guessing some narcosis & situational narrowing going on there. Then the regulator went into a full free flow & all hell broke loose. If I could have given him my primary, I was going to turn his air off, let the 1st stage thaw for a few seconds the turn it back on & give his regulator back to him & do a slow, controlled ascent, but that never happened. He started for the surface, not really in a panic, but quickly, as I grabbed him. I’m not sure, but I don’t think he dumped ANY air from his BC on the way up, & I couldn’t reach his inflator hose to dump any. This very quickly turned into an uncontrolled ascent, so I dumped all the air out of my wings & tried to use the weight of my 108’s to slow the ascent, it worked marginally. It slowed us a little, but not as much as I would have liked. At 20 ft I decided to let him go to hopefully avoid/ reduce the risk of injury to myself. My computer (a Suunto) put me into 3 min. deco with a 10 ft ceiling because of the ascent. I stayed down & did my deco then came up to check on my buddy. Thankfully, he was fine. We got very lucky with it. The reason I knew what to do with the free flow, in my situation, was that I had a free flow in the same quarry almost 2 yrs earlier when I took my Adv. Nitrox/ Decompression course 2 yrs earlier. I just used the knowledge I gained from that experience to try to handle the situation. I asked him why he did not take my primary, he said he never saw it, even though I had it right in his face. Probably stress & narcosis causing that.

About the the same time we had our problems, one of the guys on the other team had a free flow. The guy who had the free flow is still a newer diver & I’m not sure if he is deep certified or not. The diver was startled by the violence of the free flow & bolted for the surface. His buddy (I have dove with him before) doesn’t always have the greatest team/ situational awareness. He never realized there was even a problem until his buddy was near the surface. The free flow diver was badly shook up, but uninjured. Everyone involved in these events was fine & we all took an extended surface interval before doing another shallow dive.

The thing that should be taken away from this episode is that cold water, especially deep cold water should be taken very seriously. It is a very harsh environment. Divers who are going to do this kind of diving really should have a redundant air supply- either a pony bottle or double cylinders with an isolation valve & they should be trained it its use.

Jackson Blue Cave System
Had a great 3 days diving! My cave instructor Larry,another cave diver, Stan & I decided to dive Jackson Blue Cave. We originally were going on a trip to dive the Oriskany, until the operator had to shut down operations to assist with the Gulf oil spill. We decided to to do some cave diving instead. We rented a pontoon boat to get to Jackson Blue. We dove off the boat, swam under the fence through the public swimming area to the cave. The first dive was a ”tune- up” dive that I was invited to come along on. Stan hadn’t been in a cave in a while, so this was to be an easy, straight forward dive. I made it to about 900ft of penetration, before turning the dive on 1/3’s, as I can do when Larry is with me as he is my instructor & I’m still at the Intro level, working on my full cave. Not a great distance, but not bad either, considering the flow we were swimming against. Jackson Blue’s flow was kicking. You couldn’t swim against it without wearing yourself out. It was also a bit beyond pull & glide. It was just pull, pull, pull. Then a nice little drift dive, back to the entrance, that is when you could really enjoy the scenery at your leisure. The reason for this trip was to allow Larry to have some dives for enjoyment & me to gain a little more experience. His last several trips have been for teaching & he was beginning to burn out a bit. The second dive of the day was originally to be a dive for Larry & Stan to use their scooters & stages until Larry’s scooter’s electronics crapped out, so it became a swimming dive done with stages, so I was unable to go on that one. But not all was lost. After helping Larry & Stan get ready for their dive, I then geared up & go into the cavern & hang out/ wait for the Larry & Stan to get back/ practice skills. I was just inside the cavern entrance far enough where the swimmers would not be able to bother me, unless they were fantastic breath holders & close enough to the surface that I could beat a hasty retreat if I had to. I know some people are against solo diving, but since I am solo certified, I was quite comfortable with the situation & stayed close to the entrance in case of an emergency. Even though just 20ft or so deep, that second dive was my longest dive to date at 97 minutes. I will say I was getting cold by the time Larry & Stan came out. The water was 68 degrees.
Day 2: Larry was able to rent a scooter from the local dive shop (a Silent Submersion Magnus). Once again, since it was an advanced dive, I hung out just inside the cavern & practiced, but did not wait until they came out. Got too cold. I went back to the boat & helped them to get their gear back aboard. The second dive Larry, Stan & I were just going to see how far I could get. In the cavern, Stan’s primary light went out & wouldn’t restart, so he aborted & went back to the boat. Larry took me back & I made it about as far as I did the day before. On the way out Larry decided to do a lights- out/ air share drill at about 500 ft inside. I was the donor. On the way out I had a left post roll- off. As soon as the air was cut off, I shook Larry’s arm to let him know of a problem, switched hands on the line, reached back, calmly turned the valve back on, regained touch contact & we continued on. It was weird, normally I have to fight to reach those valves, this was effortless & without thought. As Larry told me, ”you will get to those valves when/ if you have to”. He was absolutely right. When we got to the surface he asked, ” I felt you squirming a little, did you have a problem?” (He knew exactly what was going on). Me: ”yes, I did”, Larry: ”Did you have a roll- off?”, Me: ”Yes,… I was able to take care of it”, Larry: ”good”. It was a huge confidence booster for me.
Day 3: Another cave diver from the shop joined us. He was in Pensacola for the Oriskany trip that got canceled, but left earlier to do a mini vacation with his wife before we got down there, since he had the gear down there, he decided to get in a couple of cave dives, while down there. The first dive, again was an advanced dive, so I was in the cavern again. The second dive I had to lead (except for Larry laying the primary reel to save me time & gas). We made a jump to a side tunnel that was wide & low, but only about 150ft long before I tied back onto the main guideline. This time I made it to the main guideline split before turning on 3rd’s. On the way back, Larry & the others checked out a couple of passages. I had to do another air share drill with Stan for a short distance, nothing exciting there. When we got to about 200ft We covered our lights. You could just barely make out the blue glow of the cavern light. Magical….. Larry had me to take up the primary reel. I had only a couple of minutes of deco, so stayed on back gas. All in all, I had some great dives & Larry commented that my skills, awareness & over all diving in the caves had vastly improved (the practice has been paying off). He did not cover any new skills with me, so I still have not finished to full cave yet,…. but hopefully soon.

I just got word from Larry that my scooter arrived yesterday (Fri.)! Unfortunately, I’m working this, so it will be Mon. before I actually get to see it & Memorial Day Weekend before I get to get it wet. He said, just looking at it, it had some very impressive features. When I asked him what they were, he said I would have to see it for myself. Can not wait for this weekend to be over… Steve, would you maybe be up for a little scootering around the quarry some time this summer?