DeepDiverBob
July 29th, 2007, 08:56 PM
One of the advantages of being a DM, is I get to meet a lot of cool people when I am working a class. It seems like from every class, I wind up making a good friend or two. A month or so ago, I worked a AOW class, and got to know a husband a wife team. Due to work circumstances, the husband had to move out to Phoenix, while the wife is still here getting things finalized before she joins him in a month or so. Anyway, she was a little uncomfortable on her deep dive in the AOW class. I got an email from her a while back, asking me if I would take her to Mermet, and see about getting her comfortable. Not a problem with me, I'll go diving. So off we went...
We got to Mermet about 8:30, got geared up and in the water shortly there after. We descended on the 85 foot platform. Vis was really good. I could see the platform by the time we got to 40 foot. We got down on the platform, and she got neutral, and we swam to the 100 foot. She looked very comfy. We headed back to the 85 foot, and then to the wall. From the wall, we ascended to 40 foot, and swam under the platforms, out to the school bus and the motorcycle before turning around and completing our safety stop on the main platform. Vis in the shallows was amazingly good, considering how busy Mermet was. I would say at least 20-25 foot.
Dive 2, we decided to go out and see some of the attractions, since she really didnt get to see much of them during class. We descended onto the school bus, then down to the 65 foot platform, Vis was around 30 foot here. Checked out the truck with the mail box, then the cessna, box car, one man sub and then the 727. Ascnded to the helicoptor on top to make sure my name wasnt covered with silt. It was, so I had to clean that off. We then went to the Diesel, Ambulance and cabin cruiser. Vis was still hanging around 25 to 20 foot. We then headed to the petting zoo, and showed her the shark. We completed our safety stop on top of the bus, and exited the water.
Dive 3, we decided to just do a relaxing wall dive. Went out, tuned 1700 PSI, and came back. Had a few spoonbill sightings, and came back under the platforms again, where I found a very full weight pocket. After the safety stop, I checked it for names, but didnt see any. I turned it in to staff. Hopefully it will find its way home again. Vis on this dive was about 30 foot at around 60 foot.
Dive 4, we was trying to decide what to do. I had mentioned earlier that the only thing at Mermet that I have never seen, was the diving bell. She suggested we go look for that. Cool, I'm game. We went down on the 65 foot platform, and swam out to the 727. From there, i followed the wall, staying at about 15 foot. Using my compass, I realized that we had missed it somehow, we turned the dive and headed back. Vis for some reason over here was down to about 10-15 foot. On the way back, I stumbled upon the bell. I turned around to share the excitement, and she wasnt there. Uh-oh. I searched, and then surfaced. At first, I didnt see any bubbles, and I had about a million and 5 bad thoughts going through my mind. Then I finally saw them, and started to surface swim over to them. She surfaced about that time, we regrouped, and dropped back down and headed back to the dock. Even at the end of the day, you could still see from one side of the platforms to the other. I was pretty amazed by that.
All in all, I had a great time. One of the joys of diving, is sharing my experiences with the people just getting started, and helping them along like many did with me(Bill). Lately, I have been doing a lot of deep, tech diving, and last week in the caves, which is really cool, but there is nothing like seeing someone get hooked on the same sport, and seeing the joy and excitement in their eyes dive after dive. What a great weekend this was.
We got to Mermet about 8:30, got geared up and in the water shortly there after. We descended on the 85 foot platform. Vis was really good. I could see the platform by the time we got to 40 foot. We got down on the platform, and she got neutral, and we swam to the 100 foot. She looked very comfy. We headed back to the 85 foot, and then to the wall. From the wall, we ascended to 40 foot, and swam under the platforms, out to the school bus and the motorcycle before turning around and completing our safety stop on the main platform. Vis in the shallows was amazingly good, considering how busy Mermet was. I would say at least 20-25 foot.
Dive 2, we decided to go out and see some of the attractions, since she really didnt get to see much of them during class. We descended onto the school bus, then down to the 65 foot platform, Vis was around 30 foot here. Checked out the truck with the mail box, then the cessna, box car, one man sub and then the 727. Ascnded to the helicoptor on top to make sure my name wasnt covered with silt. It was, so I had to clean that off. We then went to the Diesel, Ambulance and cabin cruiser. Vis was still hanging around 25 to 20 foot. We then headed to the petting zoo, and showed her the shark. We completed our safety stop on top of the bus, and exited the water.
Dive 3, we decided to just do a relaxing wall dive. Went out, tuned 1700 PSI, and came back. Had a few spoonbill sightings, and came back under the platforms again, where I found a very full weight pocket. After the safety stop, I checked it for names, but didnt see any. I turned it in to staff. Hopefully it will find its way home again. Vis on this dive was about 30 foot at around 60 foot.
Dive 4, we was trying to decide what to do. I had mentioned earlier that the only thing at Mermet that I have never seen, was the diving bell. She suggested we go look for that. Cool, I'm game. We went down on the 65 foot platform, and swam out to the 727. From there, i followed the wall, staying at about 15 foot. Using my compass, I realized that we had missed it somehow, we turned the dive and headed back. Vis for some reason over here was down to about 10-15 foot. On the way back, I stumbled upon the bell. I turned around to share the excitement, and she wasnt there. Uh-oh. I searched, and then surfaced. At first, I didnt see any bubbles, and I had about a million and 5 bad thoughts going through my mind. Then I finally saw them, and started to surface swim over to them. She surfaced about that time, we regrouped, and dropped back down and headed back to the dock. Even at the end of the day, you could still see from one side of the platforms to the other. I was pretty amazed by that.
All in all, I had a great time. One of the joys of diving, is sharing my experiences with the people just getting started, and helping them along like many did with me(Bill). Lately, I have been doing a lot of deep, tech diving, and last week in the caves, which is really cool, but there is nothing like seeing someone get hooked on the same sport, and seeing the joy and excitement in their eyes dive after dive. What a great weekend this was.