Ed Riley Trip Report
Destination: Lake Rawlings
Instructor: Ed Riley
Dates: September 8 & 9, 2007
Description: Open Water Certification Dives and Advanced Open Water Course
PADI *Open Water Scuba Diver Certification Dives
“… and then there were three.”
Congratulations to Paul, Howard and Kristin on their successful completion of the PADI Open Water Scuba Diver course! It was a pleasure having them with us for the weekend. For myself, one of the best moments during their certification weekend was on the tour portion of the third dive. Everyone wanted to see and feel the first thermal cline at about 34 feet. By the tour portion of the third training dive, we had easily completed all of our open water tasks except for a couple of surface skills and they were scheduled for completion on the next day’s final dive. As we traversed a rocky, boulder strewn ledge/wall at 34 feet during the tour, I was leading with Kristin as my dive “buddy” with Howard and Paul paired up just behind us. The always conscientious and ever watchful Cindy was bringing up the rear to complete our group.
I looked up to observe a larger bass of around 20”. I ascended to 29 feet to have a closer look at this local “predator“. As an instructor, it is very gratifying to look to your side and see your dive partner (student) within arms reach and the other pair side by side and close a “fin”. It is even more gratifying to give everyone the signal to “hover” in order to watch the large mouth bass more closely and to see “your people” do so, as “rock steady” as the boulders we were next to. Wow! All of them just “hung” there, hands clasped together (my favorite), darn near motionless. (And just in case you are wondering, yes, I intentionally did this so I could assess their ability with regards to buoyancy control.) That’s when I knew I was in the company of “Scuba Divers” and not students per se. Hovering is a skill we use to develop and assess a students ability to master buoyancy control and a means to an end. Stopping at a certain depth to observe a bass, using breath-control only, is Scuba Diving, baby! Nice job everyone, nice job!
I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge Peggy and Mary Kay for their courage and boundless determination to complete this Open Water course. One is new to swimming and the open water environment in general. The other has had equalization issues (temporary) and scheduling conflicts with her training. I have no doubt that they will complete their certification process in the very near future.
PADI Advanced Open Water Course
…“Cindy, Billy, how long ago did they leave the platform?”
Congratulations to Patrick, “Bo”, Ricky and Todd on their successful completion of the Advanced Open Water Course! The four of them found themselves in beautiful downtown Lake Rawlings on a hot Saturday afternoon, ready to “go diving”. With 93 degree surface temperatures in the shade, the “guys” were ready to dive into the 84 degree water pronto. Fortunately, the ever mindful and caring instructor provided a large, Caribbean-blue gazebo (hint) as sun protection for his students comfort and wellbeing (those “SCUBA” sunburns are wicked!).
The first Adventure dive was Peak Performance Buoyancy. This is a priceless specialty, in my book, when you realize that two of the folks participating removed all of their weights (at least 10 pounds each) while one removed almost another 8 pounds. With steel tanks, all of that weight was unnecessary and with that viola(!), less weight, better air consumption, great buoyancy control. They were all excellent with their skills and we moved on to the Navigator/navigation Adventure dive. Okay, overall it was good at the end. But man ’o man Cindy, did I not say practice with the compass before the visit to Lake Rawlings? We had the humbling experience of navigating half-way across the quarry on a straight out and back (reciprocal) course of less than 100 feet. Apparently keeping track of fin kicks and distances needed a little work. No worries, I knew the edge of the quarry would corral them, eventually (laugh).
Navigation has a way of challenging divers like no other specialty- you either arrive back, close, to your starting point or you don’t. Or in real life, you find the boat or beach you are diving from or you don’t. The guys had fun and after further review before the night dive, decided that this AOW course was “for real”. Speaking of the Night Dive Specialty, that went off without a hitch. Well, except for the Navigation issue rearing its’ ugly head again. The theme song could have been, “they went out for a ride, but they never came back!“.
To everyone’s credit, they followed procedures, stayed together and got the job done. The visibility was less then ideal too, I might add. The highlight of the dive was, in my opinion, six strapping young lads (okay, okay, only Patrick fits that description) serenading the Birthday girl Cindy, in 25 feet of water, on top of the blue school bus lying in Lake Rawlings! As leader and using my long green tank marker as my conductor’s baton, we all hummed Happy Birthday to Cindy while trying to maintain buoyancy control on the top of the bus (which was rounded, of course) …and that activity “so added” to the “look” of the whole scene. The “Reverend” Billy W. accompanied us on the dive to round out this “six pack” dive choir.
Finally out of the water for the day (just kidding, kinda…laugh), we had a great campfire BBQ back at my trailer. Todd and Ricky can cook up some good grub and Cindy brought her “homegrown” burgers and some hot dogs too. Too many leftovers, but thanks guys and gal, Sam (my dog) and I appreciated it.
Sunday brought the Deep Dive and everyone did well. Todd “pushed” us on diving longer and so it was only for the lack of air that we ended the dive. It is always interesting to experience the effects of pressure at depth on objects and timed tasks. The Search and Recovery dive was great as the navigation skills were demonstrated well. There was one item noted by all and I would like to mention.
I provided two different style lift bags. One was simple in design and the other one had more features such as a relief valve, multiple line attachment points and 10 more pounds of lift then the other one being used. A simple bag can be filled with air and handled more easily, but venting can be an issue. A more feature oriented lift bag can have multiple attachment points and more lift, but with the increased size and lift capacity, more care needs to be taken with venting the expanding air on ascent. Teamwork and proper communications are important too when working in groups. I caught one lift bag at 12 feet that was surfacing “unattended” at the time (smile)…. I think that’s one reason they are called “Adventure” dives (laugh). All of these AOW dives are so we can learn new skills, practice, and then start becoming proficient with them. The corresponding specialty courses allow you to develop to your full potential and expertise in a given area of interest.
My final segment is called, “Quotes from the slate”. This is meant as a positive and humorous look at diving. So please enjoy…
I was looking over my writing slate and realized I had to share a couple of quotes. One was from the night dive during the supposedly short navigation run (25 feet out and back). It was a message to Cindy and Billy on the platform. After 26 minutes, with various glimpses of “flashlights in the night” close by during that time, and upon Cindy’s/my return verifying that the two teams were “OKAY!” I realized WE hadn’t had dinner yet and it was around 8:40 in the evening. I wrote in jest, “If they aren’t back soon, we’ll go back and eat!” If I remember correctly, the solidly built Billy nodded his head furiously in the affirmative (laugh- we love you Billy!).
The other quote is from the OW certification dives and goes like this, “YOU are out of air (simulation, of course) use MY AAS”. Someone was trying to use their own AAS when they were simulating an out of air situation as opposed to using their instructor's. Sometimes, we all get a little “excited” out there, right?
Ed Riley
MSDT/Instructor
