It was a busy weekend! It was an open water weekend with great results!
Saturday was Stress & Rescue day with Bubba Alex being found all over the lake without his buddy. He seemed to find himself, stuck in the boat, laying on the bottom, panicking on the surface, running out of air numerous time. Throughout it all, Bill, John, Mike and Chris kept dragging him back to shore and helping him get ready for his next dive. I think they were ready to tie him up and leave him on the bottom by the time it was done. At one point Bill turned to John and asked, isn’t this the same fool we just rescued from the boat? Where is his buddy? I am thinking that his buddy knew what kind of diver he was and left for the day.
Congratulations guys for putting up with us and finishing your Rescue course.
After it was all said and done, Bill and Steve survived leading these wonderful divers around and in the process completed their Dive Guide and Dive Master programs. And, we would like to take this opportunity to welcome Bill Fuqua and Steve Soulen to the Oceanic Ventures staff as our newest Dive Masters! Welcome to the team!!!
Scuba Dive Training
Scuba Diving Practice – Local Lake Diving
Wow! We had a great time up at Blue Lagoon yesterday. Wade proved once again that he is a master at the smoker and grill. The wild boar and grass fed brisket were awesome and no one went away hungry. While the weather threatened and delivered on the ride up to Huntsville, the weather at the Lagoon was nice and we had clear skies in the afternoon.
Practice your buoyancy skills locally…
I am often asked “do you still enjoy diving at Blue Lagoon?” I think what they actually mean is, that since I have been all over the world what can I possible find to do at Blue Lagoon or any local diving venue for that matter. What they fail to understand is that local diving affords you the opportunity to practice and maintain your skills. There is also a social aspect to local diving which I have often described as a barbecue interrupted by diving.
In order to keep the dives interesting you have to go in with a plan or purpose. In my earlier diving days I used local diving as a way to improve my navigational skills. It was a challenge to find all of the objects in the lake and return to the beach without surfacing. These skills have served me well over the years. To keep these skills sharp, I still practice underwater navigation in the lakes.
You can use your time underwater at these local venues to improve your buoyancy. In an earlier article I talked about using the underwater boats as a fixed point of reference and forcing yourself to hover in place. Another drill is to swim like a slalom skier maintaining neutral buoyancy and proper trim while swimming in and around rocks, trees, stumps, etc.
Pick objects on the bottom and swim around them, maintaining your trim and placement in the water. Work on making the turns without using your hands for steering. As you improve, try making sharper turns and then introduce changes in depth to your drills. Remember the first rule of scuba, breath continuously. Some people start concentrating too much on the drills and maintaining neutral buoyancy that they start violating this rule. Keep breathing but use your breathing to help you achieve these depth changes (unless you are on a rebreather of course).
As you do these drills, work on not kicking up the bottom. The tighter your turns, the more you will need to be in a bent leg diving position using “helicopter turns” and small very specific kicks to move through your course. If you are unfamiliar with these turns or this style of diving, then you might find an Advanced Buoyancy Control class useful.
The group diving with me this weekend got to experience this type of diving first hand as we wove through the boulder fields around the lake. Of course they skipped a few turns because they thought I was just doubling back, lost. Little did they know we were heading back to our entry point 50 more minutes in the future.
Dry Suit Scuba Diving and DUI DOG Rally and Demo Days in Texas
But despite our living in the South, the lakes tend to cool down a bit. Dry suits are the way to dive year round and laugh at the cold. And, to make it even more special, DUI’s DOG Rally and Demo Days is coming up November 10-1, 2012 at Clear Springs Scuba Park. This is your opportunity to get certified to dive a dry suit, try out the complete line of products from DUI and get fed lunch all for one price! And, if you want to, you can even camp with the rest of our divers!
Sign-Up today and get ready for this winters diving marathon!
Dive Mom, I hate being cold and I want to dive! (please sign me up or send me some more information)
Discovering the Why's of Diving…Science of Diving Course Scheduled
Who is Archimedes and why should we care? Is Dalton really important to divers? What do penguins have to do with diving? What is Martini’s Law? Do tides really effect diving?
The answers to these questions and others that you didn’t even know to ask will be answered in the fun, interesting Science of Diving course taught by our staff of fun and exciting Dive Leaders!
While this course is required for anyone thinking about entering our Dive Leader programs, it is an interesting program designed to answer some of those Why questions behind the diving rules and procedures. If you are interested in learning more about diving, sign-up for this program today and continue your diving education.
Course Dates: October 13 (Saturday), 16, with Scuba Steve Brennan
Scuba Diver Stress & Rescue Course Scheduled
First Aid and CPR training is also a part of the overall program. You can sign-up for the whole program or just the portions you need (Stress Rescue, First Aid, CPR or Oxygen Prneuder).
Don’t miss this opportunity, we only have a few spaces left! Call or email Dive Mom today!
- Classroom & Pool sessions: October 2,4 9,11
- First Aid/CPR/O2: October16,18
- Diving Days: October 20-21at the Beautiful Blue Lagoon
New Technical Divers
Recently, I had the opportunity to teach a new group of Technical Divers. They were excited to expand their diving knowledge and learn some new skills at the same time. We spent the summer Side Mount diving, and learning the Principles of Technical Diving. Needless to say, I spent a lot of time at the lake.
When it was time to go on the deeper dives required for their Advanced Recreational Trimix Class we were scheduled to go to Lake Travis. However, they decided that it would be more fun and a better experience if we went diving in clear water. Now, for people who know me, I don’t particularly like teaching technical diving in Lake Travis because the reduced visibility limits the swim distances and the entire diving experience is shackled. So, when they decided that they would like a better experience, I immediately began putting something together for Cozumel.
Cozumel is an ideal choice because you can get there easily with almost daily flights direct to the island from Houston and because the diving there is spectacular. Additionally, the infrastructure for technical diving is there with mixed gas, bottles and sorb readily available. Additionally, the food and lodging costs are reasonable.
We arrived on Friday afternoon and were boat-diving that afternoon – a 130’ tune-up dive. Over the next two days, we ended up doing five decompression dives to depths in excess of 145 feet and still had time to enjoy the sun and Pepe’s world famous guacamole. Our dives were joined by turtles, large groupers, moray eels, schools of snapper, huge lobster, crabs and plenty of crystal clear blue water.
I feel they are now better equipped to deal with the diving environments most technical divers will face. They have a lot of experience in low visibility locations but clear water is also important and these divers have experience in both environments.
