Here we are in the middle of the cold weather season, Dave’s favorite time to escape New York. Dave tries to tell Martha that he has been bad and that she should banish him to Texas for a few months. It never really works. However, I was able to arrange for a few weeks off to spend some time in sunny Florida. Of course, winter seems to have followed us as it was cold in Florida.
We had an ambitions schedule planned. We contacted Tom Mount to help us accomplish a few goals for the year. Dave needed to finish his Meg Instructor course so I volunteered to be his student and I needed to complete my OC/CCR Trimix Instructor Trainer Certification so Dave volunteered to be my candidate for the session.
Tom set up two weeks worth of training and diving for us. We planned to do a lot of wreck diving while we were in the area as part of our course. Our plans called for dives on a variety of wrecks at various depths.
During the next few days the winds built and came from the wrong direction. What this meant for us was more time at Tom’s house in lectures and in pools. In fact it meant a lot of extra lecture time and discussions about new training materials.
During our dive on the Speigel Grove, my training dive on the Meg, I had two instructors, Dave and another instructor candidate along wit Tom. Since I was the student, I was anticipating a lot of drills with my instructors. What happened was not at all what I expected. During the descent it became apparent that the other instructor candidate was having problems with buoyancy and we found that his jacket was having trouble holding air. Of course while Dave was helping him sort it out, Tom, who had grown impatient with the lack of attention to me, the student quickly appeased himself by giving me a “boom scenario” to deal with. Having successfully accomplished the procedure for dealing with the “problem” our other instructor candidate signaled he was ok and ready to continue. Tom started on the dive.
Dave soon realized that this other person was not in the proper space for the dive and was having trouble maintaining buoyancy. So rather than focus on me “the student” he decided that he needed to watch the other candidate. As Tom approached a wide opening that traverses the wreck, everyone apparently signaled ok and in he went. I have to admit I was really laughing at myself in the passageway. I kept getting stuck. This was not my normal configuration! Imagine a Wreck Instructor getting stuck on a simple dive. I soon realigned myself and pulled my way out into the opening, under Tom’s watchful eyes. As I turned around there was no one behind me. Tom and I waited and still there were no divers behind us. I looked back down the passage and there was no one there. I communicated this to Tom and then after a little more of a delay the other candidate entered the passage creating a cloud of silt for Dave to swim through. Dave later told us that he had a difficult time getting the other person to follow.
It was at this point, we all noticed how poor his buoyancy was and that he appeared to be struggling to stay afloat in the water column. Further, Dave was signaling Tom that the diver was low on dil. Tom, immediately terminated the dive leading us to the mooring line. After our safety stop, we exited the water to a surprised crew. We were supposed to be go for 2 hours and we were surfacing before the other recreational divers.
Tom started to talk to Dave about the lack of drills for his “student” during the dive but quickly changed his focus when the entire situation became known. Then his attention switched to the other diver/candidate.
In the end, Dave and I did accomplish our goals. Dave received his Meg Instructor and his CCR Normoxic Trimix Instructor credentials and I received my OC/CCR Trimix Instructor credentials. We also decided that January was not the best time to travel to Florida for diving. The winds are unpredictable and the diving is likely to get blown out. Something Tom knew and tried to tell us but who said we ever listen.
Oh well, live and learn…
