Rescue Diver - First attempt

Today we went to Del Monte beach for the ocean part of our Rescue Diver class. It was our first time at that dive site - and actually - since we stayed pretty shallow there wasn't much to see as far as sea life ... just sand dollars and a big snail with a pretty shell. There's supposed to be a big shale reef further off the beach though.

I got to practice being the victim a lot - Curtis had to haul me out on his back. I was supposed to try returning the favor, but man - I'm just not strong enough. I was able to help with a two person carry and then drag him up the beach. :)

In the water we were supposed to practice removing equipment while giving rescue breaths and towing the unresponsive diver back to shore. It's really hard to do and as the waves and current were starting to pick up and we were starting to get tired ... I actually gave up and decided to try again another time. Curtis kept working at it but he needs more practice too - we were struggling with keeping the timing of the rescue breaths while making progress with removing gear. We did well at bringing an unresponsive diver up from the bottom though. That's something!

Still - although we haven't completed our rescue diver certification yet, we have learned a lot about how to help ourselves as well as help others in trouble. Hopefully that training will help us keep from getting in trouble in the first place!

New dry suits

Here's Curtis in his new Pinnacle trilaminate dry suit!


So far we like the suits a lot. We were diving in a Mares neoprene dry suit before. In comparison, we're a little baggier, but its easier to control buoyancy. And we need a lot less weight. Between the steel tank, trilam drysuit, and weezle undergarment (instead of polartech), and taking the peak performance buoyancy class, I was able to drop from 38 lbs of lead to 18 lbs. Sweet!

Peak Performance Buoyancy

Curtis and I finished our Peak Performance Buoyancy class this weekend. That was a lot of fun! We first practiced in the pool - swimming through hula hoops and practicing hovering in place without sinking or floating up - just staying in exactly one spot. Then we had to do it again while passing a 5 pound weight back and forth. Take the weight and try not to sink. Let go of the weight and try not to float up. Yesterday we headed to the ocean to give it a try there!

It was a beautiful day at Breakwater, with 35 foot visibility - which is crazy far for that spot. It was a good thing to. I'm not sure how easy it would be to find the hula hoops in 5 ft visibility. :) Somehow I never did get the hang of swimming through the hoops in the ocean. I always got caught on them and ended up dragging them along with me. Sigh. But I was able to hover and feel a lot more confident now about how much weight I'm carrying and how fast I make my ascents and descents.

Curtis on the other hand is quite the pro! He would swim through those hoops as gracefully as a seal. Here's his dive profile from the second dive yesterday. Beautiful!

So what did we see while we were practicing floating as calmly as a fish? A few cool things like... a new type of nudibranch - PURPLE! and quite large! Can't wait till we have another fun dive and can try taking pictures again now that we are better at hovering. And ... we made it to the Metridium Fields! Lots of giant white anemones swaying gracefully in the current. I saw a pretty big crab booking it into hiding after he saw us coming.