"Maybe you're not up on current events.....

[Joshua Smith]

.....But we just got our asses kicked out there!"

OK, humbling dive report to follow. Everyone got back to zero feet without getting bent. And perhaps we learned a thing or two. I met Marc (Blitz) on Monday for a fun dive at cove 2. We were going to scooter from the I beams to the monolith and back. Nice fun dive. At the last minute, checking my dive locker, I saw my reel and smb sitting on the bench, and just decided I didn't need them for this dive. (cue ominous foreshadowing music).

As we geared up in the parking lot, we talked about our plan- I told Mark I had an al80 with 40% and about 2000 psi in it for bailout, so I wanted to stay near 100'. He agreed, and told me he had brought a single tank with 32%, so 100-ish was just fine by him. We took our time gearing up in the shallows, adjusted everything, and headed off. As we first dropped, I spun the compass on my scooter to 210, because I know from many dives there what the heading is to shore. Despite the fact that I have owned my CUDA for years, now, I've had a love/ hate relationship with it, and as a result, haven't dived it as much as I would like, so I've been making a real effort to dive it a lot- as we descended, I noted with some pleasure that I seem to have finally dialed in the leash length and scooter trim and weighting- it wasn't killing my arm, and I wasn't fighting it as much as usual.....but viz seemed to be getting worse as we went. Oh, well- Marc's a great buddy, we won't get separated. We found a line near the I beams in the increasingly cloudy viz that was headed towards cove 1, so we hung a right at ~90' and headed off. A minute or so later, the line had disappeared, and viz was even worse- maybe 5'. We stopped for a second, and I noted that we were now at 110'. "Little too deep for the monolith, even on this high tide" I thought. I looked at my compass, and signaled Marc which way I wanted to go- he returned my signal, which seemed great- Marc's really good at navigation- when he agrees with me, I just *know* everything's fine. (Ominous music surges up a notch).

We whirred off through the....really crappy.....viz. At times, I could only see Marc's arm, or his light- and we were practically joined at the hip. I was focused on my compass, CCR readouts, and depth guage- couldn't really see anything else. We stopped again, and I noticed we were now at.....127'!!! WTF! I was steering us towards shore, but we got deeper. By this point, I didn't give a damn about the monolith at all- I just wanted to get shallower, and maybe get out of this now EPICALLY crappy viz. We repeated the drill- I took a heading, waved my light in the right direction, Marc confirmed, and off we went. Probably a minute later (felt like half an hour) I saw that we were now at.....a hundred and forty feet. Oh, shit. I'm OK, Meg is working just fine, but Marc's P02 is through the roof, and I'm suddenly feeling very stressed. I thought of my SMB and reel, sitting on my bench (Ominous music crescendos). Marc signals me that he's going up, and I gulp and nod. I *Hate* greenwater ascents. That's why I *ALMOST ALWAYS* carry a 425' reel and SMB with me- so I won't have to do one. I have shot that sucker from 200' in the lake before, during a dive that went sideways a few years ago, and I love it, I do. Amazing, the psychological comfort a piece of string connecting you to the surface can provide. But, oh well- I *can* do them, I just hate them- and we had to get Marc up to a reasonable depth ASAP. Around 100', Marc pulled out a bag and finger spool, and I swear, I almost did the underwater happy dance. YAAAAAY! Marc executed a textbook bag shoot, and the rest of the ascent was a piece of cake. When we surfaced, I realized a couple of things- my first thought was that we were not terribly far from the wreck of the MT6- Waaaaay out there beyond Saltys. Good freaking lord. Secondly, I glanced down at the compass on my scooter, and right then and there, I was tempted to cut my own throat with my dive knife. My compass was working fine- I'd just put the "210" demarcation precisely 180 degrees from where it belonged- I was doing it backwards. In the craptacular viz, without any other visual references, and building stress levels- I hadn't relized that I was taking us away from, as opposed to towards, shore. And Marc's compass was malfunctioning- (we never figured out why, Perhaps the electrical field from his scooter battery?) but his was agreeing with mine, which reinforced what I "knew" was the right way to go. I would love to blame narcossis for this screw up, but I had 14/50 trimix left over from a deeper dive onboard. I think my biggest error was not taking the dive seriously enough to bring everything I needed, and not being as familiar with my equipment as I should be- I don't think I would have made the same error with my wrist mounted compass, and I just haven't done a hell of a lot of navigation with my scooter. I know they work the same way, but....well, one of them is bolted to my scooter, the other one goes on my wrist, and they look completely different!

Lessons learned: Not sure yet, I'm still working on that. "Learn how to use a freaking compass" comes to mind.

On another note- there really isn't anyone I'd rather have with me when things go South than Marc. He's on that short list of people that I wouldn't hesitate to do any dive with. I don't think there's much of anything that could make him panic.

(Crawls into flame retardant shelter to nurse bruised ego)

[mz53480]

Thanks for sharing this Josh.
glad it wasn't 'game over man!' for either of you.

[ktb]

Wow. +1 on the thanks for sharing Josh.


I'm glad it turned out ok, and I agree with you on Marc--I'd trust him to dive with me anywhere, anytime. The man is a machine and he should know that's a compliment. :luv:


But don't ever dive with Geek. I'm kind of glad I'm not the only one that sometimes has compass trouble, and Geek will NEVER let you hear the end of it if he's around when it happens. :angry:

[citycatred]

Wow. +1 on the thanks for sharing Josh.


I'm glad it turned out ok, and I agree with you on Marc--I'd trust him to dive with me anywhere, anytime. The man is a machine and he should know that's a compliment. :luv:


But don't ever dive with Geek. I'm kind of glad I'm not the only one that sometimes has compass trouble, and Geek will NEVER let you hear the end of it if he's around when it happens. :angry:

Kelly....thats because your compass skills are horrible but then again....after my mistake at the bottle field I guess I should just shut up....

[ktb]

Wow. +1 on the thanks for sharing Josh.


I'm glad it turned out ok, and I agree with you on Marc--I'd trust him to dive with me anywhere, anytime. The man is a machine and he should know that's a compliment. :luv:


But don't ever dive with Geek. I'm kind of glad I'm not the only one that sometimes has compass trouble, and Geek will NEVER let you hear the end of it if he's around when it happens. :angry:

Kelly....thats because your compass skills are horrible but then again....after my mistake at the bottle field I guess I should just shut up....

No they aren't and yes you should.

[citycatred]

Wow. +1 on the thanks for sharing Josh.


I'm glad it turned out ok, and I agree with you on Marc--I'd trust him to dive with me anywhere, anytime. The man is a machine and he should know that's a compliment. :luv:


But don't ever dive with Geek. I'm kind of glad I'm not the only one that sometimes has compass trouble, and Geek will NEVER let you hear the end of it if he's around when it happens. :angry:

Kelly....thats because your compass skills are horrible but then again....after my mistake at the bottle field I guess I should just shut up....

No they aren't and yes you should.

Ohhh pretty bottle.....ohhh pretty bottle.....ohh pretty bottle.....*looks at computer*.....ohh.....shit....ten minutes of Deco......Kelly this way....ohh pretty bottle....ohh pretty bottle....must not get distracted.....

[LCF]

I've had my compass on my scooter stick before (beware of any SK7 that has the tiniest air bubble in it). In our lousy viz, and when you have been taught "even when you think it's wrong, trust the compass", that can cause a lot of trouble. And one thing about scooters . . . they move so fast, any navigational error one makes gets magnified really fast.

Your story is making me think, though, that putting a vivid OLED depth gauge on the instrument panel of the scooter might not be a bad idea at all.

We were down at 100 fsw in Cove 2 today, and the viz was horrible (much better shallower) and I would not have wanted to be on a scooter. It's sure easy to see how something like this happens. Glad to hear that everybody made it home safe, and thank you for sharing the story.

[WylerBear]

Thanks for sharing your story. We all learn something when divers are willing to share stories of this type.

[Joshua Smith]

Heh. Yeah, if you'd asked me last week, I would have told you I was pretty damn good with a compass. I'm going to guess that's one mistake I won't make again soon. Here's Marc's trip report:

http://spartandiving.com/?page_id=31

[whatevah]

I *Hate* greenwater ascents. That's why I *ALMOST ALWAYS* carry a 425' reel and SMB with me- so I won't have to do one.

Good write-up - aren't learning experiences great?! I actually consider shooting a bag in open water to be a green water ascent - interesting to see that perceptions vary on that subject. Reading through this the part that struck me as most valuable going forward is what I've quoted above. One of the things that made a huge difference to me in my diving was when I learned to let go of the structure. I think many divers get very attached to being able to see the bottom or the wall. I know of many cases where a diver has used rather poor judgement in reacting to an unexpected complication by sticking to the structure rather than shallowing up as they should have. Some of the palm-slap stories I'm referring to involve my own dives gone awry. I think if you try to get more comfortable with hanging in green water without a line and SMB - just using depth gauge (and compass if you have one) you will be better placed to make good decisions when the need arises. At Cove 2 you're not being carried away by heavy current - you can just watch your gauge and shallow up - get to a depth where your stress level is reduced and time is on your side so you can think clearly enough to figure out what's up with your compass, and then go from there. Afforded the luxury of clear thought, you may have seen the error with the compass and realized that picking a depth and heading roughly toward shore would have brought you back to the structure and you might even have been able to spend some time enjoying the rest of your dive. Changing the way I think about drifting in green water completely free of my structure "safety blanket" has enabled me to turn some of my lemon dives into lemonade. Further, I've been able to plan dives around it and pull off some pretty cool stuff like drifting from the top of one pinnacle to another out in the straits. I guess my point is that if you decide to enjoy the freedom of hanging/drifting/ascending in green water I think you'll find it very rewarding.

[ljjames]

hmm... I trust my compass about 1/2 the time i'm at the monolith. There must be some weird vortex out there cause i swear i have had that same feeling out on the dunes... trying to go shallower but depth gauge is not agreeing. creeeepy. glad it all worked out... yes, marc is awesome!!!!!!!

[H20doctor]

Face palm... Ive had many compass brain farts ... I can totally relate..but I love free green acents, thanks for sharing

[Dashrynn]

Its humbling to know even the most experienced of divers can have hell from time to time. Reminds me i shouldn't be so cocky.

But I do love a no viz ascent, ask pensacoladiver about our first (when me and him did an accent together in 60fsw) smb shot/ hover at 15 ft together. Helllllllish, it went like this. computer computer computer buddy 17 ft, computer computer computer buddy 12 ft compass and same on. Very humbling yet very exciting and a true test of skill. for a newer diver.

[Sounder]

Josh - were you looking "down" at the compass and putting 210 at the top of the compass, or had you dialed the mark to south instead of north? Looking down at the compass with the heading I *want* to be on at the top of the dial is one of my tricks. I usually catch it pretty quickly, but it's always embarrassing. Glad it all came out well and thanks for sharing.

[Geek]

Wow. +1 on the thanks for sharing Josh.


I'm glad it turned out ok, and I agree with you on Marc--I'd trust him to dive with me anywhere, anytime. The man is a machine and he should know that's a compliment. :luv:


But don't ever dive with Geek. I'm kind of glad I'm not the only one that sometimes has compass trouble, and Geek will NEVER let you hear the end of it if he's around when it happens. :angry:

Next time you want to go to browns point from les davis I'm game

Nice write up Josh, Marc is one of the best to be with, I'm glad it all worked out...

[Nwbrewer]

Josh - were you looking "down" at the compass and putting 210 at the top of the compass, or had you dialed the mark to south instead of north? Looking down at the compass with the heading I *want* to be on at the top of the dial is one of my tricks. I usually catch it pretty quickly, but it's always embarrassing. Glad it all came out well and thanks for sharing.

Josh thanks for sharing. I've had some moments where I just KNEW I should trust my compass, but my depth depth gauge and my gut were disagreeing. Because scooters move so quickly they can compound your problems in a hurry. At least you guys had the gas and the experience to come out of it with nothing more than a bruise to your ego.

So am I the only one who never bothers to set the compass heading? I take a reading the the beach, but I seem to always just use the 4 points of the compass (NWSE) rather than taking a number heading. For me it's just way more intuitive, and easier for me to remember that I need to head E-NE rather than a number.

[Marc]

let's not underplay Josh's coolness under fire here. He displayed great team work. He hung in close when I blew the bag and even though he was on a faaaaar better mix than I was, didn't argue with me on heading to the surface. He could have easily said: "Hey, I'm fine... let's just go this way." Fortunately he had the presence of mind to remember we were a mixed team and that I had gas limitations that he didn't.

Oh, and Lynne, my compass has an air bubble. Any guesses what my next dive purchase will be?

Small correction: My site went live last night, so here is the corrected link.

http://spartandiving.com/?page_id=31


Josh, thanks again for being a good buddy. And for the adventure!

[Grateful Diver]

Sounds like an interesting dive ... thanks for sharing. Next time you guys are doing this dive, mind if I join ya? I can use some excitement ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

[Joshua Smith]

Sounds like an interesting dive ... thanks for sharing. Next time you guys are doing this dive, mind if I join ya? I can use some excitement ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Sure, we need a game changer for this dive. Last time we tried it, the heads-up display on my Meg flooded. I've been successful diving the monolith from shore plenty of times, but I'm 0-3 trying to scooter there from cove 2. But I'm really hoping for a nice, dull dive- the last 2 were more exciting than I really like.

[Joshua Smith]

So am I the only one who never bothers to set the compass heading? I take a reading the the beach, but I seem to always just use the 4 points of the compass (NWSE) rather than taking a number heading. For me it's just way more intuitive, and easier for me to remember that I need to head E-NE rather than a number.

I'm going to start doing it that way, it makes more sense. Honestly, I started thinking about this the other day- I was taught to dial the bezel in to a particular heading in OW, and I've done it ever since. But it kind of confuses me and makes me lose my "North is thataway, and I need to head SSW to get home" sense when I'm just trying to put the needle between two notches on the bezel.

[John Rawlings]

After reading your post I clicked on over to Marc's site and read his impressions of the dive.....Wow.

I cannot tell you how glad I am that the two of you are here talking about it.

- John

[LCF]

Oh, very scary story from Marc.

I'll confess -- I have never learned to use the bezel on my compass at all. I look in the little window on the side of it and look at the NUMBER -- I memorize "back to shore" and "desired dive heading" and compare them with the number the compass shows. Headings make sense (I used to fly a little) but compasses don't.

And Josh, I am SO in sympathy about the green water ascent. I hate them. I CAN do them if I have to, but vertigo is never very far away. That little piece of line can be the difference between an uneventful ascent, and an eternity spent staring at my depth gauge while my brain tells me I'm doing somersaults. It is actually very nice to hear that two people who do dives I will never even THINK about doing, share my distaste for being in midwater without a visual reference. Thank you for that.

[Joshua Smith]

Oh, very scary story from Marc.

I'll confess -- I have never learned to use the bezel on my compass at all. I look in the little window on the side of it and look at the NUMBER -- I memorize "back to shore" and "desired dive heading" and compare them with the number the compass shows. Headings make sense (I used to fly a little) but compasses don't.

And Josh, I am SO in sympathy about the green water ascent. I hate them. I CAN do them if I have to, but vertigo is never very far away. That little piece of line can be the difference between an uneventful ascent, and an eternity spent staring at my depth gauge while my brain tells me I'm doing somersaults. It is actually very nice to hear that two people who do dives I will never even THINK about doing, share my distaste for being in midwater without a visual reference. Thank you for that.

I don't get vertigo, but I have a bitch of a time holding depth without any visual reference. I *can* do it, but it's very stressful. And for those of you that think they're easy? Strap a rebreather on, and let's go do a few together for practice.

[whatevah]

And Josh, I am SO in sympathy about the green water ascent. I hate them. I CAN do them if I have to, but vertigo is never very far away. That little piece of line can be the difference between an uneventful ascent, and an eternity spent staring at my depth gauge while my brain tells me I'm doing somersaults. It is actually very nice to hear that two people who do dives I will never even THINK about doing, share my distaste for being in midwater without a visual reference. Thank you for that.

That answers something I've been wondering about: why do people deploy SMBs from the depths when there's no functional justification? I mean, I send one up pretty early if I'm in an exposed area with a live boat trying to follow me during a prolonged ascent - don't want them to lose my SMB in the chop when I'm being carried away by the current. But when there is no live boat and conditions are flat with no water movement, it's a lot better to wait until you get to say, 30fsw to prep the SMB and reel. I understand now that it can be a calming influence for those who are uncomfortable with their situation.

[Joshua Smith]

You certainly have a knack for sounding condescending. Perhaps that's not your intent.

And Josh, I am SO in sympathy about the green water ascent. I hate them. I CAN do them if I have to, but vertigo is never very far away. That little piece of line can be the difference between an uneventful ascent, and an eternity spent staring at my depth gauge while my brain tells me I'm doing somersaults. It is actually very nice to hear that two people who do dives I will never even THINK about doing, share my distaste for being in midwater without a visual reference. Thank you for that.

That answers something I've been wondering about: why do people deploy SMBs from the depths when there's no functional justification? I mean, I send one up pretty early if I'm in an exposed area with a live boat trying to follow me during a prolonged ascent - don't want them to lose my SMB in the chop when I'm being carried away by the current. But when there is no live boat and conditions are flat with no water movement, it's a lot better to wait until you get to say, 30fsw to prep the SMB and reel. I understand now that it can be a calming influence for those who are uncomfortable with their situation.