and all the small nicknacs. headed down to hood-canal for a trimix course with me myself and I a private course. I had already had the book read and had four dives ahead of me. I arrived at 3pm and splashed for my first dive at 5pm. first we cut tables and preped out gear and talked about a dive plan and the what ifs. then had to sign the waiver about how if i die its my fault. then we splashed with a plan of 15ofsw on 25% EAN for 20min of bt. at 10 minutes of bottom time We saw a great big fishing net and with a nice fat ling guarding it. I was a bit narced (way narced) as i was suppose to be so i had a good comparison for my trimix dive which would be the next morning. I had a Steel 72 with 50% for deco and a Al 40 with 100% for deco as-well. I carry them both on my left, that's just how i do it, some like it one on each but i like it both on left. with a total dive time of 60 minutes and some skills after we completed deco it was a fun and funny dive too. i mean funny because on basically air at 150fsw its funny to me, like a six pack. When we surfaced my instructor asked me if i was narced? I just started to laugh, he said is that funny? I said yes because i was totally wasted but i went to WSU so could handle it, he laughed (he's a cop)
then we ate dinner and planned my first trimix dive which would take place in the morning, splash a 10am after i learn to blend gas and analize gas, with a one hour classroom session and breakfast. Just for the record I used Edmonds Technical diving services owned and operated by Don Kinney, room board and gases and books all included as part of the package, very fair and fun guy to. okay back to the class.
my plan was a 20/30 mix 02/helium for those of you who are not familiar with tech jargon. 150 fsw for 20 minutes looking for bottles in a known bottle field. On my first trimix dive ever i found a 1920's (guessing on vintage) 1/2 pint milk bottle embosed and very cool, in mint condition. i showed it to Don and he smiled and put his fist out and we banged fists, kind of like Homies do, like a high five, you get the idea right. Well when our fists hit each others i got this feeling that is hard to describe but it was a great feeling and i was having a great time and i talked through my regs and said "this F&&@ng rocks" and i sounded like donald duck which made me smile and caused a mask flood and led to a mask clearing at 150. My mind was clear and the helium was great, I loved it. then the BT was over and it was time for the planned deco schedule and up we went. We surfaced and he asked me how was that, and I just started to laugh with joy, I mean this was one of the best dives i have done to date i told him. To be clear headed at that depth and have a great instructor who i felt safe with (even though deep diving is solo diving) was just so perfect, I shook his and and said thanks as i had a smile from ear to ear and it didn't go away for hours. He said you aint seen nothing wait till you 200 footer then your really going to laugh if you like this one.
so back to the scuba room at his place and cleaned our gear and reblened the same mix for our 175fsw dive which would be in 3 hours. We talked a bit more about hand signals and the skill we will do after our deco is up on this next dive and then so fast the three hours was over and we hit the water again. went to 175 for 20 minutes and found another cool bottle and had some huge lings glare at me probably thinking to them selves this is my hood, what are you doing here. i said tech diving Bitch
we finished our BT and startd to head up when Don hit me signaled to look up, we were feet from a jelly the size of :naka: and he didn't want me to touch it. we went up to 70fsw and i didn't my switch to 50% and hung out for our 1min stop, and then finished our deco. Upon surfacing I said lets do it again. i mean i was having so much fun, i was looking forward to this class for about 1year, just haven't had the time or cash to spend on it, and i was finally doing it. I was in cloud nine, or in the abyss 
Come on lets plan our next dive BJ Don says as I strruggle to take of my fin, it was being real difficult. then i realized i still had my stages on and took them off then the fin came right off. slow down i thought to myself. this kind of diving will really get your blood racing if you like a rush this is the stuff. :occasion5: :occasion5: :occasion5: Okay so we went back up to the house and blended and rinsed gear and filled argon and BSed a bunch and then had a hot tub dip, some wine, some smores and hmburgers and more BSING and some clean up and it was off to bed to sleep for my next quest to 2oo fsw. i was so excited i couldn't sleep. it was like when i was little and was waiting to go to disney land so I started to read my trimix book and fell right asleep
in the morning i ate a good breakfast and geared up for a 10am splash. we cut tables and finished filling all our stages and what not. then off the the water, I couldn't wait to see my computer say 200 feet on it. on our way down i got the what if running through my head. I just told myself what Nailer told me its jsut another dive, ive done lots don't worry. but i kept thinking what if, i couldn't help it 200fsw is damn deep. once we got there and i saw my computer say 200 feet i got a warm fuzzy feeling and all those thoughts lifted and it was all serious diving, i was having so much fun and then it happened. on our way up after a 20minute BT Don puts a note infront of me that said PRIMARY LIGHT FAILURE!! it was funny he did that because one of my what if thoughts was about my Slavo failing me. so I knew what to do because i run the drills all the time for my own piece of mind, on most night dives. So after reading the card he put in front of me, i point my left hand backwards and the whole place goes dark, i mean pitch black, and with my right hand retrieve one of my two back up lights, my rat jr. and bam I had light, and lots of it, No wait sorry guys I pulled out my princetec and bam there wAs light, same as the salvo led back up. He have me the ok and i stowed it and brought back to life the 35watt and we finished the dive.
I only made one mistake, on my final gas switch to 100% i didn't change my computer and although my tables cleared me I didn't want to bend the computer so i paid the time for an extra 10 minutes of deco at 10fsw.
I passed the class and had so much fun diving to 7 atmospheres i can't wait to do it again. thanks for reading and if any of you are interested in hooking up With Don For any classes let me know. No body can beat his prices, and is classes include gas which no tech class does around here. With the price of helium these days thats a bargin and really a great course. And it doesn't take month of frustrating calls trying to figure out what schedule works for who, you tell him whenyou are available and 2.5 days and four dives later you are a techi. most local dive shops are to busy with Open water classes to offer a really high quality course like Don Provides.
thanks for reading my run on sentences and jabber about my rockin' experience at 7 atmospheres
Maverick
