I was actually thinking of sometime the second half of January or maybe beginning of February for a long weekend. Fly down on a Thursday and fly back on Monday. I'd like to get 3 days of diving.

That's only 2 days of diving.

Dive Fri, Sat, Sun am, and get a mid afternoon flight back Monday. That's 3 days as I count it.

Oh, hell, I'd love to do the Oriskany!

You might be able to put me down to help fill that boat depending on the details. I might even be able to get a buddy of mine talked into it as well.

I'm glad you're able to salvage something out of it them. We ended up running up the Martz line and to the Martz sinkhole. Second dive we did Godzilla circuit. The backside of that room was pretty neat as I've never actually seen it.

While we were there Kirill and Ted McCoy ran all the way back past Rocky Horror to the courtyard. However, they're in rebreathers so they don't really count. https://www.facebook.com/kirill.egorov.33/posts/10214880654593853

Diving the Rotarian and the Straits of Mackinac in Lake Michigan tomorrow. The Rotarian was scuttled in the 1930s, having served as the HQ of the Cook County Democrats and a speakeasy. The Straits of Mackinac was a car ferry between the Lower and Upper Peninsulas of Michigan before the bridge was built in the 1950s. Sunk as an artificial reef/diver attraction in the early 2000s.

Hitting the quarry with dive buddy Monday.

Next Saturday diving the Wells Burt and the Buccaneer in Lake Michigan. Next Sunday we finish up wreck class at the quarry.

Depending on the timing I could probably do a day to dive the Oriskany.

O thread.

I dove Lake Michigan today off a different boat/charter op than usual. The one run by my LDS was full all weekend, so I went with a competitor.

The captain is a crazy fuck. He was encouraging people, whose wreck experience/training he did not know, to penetrate a wreck he knew had very bad viz. He didn't ask if we had lights/wreck reels. Holy fuck. Viz was 10ft. The wreck, the Straits of Mackinac, is a former car ferry between the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan before the Mackinac Bridge was built in the mid-50s. It was purposely sunk in 2003, so it's a "cleaned up" wreck, but still...

This guy claims to have dived the Doria.

I'm trying not to be an overzealous newbie, but my limited penetration dive in my wreck class last weekend was cancelled due to bad viz/wreck getting silted out when we had 2 instructors for 5 students. I always keep this incident of a diver getting stuck inside the Cedarville wreck in the Straits of Mackinac in mind.

Scary shit.

Never, EVER be afraid to call a dive for any reason, especially a wreck penetration.  As far as him having dove the Doria, it's certainly possible. A great deal of people have. And a great deal have died on it too. Many more survived by sheer luck.

My real concern today was that there are a lot of novices who don't know better and might very well do the penetration, given the captain's "encouragement." I don't care if it's a sanitized wreck. Combine bad viz and a novice who'd probably silt out the wreck interior, and it's bad, in my book. This captain seems to have a habit of pushing divers to do stuff they're not trained for or don't feel ready for. I posted about this on SB, and pretty much no one is concerned, which makes me scratch my head. A number of them constantly rail against novice OW divers being encouraged to go into overheads at places like Ginnie, but they're not worried about this?

Don't be afraid to speak up against it and set the example.  You should never let anyone sandbag you, but especially with new divers if someone they perceive as experienced is telling them it's cool to do something, they won't necessarily have developed much of a BS filter about that stuff yet.

People's lives have hinged on those seemingly innocuous moments of decision.  "I know I shouldn't, but maybe I'll take a look."

If the captain is an instructor also I'd be contacting the agency (PADI, TDI, etc...) he's with and letting them know.  Coast Guard maybe.  I don't know too much about that boat stuff, I'm used to having to gear up in a spring or sump pool.

Next time, I will speak up. But I also will not be stepping on a boat with this captain again. Period.

Captain is an instructor, PADI, I believe. Local folks have been coming out of the woodwork with stories about this captain after they saw from FB pictures whose boat I was on today. He's known for running the engines with divers in the water, for pushing divers into the water for dives they're not sure of their ability for.  Also known to take novices to really deep sites and have them do deco dives.

Captain didn't want to see my c-card. That was a red flag right off the bat. I had printed waiver off the web and brought it with me completed. Said people rarely did that and since I did it, he didn't need to see my card (said it showed I had my shit together). I still showed it to him. The gal who was my buddy didn't have a computer. Hers had died a few days before. She had called captain about it. He told her to still come as other divers would have computers. I scratched my head at that, didn't say anything, and gave her my backup computer.

Of the 5 divers on board, at least 4 were unknown to the captain. Me, the gal who was my buddy (1st time on the Great Lakes, but she has done boat diving in tropical places), an instructor from Europe on vacation (used to cold water and low viz), and a guy who hadn't been on the lake (or perhaps even diving) in a while, but appeared to be doing a "shakedown" dive before an upcoming tropical vacation.

This charter was unusual in my experience as the guy serving as crew actually got into the water with us. First dive, we did groups of 3. I dislike that, as I find more than 2 people awkward, but I went along with it. The guy serving as crew is actually an instructor and chose to go with buddy and I. We told him right off the bat we weren't penetrating and he was fine with that. Second dive, we did buddy pairs. The instructor/crew went with the guy doing the shakedown dive as he had sucked his tank down very quickly and had "run out of air" (words of instructor/crew).

Captain wanted everyone back on the boat with 500 psi on the 2nd dive. That felt too little to me with the bad viz/depth (even though I was carrying my AL30 pony), so I told buddy our turn pressure was 1000 psi. We both climbed back on the boat with about 800.

It's hard to say for sure, since you're not PADI certified Marie, but I'd make a call to PADI about that boat captain. If it's something that I saw personally, I'd call without blinking. But, that's a rule that I have to adhere to, as a PADI pro.

Capt is also an instructor, PADI I believe. Not sure if I mentioned that.

I've been considering making that call.

Likely,  PADI won't care.  Especially if he was only running the boat.  I've complained about horrendous and continued standards violations in classes,  and encouraged students to complain.   Many have.  PADI  not only did nothing,  but came awfully close to threatening my DM cert if I ever mentioned it again.

He's also the boat owner.

I am not going public, but I am most definitely spreading via word of mouth locally!

Lake Michigan again tomorrow. Last Lake dives of the season for me.

This time, I'm back on my dive shop's boat.

Yesterday on Lake Michigan was interesting. 4-5ft waves. I have trouble getting up the last couple of steps of ladder onto swim platform. So I need pulls on my tank valve to help. I was having trouble getting on to platform due to waves so they literally just hauled me up, they did it, I was told, just like an ice diver is pulled out of the water. I was stomach down on the platform, when I tried to get my legs under me, when I fell off into the water. Lost my primary, but necklaced secondary was right there, so I used it. Wing had air in it anyway. So they hauled me up again when I was partway up the ladder. Took BC off me while I was laying on the platform. The lake was quite the adventure yesterday.

Surge was very bad at 45ft. Had to put a hand on the wreck more than once due to the surge. I'm very sore from battling the lake. I won't do that again!

Got my wreck certification today at the quarry. Did it on a 33ft cabin cruiser in 45ft. Did 2 dives. One with complete exterior survey. 2nd dive was penetrating the interior. Running line is harder than it looks! Viz was pretty bad. Went better than I expected. I definitely need to practice more with a reel! I was using a borrowed one that was too big for my hands, so instructor loaned me a smaller one. I'd not had a chance to get familiar with it before the dive, so I got a bit tangled up.

Taking next weekend off to rest. I have Rescue the following weekend.

Leave primary in cake hole until you are clear of ladder/platform.  Not only for air but to protect tooth.
I am still limping from my hip colliding with ladder.  That happened three weeks ago.   I paused my exit to let my daughter up first in rough seas.
I hope you tipped well.

I tipped captain $40 because he hauled my gear back to my car since I was just beat. I have the guy crewing $20. I would have given him more but I didn't have more cash on me. Guy is a friend, though, so I'm going to ask him if I can do something for him- nice bottle of wine or a case of his favorite beer.

I normally tip $20 each for captain and crew.

Friend who crewed Sat and hauled my ass out of the lake won't take anything else. Said he was doing his job. Great guy!

Took the exams last night, and completed my PADI Instructor Development Course. Can't make the IE this weekend due to a trip, so I'll make one in November. Will give me time to polish and practice, and get more experience assisting with classes. Our Course Director has a reputation as being far tougher than the evaluators at the IE, and he's confident that the 4 of us will do just fine. It's just a shame that I can't make the same IE as two of my good dive buddies.

Congrats on getting this far!

Congrats Birddog!!!!

As of yesterday, I've done 78 dives for a total of 1 day, 23 hours, and 8 minutes underwater. And I was certified October 2 last year. Not too shabby for my first year of diving.

Friend took a frame from diving video he took of me yesterday, ran it through Photoshop, and this was the fab result! The non-divers are "oohing" and "aahing" over it on FB.

Congrats Marie.
You can always use this thread as bu to your log.

Oh, where's your snorkel?

Hopefully on the shore, with everyone else's

Fuck snorkels!

I kept getting snorkel mixed up with BC corrugated inflator hose during my OW class. For the last dive, instructor took my snorkel away from me and stashed it in his BC. I was happy to be rid of it! The only time I actually use a snorkel is when I'm snorkeling my mile in the pool!

That's actually a good idea, about this thread as a backup to my log.

Rescue is this weekend. Just finished all my bookwork. We're in the classroom for about 5 hours Saturday and 8-5 at the quarry Sunday.  No pool at all. I just hope I get a "victim" to bring up from the bottom who is short and skinny! What I'm worried about most is when you have to get the "victim" on shore. I'm 5'5" with my knees and sciatica in one hip.  Good thing the standards allow you to do it with the help of one other person. There is no way I'd be able to do it by myself.

I should be going to the pool tonight to do my laps but one knee is bothering me, so I'm going to skip and rest it. Having a functioning knee Sunday is more important than any good I might get from the workout.

Any tips for Rescue? ;)

Really good classroom session today for Rescue. I'm in the class with 3 friends, all dive buddies. Instructors are the couple I love, who I've had for every class from OW on, and have been very patient with me. Tomorrow will be a full 8 hour day out at the quarry, but I'm really looking forward to the challenge. Temps are going to be 90+. We were told to bring our thinnest wetsuits. I've not yet dove my 3mm yet! I'll not really have a chance to experiment with weighting like I wanted to, but it's going to be so hot, I'd melt in my 5mm.

I seem to recall you have an Aqualung ACD.....if so, fyi there is a recall issued by the mfg.
click

Yes, I do. However I've not been using it for the past month or so since I switched to the same AL 1st stage, but in din.

My regular buddy has the same time reg and I just forwarded this to him. Thanks for the heads up!

Well, Rescue today was very interesting. Most challenging thing I've ever done. Huge confidence builder. Really stretched me. I am very sore. The backpack carry didn't bother my knees nearly as much as I thought it might. I carried a guy who weighed about 250 without issue.

I am exhausted.

Well, 2 days later and I am hurting. I hobbled around the office yesterday. Left knee hurts the worst.

Diving at the quarry both today and tomorrow. Today is a buddy from a Lake Michigan charter who has dived with a friend often, plus was trained by the same instructors. Guy just got certified in July. Has something like 25 dives.

Buddy tomorrow is a tech diver who just finished his helitrox class. He said he was a scared ninny right after OW, so much so that he kept himself out of the water for about six months while he read and researched. That was maybe three years ago, so he remembers what's it's like. He going to try to help me with my frog kick, which is enough to make a cat laugh.


I'm on course to finish the year with 100 dives.

Feel much better since Monday with my knee. Two sessions in the pool of doing my mile of laps really helped to loosen things up.

Had 3 good dives today even though viz sucked (10ft or less). Was able to hold a safety stop without visual reference on my first try. There was movement, but not too bad.

Something finally clicked on trim. I have to feel very head down to be pretty horizontal. Video my buddy today shot confirmed trim was pretty good.

2-3 more dives tomorrow.

Getting back into the drysuit yesterday just sucked. Heavy, too much lead compared with 5mm (I only need 8lbs with 5mm, on top of BP, STA, steel tank). My knees were unhappy. Had a few other issues.

I've now got a 7mm on order. Shop gave me a great deal. Same suit I've got in 3mm and 5mm, just a 7mm. Not a farmer john.

I dive a Hollis Neotek semi dry that is a 7mm suit. I love that wet suit with all my heart for "cold" water. I don't tolerate cold water well so I am always a suit thicker than everyone else.

I have a saying that if its cold enough to need a 5mm then you mine as well put on a 7mm. haha

What gloves do you use? I have a pair of Waterproof 5mm gloves and I've only worn them once as I have no dexterity in them. I've been wearing my 3mm gloves. I'd rather have slightly chilly fingers than no dexterity.

Mine are probably 1-1.5mm. I am like you in that I like my dexterity.

Group of friends and I are beginning to plan a trip to dive off NC to U-352 and some other wrecks.

Do any of you have preferred charter ops?

Question: I don't have ocean experience, but I've got enough on the Great Lakes, and will have even more next season. The one charter op I've looked at so far wants ocean boat experience to at least 70ft. I've got multiple Great Lakes boat dives to that depth. Will that be sufficient? Emailed my question.

It should count,  depending on how long you can take off, go to Florida,  hit some of the shipwreck trail, then go to NC.

Won't have that much time off.

Hitting the quarry both days this weekend. Sunday will be with a friend and his recently certified wife. I'm actually the one who inspired her to start to get over her water fears. The three of us swim most fnthe time at the same pool. Wife needs much more time in the water to get comfortable. I told her we can just sit on a platform in 20ft and she can just get used to things. I'll never turn down a chance to work on my hover.

Well, one charter op said and the exact words - your Great Lakes experience is worthless.

odd, i wonder what their reasoning is.  Maybe they don't realize how the lakes can be,  or assume nobody goes out in anything but glass.