*** VD 13 Commentary Thread ***

[heyelander]

Been diving for about 20 years. When I met up with Feral and his daughter was saying she really wanted to swim with whale sharks and I mentioned that I had. Bonaire was the best though .... I'm so lazy, and be able to wake up at any time, pick up tanks from a shed, drive out onto the beach and walk into the ocean is just so much more enjoyable than having to wake up before dawn and get on a boat. Helps that the fish are fantastic.

I also really liked the St Lawrence seaway before it gets to Lake Ontario. Some ship dumped zebra muscles there a while back. It decimated the fish population, but made the water really clear for diving. The shipwrecks are fantastic and the water is around 70 degrees. Plus it's a river, so it's pretty easy diving logistically.

Otherwise, I've been here and there a bit, bust most of my diving was done off the NJ coast with 20 feet of viability on shipwrecks.

[Ken]

I've been diving for about 20 years as well. My diving has trailed off in recent years due to a couple experiences. One - my ear situation - last ~5 times I've been it has caused extreme dizziness at depth to the point where my eyes cross and the world starts spinning. When you are 60 feet down and that starts happening it's insanely scary! And two, I went on a night dive in Belize in bad weather and while I had no issues, a couple aunts/uncles/cousins got pulled out to sea by the current and dropped on top of the coral over and over. They were beat up really bad and we came close to losing one. With young kiddos in tow I take less risks these days and scuba is one thing I love but I'll probably not push it as much as I used to. 30 foot shore dives are still great though, and I agree Bonaire is the BEST for that.

[heyelander]

Tyger Tyger, burning bright,

Here's a poem of the day sight for you to check out ....

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem-day

[heyelander]

I've been diving for about 20 years as well. My diving has trailed off in recent years due to a couple experiences. One - my ear situation - last ~5 times I've been it has caused extreme dizziness at depth to the point where my eyes cross and the world starts spinning. When you are 60 feet down and that starts happening it's insanely scary! And two, I went on a night dive in Belize in bad weather and while I had no issues, a couple aunts/uncles/cousins got pulled out to sea by the current and dropped on top of the coral over and over. They were beat up really bad and we came close to losing one. With young kiddos in tow I take less risks these days and scuba is one thing I love but I'll probably not push it as much as I used to. 30 foot shore dives are still great though, and I agree Bonaire is the BEST for that.

Cripes! Yeah, I've had a couple of freaky, really scary, near-misses. the vertigo sounds terrible. Blah! I hate current, that sounds scary as shit.

[The Feral Slasher]

Been diving for about 20 years. When I met up with Feral and his daughter was saying she really wanted to swim with whale sharks and I mentioned that I had. Bonaire was the best though .... I'm so lazy, and be able to wake up at any time, pick up tanks from a shed, drive out onto the beach and walk into the ocean is just so much more enjoyable than having to wake up before dawn and get on a boat. Helps that the fish are fantastic.

I also really liked the St Lawrence seaway before it gets to Lake Ontario. Some ship dumped zebra muscles there a while back. It decimated the fish population, but made the water really clear for diving. The shipwrecks are fantastic and the water is around 70 degrees. Plus it's a river, so it's pretty easy diving logistically.

Otherwise, I've been here and there a bit, bust most of my diving was done off the NJ coast with 20 feet of viability on shipwrecks.

Thanks for posting !

[Ken]

Cripes! Yeah, I've had a couple of freaky, really scary, near-misses. the vertigo sounds terrible. Blah! I hate current, that sounds scary as shit.

Yeah, near-misses is a good way to put it.

A few other interesting experiences while I'm thinking of it.

1) The cave in Chankanaab in Cozumel where the fresh water and salt water mix was amazing when I dove there ~10 years ago. There have been some hurricanes since I was there so I'm not sure if its still like this, but you used to be able to swim into the cave where the water mixes and the school of thousands of silversides would not be scared away - instead as you swim they just move a couple inches away. So as you move, they move, and you are surrounded. Really cool experience.

2) I had a week long dive trip where we switched crews half way through. The first half was somewhat "self service", in that you moved your own gear, switched tanks between dives, etc. The second crew was more helpful. So after my first dive with the second crew I came back to the boat and put my gear up. And then before the second dive I switched tanks and got all my gear ready and jumped in. Except the crew had already switched tanks for me. So I actually switched back to my empty tank from the first dive. We were swimming against current in Cozumel and by the time I got to the bottom at 60 feet I went to breath in and I got nothing. Weird feeling. I raced over to my dive buddy and he understood and gave me his octopus. And we buddy dived the rest of that dive. But it was quite a trip - moral of the story, don't get to the point where you go through the motions, always triple check everything before going under water!

3) In Bonaire on another night dive I was just swimming 20 yards off shore when suddenly it felt like I was stabbed in the arm. I looked over and found nothing. And then more stabbing pain. And more. Finally I took my hand and brushed something off my arm. Got out of the water and I had a couple rings around my bicep of bright red lines. Turns out I had a dislodged portugese man-o-war tentacle wrapped around my arm. It had just randomly floated into my path and I never saw it. Body went into shock and I had to take some benadryl. I had a band of red around my arm the rest of the trip but no other lasting effects. The pain was incredibly intense though. Worst pain I've felt.

[heyelander]

I've jumped in with my tank turned off... that's always exciting...

I was on a boat doing my first night dive in the ocean (I'd done a number in a dive quarry). The dive master asked if this was a first night diver for anyone, and a couple of people said yes, and I did as well. I've got nothing to prove, and a nice relaxed dive sounded nice, so I figured I would tag along in the armature group. Water was choppy and the captain was having trouble hooking onto the wreck we were supposed to dive. We bounced around for 20 minutes while he tried to hook in, and the dive master got violently sick, so he ditched his dive. No problem, there was another seasoned diver who was going to act as rescue diver who stepped up. Another 20 minutes and we still aren't hooked in, and the rescue diver is puking... he's out. I had my rescue diver cert at the time, and they say, no problem, Heye can lead the dive? Huh? I signed on to chill...
Anyway, we finally hook into "something" and the captain says "we are hooked in... not sure to what, but anyone who wants to dive can go." So we all dive in.
I'm leading 3 other people. We get down and we are at 90 feet on an artificial reef that is just old tires cabled together in groups of 4 or 5 and weighted down my cement. There are piles of them everywhere. So I run a line and we start swimming around... not much to see. We end up running in a big circle, and a couple of my peeps are low on air, so I send them all up. I start backtracking and winding my line back onto its spool. I always suck at this, and now I've got a lamp in one hand, and it's dark as hell. At some point I realize I've started to float, so I start pulling on my line to get back down, it's a 20 foot mess of knotted spaghetti behind me... I just stuff it all into my bag. I keep trying to collect all the line and finally get back to the start. It's cold, I've got gloves on, I'm still at 90 feet, running out of air and by myself. I can't get the little brass hook to unhook, and while it costs $1 at home depot and I have a knife, I still feel like it's a moral imperative that I get it unhooked and bring it back up. It's a loaner spool for god sake! I can't lose his $1 hook!!!!
Finally I get it undone, and I start to head up... I'm under 500lbs now. I do my stop, run out of air, switch to a pony bottle I have on me and head up to the boat. The boat's set up has a line running from the anchor line at the bow, under the boat with 2 big weights holding it in place, to the stern and the ladder up. I am pulling myself under the boat and I stop dead. I'm hooked on one of the weights. I try to reach back and I can't untangle myself. I see a couple of guys up at the other weight and I try to flash my light to get their attention... nothing. I try to pull myself to them... I get close but the tangle pulls me back. I try again, same... Finally, on my third try the weight just pops off me, and I shoot forward... swim to the back and climb up onto the boat. The three guys I was leading are the first to greet me and all of them are just short of panicked... thought I was dead. I just said, that fuckin' sucked.

[heyelander]

Another time, I was doing my first dive of the year, equipment tune up in the quarry, and me and two guys are down at about 100 feet and I breath in and get all water.... Weird! I spit it out and breath again... all water! I spit out my reg and go searching for my octopus. I find it but it's broken! It has no mouth piece on it! WTF! I start to panic, slam it into my mouth and lock my lips around it, and phew, you can breath without a mouth piece. I take a couple of breaths to calm down and then take stock of my gear to see what the hell is going on. I find that my octopus is actually fine, and what had happened was my main reg disconnected from it's mouth piece and when I thought I was breathing in water through the reg, all I had was a mouth piece in my mouth. I switched out regs and finished my dive.

Smart on you for being able to keep your shit together and get your buddy's octopus.

[Ken]

all I had was a mouth piece in my mouth.

That's hilarious. The visual on that one had me laughing out loud.

[heyelander]

I did another one in the st lawrence river. Ship was carrying 500 tons of coal, hit a shoal and sank, landing upside down. You enter in at a hole in the stern and you can swim inside the hold all the way to the front. I dropped in, and had swam all the way to the bow, about 130 feet in. I'm looking around and my mask flies off. I managed to catch it, and tried to put it back on, but the strap had broke. I stick it on my face and clear it and now I'm good, but I have to finish the dive holding the damn thing on. I swim all the way back out of the wreck, but now fun part 2 comes. The way the dive works, you drop down, dive the wreck, then you swim out, hold onto the wreck, make your way to the front and then let go. The river is ripping outside of the wreck and you drift down river until you see a line that runs down the side of a little island. You grab onto it at about 50 feet and then pull youself up it to the surface where your ride is waiting.
So I let go, and I'm sailing down river at 2 knots, holding my mask on. I hit the line, grab it with my other hand, pin my mask to my face with the hand holding the line, wrap my other arm around the line so that it is hooked in my elbow, switch back to that hand for my mask, and start pulling myself up with my one free hand. Took a while, but I got to the surface.

This wasn't really scary so much as just .... "hijinks ensue." Now I dive with a spare mask in my pocket.

https://saveontarioshipwrecks.ca/diverguides/lillie-parsons/

[heyelander]

So Feral .... have we convinced you that you and your daughter should take up scuba yet?

[heyelander]

3) In Bonaire on another night dive I was just swimming 20 yards off shore when suddenly it felt like I was stabbed in the arm. I looked over and found nothing. And then more stabbing pain. And more. Finally I took my hand and brushed something off my arm. Got out of the water and I had a couple rings around my bicep of bright red lines. Turns out I had a dislodged portugese man-o-war tentacle wrapped around my arm. It had just randomly floated into my path and I never saw it. Body went into shock and I had to take some benadryl. I had a band of red around my arm the rest of the trip but no other lasting effects. The pain was incredibly intense though. Worst pain I've felt.

I didn't comment on this. Holy Shit! Very glad I've skipped that experience.

[The Feral Slasher]

So Feral .... have we convinced you that you and your daughter should take up scuba yet?

I was just going to post that i was going to show her this and talk about maybe doing it

[The Feral Slasher]

....if there is one thing better than four dots it is 5 dots, amirite ?

[The Feral Slasher]

Do i need to explain the difference between 4 dots and 5 dots ? Pm me if u need a refresher