This morning I had arranged to go out diving with Jeremy to get some more practice in.
I arrived at Union Lake at 10, and Reichy was unexpectedly also there waiting for the other divers who all failed to show. Probably the rest were busy recovering from wild Cinco de Drinko festivities.
So Reichy decided to come with the two of us for a dip, and he was excellent in the water as usual.
We geared up and got in the water and headed out to the sunken pontoon boat. Jeremy and I did the James 20 minute hold still challenge and I started doing the basic six during that time to fight off boredom and work on both skills and staying in one place at the same time, which I was able to do, so this 20 minute hovering is really starting to pay off.
Then we did a quick basic six which went well, then I did a valve drill where I had a little buoyancy control issue. I got it done but it sure wasn't pretty. On the upside, no popping to the surface, but it was not nearly as smooth as it should have been.
After that, we did an ascent drill and Jeremy revealed his latest idea:
On the spool attached to the float, he had marked every other foot with a black marker, thus making it a cinch to monitor your ascent rate and ability to hold steady at a given depth - just stay within the markings and you're at the same foot level. Absolutely brilliant, and it made a real difference. Now I have to mark off my float line as well. The ascent was very smooth thanks to those markings.
We then descended and took the north line to another boat and swam around it a bit. I also practiced my back kick by swimming in under the dashboard of the boat and then kicking backwards out of the boat without touching anything and it went very well. We then headed back in. The water was about 54 degrees and it was a nice sunny day.
A nice hour-long practice dive.
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