Anytime I am exposed to an event that is out of the ordinary and very pleasant, it reveals to me a pleasant afterglow. Whether it is a vacation, sex, or in todays case, diving, I get pleasure in just thinking about it after the fact.
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Today I dived number 124 for 50 minutes, in a dry suit, side mount, in cold water. This is my first dry suit dive since April when I dived with a busted disc and didn't know it at the time.
Dry diving adds several layers of complexity one doesn't experience in wetsuit diving. There are weight differences, I added 26 pounds to my rig and normally add only 12 pounds. There is an additional inflator hose, I already have a rats nest of hoses with one wrapped around my neck. There are more things to think about and monitor. All this is for the added thermal protection of being dry.
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On the onset I had a leaking hose that I had to change out. Then at 65 feet I switched regulators and took in a bunch of water.
Part of dive training is tricking ones mind to "not panic" when something goes wrong. Something was wrong and I switched back to the original gas source. The faulty regulator was so close to my neck that I could not see what was wrong. My breathing increased from stress. I signaled my dive buddy to look and he indicated it looked fine. It wasn't though.
I was breathing a lot of air. I got my wits, trimmed out and though about what it could be.
I reasoned that the mouthpiece was crimped by the necklace around my neck, so I pulled the mouthpiece away from the necklace and that fixed my problem at 65 feet.
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Now I needed to calm down and enjoy the weightlessness, the peacefulness, and I did. It ended up to be a nice dive and as always, a learning experience.
Ah, the afterglow.
1 comments:
Again....the Copernicus of Caroline.
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