Dive with Bob Bailey (Dive 58)



Seacrest Park - Cove 3, Seattle, WA. How long can I stay underwater? How much gas do I have left in my tank? How much gas did I breathe on that dive? Do I have enough gas to safely complete this dive? You get the idea and that's what the second dive was all about, gas management. We began the dive with a series of swims, one swimming as quickly as possible for 5 minutes and one taking a leisurely tour through Cove 3 for 10 minutes. Keeping detailed records on our starting and stopping cylinder pressures we were able to determine our Surface Air Consumption (SAC) and Respiratory Minute Volume (RMV) rates. I was surprised by the results and it opened my eyes to the importance of proper gas management planning skills. With this information we were now able to calculate, in detail, dive plans to determine important factors such as rock bottom, and amount of gas needed to dive a specific profile and dive plan.

Heading back towards shore we made a quick stop at about 40' and practiced deploying surface marker buoys (SMB's). We focused on buoyancy control, proper use of spools, line management and safety, and SMB deployment techniques. After deploying the SMB a few times we then tried a mid water ascent using said SMB to warn potential boaters of our whereabouts above. Shooting SMB's is a ton of fun! Post dive we took the lessons learned and applied them to our deep dive planning for the following day.

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