From: Jason O'Rourke <jor@shell9.ba.best.com>
To: BA_Diving <ba_diving@lists1.best.com>
Subject: Overdue notes on Sunday diving dry


So my first reaction out there was - 'man, does that water feel cold!'
I had no sense of what insulation needs would be.  A woman in my biology
class wore something like under her neoprene one and said she was too hot,
so I figured an Aeroskin under my shell suit would be a good start (plus a
tshirt and my trunks).  Oops!  I'm going to try some ski wear this weekend
in Sonoma, but I suspect I'll be ordering the Mobby's dry suit underwear
next week.

So it was a bit chilled, though actually not too bad.  I went out for a 30
minute dive.  My new jetfins stay on nice and taunt, though it is harder
then hell to put them on and off.  BTW, how do I get that horrible rubber
smell out?  My hands are icky for hours after touching it.

I went out with my ab float with more lead, along with my camera (needing
to see if fixes to it worked), with the plan to tie a weighted line to it.
With all the surge and kelp around, that ended up being just an anchor for
the buoy.

I went down with 20 pounds (down from 24 on my wetsuit) and dropped like a
rock.  I'm happy to discover this - even as I add more insulation I'm
going to go in lighter, and in a shell suit at that.  On this dive I stuck
to suit inflation only.  I'm now shifting towards using the BC to make up
for the extra tank weight early in the dive.  Once I get my weighing down,
that should only be 8 pounds of lift needed.  I'm still a bit puzzled by
the two camps of thinking here - I hear compelling arguments for the
BC+suit and for the suit only.

I stuck to the rocky area where the viz was a whopping few feet.  I was
doing my best to deal with surge and waves, but it was the clumsiest I've
felt in a while.  By habit I like to get my head up real close, with most
of my body above me so I don't crash.  This proved more difficult with the
rush to the feet.  I might try using the halycon gaiters.

Ascending was great fun - with no air in the BC and the auto valve fully
opened I was able to make my most consistent ascent *ever*, I think.  And
it was hands free.  and when I got out of the water, I was nicely dry.  My
feet are going to love it - I was shedding so much skin after a weekend of
diving.

Jason