I SHOULD HAVE THUMBED THIS DIVE
If ever there was a dive that I should have thumbed, it was todays dive. The morning started out sunny and Dennis decided to take a ride down to Venice with me. I was doing the shark tooth dive one last time.
This would be day two using Boeings 747 Bungeed Wings of Death and it had to get better the more I used it....right? I am trying out an OMS BPW that can actually hold doubles and has about 94lbs of lift. It is a little overkill, but shouldn’t be impossible with some practice.
Kitting up started out picture perfect, but that slowly turned. I changed the position of the backplate to try to avoid being pushed face first by the wing as I was yesterday. After suiting up, I realized the wings crotch strap was caught in the tank strap and I had to remove it and take the wing apart and start again. My weight belt, in my effort to get it up off my hips, got hung up on my tank and I needed help. This would be the third time I hoisted my gear up on my shoulders.
Finally ready, I took the long walk down to the waterline, it was low tide. The water was 60 F and had 2 foot waves with a visible current. At low tide there is 2-3 foot drop or step down immediately at the water line and a sandbar on the walk out making entry challenging. By the time I was chest deep and putting on my fins, the waves were washing over me making things difficult and the wing and tank were already starting to spin around on me, I was feeling uncomfortable and should have just called it then and there but my buddy was already on his way out and encouraging me to keep moving in the current, so, I kept moving. The current is strong and each time I stop to look up and see where I am, the current takes me back, I am not making good headway and it is tiring. The wing is so wide across my back that I have a hard time swimming out on my back through the current and waves and turning over and swimming is only slightly easier as I can feel the mass of the wing pulling against the water. I give the OK but am not really feeling good about things, my buddy is encouraging me saying “Remember there is a learning curve with new equipment” and I am determined and tell him we are either going down now or in now. He places a buddyline on my wrist and down we go. Well, he does....I don’t. But he comes back up and gives my wing a quick squeeze and down I go too. Visibility is 0. Not 3 inches...0. We swim out hoping that the viz improves with deeper water but it is not to be, so we take in the slack on the buddyline so we have physical contact and turn towards shore. At this point, the wing and tank are again starting to spin around on me and my gauge is hung up and I cannot pull it all the way up to check it. I am shoulder to shoulder with my buddy and dont have any space to keep adjusting things and still keep up. I know going to the surface will make getting in miserable because of the current and so I just keep going along the bottom but I am really not comfortable now. When the haze we are swimming through starts to get lighter, I signal that I want to surface. We have been under just 16 minutes, I am done...this dive is over. We are in water just slightly over my head and I quickly get in close enough to start to remove my fins. The chop has picked up and I am getting batted around some but manage with a steadying arm to get my fins off and start in.
The sand bar just before shore is a challenge but I manage but the large step up onto the beach with the waves and my frustration with the entire dive is just too much and down I go. I cant get my feet underneath me here and I move out to deeper water and stand again but I still cant get the last large step in so I decide to drop my gear and tow it in. I reach for my clip and drop my weight belt but it catches on my crotch strap ....the last straw.... now I am totally done, just done. It isn’t pretty, but I get out. There is no way I am walking back geared up. I start the long and uphill walk to the car carrying the BPW and dragging my tank.
The whole way back I went over the dive and just kept thinking...."I should have just thumbed it from the beginning". I was uncomfortable and getting frustrated from the time we suited up and now I was miserable. I could have just put everything back in the car and gone for a nice breakfast..............................................THE CAR!!!!! Dennis had taken the car and gone for coffee expecting us to be in the water at least an hour. Now I was really just, just, just done. I just should have thumbed the dive from the get go.