Scuba diving is very much a black and white world in terms of the laws and rules one must abide by. It comes down to clear-cut physics. If the laws are broken, severe penalties are exacted, including paralysis or even death. ~ CARLOS EYLES, The Blue Edge

I am pretty sure if I forget my fins again I risk paralysis or even death….it’s kind of a given….but I am getting ahead of myself…..

My time in Florida is fast approaching and it appears that I might need additional supervised time on my doubles before taking them for a spin down there. After watching the weather forecasts the weekend didn’t hold much promise but we are giving it a try. Round Two in the Back Bay with my new 3442 lb doubles.

It appears that winter has finally arrived and we have been the lucky recipients of multiple days of weather in the 30’s although we have thus far avoided any snow. Under a cover of gray skies we are in the Belmar marina parking lot assembling or gear and pulling on our assorted layers of insulation before donning our drysuits.

I have my tanks fully assembled and leaning on the seawall while I pull on the last of my wool socks and stuff my feet into my suit. Mark already has his on and is setting up his tank. I sigh as I realize that I have left my bungee necklace on my pony bottle and my toolbox with the extra bungee cord in the garage. Oh well, will have to be inventive here.

I rub some sea gunk into my mask and rinse with the last of my water bottle and then lay out my gloves and hood beside my tank and check my hose routing to see if I can get it to lay better. One quick turn of my valves to ensure they are on, tap a little air in my wing and I am ready to go…maybe. Where are my fins? Think Cheryl…. Think . I see them…. I see them very clearly hanging in my garage, never making it to the load up pile having been distracted by looking for additional weights and “discussing” the difference between putting 10 or 15 lbs in my weight pockets. Ohhh….

As I inform Mark we will not be diving just yet, I can see “the look” cross his face as he immediately starts loading the tanks back in the truck, “severe penalties are to be exacted, including paralysis or even death.”

Wearing our drysuits and long underwear we head on over to the dive shop and grab a set of loaner fins and head back to the marina parking lot. Setting up our tanks one final time before going in we are joined by more divers, Angela, Scott and a third whose name I can’t remember, sorry. We weren’t the only ones with the idea of jumping in to test out equipment.

We walk into the water and swim out towards the dock where we lift our inflator hoses, dump our air and slide silently beneath the water arriving on the bottom in a huge puff of silt. A few taps of air to get me off the bottom and I am on my way. It isn’t pretty but I have moved the bands up some and am not fighting the face plant any longer. With enough weight I am not stressing the floating issue either. Trim however is simply another story. I was trying my best to move myself in the water column with breaths of air and only occasionally succeeding. This is going to take some work.

I still bounced off the bottom a few times and I still had to work my way out of my cloud of silt to read my gauges but I eventually felt confident enough to start poking the tiny crabs scurrying through the water and box a round or two with the larger ones. Rounding out the wildlife for this dive were quite a few starfish spread out along our route and numerous hermit crabs half buried in the sand. I even pulled out my compass to get my bearings.....who am I kidding......I used it to clock a big crab who was threatening me with his claws....

The water was a fairly clear 42F with about 5-7 in visibility anywhere not near me, but the surface swim back to shore was killer. I was definitely chilled by the time I got in.