Posted by msblucow on December 16, 2001 at 19:53:16:
So yesterday I did my first post-bends day of open ocean diving. Despite the bumpy ride over to Catalina, the crappy vis once we got there, and the oh-so-balmy 53 degree water temperature, it was a fabulous day and I was happy to be there.
As part of my new out look on diving (bends BAD, Nitrox GOOD), and with the help of some training via John Walker, I rented 2 bottles of Scuba
Hause's finest EANx 32 which I lugged (along with my normal AL80 of plain-jane air) out to the Great Escape.
I met Chris M. and Maciek on the boat and together we made up the entire 'D2D team'. (I suspect the howling wind at 3AM the night before scared the rest of the entourage away). As we set up our kits and went over our gear configurations, Chris asked me if I was nervous. I said sure, but in a good way. Mostly, I was just excited. I knew after six weeks I was going to be a little rusty, so I planned to keep things simple.
Our first dive was at Italian Gardens. The vis was pretty murky, only 20-30 feet. There was a Black Sea Bass sighting, but not by us. Another couple who dropped down deep at around 110' saw one at the edge of the kelp. We elected to stay around 70 feet, so we were out of luck. The second dive was at Yellowtail Point, where the vis was even worse at only 5-10 feet. I brought my camera out on this dive and played around with my new macro lens. I spotted a tiny jellyfish about the size of my thumb and had fun shooting it at different angles. We also saw a couple of baby horn sharks and a few short lobster. The last dive was at the old rock quarry. Here the vis was better, around 30 feet. I shot off a few more pix. We saw more baby horn sharks and short lobster. But the real find of the day was made by Chris - he pointed out a LIVE abalone about the size of my palm wedged under a rock. Unfortunately he was wedged under there too far for me to identify what kind of abalone it was, but it was a rare and encouraging treat.
By the end of dive three, we were all ready to be done. Winter has definately arrived, it was almost as cold on the deck as it was in the water! Fortunatley the wind and the swell had calmed down considerably since the morning, so we had a very nice ride back.
Now, about diving Nitrox. I've heard divers talk about how they felt more energized after diving on Nitrox, but I was rather skeptical. Although I certainly believed that there were safety benefits to diving Nitrox, I always thought any post-dive energy a person had was a placebo effect. Well, I don't know if diving Nitrox had a placebo effect on me or not, but I can tell you that I was not nearly as tired yesterday as I normally am after a full day of diving. Although I don't experience achiness or headaches at the end of the day, am ready for BED when I get home. But yesterday was different. I felt a little sleep deprived, but otherwise OK. Even my husband notcied something was different when I met him that evening to go to a Christmas party. I had been up since 5AM that morning, done three long dives in 53 degree water, lugged a ton of gear back and forth between my car
and the boat by myself, and still had enough energy to carry on a relatively coherent conversation at 11PM that night.
So I guess you can say I'm sold on Nitrox. Will every dive I do be on Nitrox? No, because unless more boats start offering it on board and unless more shops start to pump it (or even allow it), Nitrox won't always be a practical choice. But whenever possible I will bring at least one extra tank of Nitrox with me. I believe it makes a difference and for that reason I would recommend it to anyone.