Tribulations & Triumphs of becoming a Meg Diver.

AshBC

About a month ago I left Nanaimo, Vancouver Island and headed south. My first stop was Centralia, WA at Innerspace Systems Corp. – a.k.a. the Meg hatchery. I arrived with my instructor Ron Micjan and my brand new deep red anodized cave canister first thing. After meeting the crew who make it all happen, we assembled my Megalodon. Only a few minor adjustments were needed to make the counterlungs sit where they needed on my limited real estate, a few feet of harness webbing were trimmed off...

Leon Scamahorn, owner of ISC, checks out the fit.



I was all set - except the scrubber canister wasn't ready yet. I was hoping to be the owner of the first 5.8lb radial which we learned had just been tested with very impressive results. Leon promised to have one for me before we would be heading to California for the course - and it was.

I was joining the class for Thom Susko in San Clemente, CA. Both Thom and I were happy to have a co-student to learn with.

Day 1: Theory & pre-diving the Meg - a checklist that took over 3 1/2 hours to complete the first time over!
Here's Thom and I in the middle of it.



We did manage to shave quite a bit of time off after all the repetition. By the end, we could almost do the checklists with our eyes closed, and down to under an hour. The importance of prediving the Meg using the checklist was firmly impressed into my skill set.


Day 2: More theory. I saw Ron’s amazing gift for explaining things, He can take a concept and apply it to the individual language of each student. I pictured little light bulbs illuminate over our heads on several occasions.

We did some dirt diving (more on this below) and then to the pool for 4 hrs of drills and harassment. I wore my drysuit, knowing I'd be a useless teeth-chattering subject otherwise.



Much to my surprise, i didn't have to struggle with trim - a couple of ankle weights around the cylinders & secured temporarily fixed the leg heavy tendency.

I didn't have the right tank valves for the pool dive, so the reg's and hoses are looking a little messy on this one, fixed it for the open water dives.

Imagine this - splash, thud - a 5lb soft weight pouch lands a few inches in front of you on the bottom of the pool. :O This means that your instructor isn't happy and wants you to surface so he can tell you why. Oh - and bring the weight back up with you so he's re-armed for the next time.

Here's me in the midst of a Boom drill:



Now we are almost ready for our first open water dive...but first - dirt diving, or rather couch diving!

Day 3:





Ron narrated an entire dive - descent procedures, when to use what controls and why, problem scenarios, ascent. Imagine a dive where you can hit the pause button to ask "why?" or "what do you mean?" I liked that.

San Clemente's shores: great for surfing, not so much for diving...

We gave it a try - the entry wasn't that rough but the surge was strong and vis poor. Ron called the dive.

Day 4 & 5: Plan B - Catalina Island baby!!
A 1 hr ferry ride took us to a little piece of paradise. Most of the locals get around by golf carts. This was our mode of transportation to/from the dive site courtesy of the hotel:



Casino Point is a popular dive site in Avalon that's supposed to be a very busy spot on the weekends with divers lining up to descend the stairs entering the water. We were still mid-week and had most of the place to ourselves. A quick drop to 20ft takes you into the kelp forests and beyond to a sandy slope scattered with a few boat wrecks. Honestly - i was too worried about my PO2 and counterlung volume and trim and buoyancy and drills to really appreciate the beauty of it all.

Our first dive: we swam 1 hr ...in one direction! then we turned around to ride the mild current back home and finish with a slew of drills at the end, when you are cold and tired. Then, in the middle of doing one drill, the instructor lays on another.. "BOOM!" - deal with it...

Unlike open circuit, you can hear your CCR instructor annunciate underwater.
(*ahem*...and I’m pretty sure you can hear them fart too).

Despite the puddles in my not so drysuit, i kept warm enough with a thin layer of underwear. I suppose my neoprene drysuit is used to 45 degree water, not high 50's.
Electrical tape fixed the loosened neck seal for the last few dives. Thom was diving a wetsuit. We'd come across a few cold currents where the temperature would drop about 10 degrees. On one dive that I was navigating to find a small boat wreck, Thom used his slate to communicate about 1 hour into the dive "I'm freezing" - a hint that he was ready to turn around anytime...

Scariest memory: turning back to see our instructor unconscious. well, okay..he was faking it. Thom and I started an ascent to get Ron to the surface - (this is NOT easy to control!)

Fondest memory: Looking back to see Thom swimming with yards of his reel accidentally spooling out behind him...and Ron happily pulling it out and looping it around his hands. Note to self - make sure MY reel is well secured.

After 2 days of intensive diving, we had completed all the time requirements. We just needed one more dive.

Day 6: Graduation Day aboard the Marissa, en route to the HMCS Yukon.



We took the Marissa from San Diego to visit the Yukon - a sister ship to the Saskatchewan which is an artificial reef back home in Nanaimo. We followed our instructor around the wreck like little ducklings. The second dive was on a close-by, smaller & shallower wreck, the Ruby. Thom cursed his wetsuit in the colder water while Ron gave us more drills for good measure.

Thanks to the crew of the Marissa for a couple of fun dives and tasty munchies.

Thanks Thom for the unprecedented hospitality, a place to stay, and generous supply of chuckles as you dragged around a half mile or so of kelp, courtesy of Ron. Note to self - never use carabiners to secure gear.

Ron's Meg course was intense. He balanced patience with challenging the comfort envelope. He had no compunction about pushing me off the branch to see if I could fly, but was always there to throw a pillow on the ground in case i didn't.

I can fly!!

Ashley Paterson
Megalodon CCR Certified May 10, 2008

Abbo

Congratulations, and a great write up.
Cheers,
Nicholas

Dsix36

Great post, thanks for sharing. Glad that you could fly and didn't need the pillow

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THE MORE THAT I LEARN, THE MORE THAT I STILL NEED TO LEARN!!!!!!

mountain diver

Great write, up enjoyed the read. And congratulations to you both.
Have fun diving your new units.












all the best.

w ripley

That's a mighty sexy looking canister.

Enjoyed your writeup and photos. Congratulations and safe diving.

Regards,

Bill

jkaterenchuk

Ashley

Great Job! I will be up in your area for a day or so in a couple of weeks. Unfortunately, no time to dive but i want to get up for some diving over the next year. What operator do you recommend?

John

Hyper-limits

If you diving in Nanaimo go with Diver's Choice Charter.

Al

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"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear. And the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown" H.P. Lovecraft

Fun Under Pressure

Cool report and pics. And your avatar.....
Thanks for sharing. Congrats to the course. Greetings from Germany.

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Cheers Markku
Meg # 773

Dive my dreams is my life-task

Dsix36

Canister is not what I was looking at

__________________
THE MORE THAT I LEARN, THE MORE THAT I STILL NEED TO LEARN!!!!!!

mattmexico

yo

congratulations and I enjoyed the reading

greetings
Matt

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W 87' 04.693'
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