So, today I went on a trip to do some fun dives. Out at a wreck called Thai Muang. It’s an old tin ship. It’s in deep water and has some good life on it. It’s closer to the short than another wreck I now know I like better, but it’s a moderately good one.

I helped the two DMs from the shop onto the boat, got sunscreened up and settled in for the half hour ride to the wreck. Upon getting there, we got in the water, sorted masks and I lost a fin. Perhaps I should have realized that this dive might not have gone very well. I was in a new wetsuit too, so was quite buoyant. And I didn’t think I had enough weight on me.

We descended the line and then started moving along and I felt very bouncy. And then I started going up. My “dive” was over at 4 minutes. I did what is called a “buoyant ascent.” Which is bad. I went from 17m to the surface very rapidly. As soon as I knew it was happening, I started looking up, put my Left hand up and made sure there was nothing above me – like the boat. I popped up not far from the boat but still couldn’t figure out why. I rested on the boat for the remainder of the other two groups dives and saw my BCD inflate on its own. The bastard. Anyway, both DMs thought that my inflator button was/is broken, so I went down on the 2nd dive without my inflator hose clipped. I self-inflated on the boat before we went into the water, and then at the surface after the dive I did the same.

On the dive there was a ghost pipe fish, a nudibranch, some schools of fish, a lovely eel and crap visibility.The current was stronger on the 2nd dive too.

While it was good to have that experience, I don’t want to have that experience. But, then again, it’s good to know that it can happen. And to know how to resolve it easily. As a beginning open water diver, you are taught how to unconnect your inflator hose, but I didn’t really know what the problem was when I was at depth. I was unsure if it was due to the weights, or the wetsuit, or all of it combined.

My fins are also buoyant, as opposed to many that sink. I think I’ll be splitting my weights up between my BCD and a weight belt. I texted a friend while I was waiting on the boat and said “I can only get better, right?”

That was dive 89 – because I’m not counting my under 5 minute dive as another one.

The list of things I forgot has grown:
Proper & Good Sunscreen, my First Aid Mask for rescue breathing.

Class starts today, on Thursday, and I will do some specialty dives this weekend, I think – one is Peak Performance Buoyancy. That’ll help with the new wetsuit issue. I’m pleased with that one for sure!

I’ve started taking random pictures, and will continually post them on my flickr photostream if you want to look. It is here: Thailand Journey on Flickr.