Chronicle of an older diver

Tec 40 Graduation Dive June 29, 2010

Rather than end up at our usual mud hole, on June 13th 2010, the Tec 40 students, assistants and instructor met at Caiger’s Resort along the mighty St. Lawrence River to knock off the class’ first (authorized) decompression dive. With 3 students, an instructor and 2 assistants, we had an easy time of it, with the students forming a team, but also being buddied up with a certified pro to both harry them and be around for emergencies.

The location was Ivy Lea Ontario, just a little upriver from the Thousand Islands bridge. I’d been there once before, and having enjoyed it the first time, was looking forward to doing it again. The dive consists of dropping into the river about 1/2 way along Ash Island, then drifting to a wreck known as the Ash Island Barge.

Once we’d entered the water, gathered together and done our bubble checks, we dropped over the wall to our planned depth of 125′. Actually Dave went a bit deeper to see if the students would follow him. They did, but soon caught themselves and got established at the proper depth. About 1/2 way through the drift we stopped and went through some drills, then continued on to the barge.

By the time we got there, we were almost out of time, so a couple more quick procedures and we headed up for our deco. Each student performed a gas switch on the way up to their decompression stops and soon thereafter our new graduates were floating on the surface where the boat was waiting for us.

Graduates waiting to be picked up

Because I need to log some 130+ deco dives to qualify for Tec Instruction, I followed Dave down to 132′, and used EAN50 for staged decompression. Water temperature was 15C (58F) on the bottom. We’re looking forward to diving the St. Lawrence again with some new students on Saturday. It should be even warmer.