[Sportsandrec] [No real] Dive site suggestion for Tom

[Kelly Thornbury]

Tom, 

My personal thought is that it is less important to find the perfect [warm water] accessible dive site as it is to find the perfect, accessible dive partner. I don't know about your vision, but I am completely blind, so I am very, very selective on who I will get in the water with. 

That being said, I don't know about other certifications, but PADI Open Water and Advanced Open Water are life-long certs, blindness does not void them. Any good PADI dive center should honor the certs without an issue. So, selecting a good center is not really any different from selecting a center when you were sighted, I'm guessing you know what to look for there. I usually stick with the "5-star" centers, only because I'm not as confident working with the less reputable outfits as I once was in my younger and more cocky years. 

I would suggest some pool time with your partner of choice so you can work out what signals you want to use. There are some adaptive dive organizations that have developed a series of blind-related signals, but I didn't find them to be as intuitive as ones I had already worked out with a recent partner, and I've forgotten most of them. We (partners and I) work out signals for asking and giving dive time, depth, air consumption (this is where it is nice to have a partner who sucks more air than you), and decompression stops if needed (ok, admittedly, I didn't always go by the recreational dive tables, another story for another time). 

Another option is for communications masks, but these are darn expensive. I don't own one, but I've rented them. We used one set, so my partner could talk to me, and I would rely on hand signals to respond (cuts the costs in half). It really depends on your vision as to what system of communications you use. Also, a partner with great buoyancy skills is a bonus. I will attach a line between the two of us (long enough to give us some room)Then, I can feel based on the angle of the line how far above or below my partner I am. We also had an "urgent" line tug signal if I happened to be pulling my partner out of neutral buoyancy. For me personally, having my partner on my left was most convenient because the line, which was attached about waist level, would interfere with hand movements to my BCD control valves, while my partner could see the line to avoid getting tangled. 

In an emergency ascent, or if for some reason you have to ascend without your partner, you can hold your hand in the bubble stream above your respirator to judge if you are ascending slower than your bubbles (ok, I know this isn't a great indicator, but that's what they taught years and years ago). Another technique that should be practiced in a pool or other controlled, "Confined water" conditions. 

Wow, all that and not a single good dive warm water dive location...Ask around at your local shops. 


On Feb 26, 2013, at 9:03 AM, Tom Evans wrote:

> Good conversation and thinking about getting back into diving if any ideas
> as to some good warm accessible dive places that people have had good luck
> with.
> Tom