Rochester Scuba & Snorkel Club

DIR Fundamentals Class

by Roger Southwick

Four open-minded divers signed up for the DIR (Doing It Right) Fundamentals class offered by GUE, the Global Underwater Explorers. Dave Merbach, Jim Campos, Joe Velie, and Roger Southwick learned a great deal from our GUE instructor Joe Talavera. We had a lot of fun too, despite cold & rainy weather.

L-R: Roger Southwick, Joe Velie, Dave Merbach, instructor Joe Talavera, Jim Campos

The class emphasized the basics of diving: equipment configuration, buoyancy control, body positioning, fin kicks, emergency air-sharing procedures, and teamwork. Sounds simple, doesn't it? Well, for years we'd been overlooking lots of subtleties. We concentrated on the basics and reviewed our performance through videotaped dives. It was quite a humbling experience for all of us, but we learned how to improve and we're highly motivated to keep practicing. The course is helpful for new divers, but it's especially valuable for experienced divers. (I just completed my 400th hour underwater and could still use lots of practice.)

Joe Velie has published some photos from our class on the Blackdive Gallery. Our instructor has posted a summary of our class on the 5thD-X DIR Forums along with his photos.

Isle Royale Shipwreck Diving Trip

story by Joseph Reynolds, photos by John Preston and Roger Southwick

The Rock of Ages Lighthouse stands near the wrecks of the Cox, Cumberland, and Chisholm.

Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Roger Southwick announces SCUBA trip to Isle Royale. This is essentially the same trip I had been on three times already. Despite that, and despite having puked and felt miserable on each of those trips, I signed for another try at some of the world's best shipwreck diving. Quickly 3 other divers sign up: John Preston, John Martin, and Jamie Stelzer.

Spoonday, AprilMay 358th, 2005

I sign up. Dave Owen signs up a week later.

WedFriThursday, July 29, 2005

Roger announces that John Martin cannot make the trip because of a business trip to Ireland. A frantic search ensues for a replacement who had cold, deep experience, who wants to go, and has free time. No such replacement was found.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

We drive north in the post dawn hours. Dave Owen takes me and Jamie. John Preston takes Roger. Ever northward we ride, stopping only in Hinckley and in Two Harbors for lunch. Just before the road ends, we arrive. It is dark. Roger finds Ken Merryman's boat and breaks in. We pick bunks and soon everyone is asleep. Except me. I listen to the snoring.

Friday, August 12, 2005

Everyone else wakes up way too early. I feel sick waking up so early. Captain Ken Merryman and his daughter begin loading supplies onto the boat. We load our SCUBA gear onto the boat. Ken made a delicious breakfast with apple turnovers. I knew that if I ate one, I would just spit it up again. It was delicious. We took some "before" pictures and set off.

The Heyboy was our home for 4 days. Seven people could live on the boat fairly comfortably.

The boat tossed and bucked in the 3 foot seas. I thought I was going to be sick. Why did I come on this trip anyway? I was just going to be sick the whole time and not get to make any dives. I decided I would not ever go on any more boat-based trips. What was I thinking? After we moored up to the Cox, that's when I puked. It didn't make me feel any better. I was kind of tired and sweaty, so I called the dive. Roger and Dave went in. I puked again, just before Jamie and John went in. Eventually they came out. I guess there was some kind of shipwreck down there.

I felt better after we made it to the SS America in protected water. We had sandwiches for lunch. Okay, everyone else had sandwiches while I nibbled on cheese. We moored up and went diving. Roger and Dave went in first again, followed by me, Jamie and John. John took his video camera.

We did the grand tour. My buoyancy and trim were terrible (but still much better than most new divers). John was like a maniac, swimming into every doorway, videotaping everything. Jamie's drysuit exhaust valve got stuck closed on the way up from the propeller. I didn't know that, of course. I was looking up at Jamie reaching the surface, and down at John's bubbles from the fantail. Eventually Jamie signaled okay and swam off. So I completed the dive with John. After the dive we figured maybe some of Jamie's insulation got caught in the valve. That didn't seem likely, and the valve was working properly at the surface. Anyway, I went to remove some weight from my belt, and remembered I had brought three extra pounds, stored right on the weight belt. Duh. I removed the extra weight.

This was the view during our awesome steak dinner.

My second dive on the America was with Jamie and Dave. We toured the front cabins, the rooms astern from the ballroom stairs, and Dave even came up with a 6-inch (15cm) piece of coal. [But he put it back again... right?] There were no equipment problems. We anchored in a small harbor overnight, having the most delicious chicken steaks you could imagine. We briefly went ashore the following morning and had Ken's Egg Muffins for breakfast. I think we had meatball sandwiches for lunch, but that's getting ahead of the story.

Saturday, August 13, 2005

We motored up to the Emperor stern and moored up in strong current and 2 foot waves. Roger and Dave went first again. John and I went in when we saw their bubbles at the safety stop. Jamie sat this one out. We were supposed to look at the giant letters that spelled Emperor and swim around the superstructure counter clockwise. I must have been narced or something, because I forgot to look at the letters. I did see the winches, 3 light bulbs, the coal chute, foghorn, and kitchen, then swam under the fallen stack and looked into the wine racks. It was pretty deep: 130 feet or so. John quit filming when I reached the spare anchor. It was as big as I remember -- and that's pretty big.

John and I continued past the spare propeller blades bolted to the fantail. I was getting low on no-deco time at this point, so I swam over the engine room and looked up at the tower and stay-wires still intact. This was an impressive ship. Up, up, up the mooring line we went, and noticed a thermocline at 70 feet at the same time the current began. It had been calm at depth. We sucked oxygen at the safety stop, undid the clip for the O2 regs, and climbed aboard. Getting in was easy with Ken's ladder, despite the rolling and frolicking waves that had now grown to 3 feet.

The old fishing village at Crystal Cove has scenic buildings and fishing equipment.

We moored up on the Congdon bow section, a short ride away. But the waves were still building and the forecast was for more wind, so we cast off the buoy line and stopped diving for the day. We went to the Unsafe Dock at Crystal Cove. We all toured around the abandoned fishing village and took pictures. Beautiful pictures. These could be postcards. We also took some group photos here. We motored over the Belle Isle for dinner, talked with some other divers and some kayakers, and had steaks for dinner. I slept on the island, shelter #4.

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Breakfast was bacon with french toast. We tried for the Emperor again, dive teams same as before. John hung his camera overboard for 20 minutes before the dive, to acclimate to the frigid conditions, and that seemed to help prevent fogging. I remembered to look at the big lettering this time, barely visible after all these years. We made it around to the starboard side this time and peered into the cabins: bunk beds, sink, another winch. They sure had a lot of winches. It got warmer at 55 feet, and there was lighter current than yesterday. The wind died down after the dive. Ken and Cari dove.

We had wild rice soup and sandwiches for lunch. Ken mentioned that he only prepares meals that also taste good when vomited up. We also noticed that our stockpile of Coca-Cola products was dangerously low. Those of us who were able to do so switched to off-brand caffeine products such as Mountain Dew and Pepsi. Our second dive was on the bow section of the Congdon. Roger and Dave first, then myself, Jamie, and John with his video camera. This was a nitrox dive.

The gang: John, Dave, Jamie, Joseph, Cari, Cap'n Ken, Roger

We saw Roger and Dave on the bow, then did the grand tour clockwise. There was lots of wreckage on the bottom of the lake near the "Safety First" sign. For some reason I was looking for a rope ladder. I did not see any. We swam inside all the empty rooms and down the giant hole in the fore deck. I saw the intact portal deep inside, on the starboard side. Getting late into the dive, I looked down at the giant dent on the bow, below the hawse pipes, about 30 feet down and pushed in a good foot or so. I ascended the line, looking back on Jamie and John, wondering why they weren't coming up, when I burped a little bit. But of course I was looking down, so it wasn't a burp, exactly. I thanked Ken for the delicious soup again.

The Monarch was our third dive. Ken and his daughter did this one first, Ken with a scooter and special video camera rig. I dusted things off for John, who was with his video camera again. I noticed that my trim was such that I tended to fall on my face. If I got air into my arms and held them in front of me, I could counteract that. Poor trim is annoying. We docked overnight in Florentine Bay, had spaghetti for dinner, and checked out the site. I slept on a picnic table under the stars. You can see the entire Milky way Galaxy when you get away from all those city lights.

Monday, August 15, 2005

We made the "crossing" to the Chisholm engines. We had the option of diving on the Howard, a little wreck tucked into Canada near the shore, but we got a weather report which euphemistically predicted only two foot waves, so continued on to the Chisholm. They had crepes for breakfast enroute. I slept most of the way there, to get more rest and ward off being seasick. Jamie kept up his mantra, "make it stop, make it stop." We played Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries once the Rock Of Ages Lighthouse was in sight, and we started suiting up. The music was at first stirring, then eerie as the music matched the action of the lake.

The seagulls at the Grand Portage marina were not kind to John's black vehicle. Dave's maroon vehicle, parked next to John's, was fine.

Roger and Dave went first again. The three and a half foot waves came in sets: the boat was perfectly still for a few seconds, then did a crazy little dance, both pitching and rolling and yawing. Then it was still again, then dancing again. It was easier to suit up during the still time, then brace yourself for the motion.

When we got down there I saw more wreckage than I remembered. I hadn't remembered any. The engine seemed lonely and sad, but that was probably the deep water narcosis again. Jamie and I swam out to the propeller. Someone had broken one off, probably as a souvenir. A shame really. When we swam back, John was video taping the crank shaft below us. I did one more circuit of the engine as Jamie went for the ascent line. I started up, with Jamie already 30 feet above me, when John saw that we were on our way up.

The crossing back to Grand Portage was pretty rough. The tiny ship was tossed. I slept most of the way again. After we got back I quickly showered at the marina, and Ken had made Enchiladas for lunch. They were delicious. We unloaded the boat, took some "after" photos, and drove home. There is more to the story, of course; lots more to tell. Like this book we're going to write about "balanced valves" and the differences between PADI and DIR. But that's another story.

The End

Be sure to check out the gallery of underwater photos.