PSAI - Philippines .: Big Lalaguna, Puerto Galera, Oriental Mindoro, 5203 Philippines .: +63 - 43 - 287 3179 .: info@psai-philippines.com |
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Female 330 Feet (100M) Deep Dive record in Puerto Galera
Jennifer Will – PSAI Technical Instructor 'Three... Two... One... Go!' I make one last check that I'm on the right gas, then backroll off the boat. Actually, it's not quite that simple. A wave catches the boat as I go and that - ok, that coupled with the fact that I'm wearing twin 12s and three six-litre stage tanks - is enough to flick me over a lot harder than I expect. A complete 360 roll later, I'm in the water and ready to go. My apprehension fades as we gather at the top of the descent line, any slight butterflies that had gathered as I watched over 100 metres of line running down into the ocean fading as the excitement of the dive kicks in. There's still a little time to wonder why this seemed like such a good idea, though...
Welcome to PSAI- Philippines 100 M Divers Club One last check round and it's time to go. We deflate and descend to five metres for bubble checks, then start the descent proper. Simon is first, followed by Grae and myself, with Eric bringing up the rear. Wallace has stayed on the boat, the plan being that he will meet us at 45 metres with extra gas, just in case. The descent is smooth enough, bar a little bumping as the four of us cluster around the line. We switch from our travel gas - we're using our TMX 32/15 deco mix - at 30 metres, and go onto our TMX 12/55 bottom gas. At 80 Just past 90 metres the bottom comes into view, and I realise that visibility is superb. We're really here! By now, the four of us have stretched the descent line pretty much horizontal and I see that Grae has dropped off and is standing on the bottom grinning at his computer. I drop next to him, monitoring my guages. 99 metres, 99.5 metres, 99.9 metres... touchdown! One hundred and one metres, exactly as planned. I have a moment of utter serenity, the feeling that I'm truly meant to be here. Suddenly, I hear somebody shouting through their reg: has something gone wrong? I look round, and realise that it's Simon whooping. Grae joins in, and we all exchange handshakes and grin at each other... Although there's a part of me thinking 'Yeah, ok, but let's celebrate when we get back to the surface!' All too soon, it's time to start heading back up the line. The sight of Grae trying to lift off and looking quite confused when he can't entertains me. Quickly enough he's adjusted his buoyancy back to neutral after standing on the bottom, and we're off up the line. At 90, Grae signals me to look up the line. A thin thread arrows up above us into an aquamarine void, bringing home to me just how deep we are. It's an awesome sight. Then we're into the routine of deep stops, working our way up to our first gas switch, to TMX 32/15 , at 39 metres. At 45, dead on schedule, we meet Wallace. Another round of oks, drift off the line as planned, turn on the gas, watch the guages, and up we go to the switch and the start of deco proper. Another half-dozen stops and we're preparing for the next switch, to nitrox 50. There's a moment of drama when Grae opens the valve and gets a gushing free-flow, but with a bit of fiddling he gets it under control without losing an appreciable amount of gas. He still spends the 21-metre stop chuntering about the fact that his reg is flowing when he's breathing out, but he seems confident enough of making the stops and Wallace is carrying spare gas. The stops go on, the same old routine. At 12 metres I decide to deploy a bag. Of course, of course, in the middle of the perfect execution of a 100-metre dive, my spool manages to tangle itself up and I have to let go of the bag. I sulk for the next few minutes, watching the bag and dangling line drift off on the surface. Grae, inevitably, thinks it's hilarious. On we go, upward to the surface. The stops are getting long now, so Grae and I spend most of the 32-minute six-metre final stop playing paper-scissors-stone and writing each other stupid notes. I occasionally think that maybe we dive together too often... It's getting cold, now, too. But time keeps passing, and soon enough it's time to start making one-metre steps up to the surface - where we all start whooping again, before heading back to LLBC and general excitement. The next day, one of the tech instructors wanders past as we're kitting up for another dive - 'only' 40 metres, this time - and says 'So, just another dive, huh?' And he's right, it is just another dive, but now I know that for a fact, and I know I can do it.
PSAI-Philippines has launched the Club 330 120 Meter Depth M/V Princess of Orient Exploration Dives PSAI Technical Wreck Instructor workshop Instructor Crossover Class Female 330 Feet (100M) Deep Dive record in Puerto Galera |
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metres we do a final check:gas ok, still no leaks, everyone happy. Grae and I exchange comedy extended ok signals: Then it's on towards the bottom. At 90 metres, potential disaster! Simon's primary inflator hose belches out a huge cloud of bubbles. I look at Grae, and he's really clearly thinking the same thing I am: if Simon has to call this, we're sending him up with Eric and going on ourselves. We're too close to the target we've been working towards to call it and do it all again tomorrow. All is well, though, as Simon fixes the problem and continues down. 
At 45M, dead on schedule, we meet Wallace 