PADI #79, Mahnomen II & III, tank 1

Dive: 18
Season Dive: 3
Site: PADI #79, Mahnomen II & III
Max Depth: 47 feet
TBT: 66 minutes
Grand Total: 13 hours, 18 minutes

Curtis and I had the pleasure of being dive buddies on Sat Aug 9th. I headed up to the cklahr cabin alone on Friday night, dive gear in tow. Nick stayed home to attend Bolin’s baseball game and BRKristen couldn’t be bothered with renting an exposure suit… although I think second thoughts were setting in when we were all up at o’dark thirty.

I slept horribly from the excitement of knowing I was diving in the morning, but was wide eyed and bushy tailed at 6:30 when the alarm went off. We had some breakfast and hit the road at 7am. It was my first time driving to the pits. We decided to go to PADI #79 located at Mahnomen II & III. We were the only ones there so it was pretty quiet except for a sheep bah-ing in the distance. I assembled my equipment and got my suit on without a hitch. Much different than the week before. Curtis helped me with my last couple inches of zipper and lifted the BCD on my back. I managed to get my own weight pouches in. I decide to cut back to 22 pounds to see how that felt.

It was a fish filled dive. We were greeted with a bunch of small mouth bass. When we crossed over the training platform we practiced some air bubbles. Not too bad for my first time, but not good by any means. It was pretty much same diving, different day. Lots of trees, good visibility, fishies, etc. We ended up going to 45 feet and it was pretty chilly. I could feel the cold on my exposed face. Burr!! The cold surrounded me, but it wasn’t seeping into my semi-dry suit. It was quite comfortable for being 50 degrees. We ascended to the mid 30s. I was just thinking how I was feeling pretty warm when Curtis gave me the cold signal and we went up another 10 feet. The water felt really warm up there, but better than being really cold.

We took the rest of the dive at a leisurely pace in shallower water. Curtis searched under rocks for crayfish and used them to lure the bass closer. The sunnies were friendly, coming right up and peeking into my mask. I tried to snatch some up like Nick did but that didn’t work so well. I kept envisioning my hand moving so much faster than it actually would.

On our way back we stopped at the platform again for more air rings. Close but no cigar for me. Curtis had quite a few good ones as usual. The sun was hitting the shallow water just right, and on our swim in I realized we were surrounded by millions (yes, millions) of minnows. I kept making quick jerky movements of my hands and they would turn on a dime in synchronization, their little bodies reflecting the sun like shiny coins. It made me feel like I was ALL POWERFUL, so I kept doing it in what felt like a band conducting type manner. Soon we were back where we entered and started our surface interval.

More air rings by Curtis:

Random trees: