Class for several FSU students.

By Rusty Miller

I just finished a class for several Florida State students, they did very well. We decided to go to the Vortex Springs because Morrison springs was at a clarity of 5 – which is extremely muddy. The They signed in and got their bands. I’m in the final stages of certifying a new Dive Master to help me with future classes. I currently have a fully certified dive master and she does a great job in helping me teach my classes.
I am working to get both of my DMs their instructor certification sometime this summer. So my DM gave the before-dive briefing and then we all geared up and started that walk down the hill to the spring. I still can’t get used to the slow filling of cold water going from my ankles to my neck. We descended to about 12 feet and my DM starts the skills with them. I am observing the students and I noticed that one of them is shivering a lot.
When you are cold enough to shiver like that then its almost impossible to do simple tasks under water. The DM noticed also and he immediately took him to the surface then I noticed that his wetsuit had large pockets where it wasn’t fitting very snug. I surfaced with the other students and sent them and my DM back to the bottom to work on their skills. I swam the very cold student over to the steps and had him get out of the water and change into some dry clothes.
I then went back to the students and they did a great job doing their required skills. We then took them on a swim on the bottom of the springs until their air was down to about 1800psi, we then surfaced and swam to the steps and excited the water for about a half hour surface interval. We changed our tanks out and then got back into the water.
The young man stayed out because he was still a little cold. After we surfaced I changed into warm clothes. I took him into the dive shop to try on a smaller wetsuit and it fit a lot better.
The next day we met at the vortex dive shop to sign in. He picked up the wetsuit and we put our gear together then entered the water. I had my DM take the rest of the students through the rest of the bottom skills while I worked to bring up the young man to the skills of the rest of the students.
Unfortunately, he was not able to finish at that time but he will join us on the next open water class to finish out his certification. The other students were able to finish their skills for their certification.
My DM did a great job with the students in the open water, all he needs to do now is finish his last open water with me then I can sign off his DM certification. Then his work begins towards his instructor certification.
Until next week keep making bubbles.

Russell Miller #59999