MAUI TRIP REPORT BY DAN SCHMIDT

6/16/2009 by Capt. Darrick Lorenzen | 0 Comments | 487 Views

Attached is a blog installment from my good friend Dan Schmidt. Dan is president and CEO of channel 11 WTTW and 98.7 WFMT. Over the past 5 years Dan has been involved in an internship program with me. Last August he completed his Instructor Qualification Program and is now a certified NAUI Instructor. Channel 11provides Midwest Scuba Diving Magazine with support and Dan provides me with help and support by teaching weekend courses of instruction and open water training at Haigh Quarry and Florida dive training weekends.

My Maui Trip Report  

My wife, Julie, and I were originally certified as NAUI divers by Captain Darrick and have traveled with him on cool trips to Dry Tortuga, to the Spiegel Grove off Key Largo, drift diving off West Palm Beach in the ripping Gulf Stream current, and cavern explorations in myriad springs in Central Florida.  We have logged hundreds of dives on trips to the Caribbean from the Virgin Islands, to the Dutch Antilles, to the second largest barrier reef in the world running along Central America, to Bonne Terre Mine in Missouri and, of course, more trips than we can count to the fabulous Haigh Quarry in Kankakee.  Most of these trips had one primary purpose: diving our brains out!  And, as such, we brought our full compliment of gear with us. 
 
Last year, Julie and I booked a trip to Maui with an itinerary that, for a change, didn’t have diving as it’s focus.  In fact, we planned to dive only one of the eight days we were there.  The weekend before our departure, we were cross country skiing in lake- effect powder in Western Michigan and Julie took a nasty face plant after snagging her hand on a tree limb and suffering a severe fracture of her right little finger.  Three days later we were winging our way to Hawaii with Julie in a full plaster cast on her arm up to her right elbow -- without our scuba gear.
 
With my dive buddy out of action, I naively thought I could spend eight days in Hawaii without diving.  But, three days into the trip, sitting on the beach, reading novels, and floating in the warm pacific off the beaches of Kanapali, I heard the singing humpback whales and asked Julie if she would be offended if I signed up with the resort dive operation to dive the next day off the back wall of the Molokini Crater.  Julie graciously encouraged me to go for it, as she was eager to spend the equivalent time at the spa doing a hot stone massage, tourmaline facial, and a pedicure. 
 
Well, I didn’t have my gear.  Nothing.  “No problem” said the guy at the dive shop as I whipped out my American Express to book my spot on the morning boat departure.  All gear included!  I also didn’t have my buddy.  “No problem.”  I would buddy up with the dive master.  All I had to do was get up before dawn, drive halfway across the island, stop at their main dive shop to pick up fins, mask, booties, a shorty wetsuit, and meet the boat.  Tanks, BC, regulator, and computer to be issued on the boat. 
 
The alarm went off at 4:45am the next morning.  My purchase at the dive shop included a small dry bag which I had packed with a towel, my swimming suit, a clean T-shirt and some sun screen.  The bottle of wine we had shared over dinner the night before still had me yawning as I waited for the elevator to take me to my rental Mustang convertible in the garage below the hotel.  Bleary-eyed before dawn, I stopped at the main dive shop. They asked me for my shoe size, and handed me a gear bag allegedly containing booties, fins, mask and snorkel.  The woman looked at me from head to toe and declared that I needed a large shorty – all of which I signed for without inspection and left for the boat.
 
Arriving at the boat dock at 6:15am now fortified with a breakfast sandwich, orange juice and coffee from the local drive-through, the day dawned with a brilliant sunrise, moderate seas, and the spectacular rim of the crater looming off shore.  A perfect day for diving!
 
The dive shop ran boats both for scuba and snorkeling trips, and we signed in at the dock and were assigned the appropriate boat.  After donning our swimming suits, our group was summoned to board the boat and we departed for the Crater.  By then, I was fully awake and checked out my assigned gear.  My rental BC looked serviceable enough, but didn’t have any clips for the octopus or SPG.  It also didn’t have any dive light, slate, signaling device, knife, or any other accessory attached.  The regulator looked well used, but serviceable and functioned satisfactorily.
 
Opening the gear bag issued at the dive shop, I was dismayed to discover that I was handed their standard snorkel gear package.  No booties, full healed fins that were pathetically small, and a well used ill-fitting mask.  When I asked about a spare pair of real scuba fins, I was told that they had none on the boat, but that we would be doing a drift dive along the crater wall so it shouldn’t be a problem. 
 
On our trip out to the crater, we observed breaching humpback whales: three pods of them with many calves in tow!  The air was sweet and clear from the breeze issuing from the shore, and the crater looming ahead spectacularly!  Despite the equipment issues, I decided to go ahead with the dive.
 
Arriving at the crater wall was amazing!  The open and sheltered side of the crater faces the island, with the back wall facing the open seas.  By now the swells were pushing up against the almost vertical face of the wall causing the boat to rock as we did our giant stride into the crystal clear water.  Rarely, have I seen such viz!  That day, it was 200 feet!!!  It was truly startling as I descended with the group to see the light reflecting off the very deep bottom far below.
 
That’s when the trouble started.  On the surface, the current was running one way, and immediately it was clear that at depth, the current was running the other way.  As I attempted to keep up with the group with my pathetic snorkel fins, the strap on my mask let go completely flooding and drifting away from my face.  Finning furiously against the current, I held the mask to my face and re-inflated it, as my “buddy” the dive master and the group swam away into the current. With unusual exertion, I was able to keep up with the group for the next twenty minutes until breathing my aluminum 80 down to 700 psi.  Signaling to my “buddy” that I was calling the dive, he waved goodby as I began my ascent from 70 feet to the surface.  
 
Breaking the surface well before the boat captain expected anyone to do so, I found myself between 7-foot swells with the boat visable only half the time.  The waves were crashing against the wall now about thirty feet behind me.  I was completely and utterly alone.  The drift-dive plan included signaling the boat with both arms over the head in an arc with finger tips touching, which failed to summon the boat.  What felt like ten minutes later, waving one of my pathetic fins finally caught the eye of the boat captain, who moved to within thirty feet of me across the current.  Because I was so close to the wall, I had to put my pathetic fin back on and paddle back to the boat.
 
The moral of the story
 
1.  Buy your own gear and bring key life support items to any dive.
2.  Always inspect any other rental gear you are issued prior to departure.
3.  Never “buddy up” with a dive master who is leading the entire group and whom          you met only ten minutes before leaving the dock.
4.  Be sure you have an adequate signaling device – especially if embarking on a drift dive.
5.  Never make gear decisions based on economic criteria or convenience.  Don’t screw around when your life and safety is at stake.
 
These are things I teach my students all the time.  I’ll follow my own advice from now on!
 
p.s.  The next day, I went to the spa and got that hot stone massage, which I also highly recommend!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Haigh Quarry and Florida dive training weekends.