My Dive

[SeaRat]

I had my second dive of the year at High Rocks on the Clackamas River, and it did not go as I had planned. My normal protocol is to go down and talk with the lifeguards, then suit up and head for the water just above High Rocks. I've been doing this for over twenty years now, and always had a great drift dive down through High Rocks and then down-river to Cross Park, where I exit and walk back up to my Honda Pilot. There is an old railroad bridge that has been converted to a hiking trail bridge, that I normally go under and its shadow triggers me to head toward the north shore for my exit. That was what I was anticipating.

I wore my twin 52 cylinders, which are pretty heavy, and walked down the path to the shore. The route at the bottom near the water had changed over the winter, and that should have triggered a caution in my mind, but did not. There was also a large log where I normally enter. Well, I sat down with those heavy tank, and the first problem was that after sitting down, I could not lift my legs up to get my fins on. I ended up horizontal in the water, finally got my fins on, and then re-oriented my body to edge over the shallows into deeper water.

As I started out, I found that I had slightly miscalculated my weight, and was a bit buoyant; not a problem, as I should be just about right as I got into the deeper water at High Rocks.

I normally swim in a circular pattern to the rapids, then go under them. My float line was short, so I lengthened it to get a bit deeper. But when I tried to go under the rapids, the rapids were all the way to the bottom, whereas in the past years there was a 90 degree current under the rapids. So the rapids took me around in a circle above High Rocks, and it did this on three different attempts to go downstream. Before the fourth time, I stopped and with my housed Canon PowerShot SD500 camera took some photos, including one above water of the rapids. I then ducked down, and purposely swam into the current so as to go downstream. That sorta worked, but I found myself on the north side where the rocks were large, and I had to use my hands to push off them as I finally went downstream.
I neared deeper water, surface dived toward the bottom, and the current took me in a circle as I was head-down and vertical, which disoriented me a bit. Then I was at about 15 feet and my sinus would not clear; I went up further, and got some exhaled air into that sinus, started down again, and it was still painful. So I called the dive, surfaced near the lifeguard stand, and found a good place to exit.

The rocks were slippery, and I spent some time simply breathing through my scuba (I was wearing my Mossback Mark 3 double hose regulator, which did very well on the dive). After recovering for a few minutes, I took off my fins, threw them up on the rocks, found some non-slippery footing, and took my time to exit up onto the rocks. I sat back onto a rock, and took off my scuba, then lifted it up onto a more stable place on the rocks. All this took some time to accomplish.

It took me two trips back up to the car to get my gear there, and taking those heavy tanks up was a chore--quite a workout. The trip up with my twin scuba (steel 52s) took three rest stops to get up to the Pilot (I'm getting older, I think). I then went over to the lifeguards under their tent, told them that I had aborted the dive, and told them that the current patterns had changed dramatically from last year. They attested to the change in current patterns too.
Well, that was my dive, and I'll have to change my entry to dive at High Rocks again. I'll go to High Rocks and enter there, and not above. That circular current was bad news for my dive. I went back up to the Pilot, and drove to OHSU to pick Chris up after my dive.


IMG_3603 by John Ratliff, on Flickr
I was right at the area that the rapids came into the water, and found a small school of redside shiners (Richardsonius balteatus (Richardson, 1836)
nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?SpeciesID=644

Version 2 by John Ratliff, on Flickr
This is a closer photo of the last one, showing the school of redside shiners.

IMG_3606 by John Ratliff, on Flickr
I lifted the camera out of the water from the last underwater photo, and this is what I saw of the rapids going into High Rocks. There is an overpass for the Clackamas River on Highway 205 in the background.

IMG_3607 by John Ratliff, on Flickr
Looking underwater again, this is a salmon smolt (probably Chinook salmon smolt).
beautifuloregon.com/.../chinook-salmon.../

[SeaRat]

I’d like to make a few points about Friday’s dive. First, I was not in any danger at all by any of this. Just downstream from me were three lifeguards with paddle boards up on the cliff overlooking everything, who could have responded very quickly (a Chris, wife, requirement now). Second, my problems were two-fold:

—The currents have changed dramatically, due to floods over the winter that removed a large log and root wad that were at the head of the rapids. The bottom topography has also changed, and that has changed the current patterns. It is now almost impossible to get under the rapids that flow into High Rocks, but which I was able to navigate underneath last year (and the last 20 years, actually). The lifeguards acknowledged that the current patterns had changed a lot.

—Once I finally got through the rapids area (on my fourth attempt, by riding my float through, I tried to submerge into the 23 foot deep area of stiller water beneath the cliffs of High Rocks. I almost immediately felt my right sinus near my nose refuse to equalize. I tried a second time, and again had the same problem. Then the thought entered my mind about aborting, and once I have that thought, at this point in my life I abort.

I surfaced and began the arduous task of getting out of my gear, and hauling it up the cliff faces at High Rocks. It took two trips, and on the last one I took my twin 52s up. Because these tanks float, I had 6 pounds of weights on their waist strap, in addition to the 8 pound of my weight belt (I was in a shorty that didn’t require my winter weight belt). That was really tough, as I had about 60 pounds on my back going up and doing some rock climbing. Had I continued to my normal exit, this would not have been so hard, as while there is climbing there, it’s easier.

The Mossback Mark 3 performed flawlessly throughout this dive, and the dive configuration looked like my avatar (yellow hoses and all). I love this regulator.

I just wanted to clarify this to everyone.

John

[antique diver]

Wore me out just thinking about a hike with doubles.

What is a Mossback Mark 3? Photo please.

[surflung]

Thanks for your excellent and very detailed Dive Report. When things happen unexpectedly, I've found that can mean something good as well as something bad. I have that set of Twin 48s that are quite a bit heavier than my Twin 38s and it seems like whenever I dive with them it's 50/50... One dive they will feel sleek and effortless and the next dive they feel cumbersome and cluttered.

Other times a seemingly small change in plans can screw things up. The last trip to Fortune Pond, we got there after 8 hours driving and were in a hurry to go diving. It was hotter than heck suiting up in the Sun and I skipped putting my contact lenses on and wore my prescription mask instead. Sure enough that darned masked was leaking and I couldn't get it to stop. Breath in through the mouth and breath out through the nose to clear the water. Add to this I was feeling a little dizzy either from the heat and the long drive, or from some pain meds due to recent oral surgery. ANYWAY, the dive was not going well and I just figured "the heck with this" and quit.

On the other hand, sometimes things don't seem to be going well and I've been tempted to quit but proceeding cautiously ended up making for a very positive experience. One late Fall trip to Fortune, my buddy had to leave unexpectedly and I was left all alone. The weather was cold and drizzly but the Fall colors were brilliant. So, I waited around and sure enough it stopped drizzling and SNOW began to fall! (So at least it wasn't raining)

Well, I pointed the 4Runner into the wind and turned on my buddy heater and darned if the back of the car didn't get down right cozy. I suited up and went in for a dive... being a little scared not to have a buddy at least in the vicinity, I was overly cautious, proceeded slowly, etc. And I really had a great time... Did two dives with the snow flurrying around me. Went out to dinner that night by myself. Had a great breakfast in the morning and then drove home.

Hmmm... You talk about getting old... I'm running off at the keyboard. Sorry about that. Thanks again for your dive report. I always am in wonder about your dives in the Clackamas river!

[SeaRat]

Well, my diving took a turn last Sunday evening when I bit down on a potsticker and fractured my front tooth. I have since that time seen a dentist and an orthodontist, and that poor tooth will have to be pulled. That means an exntensive time period of recovery for the tooth, and eventually an implant for my front tooth. This tooth has a history too, from Vietnam. Here's an entry into my memoir about that event:

It was about a week before I was to return to the States, around the first part of June, 1971. I was on alert, and needed to go to the Ops Center in the hanger next door. I went down the stairs of the PJ shack, and turned right going out the door. This area was actually a taxiway, where the helicopters could taxi into and out of the revetments which housed and protected them. As I walked, two F-4 Phantoms started their takeoff roll down the runway, just a few hundred yards from where I was walking. The noise was deafening, so I reached to the ear plugs secured in their plastic container on my belt.
I was still walking, looking down at the ear plug container which had a screw-on lid attached to my belt by a chain, when suddenly my leg hit something, then my arm and my head. I looked up at the tire and fender of a red fire truck. My front tooth was pulverized, and my left knee and left elbow ached. What happened, my mind asked? I was walking near the building, where trucks did not go!

The fireman got out of the truck, obviously shook up and scared. I was a PJ, and he had just hit me with his truck while making a turn, and looking in the opposite direction for other vehicles. He did not see me, nor I him. I think he thought I was going to pulverize him. But my main concern was that I had to go get my tooth fixed, and I was on alert. I told the fireman to stay there, and went back inside to tell people I was off alert and needed to go to the hospital to get my tooth fixed. When they asked why, I had to tell them that I had been hit by a fire truck. Roy Taylor broke up, and yelled, "Ratliff's been hit by a fire truck!" to anyone who would listen. I didn't find it particularly funny, but wasn't in the mood to say much.

I went to the base hospital dentist, and he looked in my mouth. He asked what happened, and I said I was hit by a truck. I really did not want to admit that it was a fire truck, as they are rather hard to miss. But the dentist said, "Don't tell me, it was a red truck." There were still bits of red paint on my front tooth.
He fixed my tooth with a temporary silver crown, and sent my on my way. I would wear that silver front tooth for several months, until I got out of the service and back to Corvallis, where a private dentist put a white, tooth-looking, cap on it.

That was my only war wound. Later, in a written e-mail to a student studying Vietnam, I would write that it was hard for some of us to admit that we were not ground-pounding soldiers who fought hand-to-hand with the enemy, and that my only war wound was my broken tooth. I told her that the incident bruised my elbow, knee and ego, and broke my front tooth. I also joked that I should have received a Purple Heart, as the Fire Department was obviously the enemy.

Well, the fire department obviously wasn't "the enemy," and I never received a purple heart for my "war wound," but I did come home with a silver front tooth. That was the military's parting gift, a silver crown. I family dentist in Corvallis replaced it in the summer of 1971 with a regular crown, which was tooth colored, so I wouldn't look too funny.

Now, that was the tooth that I fractured, so I will loose that crown to, eventually, an implant. But in the meantime, I'll have tooth fitted between the two front teeth, that I'll have to remove when eating. But eating will be much better than it is now (any movement of that tooth, hurts). So diving is on a back burner now until that area is stabilized, probably in about a month.

Now, Antique Diver, you asked about a Mossback Mark 3 regulator. This is my DA Aquamaster with an entirely new, balanced first stage, with 3 LP and 1 HP outlets. Here are a few photos of it:

DSC00286 by John Ratliff, on Flickr

This is the first stage by Michael Story. He had envisioned an entirely new regulator, based upon his Mossback Mark 3, but a competitor with the Kraken. Here's another photo of the Mossback Mark 3.

IMG_2495 by John Ratliff, on Flickr

Anyway, I'm hoping to dive in about a month.

John