What NOT to do

Time for another one of my screw ups for the community to ridicule me about.  This time I was doing a rather simple, easy, quick, and very familiar dive in Ginnie.  My buddy and I were going to check out Double Domes with our DPVs.  Everything went along smoothly and I was leading the way.  On our last little push to the EOL, the water began to get a little bit tannic and I got myself closer to the line to be able to keep it in sight.  The water got progressively darker and it was beginning to be extremely difficult to see the line.  I decided that I was going too fast for the existing conditions, and like the genius that I am, I let off the trigger.

You might think that this would solve the problem and I could take the time to sort out things without further issue.  You would be mistaken!  As it turns out, I was not staying vigilante with my buoyancy during the slow ascent following the line, and thus had become a tad bit too positive.  When I let off the trigger, I instantly floated up about 2 inches and this was enough to make the line magically disappear into the surrounding twilight.  I tried to slowly vent my wing so that I would not crash down on the line before I was able to actually see it and ended up pinned to the ceiling before it was accomplished.  I did manage to lower myself and find the line and then just took a chance on which direction to exit.

It sure was a nice feeling when I was finally able to see the flicker of my buddies light after just a couple of fin kicks to know I was really exiting.  She stopped before the tannic and said I disappeared instantly when I hit it.  

Lesson learned – Tannic water is really really dark stuff.