Rawlings (again) Memorial day weekend

I was back again at Rawlings for the second weekend in a row for some good diving. Even though we could only dive for two days (Saturday and Monday), since Rich and Christie had to be back in Northern Virginia on Sunday, we got some good dives in. I personally got 5 dives in with a total of 258 minutes (4.3 hrs) of bottom time. I also managed to break my bottom time record twice (60 minutes and 70 minutes). In the 70 minute dive Christie, Rich, and myself dived around the entire lake.

Also a first ever was to touch the deepest part of the lake (68ft / 20.7m), which I have not been able to locate until this trip. When all three of us saw the dip at the bottom we all raced to the bottom to put our computers as deep as we can in the mud to see who recorded the deepest. It was like a shark frenzy with all the silt everywhere to the point we could not see half an inch in front of us, but it was worth it. I still have not beaten my depth record of 90ft / 27.4m (I need to start diving in the ocean).

Another positive thing is that my last dive on this trip was my 13th dive so far in the year, my 14th dry suit dive, and my Surface Air Consumption (SAC) rate keeps going down steadily. The first dive of this year and also the first dive with my dry suit started with a SAC rate of 0.85 cu.ft per minute and steadily been dropping it down to 0.78, 0.74 ... 0.68, 0.67, 0.066 ... 0.58. Hopefully I can keep up this pattern and drop my rate even further. I'm sure the new gear configuration (back-plate, new hoses, and new fins) helped in addition to getting more experience diving with a dry suit.