Today was Filip and my first foray into mapping an underwater feature.  Sami mercifully (and smartly) gave us a giant triangular metal feature to map, tucked at one end of the baseline.  It’s a relatively simple shape, and a very good starting feature for us.

Once under the surface, the first thing I noticed was how much longer this was going to take me on a rebreather versus open circuit.  On open circuit, you can twist and turn at will and reach into hard-to get places, and control your buoyancy using only your breath.  On rebreather, your movements are more restricted, it’s not a good idea to invert yourself or swim upside-down, and your buoyancy is controlled via a series of calculated gas additions and subtractions from your drysuit and breathing loop.  All is to say that I only narrowly avoided taking the baseline out with my bailout bottle, not once but several times.

While we were mapping our results, Filip showed Joe Hoyt, the 2004 North American Scholar, how he usually extended his Rolex to fit over his drysuit.  “Do all Rolexes have that extender?”  Joe asked.  “I think so,” Filip replied.  “Well I’ll be,” said Joe as he unfolded his wrist extension on his Rolex for the first time.  It was encrusted with years and years of grime.  We take our legacy very seriously, folks…even after the scholarship is over, the watch rarely leaves our wrists.  This picture shows Joe’s dedication to diving with his Rolex — it also shows how badly he needs to send it in for cleaning.