Take Me To The River! :D

20 04 2008

Saturday, April 19th, 2008 ~

We went to pick up Woofybeotch at his new house, and we headed to the river! Little did he know that there was a surprise birthday party being held for him, when we got back. Steve and I were his decoys, to get him to the party! We met Kevin and Jeremy down at Centeen Park, for some diving fun! The air temperature was an amazing 25 degrees, and the sun was shining!

Kevin and JJ brought their scooters, so they took off to the wreck. Leigh was having a few issues with his hands, so we just tooled around Centeen Park, doing skills and just enjoying the river. The current wasn’t very strong at all, but the vis wasn’t that great. Steve passed a stage bottle back and forth with me, and I was a backfinnin’ fool.

Bottom Time ~ 50 minutes
Max. Depth ~ 34′
Water Temp. ~ 41
Vis. ~ A bit stinky ~ 15′
Air Temp. ~ 25

We found a bike in the water, just off the side of the entrance, and Steve attempted to ride it under water… nope… didn’t work so well… Soooo… with some coaxing of a few local kids on the beach, he decided to ride the bike down the hill, and into the water…

Now… we just had to film this for the next video, so his stunt had to be repeated a few times…

A mink that ran by us…

Passing ship…

The boys…

Steve and I…

Ok.. back to Ottawa, where we had to actually find the pub that we were to bring Leigh to… The Heart and the Crown. We showed up exactly on time (which can sometimes be a challenge for us…Lol…), to greet the “SURPRISE!!!” Leigh did have some clue, as we never want to get back to Ottawa right after diving…. but he was very happy with the party! We had a fantastic night with close to 30 people, had some appetizers, cocktails (er.. there is no such thing as headache-free beer, Leigh), then off to an Italian place for Gelatos and dessert! When we came back past the bar, we were stopped by some interesting ladies, wanting to know what the “We Go Down” shirts meant… I won’t even go into that story, but it was a little bit of a movie scene… Steve and I dropped Leigh back at his place, where we still had to unload his gear…

This about sums it up!

Sunday, April 20th, 2008 ~

Steve and I headed to the quarry for skillz. We didn’t bother even trying to call Leigh. We dropped down, did our valve drills, S Drills, then headed down to the sub for an ascent from 50′, making stops every 10 feet. When we surfaced, we discussed my bag blowing skills, which need more practice it seems. I haven’t done them all winter… We did a timed descent back down, that went extremely well, then another ascent that also went well. We went back down to the plane, passed a stage bottle, then headed back in (Steve had a glove leak). The vis was absolutely stunning!!!

Bottom Time ~ 40 minutes
Max. Depth ~ 53′
Water Temp. ~ 42
Vis. ~ Unbefreakin’lievable
Air Temp. ~ 25

Here’s an example of how incredible the vis was, from topside…

Here’s a shot of the plane, at approximately 23’…