Thursday, June 20th, 2013 ~
Christian and I met up for some more skillz!
Not much to say, really… We did valve drills, went down near the sub, did an ascent, back to the plane, and we called it a night!
Bottom Time: 51 mins.
Max. Depth: 52′
Water Temp.: 51F
Vis.: Great!
Friday, June 14th, 2013 ~
Time for some skillz! Steve and I went to the quarry, where we were working on bottle rotations… hooray!
For the longest time, Steve has been pointing out how high my tanks sit on my back, even though the bands are as high as they can go, and we had already tried readjusting my harness… which we did again, tonight (at the end of the dive – a few times). I wasn’t quite balanced during the rotations, so we were trying to give me a bit more of a chance, and not have to work as much. By the end of the dive, my rotations were a bit smoother than when we started. *Phew* 🙂
Happy, “Going Diving” smile!Taken by Christian Laf…
Steve, giving a hand…
Taken by Christian Laf.
The harness adjustment did also seem to help. *Clap clap*
Another one, taken by Christian Laf…
I guess there really isn’t too much else to say, since we stayed in 14′ of water, playing with bottles.. back and forth, back and forth…
*Unclip, unclip, swing, unclip, clip, unclip, swing back, clip, clip, clip… Phew* It was good to do some practicing!
Bottom Time: 51 minutes
Max. Depth: 14′
Water Temp.: 53F
Christian, Fred, and Yiannis also came out to join in on the evening goodness!
Thanks to Christian, for the photos! I can’t believe that I didn’t even take one!
Me, taken by Christian Laf…
Sunday, June 9th, 2013 ~
Today was the final day of North America’s first GUE Fundamentals course, in French.. or… En Français!
I decided to join in on the last day, and take some photos. They had planned on two dives, which gave me plenty of time to play with the camera. Descent drill, fin kicks, s-drills, valve drills, blowing a bag, an ascent drill, followed by doing the rescue techniques. Then… “The Final Dive!”
Skillz…
After the ascent…
The first of the two dives went well, as did the Rescue portion of the dive. Steve was demonstrating, with Eric V. as his “victim!”
Bottom Time: 38 mins.
Max. Depth: 30′
Water Temp.: 51FVis.: 30′
Then it was time for the FINAL DIVE! The guys worked really hard, and went through all of their skillz ‘n’ drillz for the final dive, before the exam.
Bottom Time: 34 mins.
Max. Depth: 28′
Water Temp.: 51FVis.: 30′
Group shot!
Félicitations, Christian et Stéphane!!!
Diving is serious business, you know. It’s not.. Mickey Mouse! 😛
Friday, May 31st, 2013 ~
After picking up one of my bestest buddies from the airport the previous night, I brought Karen to work with me, on Friday. It became, “Bring Your Dive Buddy To Work Day!” We were able to leave a little early, and we made our way up to the quarry, to mess around a little, and do some skills. Christian met us up there, too!
Our dive plan was to do a few skills around the plane, drop down to the sub for an ascent, then mess around at the plane again. I did have my camera with me, but put it down for skillz.
We then went down to the sub, where we very quickly noticed one of the thermoclines. *Shiver!* We stuck around there for a bit, then practiced an ascent from 50′. Coming back up through the warmer water was a very welcome thing!
I did take some pictures, too!
Karen… I guess she’s moderately squared away… 😀
Christian is OK!
On our way back in…
….of course, we had to goof around, just a little…
When we surfaced, the sun had begun its descent…
Bottom Time: 42 mins.
Max. Depth: 56′
Water Temp.: 46F (below first thermocline)
Visibility: A little bit crappy
Group shot!
Karen and I headed back, and readied our gear for the weekend!
Saturday, June 1st, 2013 ~
We had loaded the van on Friday night, so we were ready to roll, around 7am, to head down to Mallorytown Landing. We were hitching a ride with Rick Lymer, to the Daryaw!
Joining us, were Lisa, Karen 2, Donna, Hong, Ivor, and Shawn.
The Landing…
When we got to the Daryaw, there was a small boat passing. We waved…
Karen and I splashed in. The surface current wasn’t too bad, but we had drifted a bit, doing our gear checks. We had scooters with us, so we weren’t really concerned. As we descended, we were a slight bit downstream of the wreck, so we made our way over to it. We did a full turn of the wreck, then underneath, where we tied off our scooters and stages, then ran a line inside. We peeked into a few rooms, where there was absolutely no shortage of freshwater eels. A few of them were poking out of their holes. We turned around, made our way out, then checked out one of the holds. We wanted to do a little more looking around, but were getting close to the end of our planned dive time. Very much fun!
On our way out, we did our gas switch, then drifted off. We didn’t follow the line up, so I blew a bag, and we ascended. What a blast!
Bottom Time: 1 hour, 4 minutes
Max. Depth: 93′
Water Temp.: 53F
Visibility: 30′ (a bit milky)
Current: Not as strong as usual, for the Daryaw; low surface current
Karen C., checking out the River!
After we were all on board, we headed over to the Lillie. Some did a drift, some.. well… a few missed the current, but still had a good dive! Karen and I chilled on the boat, and helped the others with their gear.
Shawn and Ivor had a good drift!
Rock on, Hong!
Karen H. got photobombed!
Donna had fun, too!
Lisa “forced” me to taste that Vanilla Coke… For someone that doesn’t drink pop often, I was quite liking it!
Lisa, with Mike and Rick, up top!
The gang, minus me! There did seem to be quite a few “Karens,” on the boat. What a fun day! Boston Pizza was our dinner menu!
Sunday, June 2nd, 2013 ~
Today, to the Jodrey!
First, to customs – Leaving Boldt Castle…
There were only four of us, and we had the wreck to ourselves. The visibility was not the best, but at least we could see more than 5′ in front of us. As we descended onto the wreck, there was absolutely no ambient light, thanks to the clouds and to the thunderstorm that hit, earlier that morning. At least the storm had stopped, by the time we were loading gear.
Karen and I did a tour of the bow, peeked in the wheelhouse, and a bit of the crane. There was hardly any current at all, which was very surprising. We were even able to hover on the port side of the wheelhouse, which is usually a place where the current wants to push you up and over the wreck! Craziness! It was pretty cool to show it to Karen, though!
Myself and Karen, on deco. Taken by Kevin Abe.
Bottom Time: 55 mins.
Max. Depth: 175′
Water Temp.: 55F
Neil, chillin’. Is that a Sears catalog pose? 😛
“The Abe,” hangin’ on the bow…
Karen and I, after most awesome Diving Goodness!!!!!!!
Once we got back to Caiger’s, cleared customs, and unloaded, we went to the Family Restaurant, for a delicious meal! Lisa, Karen H., Donna, and Merv joined us too, since their charter was back around the same time as ours.
It was most awesome to have one of my AGGAST sistas visiting, and to meet some really fun and good people! *Cheers,* to next time! 🙂
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