Another Day At Mo’s Quarry – Camera Day!

29 09 2013

Saturday, September 28th, 2013 ~

We met David J. at the quarry, with Hugh, so that Dave could do his Fundies Rec to Tech upgrade, which went really well! We also did some rescues, which were a lot of fun.

Congratulations, Dave! You have worked very hard, and come a long way! w00t! *Clap Clap*

First Dive
Bottom Time: 51 mins.
Max. Depth: 58′
Water Temp.: 55F (below thermocline)

Second Dive (Rescues)
Bottom Time: 20 mins.
Max. Depth: 13′
Water Temp.: 64F

Steve and I had a little snack, then got back in. We recently upgraded our camera system from Tom W.’s old backup system, to the system that he had upgraded to, when he sold me his old one. We now have both generations of Tom Wilson cameras. Thank you, Tom! If I can only shoot half as decent as Tom, I will be a happy camper. This would be my first time ever using strobes, so it is a totally different ball of wax, for me! Shooting with ambient light, for the last 5 years (wow… I can’t believe it has been almost 5 years, since purchasing the Nikon D100), and switching to the Nikon D200, with…. STROBES, is going to be just a little bit different!

We got in on the far side, and we each took a couple of shots.

Me…

Steve…

We swam across the quarry, towards the plane, where we kicked on the strobes. We each took a few shots, that didn’t exactly turn out very well. We will need to work on positioning the strobes, and getting them to a good place, using a wide angle lens.

One, that turned out, of Steve…

I notice that in the above picture, my habit of using ambient light is still there. 😛

Me, in front of the boat…

Steve, in mid-water, as we made our way down to the sub…

Time to play…

I spy a Steve, hiding in the Shark Sub’s mouth!

Then, it was my turn!

Out, I come!

w00t!

We made our way back up the wall.

In this pic, it looks like I am about to do a somersault. I have no idea what I was doing, here…

Steve…

Bottom Time: 35 mins.
Max. Depth: 61′
Water Temp.: 55F

Well, there is a wide margin of improvement to be made, with regards to the camera settings, and I am really looking forward to some fun winter shots, this year!


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Anchor’s Away!

16 09 2013

Sunday, September 15th, 2013 ~

Well, since we never go to Centeen Park (a little bit of sarcasm, there), we decided to go for another scooter/drift dive, entering at the park. Frankie was down for the day, and Eric B. joined us, too.

We hit the triggers upstream for a bit, then dropped into the channel. We headed up the embankment on the other side, and started to drift. We found a lot of wreckage along the way, some cool bottles, and a lot of things that we had not seen before. We then came upon a very large anchor, that Steve had seen before. This thing was absolutely massive. The chain links were bigger than Steve’s hand. The current is a little strong in this area, so we didn’t stay long, but it was a really neat thing to see. I hope we can find this one again!

Apart from that, we did have quite a few laughs, made our way back up, did a little deco, then headed back in! Just another day in the Riva!

Bottom Time: 2 hours, 6 mins.
Max. Depth: 108′
Water Temp.: 68F


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Bath Time!

9 09 2013

Sunday, September 8th, 2013 ~

Since the guys ditched me on yesterday’s dive, I met up with Jen, and we headed towards Kingston, where we caught the tail end of the Santi Demo Day, before heading a little further west, to DIVE!

We had never been to this site before, and we knew that it was going to be a shallow dive, but we wanted to check it out.

Entry…

We did our gear checks, and descended… well, swam down through a jungle of weeds, in about 5′ of water, and about 5′ of visibility. Did I mention that there were weeds? Perhaps it was the west end’s version of a kelp forest, without the little gaps to swim through. What seemed like an eternity of swimming through this vast lake jungle, and low visibility, we finally reached open water. Yahooooo! With this open water, came even worse visibility, so we finally decided to turn back. I don’t mind low vis., but this went to about 2″, and nothing but jello-like silt… besides the iced tea drink pouch and a piece of tree.

We swam back for a while, then decided to blow a bag, and surface swim… only because we didn’t feel like navigating the jungle, again. Up went the bag, followed by us. When we reached the surface, we noticed how far we had gone. We were way past the far marker buoy, that you can see in the above photo. Ah, well… It was a beautiful day, and we did have quite a few laughs, as we made our way in. We did happen to see a bass, and what we thought were a bunch of little gobies (through the murkiness).

Bottom Time: 47 mins.
Max. Depth: 28′
Water Temp.: 68F/71F
Vis.: What vis.?
Fun Factor, Anyway: High

We wanted to get a selfie, with the water in the background, so we kneeled down…

How low can you go?

….and we got a water shot!

 

I think we will need to return later in the fall, when the weeds die off! The visibility will more than likely be better, and we won’t have to swim through a wall of jungle!

 

 


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Santi Demo Day – Morrison’s Quarry!

7 09 2013

Saturday, September 7th, 2013 ~

Today, we had Michael Gerhartz (Santi Canada) and Harvey Morash come to town, to show off some Santi Goodness!

The day was pretty grey, and there were bits of rain as the day went on, but we soldiered on!

Michael, in the tent, as we were setting up…

Steve, in his new Santi jacket!

Harvey and Steve…

Shawn and Michael…

Adam, modeling the BZ400x…

…and the E.Lite (Nice fit!)…

Going to go and try it out!

Adrian, trying on an E.Motion (all the while, I am plotting to own that red hoodie, in the background)…

Of course, I was keeping warm with a Santi vest!

Then, Adam tried the E.Motion…

Mat, sporting an E.Motion, too!

It will be Elwira’s turn for a drysuit, next year!

Lights out!

Harvey, gearing up…

Michael, gearing up…

Yes… The fellas all ditched me, and went for a splash. *Sniff* I even supplied the Maple Cookies and chocolate, and they still went diving without me!

I guess someone had to guard the fort. 😉

Steve, ready to go!

Amusing myself, while the guys went for a dive, and keeping warm in my BZ400 Santi Panties!

While the weather only half cooperated, we still did have a few people come and try on suits, and see what Santi was all about!

Thanks for coming, Michael and Harvey!

Below photo by Adam Kulczycki


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Weekend Of Skillz – Day 3 – Scooter Time!

3 09 2013

Monday, September 2nd, 2013 ~

Ok… We just cannot have a weekend of skills diving, without including one fun Diving Goodness day! We packed up and headed to the River!

The van was a little loaded. What you don’t see are two sets of 130s, an RB80, and a few stage bottles.

Eric, with his bed and pillow in a bag!

Dave was wearing his Scuba Steve shirt!

When we arrived, there was a little boat going by. The folks moored up to the Gaskin are in for a bit of an earth-shaking!

 

Dave and I, before the dive!

Our plan was to go upstream for about 40 minutes, drop into the channel, drift, then come back up to the Gaskin, before making our way back in. We had seen some neat things on our last dive out there, and wanted to try to find them again.

So… we did just that! We dropped into the channel, and it was drift time! We found an old wine bottle, a motor, tea cup, metal disc, and Eric and I saw a long, round, painted yellow piece of metal, that was very heavy. We had no idea what it was.

This is one of my favourite dives, and you just never know what you will see on each one. We do leave out of the same place, but every dive is different, depending on how long we go upstream, and where in the channel we start to drift. I don’t think I could ever get sick of this one!

As we neared the bow of the Gaskin, Eric signaled me. I turned to see that his right post was free flowing, and I went to have a look. It appeared to be non-fixable (after two attempts to repair it), so I shut it down. Eric was still on a stage, and we had plenty of gas. No playing on the Gaskin, today! Time to go, and out came the thumb. I guess we did skillz, anyway!

In the shallows, we did a little deco, then in!

Bottom Time: 2 hours, 12 mins.
Max. Depth: 109′
Water Temp.: 73F

More cheese!

Julie, Steph, Carm, and I!

We packed up, then went to the Barley Mow, for some dinner! In the parking lot, we saw a very noteworthy license plate…

It was a great way to spend the long weekend! Diving Goodness and friends! w00t!

 


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