Chanb77's Weblog

Sunday, January 20th, 2014 ~

Happy New Year! Ok, we were a little late in getting back into the water, after Mexico. How could we not be? Going from the 77F cave water, and coming back to the frozen stuff?

Oren came for a dive, so he convinced us. Otherwise, we may have been content with sitting on the couch, watching our videos, from the Mexico cavezzz…

As we got changed in the cabin, I noticed that I had grabbed my 6mm Santi hood, instead of my 9/7mm Santi hood. That was definitely not going to be warm enough. Thank goodness, Steve had his spare WP hood with him, so I could use that one. It was too big on me, and I had quite a bit of space at the front, between my head and the front of the hood – Oh, well… I can’t be fussy, today. It seems that I had also taken my glove liners off of the wall, but failed to put them in my gear bag. Sheesh… It’s just not my day, is it? Thankfully, Oren had a spare set, and we were dressed for Ice Diving Goodness. We also brought the “new” camera, to try out the strobes, for the second time.

Steve ducked under, first. Oren followed, and then me… ACK! H-H-H-H-HOLY SHEEEEEET! That was some exceptionally cold water, flooding into the hood. I had never had that feeling before, and it literally took my breath away. I kept wanting to breathe through my nose (duhhh), and was very uncomfortable. The long neck on the hood was also restricting me from turning my head, and I really didn’t like it. Of all of the years that I have been diving (including my years of ice diving), this is the most uncomfortable that I have ever been. I did NOT want to be under the ice, feeling like this.

I hovered in the opening for a little while, to see if the feeling would dissipate. I signaled to Steve, to let him know that I was “so-so,” and that I wanted to “hold,” for a minute. He took a few pictures, and as he did that, my head got used to the shocking cold, and I was fine. *Phew* What an odd feeling! Mark my words, I will never allow myself to forget my own hood, again! At least… I’ll try not to. 😉

Steve kept the camera for a little while, so I picked up the reel, and ran it to a semi-permanent line, that someone else had run, this year.

We swam over to the plane, and noticed that the toy box had been moved, and there were toys strewn all over the place. Of course, we had to pick them up, and put them away.

Then, Steve handed me the camera.

Oren…

Steve…

Me, flying with the plane (by Steve)…

Oh, look! It seems that my selfies are contagious! 😀

Me, at the controls…

Steve, playing piano (I had no idea that he could play) 😉 …

We then made our way back to the shallows for a few pics.

Bottom Time: 38 mins. (that was a short one!)
Max. Depth: 26′
Water Temp.: 37F

The pics didn’t turn out as nicely as we had hoped, but there is definitely a learning curve to this camera/strobe combination thing.

Since we hadn’t seen Oren in a while, we had to celebrate with some poutine, from Jean Burger.

*Note To Self* Your (warm) hood is extremely important, and you should never forget to bring it. 37F water flooding like a water fall, into the top of your hood is morbidly uncomfortable, and not something that I recommend to anyone… 😀

Oren, I am also sorry for soaking your glove liner. 😀

Some theme music, for me to remember my warm hood…