Testing The Water

15 09 2014

Sunday, September 14th, 2014 ~

Well, I wasn’t sure if I should have gotten in the water today, but… well, I figured I would give it a try. I had had a small surgery, six days prior, and the doctor told me that I should probably stay dry for a couple of weeks. I did explain that we used drysuits, and if we could help it, stayed dry. She was a little “iffy,” but told me to play it by ear… so I did!

The surgery was just off of my shoulder, so I wasn’t sure how the harness would feel, as well as any drysuit squeeze. Steve was teaching a DPV class, so I came along… and brought my camera!

Luckily, I could just hover a bit, while everyone was doing their skill requirements.

We eventually hit the triggers, and headed over to the Gaskin.

We didn’t stay very long, though. I was hoping to take a Project Baseline shot, but there were skillz to be done! 😛

I didn’t feel any discomfort in my arm (it was the left one, so not my primary scooter arm), which was excellent!

Back to the shallows, for SMB deployments, OOG towing, and ascents. Great work, team!!

Small pieces of wreckage, along the skills path…

Great team work!

We have been noticing an extraordinary number of dead eels, this year. It is not normal, and we are starting to help monitor this situation…

Ahhhh… I was so happy, to be in the water! I did catch Steve, in the background, dumping the gas out of his suit, on our ascent!

Ascent selfie!

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 38 mins.
Max. Depth: 55′
Water Temp.: 68F
Vis.: Not fantastic (camera makes it look better than it is)

 

Way to go, guys ‘n’ gal!

 


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Outbound To The ECH

2 09 2014

Sunday, August 31st, 2014 ~

Chrysler Park Marina was the meeting spot, today.  Myself, Steve, Eric B., and Oren planned to scooter out to the wreck of the Eastcliffe Hall.

I had lubed up my TiZip, and jumped in the water, to make sure I was leak-proof… Yep. All sealed up!

The entry was a bit rocky, so we formed an assembly line, to put our gear in the water.

Eric was showing off his Healthy Seas socks (socks made from recycled fishing net)!

>>Check out Healthy Seas<<

Our turbos…

As we started out, we surface scootered for part of the way, to avoid the weeds. It wasn’t a very nice day, so there weren’t any boats around. We descended, and the visibility was not as horrific as the last time we made this run out to the wreck. You could barely see your hand on your scooter handle, and that is not an exaggeration! It was a little bit better than that, and improved even more, as we got a bit of depth, away from the marina.

We then took a compass bearing, and zig-zagged until we saw some debris, which brought us to the wreck. Success!

Only 35 minutes, from the corner – which is great timing. It has taken us an hour to get to the wreck, on an occasion, or two.

We checked out various parts of the wreck, and when the first person called a stage switch, I was very surprised at how much gas I still had in my stage bottle. I had been monitoring my gas, but didn’t realize how little I had been using – Yay, gym! I am happily making some progress! w00t w00t!

We made our way inside of a section, where we saw the tail end of an extremely large eel. As we got closer to him, he tried to sneak under part of the wreck structure, so we didn’t see him. We swam by him, but didn’t dare bother him. That was one very big eel – I would say he was at least a meter long. We have seen a few large eels on this wreck, in the past!

Time to drift off, and look for cool stuff! We did that for a while, then made our way back in. Right on target!

What a fun dive!

Bottom Time: 2 hours, 14 mins>
Max. Depth: 72′
Water Temp.: 69F

Due to the raging current, we didn’t bring a camera with us, on this dive. Only surface pics. 🙂

Such a fun dive, and we were changed and packed, just before the storm of impending doom came in!

The sky was pretty… just before the sky went black, and I was white-knuckling it, on the drive home!

Thanks for the great dive, friends!

 


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Shorty Skillz Dive

31 08 2014

Saturday, August 30th, 2014 ~

Jen B. came and met me at Centeen, for a skillz dive!

I stayed in my drysuit, from the previous dive, and we got our gear together. I had had a bit of a flood, but I’m pretty sure it’s because I was due to lube my TiZip!

We dropped into the basin, worked on finning techniques, valve drills, s-drills, smb drills, and played around the big log.

We took our time, coming up the wall, and back in.

Since we were doing skills, I left the camera behind. We did still have fun, and it was nice to enjoy the warm water!

Bottom Time: 47 mins.
Max. Depth: 26′
Water Temp.: 69F

Photo by Matt LJ Charlesworth…


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Bryan and the Quarry Shark!

24 08 2014

Saturday, August 23rd, 2014 ~

Bryan and I went up to the quarry, to work on valve drills! There were a lot of people there, so we didn’t have a lot of real estate, to practice in. I brought my camera, to take a few shots, too.

We geared up, and swam over to the plane. Bryan could hardly make it out, due to the foggy visibility, and people everywhere. Instead of taking pics there, we made our way over to Morrie The Shark, to get a bit of photographic evidence.

Bryan comes face to face, with Morrie, the Quarry Shark!

Morrie just wanted a little sniff…

…and now, they are friends…

 

From there, we moved to the shallows, to find a good place for valve drills. We did find a spot, in about 6′ of water, that would do just fine. I put my camera down, demonstrated first, and then Bryan got a turn. Well done, Bryan!

Bottom Time: 40 mins.
Max. Depth: 31′
Water Temp.: 66FVis.: Horrible

The camera does make the visibility appear to be much better than it was. It was pretty good in the 6′ area, that we were doing valve drills in, but otherwise, it was “pants.”
(Thanks to my British friends, for that term)

I handed my camera over to Bryan, who took a pic of me, too…

Thanks for the dive, Bryan! Let’s get back out there, soon!


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More Diving!

4 08 2014

Sunday, August 3rd, 2014 ~

Steve, Jen, Warren, Mike, and I met at the park, to go for a scooter run!

We scootered out to the park bench, dropped down, before the channel, continued upstream, and came to the Unknown Hull. We puttered around for a little bit, then kept going upstream, until we came to one of the horse carriages. This one does not have horse bones, but there is another one that does, including a horse skull.

We dropped into the channel, for a drift! There were bottles absolutely everywhere! We found a bottle mine! 🙂

Back up to the Gaskin, we went, toured around a little, then back in, for some deco.

Bottom Time: 2 hours
Max. Depth: 106′
Water Temp.: 68F

After-dive chatting…

Group shot, with Jane!

Group shot, with me!

As we were milling around, we saw Chris McMullen, John Bailey, and Leszek, coming in from their dive!

We went for a post-dive meal, then Steve and I made the drive back to Ottawa. Another great day, on and in the Riva!

 


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