Skillz…

30 06 2011

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011 ~

Four of us went up to the quarry for some skillz ‘n’ drillz. Steve and I partnered up, as did Mike and Michel. We stayed all together, but in two groups of two.

This was my first time back in the water, since my crappy dive, and I was looking forward to straightening myself out.

We did our checks, then swam out to the sub for an ascent. Ahh… that felt good. Back up for some valve drills, S drills, and even an inflator drill.

It felt really good to be back in form, and to have a great dive. I needed that. 🙂

Bottom Time ~ 63 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 50′
Water Temp. ~ 55F
Vis. ~ 35′

Zora, requesting that I please not stop giving her scratches…

M ‘n’ M, taken with my Intergalactic iPhone…


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Hola Amigos!

7 06 2011

Monday, May 30th, 2011 ~

Yippee! Fred and Angelica were in town! We decided to head to a Vietnamese restaurant for some delicious cuisine and some great chats. We ended up talking for quite a while, and with the restaurant’s closing time at 9pm, we  realized we were a little over our time. Time to go back to our casa for a tour, a beverage, and some more hang time. 🙂 

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2011 ~

We were a little behind schedule, thanks to some gnarly construction on the 416, but we were on our way to Centeen, where we were meeting Mike, Michel, and our special guest star, Fred! When we finally got there, we put our gear together for some Diving Goodness!

Fred, in the background, putting his fins together…

It was nearing dusk as we got into the water, which we knew was going to turn into a night dive. Sweet!

Gear checks, dive plan, and away we went. We hit the trigger, heading upstream, then dropped into the channel at the park bench. The visibility was pretty stinky on the way out, but it did get better as we hit the channel, apart from the darkness. 

Our plan was to bring us back to the Gaskin, where we did a couple of passes over and through, before heading back in. It had been a while since Steve and I had done a night dive here, and everything did look so different. Especially not being able to see farther than your light would shine. It was alot of fun! Fred even stayed warm in our “frigid” waters! 😛

 Bottom Time ~ 78 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 94′
Water Temp. ~ 55F
Vis. ~ Stinky, until we got a bit deeper into the channel

After the dive – Michel, Fred, Steve, Mike…

After we packed up, we had to do the Canadian thing, and hit Tim Horton’s. Fred went to pick up Angelica, and we met for something to eat. Before we knew it, it was 1 am on a “school night!” Time flies when you’re having fun. 🙂

Fred and Angelica.. Now THAT’S Canadian!

Fred, Me, Steve…

Sunday, June 5th, 2011 ~

I requested the day off of my Fundies Filming duties that I had been on on Saturday, and was able to join Fred and Jen for some more Goodness in the River, Sunday! We met at Jeff’s, and since there was a charter heading out to the Kinghorn, we were able to hop on it with our scooters, and scooter back in to shore. Angelica came with us on the boat too! We did our gear checks on the boat, as there is usually a nice surface current here. We jumped in, tied onto our “turbos,” and down we went. It has been a while since I have taken a boat here, but since it is high boating season, diving off of the dock is not permitted until the late fall. So, it was jump in off of the boat, and scooter back, getting back onto the boat as we get back in.

As we got to the wreck of the Kinghorn, we drifted along the top of the deck, to show Fred the wreck, then went for a tour inside, taking time to look at everything. We did another tour around the outside of the wreck, then came back around the starboard side, where we picked up the line, heading back. Along the way, we saw a few really large carp! I came upon a rather large crayfish, and played with him a little. As he scurried backwards, Fred got behind him. As he was going to greet him, I signaled to Fred to look behind him… An extremly large carp was sneaking around us. Jen also saw quite a few of her “little guys” along the way, and showed them to Fred.

Bottom Time ~ 48 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 91′
Water Temp. ~ 55F
Vis. ~ Not bad at all!

Jen, Fred, and I, taken by Angelica!

After packing up, the four of us went for a nice lunch at the Boathouse Restaurant, overlooking the water. It was really great to see Angelica and Fred, and also getting in some fun dives. Thank you, Fred and Angelica! See you soon!

Me, Angelica, and Jen, taken by Fred!

After lunch, Jen and I lingered for a little while, then went to top the day off with some dessert!

Cheers!


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Spring At The Quarry

3 05 2011

Saturday, April 30th, 2011 ~

Well, I’m not exactly sure how on earth I did it, but as I carried my scooter to the beach entry of the quarry, and walked back to the van, I noticed something glimmering out of the corner of my eye. The sun was causing a bit of a glare… from something sticking out of my pants. I looked down…

How on earth I didn’t feel that, I will never know. I am also quite thankful that it was my jeans, and not my drysuit!

Oren and Andy were visiting, and we even had a visit from Zi!

The quarry is wide open now!

Enjoying the sunshine…and Steve, checking for glove leaks…

Bottom Time ~ 33 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 44′
Water Temp. ~ 41F
Vis. ~ Nice!

Andy and I!

Group shot! Serge came out too!

 


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GUE Meet ‘N’ Greet!

29 04 2011

Friday, April 22nd, 2011 ~

We had a few people asking questions about GUE, so we decided to put together a Meet ‘N’ Greet at Morrison’s Quarry. It was Good Friday, so there were quite a few people at the quarry, but it wasn’t difficult to find a little spot to chat.

Eric came out (nice drysuit, Eric.. *giggle*) …

As did Jen (Mike was there too, but managed to mostly avoid the camera)… 🙂

…and Hugh…

…and Serge, who had brought out his vintage gear for the day…

There were alot of questions about GUE training, as well as how it would help each individual’s diving, and enhance the training they already had. There was Kool-Aid aplenty, and even some Easter eggs. 🙂

After helping Steve out, Eric and I went in for a dip with Serge, swimming out to the plane, then the boat, and back in. Since we weren’t actually using our scooters, I brought the camera along to take a few pictures.

Serge…

Eric…

Alot of fun in the water. 🙂

Bottom Time ~ 48 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 45′
Water Temp. ~ 41
Vis. ~ A bit hazy (although, the camera doesn’t show that)

Honourable mention goes to Lucy, for toughing it out in a wetsuit… :O

…and had a great get-up to keep warm with…

It was a great day, meeting some  new friends, and sharing information to some great people. We will definitely be organizing another one, in the future! Thanks for coming!


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Jacob Came To Town!

18 04 2011

Friday, April 8th, 2011 ~

Well.. I have to say that I had an interesting evening, while waiting for Jacob’s late flight to arrive. I was already at the airport when I got the news, so I decided to run a couple of errands, then come back. I went to pick up Jacob’s Suex, then set the GPS on “Find Food.” It said that there was some “fast food,” about 3.8 km from where I was. Yeah… that was also a wild goose chase!

I finally made my way back to the airport, about 2 1/2 hours later than I originally arrived, and was happy to get a call from Jacob, saying that he was in the building! W00t! Out he came, and we set sail for our place! The adventure begins!

Saturday, April 9th, 2011 ~

We set Jacob up with some tanks, and we headed out to the quarry, where we hoped there would still be some ice left for his first ice dive. When we arrived, we saw that there was still quite a bit of ice coverage, but the beach area had a nice, open entry point.

We decided to bring the scooters out to play, as we hadn’t used them all winter, and wanted to give them a go!

Jen, getting her gear together…

There was definitely a bit of “Tom-Foolery” going on, as we broke up some of the slushy stuff.

Diving is serious stuff, you know… 🙂

Jen, bringing her gear to the water…

We even had a supervisor…

We finally got geared up and into the water. Steve and I were taking Jacob on a tour of the quarry, showing him the sub, the car, some rocks, and even the shark. I was able to get some video, with my little Go Pro camera.

*Warning: F-Bomb in the video!*

Bottom Time ~ 42 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 104′ (Avg. 41′)
Water Temp. ~ 39F
Visibility ~ Really nice

Jacob seemed to really enjoy his dive, and we definitely did have alot of fun.

We even fed him some Kool Aid Jammers…

…and we made Jacob an honourary Canadian, by giving him a  Timmy’s Rrrrrrrrrrrrroll Up The Rim To Win coffee!

It was an excellent day of Diving Goodness, and we topped the evening off with some Vietnamese Cuisine!

Sunday, April 10th, 2011 ~

Since Jacob had already met the quarry, we decided to take him down to the St. Lawrence River. We had more friends join us, too!

It wasn’t going to be a very long scooter dive, but at least we could have a little fun in the River.

We split up into teams of two, and poor Eric got stuck with me, again. 🙂 We scootered out along the wall, then dropped into the channel. We didn’t go as far as we normally do, as the water was still a bit chilly, and we only brought our short bodies with us.

Jacob and Steve were in the lead, and the visibility was absolutely crappy. There was a bit of a glove issue, so Oren and Claudia headed back to shore. Eric and I continued on into the channel, and decided to pick our spot to drift back onto the wreck of the Gaskin. We both seemed to have the exact same idea as to where we were, so away we drifted… er.. well.. Where’s the current? Hmm.. Ok.. trigger, it is! We ended up right at the stern of the wreck. *High five!* We played around on the wreck for a little while, and then saw two beams of light approaching. Team 1 had also reached the wreck. We zipped around a little more, then went back in, cleaning off the line, as we went back. Eric and I took our time, and chose to swim back part of the way. It was a nice, relaxing way to finish up our dive.

As we neared the “Stop” sign, Oren and Jacob were heading out. Apparently, Jacob didn’t mind this cold water thing, and joined Oren for some more Goodness!

Bottom Time ~ 51 mins.
Max. Depth ~ 70′ (Avg. 42′)
Water Temp. ~ 39F
Visibility ~ Really crappy, thanks to the rain and grey skies

The rain had held off for most of the day, but started to sprinkle a bit, as we brought our gear up.

Yes, there was definitely some more Tom-Foolery going on… One Milllllllion Kool Aids…

Claudia was all ready for the rain!

I even snagged a picture of John’s fancy cave tattoo…

From the park, we went to our new favourite Brockville dining location, “Santa Fe,” where they have All You Can Eat Fajitas, every Sunday!

We made the trip back to Ottawa, and on to our next adventure: WalMart. Well.. I think we lost Jacob a grand total of three times. There is quite alot to see in the superstore, when you’ve been hanging out in the Mexico cavez for months! 🙂 Thank you, Jacob, for the Hoisen sauce and the pink Duct Tape!

Packing the scooter…

Jacob, I am glad that you were able to fit us into your busy exploring schedule. It was great to see you, and alot of fun getting back in the water with you, again. I didn’t even mind that 4am trip back to the airport! I did, however, find some zip seals under your pillow, and wondered if they were in exchange for the cutting device. 😛

Come back soon, ya hear!?


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