The next couple of weeks brought GUE courses, to the front line. Steve was teaching a Primer, a DPV-1, as well as some Fundies Goodness, and hours of in-water time.
Congratulations, to all of the students!
A small glimpse of the new under water statues, at Centeen Park…
Between all of this goodness, Eric B and I went out for a skillz dive, in preparation for our upcoming Tech 2 course. We each brought three bottles, so that we could practice our rotations, at the quarry. At 20′, we dropped our bottles, to do valve drills, s-drills, finning techniques, blowing smbs, and all of the usual skills. Then, it was rotation time. I seemed to be having quite an issue, getting my last bottle’s butt clipped to my hip D-ring. I was getting quite frustrated, and my silly, slightly injured wrist was really bothering me. Ok. Deep breath… Let’s try this again… I took off the bottles, laid them on the bottom, and tried again. Yes, the clip that I was using, was a little bit tough, but nothing that should be giving me such an issue. Here I go, again…
Same thing… just couldn’t reach that darn D-Ring… wtf??? I put the bottles down, again, and decided to switch them around, just to test the theory. That’s when I noticed that the bottom clip had been left, wrapped around the hose of the stage bottle. Well, duhhhhh… no wonder I couldn’t reach the inside, with that clip.
I unwrapped it, then had at it, again. This time, success. *Phew* Eric’s went a fair bit smoother than mine did.
*Notes to self*
1) Check to see if bottoms of stage bottle clips are wrapped behind the tubing, before doing bottle rotations.
2) Bottle rotations with full bottles of 32% suck. Yes, I was already aware of this, but now, I am extra aware.
Bottom Time: 1 hour, 6 mins.
Max. Depth: 19′
Water Temp.: 66F
Frustration Level: Varying, but at least I was persistent 🙂
While Steve was away, playing with WKPP and Suex-folk, Eric and I went out for a dip in the St. Lawrence. We went to our usual “leaving spot,” but wanted to go in a different direction.
Since we had more “go-go juice,” with the XK-1s, our plan was to go downstream, toward the Three Sister Islands, look around for a bit, then make our way back. Our max run time was going to be 2 hours, but we figured that we would have gas limitations, before that.
We went towards the Gaskin, first – we definitely saw the anchor, but the rest of the wreck was shadowed in a cloud – then made our way to the channel, where we drifted for a few minutes, then hit the triggers, along with the current. I swear, it felt like we were Superman and Jimmy, as we flew along with the current. I’m not sure who was who, but it sure was fun.
The water was a little bit higher than normal, and as we drifted along at around 100′, I’m sure that we were within spitting distance of the truck. We didn’t see it, but we knew we were close. It was hard to see anything, really, since the visibility wasn’t that great.
We made it to the islands, and we are pretty sure that we were in between the 2nd and 3rd island, as we hit a current “vortex.” The currents are strong, going through this area, and with the positioning of the islands, there are currents that wrap around them. We rode the “vortex” for a while, and as we both checked our compasses, we noticed that we were headed in the opposite direction. We had assumed that this was the case, knowing that the currents were different, here… and why we both checked direction at the same time.
We pointed tour scooters in a Northerly direction, and headed back. We were on the XK1’s full speed, for 20 minutes, as we scootered against the strong currents. I swear, it felt like I had done a serious weight-lifting workout, at the gym. That was some power! It only took us 20 minutes to get back, where it has taken us much longer, with our other scooters. Pretty impressive! We made our way up to 50′, then 40′, where we picked up the line, back to the bowl, near the entry, at around 20′.
We parked our gear at the log, and did a couple of valve drills, before coming in.
Bottom Time: 1 hour, 27 mins.
Max. Depth: 110′
Water Temp.: 59F
Vis. 10′ to 30′ (better in the channel, than near the Gaskin)
Pile o’ gear…
Eric, bringing his tanks back up…
Public Service Announcement, due to the Hydroplane races:
We were glad to be back in the River, doing some fun scooter diving! XK-1, for the win!
Over the last couple of weekends, I have been with Steve, during his Fundamentals courses.
One course was a four day straight course, where I tagged along, while Steve and an intern were hard at work. I did help out, taking video of the dives, as well as installing the smb in the water (I know… tough work!). 🙂
Saturday, May 31st & Sunday, June 1st, 2014 ~
Field drills…
Team debrief. Notice my handy SMB work, to the left…
Exiting the water…
Day 1
Bottom Time: 58 mins.
Max. Depth: 36′
Water Temp.: 47-50F (depending on where you were)
Vis.: Not terribly great, thanks to some of the divers that swam through our perimeter, silting it out. Milky.
Day 2
Bottom Time: 56 mins.
Max. Depth: 33′
Water Temp.: 47-50F (depending on where you were)
Vis.: Not exceptional, but manageable – milky.
Good lookin’ crew!
Sunday, June 8th, 2014 ~ Course #2!
Une course en Français… mostly. 🙂
This was the first weekend of a split weekend course. I wasn’t there for Day 1 of the course, but was ready, willing, and able, for Day 2!
Field drills
We went in for dives 2 and 3. I showed off my smb skills, once again.
Pic taken by Adam Kulczycki…
Frankie had the camera, so I hovered, reached my valves, practiced some finning techniques, as the students did, and enjoyed the water.
We surfaced, debriefed for a bit, then went down for dive 3. S-Drills aplenty, and more finning! After this debrief, Frankie and I descended to get the SMB, then swam to the shallows, while the team was practicing reaching their valves. A good day of learning and practice!
Bottom Time (Total): 1 hour, 4 mins.
Max. Depth: 34′
Water Temp.: 50-51F
Vis.: Better than last week
Another great team!
As we were packing up, I noticed a dragonfly on my chair. He did not want to get up, so I got a bit of a closer look. It seems that he was showing me his valve drill…
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…
Breakie with Becki, Dan, Stretch, and Forest (my BGs were leaving, today), then to the shop! I didn’t have any dive plans for today, since Steve and Sander were going to go on a scooter/RB dive, together. Since Heleen and the gang were going to head to Nohoch, Dan and I joined in with them! Steve and Sander had also decided on Nohoch, so we had quite the crew! We brought two sets of doubles each, so that we were just using back gas, for two dives.
There was a lot of gear to lower down.
Heleen must have taken this picture, since I’m in it… 🙂
Sander was on the receiving end…
Team work!
We wore our initial doubles down, instead of torturing the fellas.
Once it was all down…
It was an extremely hot day, so after getting our drysuits on, we jumped into the cenote, to cool off.
We finally got our gear on, and off we went. The purpose of today’s dive, was for Heleen to take some video footage, so we were on the main line for the entire dive. We kept a nice and slow pace, with Dan in front, with a 100w LED, to light the way. Such an amazing and relaxing dive!
We got out, switched our tanks over, and got ready for the second dive. The boys left to do a longer dive on the Parker Line, and Heleen and I got ready to do a shorter one (if we felt like doing a shorter one). Ahhh… such a beautiful and relaxing dive. I had forgotten how beautiful this line was (aren’t they all?). As we got close to the entry (and already in open water), we shut our lights off, and used the ambient light. We had a little fun in the basin, with a lot of laughter.
Bottom Time: 1 hour, 1 min.
Max. Depth: 19′
Water Temp.: 77F
Heleen, after our dives!
Me, taken by Heleen…
Erik, Heleen, and Jan K. …
Jan K. and Dan…
There was definitely no monkey business or shenaniganry going on, here…
The other fellas finally returned from their dive, and we were on our merry way!
Poor Dan had a bit of a leak (or 7) in his suit…
Back at the shop, Steve and I finally got to meet Panos, in the flesh, which was a nice surprise!
Then, to the resort! We had dinner with Becki and Dan, a drink with Laurynn and Kathryn, then back to our room, to tend with some gear. We tried to go to sleep early, but had a bit of an interesting phone call… I’ll just leave it at that…
Monday, December 16th, 2014 ~
Today, we headed back to Pet Cemetery. We had a few different teams: Steve and I; Sander, Heleen, Eric; Jan, Jan, Dan. Steve and I tried to go to the Dark Side Of The Moon again, but ended up in a different place. We made a couple of jumps, then left at an intersection, and came to some of the most beautiful cave that we have ever seen in our lives. We are thinking that this is what Ali may have been referring to as the “Spectacular” room, since that was such an extreme understatement! Steve just happened to have the camera with him, and he took some video. As stunning as it looks on video, it still does not do it the slightest bit of justice. Neither of us could stop saying, “Holy shit! Holy shit!” That’s how beautiful this passage was. Past the room, there was a little shelf that we could have squished under, but there were just so many fine decorations, and it appeared to pinch right down. I didn’t want to chance breaking anything, so I turned us around.
We picked up our stages, and made our way back to the Ihop line. We recalculated our gas, and followed it through some very different passage. There was a narrow’ish swim-through, into some really big, dark cave. It was huge! We jumped off into another little hole, which was really neat. It started to pinch right down into either no mount passage, or a spot where someone threw a spool through the tiny little hole. We turned back, and continued on the Ihop line, until we got to a spot that had a sharp slope upward. I opted not to go further, since one of my ears had been acting up a bit, and we still had a lot of diving left to do!
Along the cavern line, there was an air pocket, where we surfaced. That proved to be a less than smart idea for my ear. I just could not clear again, on the way back out. I stayed as high as I could, over the line, until we got back to the basin, still trying to clear that darn ear. Le sheesh. Ah, well… It was my new favourite dive, in my new favourite cave!
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