Technical Diving | Chanb77's Weblog

DPVs & Drifting Goodness

5 08 2013

Sunday, August 4th, 2013 ~

Steve was taking Frankie and Christian out for their final day of DPV 1 (the awesome Experience Dive day), and Eric, Jen, and I went for a scooter upstream, and a drift!

Centeen was a very busy place today, so we ended up parking some of our vehicles on the side streets.

We brought our gear down to the water, and discussed our plan…

The three of us planned on going upstream to some wreckage that we had found, then drop in a little deeper, to check out the scattered pieces of wood (which were absolutely everywhere), then drop into the channel for some Drifting Goodness!!

We did exactly that! Checked out the many pieces of wreckage, and when we had seen enough, we made our way down to the channel. We ended up in a spot that had a ton to look at, and there were spots that we may not have been to, before.

I knew from the timing, and from my floaty stage bottle, that I was likely nearing my gas switch time. As I checked my stage bottle pressure, the handle came off in my hand. I managed to keep the knob, but the little bits were now lost… Doh! The current was pretty strong here, so I didn’t have much of a chance to turn and search. Well, at least I was spot on for my gas switch. I wasn’t exactly there, but close enough to switch. I signaled to Eric and Jen that I was switching, and Eric switched with me (Jen had switched a little earlier). At least I could still shut down the post, with the knob. I then stuck it in my pocket, for safe keeping.

Once we reached our “time’s up” for drifting, we made our way back up, to go to the Gaskin. We thought we had overshot it, but we didn’t. Since the currents were different in a few places in the channel, we weren’t moving as fast as we had planned (only in a couple of areas, was the current ripping).

We made our way in, did our deco, then Eric and I did some bottle rotations, and we all did valve drills. A most awesome dive!

Eric… Thanks for lending me Le Princessi! 😛

Bottom Time: 2 hours, 23 mins.
Max. Depth: 101′
Water Temp.: 71F
Vis.: Varied from 10′ to 30′

In other news… Congratulations to Christian and Frankie, for completing their DPV 1! w00t!

Happy Civic Holiday, Ontario!

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Tags: Bloggy Thing, Brockville, Centeen Park, Chan's Bloggy Thing, Diving, Diving Goodness, DPV 1, Gaskin, Gavin, Gavin Scooter, GUE, GUE Divers, GUE DPV 1, GUE Ontario, Scooter, Scooter Dive, Skills, St. Lawrence, St. Lawrence River, Technical Diving
Categories : 2000 + 13

Got E.Motion-Al

22 07 2013

Sunday, July 21st. 2013 ~

Today was the day that I was trying out my new Santi E.Motion suit. I had it on deck to dive on Saturday, but our dive did not go ahead, as planned.

Since Steve was teaching, I made my way down to Brockville, and met Jen. We were going on a channel scooter/drift dive. Our plan was to scooter upstream from Centeen Park, then drop into the channel, and have some fun!

We hit the triggers, and away we went. Once we reached our planned channel drop, we started towards the channel. As we were making our way, we ran into some wreckage. A lot of wreckage. We sometimes see the odd plank of wood, but these piles were many, and strewn about for quite a distance. Of course, we had to have a look, so once we did reach the channel, we cut our planned drift time down by a few minutes.

While we were in the channel, there was a freighter that passed overhead. This is nothing new, and happens quite often. This one sounded like it was within spitting distance! There we were, drifting in the channel, in some pretty mild current, when the river bed started to shake, the current went from slow to “spit you out” kind of speed, and it was so loud, that every piece of our beings were pounding. I swear, we could feel our heart beats, in time with the freighter! We were just shy of 100′, so I knew we weren’t in any danger, but sheesh… talk about giving us some wide eyes! After it passed, the current slowed down… *Sings Twilight Zone music*

We had reached our planned (make that, replanned) drifting time, so we started to make our way back up. Just as we got to 70′, we were staring into the stern of the Gaskin. How was that for planning? We went for a bit of a swim through it, then decided to swim off, a little. Jen found a couple of little treasures (no, they were not of the wreck-finding kind). 😛

As we came back up into the basin of the park, we came upon an extremely tangled Halcyon reel. Since we were going to do a few minutes of deco anyway, we decided to untangle it. Well, holy smokes… It was not an easy task, but we finally did it. It definitely took the both of us, to do it. We figured it belonged to the people running a course there, so we brought it in. As we surfaced, Jen asked if anyone was “missing” one. They were using it for a rescue scenario, and were just about to go back and pick it up! We saved them a bit of time and energy. 😛

Bottom TIme: 2 hours, 8 mins.
Max. Depth: 99′
Water Temp.: 73F
Vis.: 10′ to 40′

Mike met us over at Bud’s, for some dinner!

We caught three ducks on the back of a Sea Doo, but by the time I got my camera out, they were jumping ship. Go figure…

Oh, well! At least we had a really fun dive!

As far as my new Santi E.Motion suit goes, it fits absolutely perfectly, and was so comfortable to wear. I’m sure that if I had not had a P-Valve malfunction (duck bill valve), that I would have been a happier camper, but the suit was awesome. I can’t wait to get some more dives on it!!

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Tags: Bloggy Thing, Brockville, Centeen Park, Chan's Bloggy Thing, Diving Goodness, Gaskin, Gavin, Gavin Scooter, GUE, GUE Divers, GUE Ontario, Scooter, Scooter Dive, St. Lawrence, St. Lawrence River, Technical Diving
Categories : 2000 + 13

In It For The Long Haul

15 07 2013

Sunday, July 14th, 2013 ~

The St. Lawrence River was good and warm, so we had planned on doing a longer dive. Steve, Eric, and I were starting from Centeen Park, heading upstream in the shallows, into the channel, then back up, for planned deco. It seems we do quite a few dives from this entry point, which is true, but it is a different dive, every time!

The sun was pretty hot, so we got our gear into the water, as soon as we could…

We made our way upstream, switched scooters and stages, and down we went, into the channel. The visibility was pretty horrible, until we got down into the channel, where there was a significant improvement. We drifted for a while, Then started our gradual ascent, with our planned stops.

Bottom Time: 3 hours, 48 mins.
Max. Depth: 112′
Avg. Depth: 58′
Water Temp.: 68F
Vis.: Not very good; better in channel

As we did our 1 ATA deco stop, we heard some familiar voices behind us. Mike, Jen, and Julie greeted us, and gave us a hand with our gear (we were very thankful, for that).

Le Princessi also came out to play, on deco! 😀

We then headed to Boston Pizza, for after Diving Goodness Eats… We ended up getting home pretty late, but when you’re with friends, it doesn’t really matter. 🙂

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Tags: Bloggy Thing, Brockville, Centeen Park, Chan's Bloggy Thing, Diving Goodness, Gaskin, Gavin, Gavin Scooter, GUE Divers, GUE Ontario, Scooter, Scooter Dive, Skills, St. Lawrence, St. Lawrence River, Technical Diving
Categories : 2000 + 13

The Power House… Or, Thereabouts…

6 07 2013

Sunday, June 30th, 2013 ~

The good Doctor Oren decided to come up for the weekend, and we met at Guindon Park.

We decided to get in on the opposite side of the marina…

Getting gear together…

The plan was to go to the Power House, since we hadn’t been in a while.

We headed south, down the embankment, and up the other side. We drifted for a bit, but the visibility was so horrible, that we never ended up getting to the Power House. We did find a lot of other cool things, though!

There were some areas with some absolutely ripping current, and areas with none. It was a pretty fun ride!

We found a large structure, that we really weren’t sure what it was, but it had ties for ships to be tied up to it (obviously, before the River Flooding).

As we made our way back over to the north side of the embankment, we found a really large anchor. Probably one of the largest that we have ever seen. We also found a tower, and a swing bridge. It was a pretty cool day to find stuff!

As we made our way in, we had surfaced, to get a bearing on where we were. We blew a bag, in case there were any boats. Since there did not seem to be many boats at all, we decided to head towards the boat launch, to get out.

Yeah… there weren’t any boats, until the the little one that buzzed us, went overhead. I swear, we were inches from the prop. I felt the vibrations in my head. Normally, you can hear them coming, but this one was especially quiet. Scared the living pachoosies out of me! *Phew!* We were only in 6′ of water!

We came in safely, and parked our gear.

Bottom TIme: 2 hours, 37 minutes
Max. Depth: 77′
Water Temp.: 66F
Vis.: 2′ to 20′ (depending on where we were)

Although we didn’t make it to the Power House, we were all pretty excited to see new things!

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Tags: Bloggy Thing, Chan's Bloggy Thing, Diving, Diving Goodness, Gavin, Gavin Scooter, GUE, GUE Divers, GUE Ontario, Lost Villages, Scooter, Scooter Dive, St. Lawrence, St. Lawrence River, Technical Diving
Categories : 2000 + 13

JK, From The UK, In Canada, Eh!

5 07 2013

June 21st, 2013 ~

We had been chatting with John Kendall about coming over to Canada, to do some diving with us. There happened to be a few folks that wanted to take Tech 1 with him, so we were happy to host at our place.

John’s flight was pretty much on time, and collecting him did not take long, at all. With the 5 hour time difference, and a couple of late working nights, John was a little tired. We arrived chez nous, got some gear together for the morning, and went to sleep!

June 22nd, 2013 ~

We had a charter booked for the afternoon, which was nice. We didn’t have to get up at the crack of ridiculous, and had a bit of time before heading down to St. Lawrence Park. Tom Scott had a charter going out, looking for some wreckage. Eric and Cory joined us, too!

Having some fun, before the dive.

I was a total dork, and had forgotten my can light, which did leave me a little light on our 10′ stop (*duhh*). Nothing a rock couldn’t help me with…

We had a fun swimming drift dive, and did manage to find a few clues (chamber basin and some charred wood), as to where some of the wreckage might be. It was great to be in the water, and we are happy that it was warming up, a bit. I did also find a fancy red flag, which I donated to Tom. 😛 We also got to the old truck, and were able to show it to John!

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 6 mins.
Max. Depth: 102′
Water Temp.: 60F

Wow… Cory really grew in this pic…

It was then off to dinner, and back home!

June 23rd, 2013 ~

John was starting the first of two GUE T1 courses, today. Steve and I showed him around the quarry, and were going to jump in the water, but… well… we forgot an essential piece of gear… which is just ridiculous. We have had a pretty good track record, up until now. I think we shall blame John. 😛 *Ducks*

I still took some surface shots.

Line Drills… Watch out for that wreck! 😛

Zero Vis Exit..

*The work week went by, for us*

Experience Dive Day! Steve and I made our way down to Caiger’s, and hopped onto Rick’s boat, with the class. Michel and Eric V. were doing their experience dive with John, and Carm and Steph joined us, too! Steve and I had planned on a longer bottom time, and brought scooters with us. We scootered across to the other side, for something new to look at. As we descended, we saw some kind of round, steel structure. We have absolutely no idea what it was, and had not seen it before. It almost looked like a hatch on a freighter (although, we are pretty sure that it wasn’t).

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 44 mins.
Max. Depth: 200′
Water Temp.: 63F
Visibility: Quite nice!

Group shot, taken by Rick Lymer!
Me, Eric V., Michel G., Carm B., John K., Steve B., Steph B.

Congratulations to Michel and Eric!! Well done, guys! GUE Tech 1 divers!

June 30th, 2013 ~

John started another course, and a few of us went down to Guindon Park (separate Bloggy Thing entry).

July 1st, 2013 ~

Steve, Oren, and I slept in (yes… we acquired an Oren, overnight), then made our way up to the quarry, to meet John et. al. I brought my camera, to take a few shots, while Steve and Oren had a bit of a surprise for John.

We first went over to the shark, to show Oren (he hadn’t seen it since it had been fixed up and floated).

Oren, donating to his buddy…