Free-Z-Dive 2014!

10 03 2014

Saturday, March 8th, 2014 ~

Well, it is that time of year, again! When our free diving friends meet with us, for some under ice fun and Shenaniganry! I still cannot believe what these guys and gals do – Diving, under ice, in wet suits, and… No.. Tanks! I also still cannot believe that they think that WE are the crazy ones! 😛

Chris P. and A.J. were visiting, and Christian also joined in!

We devised a plan, and got into the water. The free divers had three holes, in deeper water, while ours was in about 2′ of water, in the beach area. Our gear checks were done, cameras were ready, and we made our way to the plane. Steve had the D200, and I had the D100, so there would be no shortage of pictures.

Steve, making sure the settings were ready to go, on the D200.

We got to one of the holes, and a couple of free divers were getting ready to duck under.

Getting ready to dive.

In the first set of free divers, we were serenaded by the Piano Man, Jean-Sebastian Bourassa…

Play on, Maestro!

I was then greeted with a fly-by, from Superman Philippe Beauchamp…

Where is your red “S?” 🙂

This photo was aptly named by Chris Phinney…

Natalie Hebert, featured in, “The Ballet Photo.”

Freedom

Hanging out in First Class.

Christian St-Pierre and Natalie Hebert talk about the weather (the frozen glove-leaking kind)…

Chance meeting, with Christian and Nathalie.

I had no idea that Neo could dive.

Entering the Matrix.

We even got to watch a performance of Blue Man Group!

Blue Man, checking his camera, after he took a picture of me!

Ninja!

…and another one of Philippe…

François Leduc, giving us a pose!

El Presidente

A.J. Vertlieb and Chris Phinney, chillin’…

A.J. and Chris seem to be having fun!

Once the free divers started to come down in slower shifts, we realized that we were getting a little chilly, too. Time to go in.

Pack it up, pack it in!

Chris brought the line in, and I snuck a couple of extra pictures (yeah, I know… I have already taken about 200, today)…

Time to get out.

The entry/exit hole was a bit deeper than we normally have it, but since there were other divers there, when we arrived, we didn’t want to stick the chainsaw in, while they were in the water. It was not an issue for most. Let’s just say that in my vertically challenged 5’4″ state, and the ice being a little taller than my knees, I was not expecting the most graceful exit. I was also dealing with a pulled (or slightly torn) muscle in my leg, so that would make it even more challenging.

I opted on getting out of my tanks at the entry, and thanks to A.J., they mysteriously made it back to our van (you rock. A.J!).

A.J. and Chris P.

Bottom Time: 39 mins.
Max. Depth: 22′
Water Temp.: 37F
Vis.: Not too shabby

I still ended up with a complete arm flood, thanks to my glove rings, that I did not switch out (my own fault). :/

I think that François was turning into a Popsicle, here…

The Ice Man cometh.

I’m pretty sure that Philippe was, too. I still can’t believe that these guys are in wetsuits.

I cannot thank these guys ‘n’ gals enough. They are wonderful people to dive with, and a lot of fun.

For more information on the goings ons in the free diving community, see the CASM and AIDA websites!

CASM

and

AIDA

Group shot!

Bad ass, under ice free divers!

This is probably the best selfie that I have ever experienced! Thanks for a great day, friends!

Best. Selfie. Ever.


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Oren’t You Glad We Went Diving?

17 02 2014

Sunday, February 16th, 2014 ~

We hadn’t seen Oren in a while, and he finally escaped the holds of his practice, and came out for some Ice Diving Goodness! The three of us got into the water, and while Steve was helping a couple of nice fellows with a scooter, Oren took the reel, and the two of us headed to the boat. I took the “new” camera (and attached lighting devices), and was trying to play with the settings… enough so that I didn’t have washed out pictures, and uneven lighting… *cough*

Not the best shot, but at least it’s not blurry.

Oren, going into the boat.

Cheese!

Mandatory Selfie

Steve eventually joined us (the other two guys came over at the same time), and our team of 3 was reunited.

Steve, hangin’ with the Oreo scooter.

Oren and his canisters.

 

Steve took the camera, and took a pic of me, too.

I confiscated the Oreo scooter.

We made our way back up to the plane, since there were two of us with glove leaks. The rings that I have put on my suit are used, and apparently, they do not seal.

Oren, bringing the reel to the plane.

 

 

Da Plane!

Da plane… From the front.

Going over to pick up the reel.

Steve and the Oreo, once again.

…and, of course, one more selfie…

Fromage. :o)

Bottom Time: 47 mins.  (Not easy, with a completely flooded arm – thanks to my faulty glove rings) 🙂
Max. Depth: 42′
Water Temp.: 39F
Vis.: Pretty nice!

When we doffed our gear, at the cars, it just so happened, that I was completely soaked, up my arm. I had to wring it out! I think I will put my other set of rings back on! I know it isn’t the suit, and I know where the water is coming in. So… back to my “primary” glove rings!

We still did have a blast, and taking pics with the new camera was a lot of fun!

…and, yes… Oren DOES still dive! 😛


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Bloody Nora… I Bet He Thinks We’re Barmy!

3 02 2014

Sunday, February 2nd, 2014 ~

This British fellow, by the name of Marcus, showed up at our door, and asked to go ice diving. What kind of people would we be, if we turned him away??

Yes, we did know he was coming, and we had some gear ready for him. Of course, we had to take him to Tim Horton’s, along the way. We needed to show Marcus all of the Canadian things that we do, eh?

https://i0.wp.com/www.northlondonbaseball.com/sites/default/files/images/tim%20hortons.jpg

We arrived at the quarry, where Eric and Christian met us, as well. Steve had the “new-to-us” camera/strobes, and I had the older camera. I wanted to take pics, too! Eric ran the reel. We had briefed Marcus as to our usual plan, and took turns going under. I went ahead of Marcus, and turned to wait for him. He didn’t seem to mind this icy cold hole in the water, so we did our bubble checks, and away we went!

Marcus entering the water. Christian behind him, and Eric in front of him…

Steve, with the new-to-us camera…

Pic of me, taken by Steve…

I caught Eric at the plane…

After I took Eric’s pic, I got a signal, from Marcus… He was saying… “Please, can we go in? I am rather Parky…” …which I cannot blame him for. It turned out that he had had a complete arm flood, thanks to a glove leak. D’Oh!

At least I was able to talk him into going back under, to take a few pictures. 😛

“Psstt… Marcus… Wanna go back down?”

“Why, yes. Yes, I do!”

“Just for a little bit, plz.”

“Ok. I’m done, now.”

Bottom Time: 21 mins.
Max. Depth: 21′
Water Temp.: 37F

I think Marcus quite liked that, even though it was a little short.

Yep… He enjoyed that…

The other fellas came in, after we had doffed our gear.

Christian…

I was goofing around, stuck the camera in the water, and clicked (my face was not in the water)…

We had shoveled, “GUE UK,” into the snow, but since our dive was cut a little short, I didn’t get any pics of it. Eric gave me his tanks, and Steve and I went back under. It wasn’t the best effort, but with the snow being very slushy, topside, it was tough to shovel. Oh, well. We tried!

Steve and I both had glove leaks, so we didn’t stay back under, for long.

As we do with many of our guests, that have not been to the Great White North before, we took Marcus to our favourite aprés dive spot, for some poutine. I think we got him hooked on Timmies and poutine. Sorry about that, Marcus. 😛

We did have a great time, and even met up again, the following weekend, for some Winterlude fun!

Thanks for the fun, Marcus! Come on back and see us, sometime! There are a few months of the year, when the water isn’t frozen, and other fun dives to do! w00t!


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Cavezzz, It Shall Be – Part Eight – The Last Couple Of Days

19 12 2013

Thursday, December 19th, 2013 ~ 

Today, a gaggle of us headed to Dos Pisos. Since there were so many of us, we staggered the teams… especially since we had about 100 meters of restrictive passage to go through, at the entry.

Dan, getting ready for Cavezzzz…

Our plan was to go right at the first T, and left at the second T…. which would have been great, if the lines had not been changed.

We brought our stages and fins down, trying to avoid the paths of red army ants. There were thousands of them!

Laurynn and Kathryn entered first, and the rest of us waited, while Steve fixed a manifold issue (which was fixable, thanks to some tools that we had). Then, Karen and John went in, followed by us – Me, Dan, Steve. Since Dan had flooded his light, the previous day, he had Becki’s light… except it wouldn’t fire. D’oh! Ok.. That’s the third failure for Dan, this week! I think he’s had enough! 🙂 John had an extra light with him, that he loaned to Dan – Thanks, John!

I led through the restrictive passage, then let Dan through, so I could see his light (this was planned). Steve had the Go Pro, in the back.

We dropped our stages a little early, and continued on. We approached Laurynn and Kathryn’s stages, and I stuck a “Ding Ding Cowbell” note in Laurynn’s stage bungee. 😛

We reached the spot where we thought the T was supposed to be, but it was not there. We swam for quite a while, and reached a T. Karen and John were on their way back, and signaled that they had turned right, and it wasn’t the direction that we had originally planned on going. It turns out that the first T had been cut back, and this was the second T, that we were supposed to go left at. So… Thanks to John and Karen, we went left.

There was some very pretty cave, along the way, with some beautiful decorations. We passed through a section that slanted upwards – clearly, to a small opening. There was quite a collection of bat guano, that had rolled down from the surface. We got to a spot that had “jaws,” and some more beautiful decorations, from top to bottom. We had a peek through the “jaws,” then turned around.

Bottom Time: 2 hours, 27 mins.
Max. Depth: 28′
Water Temp.: 77F

Chatting, after Diving Goodness…

A couple of little frogs, near the cars…

Steve, packing up…

We packed up, and were on our way.

As we passed through Tulum, we passed the yummy bakery. Maybe we will go back there, sometime!

Once at the shop, we started the tear-down and drying of our gear. We still could have fit in another day of diving, but it was supposed to be very rainy, and we needed our gear to dry. That, and Steve had some work to do, with the scooters. We opted for a “gear day.” It’s always a sad time, to be breaking down your gear, to leave Mexico cavezzz…

Our undergarments are going to need a good wash, when we get home…

We dropped off our gear, and tidied up some of our charging station, before dinner.

At the buffet…

Friday, December 19th, 2013 ~ 

Well, in hindsight, we could have gone diving, today… We did have things to do at the shop, so it was probably the right decision not to, but it doesn’t mean that we didn’t want to go diving. 🙂

We slept in a little, then went down to have some breakfast. We sat beside a man, sitting with his young son, and I couldn’t help but hear some of their conversation.

Boy: I would like a straw for my juice, please
Dad: You don’t need a straw
Boy: But I really want one (he had the saddest look on his face)
*The waiter brings him a straw – Happiness ensues*
*Boy drops straw on ground*
*Dad lectures boy on irony, and then calls son a Monkey Butt*

I was really trying not to laugh, since Dan had us in hysterics, earlier in the week, regarding Monkey Butt (Ok, I may have been the only one in hysterics). 🙂

We made our way back to the room, to finish packing – Yeah, that took a while. Trying to get the right combination of clothes vs. dive gear in each case, and keeping it under the 50 lb. mark, can be fun. We were finally successful.

We went down to the Seaside Grill, and met Becki and Dan for lunch. Huh… This is what resort life is like, during the day!

Then, off to the shop, to tend to our scooters, pay the dreaded bill, and finish packing the gear away.

Steve and Angelica…

We then headed back over to The Pub, where we met a bunch of our friends for some beverages, munchies, and “see ya next times.” We also met new friends, from Finland, and I finally got to meet Irene! w00t! We had a lot of fun, and of course, we had to get some gelato! Back to the resort, and in bed by a decent hour (what’s with that??).

The giant gingerbread house, in the resort…

Dan, wondering if he could sneak a piece…

Saturday, December 20th, 2013 ~

Packed and ready to go, we were able to have some breakfast, before we left. Then… It was time to go…

On the way…

Too bad, we were going to miss the Ricky Martin concert 😥

Giant wind turbine…

…and back to the car rental place, where they had their Christmas decorations up.

We arrived safe and sound, to this…

Well, it was a fantastic couple of weeks of  cavez and amazing friends.

See you next time (soon!), Mexico… We shall miss the CAVEZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! 🙂


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Cavezzzz, It Shall Be – Part Seven – It Might Have Been A Grand Day…

18 12 2013

Tuesday, December 17th, 2013 ~

Same routine… To the shop, where we analyzed our tanks and checked the pressures. I checked our stages (which were full), and moved on towards both Steve’s and my doubles.  A little birdie told me that they had been checked (yes, I did analyze them), so we were on our way. We had a few different buddy teams, and I was joining the bunch to La Boca….. almost.

I dressed up, turned on my tanks, and….

I guess these ones weren’t checked. No dive for me. I could have joined the Cave 1 team (I also had a full stage), but they had already gone in.

I sulked, while Becki kept me company (thank you for cheering me up, Becki!!!), and we hung out with the turtles.

Heleen, Erik, and Jan K. arrived back…

I would have waited for the others to come out, to take some pics, but…

Bottom Time: 0 Hours, 0 Mins.
Max. Depth: 1 ATA
Temp.: Hot w/ Rain

The moral of the story: Check your tank pressure, before leaving the shop – Even if you already know to do so. Pft…

On our drive home, we saw random orange cones, in the road. A couple of them seemed to be warding off a stray plastic bag… *Random*

After returning to the resort, we decided to order room service, watch some TV, and go to sleep.

Wednesday, December 18th, 2013 ~

Today was a Camilo day! Steve, Dan, John, Karen, and I brought scooters, and were going for a ride! We started off along the main line, then to the Grand Canyon line, where we went to the end. This cave has so many different appearances to it, that it is pretty fascinating. This was the first time that I had been through the Grand Canyon, and I really liked it.

We came back, then followed the Black Forest line, and saw some absolutely gorgeous cave. My scooter seemed to feel a little bit sluggish, so even though I was absolutely in love with this section of the cave, and how much prettier it was getting, as we continued, I signaled and turned the dive. Feeling the sleepiness of my scooter, I did not want to take any chances of going any further into the cave. :/ Sadly, we turned around. I was able to stay on my scooter, but it kept getting slower, as we made it back to the exit. It really sucked to turn it, but I know that I made the right decision.

(We had checked the voltage before loading in the morning, but it turned out that I had a crappy battery)

We did a little bit of deco, then made our way out. *Sniff*

Poor Dan had another failure – his light completely flooded.. D’oh!

Bottom Time: 1 hour, 37 mins.
Max. Depth: 70′
Water Temp.: 77F

The fellas decided to get out, while Karen and I ditched our scooters and stages, and went for a swim, in “Mud.” As we entered, the visibility was absolutely horrible. It was what I would expect to see in the St. Lawrence River – except, not green. There were particles of “stuff” floating everywhere, and we entered this massive dark cave, with huge formations. There were lines along the walls, appearing as if someone had taken a red paint roller along them. Just so completely different and fascinating to see. We took our time, since there was just so much to look at! What an interesting place!

Bottom Time: 34 mins.
Max. Depth: 47′
Water Temp.: 77F/80F

It seems that the land owner no longer has his horses. These buildings used to be really nice horse stalls, with the horses’ names above them.

Back to the shop, unloaded, put the scooters on the chargers, and raced back to the resort, to catch the BBQ/Pizza guy, which usually closes at 4pm.

We hung around the resort for a while, with a couple of fancy drinks! Thanks to Becki, for noticing them, and asking for them!

We then went over to The Pub, to meet Panos for some food, beverage, and great conversation. 🙂


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