Poop Cleaning Here I Come...

With my training all done and the long wait until the schedule was written up behind me, it was time for my first Aquarium dive.  With enough fear and anxiety to fill my van I arrived at the Vancouver Aquarium and waited outside the door I was told to wait by.... I guess arriving at just after 7:00 for an 8:00 shift was a little too early...lol.  But to my relief after waiting a little less than a half hour one of the divers I would be joining today arrived and showed me another door to check for an employee who could let us in.  Once inside and all the way down to the dive room it was time to start getting ready.  Needless to say I was sweating from nerves long before being inundated with the heat from the dive room situated beneath miles of heat pipes and far warmer than I would have liked it.  After grabbing a weight belt and getting it and my BCD set up it was time to head to the deck and see if our tender for the day, Kristi Hefron (yes the same Kristi from Certified Poop Cleaner...) needed any help setting up.  With everything ready for the dive it was time to finish gearing up and head to the exhibit.  Being a new diver I am only allowed to use Beauty (the twin scrubber) and limited to the Wild Coast Exhibit, home to my friends the dolphins Hana, Helen and Spinaker.

So with my kit on, I took my seat on the edge of the deck and waited while Kristi fastened the surface supply to my BCD and passed me my hose for my Dry Suit and my regulator... then it was time to dive in.  Using the seated entry and then joining my dive buddy for the day we descended together taking beauty to the bottom of the tank.  With the vacuum hose attached it was time to start my cleaning.  Following a 62 minute dive, one of my first dives beyond an hour and one of the advantages of diving surface supply, it was time to exit the water and call it a day.  With the cleaning done, and my coupon for a free coffee and muffin in hand it was time to head out and look forward to my next dive... dive number 50... and the final step in my certification as a Master Scuba Diver!

Weight Loss Made Easy....

Ok so it's not the real wight loss that I want, but still a good weight loss.  Yesterday I joined Ocean Pro Divers and instructor / shop owner and friend Shannon Kozak at Porteau Cove for my Peak Performance Buoyancy course.  Prior to this class I was diving with 30 lbs of lead, I had managed to drop my ankle weights (4 lbs) when diving with Ward during In Search of Whiskey and the VT-100, but during the course I was able to drop down to 22 lbs of lead.  Now to understand why dropping weight is important, think about it the same weigh you would on the surface, if you are over-weight and do any kind of excecise you breathe harder and faster, the same is true under water, you use more air to remain buoyant and to move that size (inflated and less streamlined) and weight through the water you breathe harder and use up your air faster resulting in shorter dives...not good.

Tube Snout

As well as dropping the unneeded weight I was lucky enough to see a ton of tube snout, a Great Pacific Octopus hiding beneath the sail boat, and even got inked by a little squid that I startled think it was a Sea Squirt and tried to touch it before it swam away squirting as it went.

Over-all another amazing dive with my friends as I work towards being the best diver I can be.

Certified Poop Cleaner...

This week, for four days I went through a fairly intensive training regimen on diving including learning the (new to me) DCIEM tables used by the Canadian Military and promoted by Worksafe BC.  We covered the history of diving from Robert Boyle and Jacques Charles to Joseph Gay-Lussac, John Dalton and William Henry on day one and a day of learning and certifying as a DAN Emergency Oxygen Provider, then, it was time to get wet!  Off to a local pool where it was time for us to swim laps.. oh yes, my favourite thing...lol... followed by free diving to the bottom of a 15 foot pool to recover a weight and return to the surface.  The morning of day number three started promptly, and with most of us on time, we started by dragging all of our gear and tanks out to pool side and were greeted by an amazing surprise.  Apparently despite Melanie's claims in You may call me... "The Dolphin Poop Cleaner" about us not being around or in direct contact with the animals, we would be diving with Daisy.

Daisy is an an orphaned harbor porpoise currently being rehabilitated and trained by the Marine Mammal trainers and Doctors at the Aquarium.

We would be given this amazing opportunity, under the direct supervision of Kristi Hefron (Senior Marine Mammal Trainer at the Vancouver Aquarium). Going two divers at a time, along with Jeremy Heywood (Dive Safety Officer at the Vancouver Aquarium), we would enter the water to demonstrate our in water skills.  Step one though, and my most difficult, was to follow Kristi's instruction to "not touch Daisy"... This is tough, and for anyone who ever gets the chance to see her you'll understand, she is incredibly playful and loves people.  So to get in the water you need to wait until she is out of the way (or usually distracted by Kristi throwing a toy) and then do a very careful and quiet seated entry into the pool.  Now to just resist the temptation to touch Daisy as she comes up to see what new toys Kristi has brought for her to play with...lol.  Then it was on to skills... pretty simple stuff, swim out to the centre of the pool, descend and wait for Jeremy, then, when indicated, do a reg remove and recover, mask flood and clear, (If it ain't broke don't fix it.... and from SORTED to super STARS), and finally remove your weight belt and bcd and then put them back on... no worries.. a couple flash-backs to Seals to Emergencies but other than that no issues.  The afternoon was just as easy, and just as hard not to touch daisy...lol.  Back in the water but this time with the surface supply attached, now we can breathe forever if they keep switching tanks up top...lol.  A couple laps of the pool and all done, time for the next group and then the end of another fun day.  Day four of our training and day two in the water saw us setting up gear beside the Beluga med tank, today we would be taking turns descending into the 10 foot med tank on surface supply and learn to operate the double scrubber lovingly named Beauty.  With everyone finished we cleaned up the equipment, rinsed the gear and changed back into our street clothes to debrief with Jeremy and have him sign off in our log books marking our completion of our program and making us official and certified Poop Cleaners!

Burgers and a Dip!

Following my amazing night of diving with friends Enjoying the view before gearing up to explore the wonders beneath! it was time to catch up with the divers of Ocean Pro for a fun day of diving and good food.  After a quick clean of the cabin and loading all the gear back into the vehicles we headed over to the main parking lot to find and hold spots for the rest of the group who would soon be arriving.  With the sun coming up and a warm day ahead we started by laying out any of our gear that had not totally dried over night and started putting our kits together in preparation for the day.

It seemed only minutes before the parking lot was full and the air was filled with the talking and planning of the days activities.  Amongst the group joining the activities were my close friends and instructors Virpi Kangas and Ward Conley, their plan for the day was taking them out in Wards small boat so they could dive the Nakaya.  Other groups were heading out to swim the fire-hose, while others were setting out to explore the Leaning Tower of Porteau or the Sailboat Hull and others still were off to explore the Granthall.

My dive partner for dive 1 of the day was an experienced diver joining the Ocean Pro BBQ for the first time.  Equipped with his twin tanks and local knowledge it looked like it was going to be another relaxing day of diving... boy was I in for a surprise...lol.  Apparently swimming as fast as possible was an on-going trend for this weekend. Not long after entering the water my dive buddy started his quest for an Olympic medal in swim sprints...lol.  It was all I could do for the most part to keep up and finally signal my buddy to slow down, by this time unfortunately I had burned much of my air so it was time to make my turn and head back.  My dive buddy on the other hand, swimming with twins, had lots of air and was less than agreeable to returning quite yet.  After a quick conversation through hand signals it was decided to make another pass around the Granthall, this time very slowly and breathing under control, then after our pass, we followed the chain up to 15 feet where we did our safety stop sharing the air in his twins and then made our way the last 15 feet to the surface.  On the surface the tides had changed from the night before and now the surface current was now heading away from shore, making the surface swim a lot more challenging.  After a bit of a fight against the current to gain a few feet it became apparent that it wa going to be easier to work together.  So taking turns doing the tired diver tow with us both kicking the whole time we were able to make faster progress against the current and reach shore in time to see the burgers coming off the grill.

Stripping down my gear and switching out my tank only took a couple minutes then it was time to open up my dry suit and enjoy the fresh air drifting into my suit and cooling my body down.  Soon most of the rest of the divers who had not already returned made their way over to the big Ocean Pro Divers tent to find their fill of food and stories about the first dive of the day.

After a quick meal, and some good conversation it was time to catch up with my buddy for dive 2, who happened to be the same buddy from the night before.  Dive planning for our last dive of the weekend was pretty simple, both of us a little tired from the night before and from our surface swims from dive 1 on the day, agreed we would dive similar to dive 2 from the previous night.  Surface swim out a short distance and then descend and let the water moves us around while we explored the open ocean floor.  Finding our neutral buoyancy and just floating in the water with soft gentle kicks to change direction or increase rate and it wasn't long before the current had moved us back out to the Granthall, a couple circles and then over to the fire-hose which we started to follow back towards the first marker.  Then it happened, they tell you it happens but until it does you don't know what it's going to be like.  I stopped, spotting a particularity interesting plant that appeared to be swimming, and decided to snap a few pictures. 

1, 2, 3 frames later and I look to my buddy.... he's gone... nowhere to be seen.  Random clouds of silt can be seen in a few directions, unfortunately due to the large number of divers in the water clouds of silt could be evidence of any diver.  So, checking my watch and marking the time, then resuming my previous pattern sweeping side to side it was time to look for my buddy.  15 seconds, nothing, 30 seconds, nothing, 45 seconds, nothing, a minute.... nothing!  Now it was time to hope my buddy was ok and would stick to our plan, if separated, look for a minute, then head to the surface.  So... off to the surface I went spinning 360 degrees during my ascent looking to see if my buddy could be spotted.  Upon breaching the surface, I again started my 360 degree surface search looking for any sign of my buddy.  Only problem, lots of divers on the surface.... unfortunately... my buddy was not one of them...  Could it be that my buddy hadn't noticed I wasn't with him?  Is he ok? Where is he?  Seconds seemed like minutes and two minutes seemed like twenty.  Still spinning on the surface looking and then there, about 200 feet in toward shore, was my buddy, waving and signalling "OK".  Taking a navigational heading to where he was and indicating to stay in place, I descended to avoid the strong surface current and swam the distance following tight to my navigational heading and close to the bottom surfacing just beyond arms distance from my buddy.  Staying close and both stilled stunned at how quick we got separated we moved to the stairs and up out of the water to warm up, stow our gear and head home safe, sound and reminded of the importance of strong buddy contact.

Enjoying the view before gearing up to explore the wonders beneath!

Saturday afternoon while the Vancouver Canucks were preparing to dish out their punishment on the Boston Bruins, I was meeting up with a few friends at our cabin up at Porteau Cove.  The plan for the evening would see us completing 2 dives before calling it a night, catching some sleep and then joining Ocean Pro Divers in the morning for their monthly BBQ and dive day!!

By the time I had arrived at the cabin, my buddy for the night had just arrived and the Canucks were going into OT tied 2 - 2.  After grabbing my over-night gear and throwing it on the couch and flipping on the TV, we were just in time to see the puck drop and Alex Burrows suck Thomas out of the net, out skate Chara, and wrap around the net depositing the puck in the back of the net taking game 2 sending the Boston "ruins" back home to lick their wounds.

Shortly after the game, the third member of our group arrived and started preparing his dinner while I walked down towards the shore to look and see what the tides were looking like for the evening and was met with this wonderful view:

The water was so calm, only a few clouds in the air, conditions we dream about!

After my walk, the last of our team had arrived for the night and we loaded our gear and headed for the shore.  Taking our time to discuss the plans for the night and review any concerns we geared up and decended the stairs to start our first dive of the evening.

Surface swimming out to the first marker, the plan was to descend to the bottom, group up and move out along the fire hose exploring the darkened ocean floor.  Upon reaching the bottom and forming up in our buddy teams we headed out across the bottom.  Unfortunately the other group of divers turned out to be determined to move as quick as possible and since my buddy and I were looking to actually explore the under-sea world instead of watch it blast by while setting a record for how fast we could swim.  It did not take long for the other group to pull well ahead of us as we watched their lights dim into the distance.  Signalling to my buddy we slowed down to a complete stop, checked air, confirmed depth and started a slow patrol of the bottom moving in the general direction of the second marker.  After slowly exploring and capturing a few photos we started our slow return back towards the stairs watching as the fish dashed in and out of our beams of light.  Before we knew it, nearly 40 minutes had passed and we were watching as the bottom angled up and our depth drew down.  By 45 minutes we were back at the base of the stairs, regs out, fins off and then the short walk back to the vehicles to switch tanks and head back.

As it turned out, the first group had returned before us and had already stripped down their gear and packed it away.  One of the divers had decided to wear a wet-suit for the night, so after dive one he was uncomfortably cold and his buddy had decided one dive was enough for the night.  My partner and I, however, couldn't wait to get back in the water so while our friends headed back to the cabin we headed back out into the water, this time with a slightly different plan.

With me taking the lead we surface swam out just far enough to have about 10 feet of water below us before we descended.  Upon reaching bottom, we checked for neutral buoyancy, confirmed air and direction and then completely relaxed, slowly kicked and let the water move us slowly across the bottom while watching the world move around us.  As we approached half air we made a slow turn and moved back towards the stairs enjoying the underwater world and the wonderful life that it revealed to us along with some interesting looking animals that I had never seen before and will have to see if I can find someone to identify.

After finding and photographing our little buddy here we made our way to the stairs and up to the vehicles to strip down our gear and head for the cabin.  Back at the cabin we spread out the gear that would be needed for the following morning to allow it to dry a bit before being needed again and headed inside to join the rest of our party. 

As it turned out it wasn't much of a party... inside the cabin our other two divers had already found their sleeping bags and were working on catching their zzz's.  Quickly grabbing a snack and something warm to drink I headed to bed to snore away my night and dream of what the next day might bring.

Our Animals, Our Exhibits, My Brain....

May was nuts... there really is no other word for it so I am combining it into one blog... As mentioned previously in You may call me... "The Dolphin Poop Cleaner" I have been gifted the amazing opportunity of training as a volunteer diver for the Vancouver Aquarium.  Now to put this into a bit of perspective to get my Open Water Certification for diving, I attended 4 - 4 hour long classes that involved fitness tests ("Fitness... I don't need no stinkin' fitness") Knowledge Reviews, homework and in water practice culminating in a 50 questions exam (The "future" and the past!) and then a demonstration of all my skills in the open water.  For my certificate that allows me to be a volunteer for the Aquarium, not even a diver yet, I attended the orientation, then passed an interview and then.... I needed to complete 8 - 3 hour modules at the Aquarium learning everything from Marine Biology, the Arctic Environment, how to tell the difference between the Beluga's and even a little Lady Gaga... you'd have to ask David... words just cannot explain...lol.

Well here I am, my brain is fried, May is behind me and June is just started, I have completed all of my sessions and even had the chance to watch volunteers for other departments do presentations, I fortunately didn't have to present... I'm only a diver after-all...lol.  Next week we start the Diver related training... that should be interesting... not too worried though, unless of course Jeremy makes me sing Lady Gaga....

Saving Lives - The New Team Sport

Yesterday was when we finally put all of the pieces of my four month journey to Rescue Diver together.  After classroom session number one with Virpi in February (The Master Scuba Diver Challenge!!) followed by the confusion of Andrew to the Rescue.... Or Not?, we finally got everything started back up in Andrew to the Rescue part... Doh!! where Ward taught the classroom section again (for the 4 new students that had joined the Recue program) and invited me to join.  Then that following Saturday Denis and Matt taught the in water Rescue scenarios in You are healed!!.  Which brings us to yesterday when Denis and Cheryl lead us through the final in water rescue scenarios but this time we got to put all of the learned items together.

In You are healed!! I got to practice with Matt on bringing a diver to the surface, and finding a lost diver in partners and dealing with a panicked diver.We also had opportunities to practice our in-water rescue breaths with the pocket mask while pulling a victim to shore and getting their gear off.  Yesterday we got to demonstrate our rescue breaths again, but this time without the pocket mask (yeah, you wanna see a group of guys squirm... tell them they are about to practice mouth to mouth...lol.)  With that skill out of the way (and no, lips did not actually touch...lol, you end up blowing more on their chin or just below), we moved on to the real tests.  Here is where you need to put all your training into action.  One buddy is sent out into the water and is in apparent need of assistance, the other two need to come from shore and bring the first guy out.  Now, in our scenarios we have the advantage of knowing time really isn't of the essence (no one is really dying) and we are more or less mentally prepared and expecting the scenario.  So when Denis said go it was no surprise that most everyone was ready.  But what you realize in the two minutes the scenario takes to start and complete... there is a LOT to think about.... How far out is the potential victim?  Do I take the time to put my kit on? What do I take with me? Is he the only victim?

One by one, here is the thought process: 

How far out is the victim?

• do you have to get in the water
• can he be reached wading
• can something be thrown to him
• can you reach him with a stick

Do I take the time to put my kit on?

• if I take the time he is in the water having issues longer
• if I don't have my kit and he goes under then I may not be able to reach him
• if I have my kit I will be slower in the water
• if I don't have my kit and he gets panicky I don't have the option of going under him

What do I take with me?

• do I grab a floatation device or make one
• do I need my fins and mask
• do I get another diver to come with me or wait for me on shore

Is he the only victim?

• Where is his dive buddy
• Is this a surface rescue or is he signaling for help because he can't find his buddy
• What is the potential of additional victims

After our 3 man practice scenarios we had an opportunity to discuss some of the above topics / questions and work towards solutions (where ones could be found), and where you just need to sometimes go with your training and instinct and do your best, because your best, even if it's only marginally successful, is still better than not doing anything at all.

After our briefing, it was time for the final test... the real test.  You see for this one, Cheryl, our helpless "damsel in distress" is a "missing diver," and our team of six "rescuers" are tasked with finding and rescuing her.  What we know is that she is missing, we have a rough area and a general depth, we also know that visibility SUCKS at that depth.... what we need to do is agree upon a strategy, make a plan and execute it flawlessly... we also have to do it in less than 10 minutes!  Not a PADI requirement, a Cheryl requirement... she gets cold...lol.  So here was my chance to shine... lol, after-all, I had been through the classroom session twice, had the best partner for day 1 (Matt), can't go wrong with a DM as your partner, especially one who makes you work..lol.  With everyone on the beach, and knowing the obstacles, we began to discuss.  The eventual plan that was agreed upon was to go out as a team of 6 each person having a dedicated buddy in case of seperation, drop down to depth and essentially holding hands move parallel to the beach, one of us in the middle navigating with a compass, the guy beside him counting kick cycles and the 2 guys on either end watching to see if they can find Cheryl.  Then after a set number of kick cycles, we would send the message down the line (through taps) and the inside person would stop and everyone would rotate around them to swing back in the opposite direction covering the next section.  Then, once found, the first group of dedicated buddies to reach her would surface her and while one starts pulling her in the other starts breaths.  This allows the fastest pair of remaining swimmers to head to shore to get the first aid and O2 ready and the final pair to work together, without interfering with the dragging or breathing, in getting her kit off before reaching shore.

With the plan in place it was time to stage the scene, to make it interesting we descended first and waited 2 minutes while Cheryl swam to a spot and descended.  At the 2 minute mark we started our search pattern, as we reached the end of our pass, the diver to my far left (I was in the middle) signaled along the line, and one by one we stopped and noticed there to the left of us barely visible in the murky water was Cheryl.  The team to my left secured her regulator and surfaced with the remaining 4 of us following close behind.  On the surface 2 of our divers raced for shore to secure the first-aid and air.  The two divers that brought Cheryl to the surface had already secured the pocket mask and were making their way to shore as the last member of our group and myself started undoing her kit and passing the items off.  By the time we had reached shore her full kit was off as was mine, so while the rest of my team stripped off their gear I pulled Cheryl up on shore to where the guys with first-aid and air were waiting to take over.  After a couple rounds of compressions and breaths... she was revived and safe to dive another day.

All in, this was one of the best courses I could have taken, it took longer to complete than intended but the information is definitely in there to stay.

Much Harder Than It Looks....

What a busy week!! Last week I had my Photography class on Monday, Aquarium Orientation on Wednesday night and Aquarium volunteer interview on Thursday!  Then, to top off my week and start this busy one, yesterday I had my Photography class and the shop BBQ.  Arriving early as always, I parked in the typical lower parking lot, right by the benches and in a perfect spot for a short walk to the shore.  Then within a couple minutes of arriving I saw Dennis arrive and head to the upper parking.  So throwing my fins back in the van I moved up to where he had parked.  Soon after Matt arrived and said Wes had let him know we would meet in the lower lot after all, as there would be more space.  Dennis and I decided to wait to see what Wes and Shannon wanted to do when they got there as they were only a couple minutes behind Matt.  Once they arrived they let us know that we would be using the upper lot as that is what they had mentioned on the original email...lol.  But after reviewing the lot, we decided to compromise and move to the middle lot, giving us the room we would need but keeping us close to our original plan so that no one would be lost or confused...lol.  Lots of work and we hadn't even started yet.

Once parked it was time to assemble kits and review notes and start getting everything ready for our Photography dives.  Once the whole class arrived, and with our gear all assembled we sat with Wes to discuss the plan for the day, buddy up and then get out gear on.

After our short briefing and with gear in place and buddy teams arranged we headed for the water.  Of course with Chloe still out with her foot, there was only 5 divers going in, Matt with the one student and me with the other DM and Wes watching us all.  The idea for the first dive was to have each of us try to focus on Macro photography and get REALLY close to stuff, and then practice getting our lights in the right spots so that we could try to get a few shots that worked.

This is where everything went pear shaped for me, my strobe is apparently VERY bright and the resulting "flash" was blowing away all of my photos, even with my shutter set up really high, and my aperture really low and ISO set at 80 (as low as it goes), my photos were still oddly over exposed.  The only thing that started to work was moving the strobe further away from the object but that resulted in back-scatter, (when all the particulate in the water is lit up and very prominent in the photos.)  Wes did his best to try to help me accommodate to the blasting light and even tried snapping off a few himself helping me get things a little more dialed in.  Then to complicate matters, visibility sucked pretty bad and was not helped by the fact 5 divers were trying to get as close to the ground as possible and then take off again without disturbing the ground... easier said then done.  For much of the first part of the dive we had debris everywhere and were struggling to shoot through it.  Wes led the way most of the time moving back and forth between the two groups and giving tips as he could.  He even flipped a sun star over for me so that I could photograph it as is set itself right again.  Then as we got a little deeper and visibility got a little better we were able to separate a little more and managed to get a few more usable images.  But alas, before long, people started getting cold and air started to run shorter so we headed back in to the shallows capturing images as we did and then headed up for lunch, a debrief and a chance to review some of the images.

Getting my laptop out of the van it took only a minute to download all of my failed attempts and my few success' onto my computer.  Then Wes was able to scroll through them and see what if anything he could tell me that would help me move from being totally worthless at underwater photography to at least somewhat useable...lol.  Everyone ended up with a shot or two that they were happy with and then it was time to eat!

Now I love the Ocean Pro BBQ's, in fact I love BBQ's in general...lol and this was no exception.  For $5 you get a couple of amazing burgers, some salad, a pop, and all sorts of other plate (and stomach) fillers.  Ashley was there to help with the cooking, and Shannon kept everyone organized while encouraging people to eat more...lol.  Amongst some of the other divers in attendance were Dennis, Ward, and Virpi (my supremely incredible instructors) and Stewart (the man who keeps everything running.)  After having my fill of burgers it was time to clean up, stow my laptop, and change the batteries in my camera (just to be safe). 

With everything clean, stowed and changed, it was time to head for the water.  With our team together we waded into the water and this time had the plan to go out a bit further and descend along the wall and see if we could capture images of the life along the rock.  After descending and meeting at the bottom it was time to (in our pairs) move out along the bottom and wall and find exciting life and items and attempt to capture usable images.  After a few feet I went in for a photo of a sunstar and it came out black... so I moved the light in a bit, adjusted a couple settings, and boom... blown out and WAY too bright.... a couple more setting changes... still to bright... again... still bright but better... a couple of tweeks... black again!  Grrrrr!!!

Now that I was one step away from seeing how far I could throw my camera underwater.. I decided to try one more time... this time, while still black.. I noticed something.. I didn't see a big flash...hmm.  So, holding the camera away from me, I pulled the trigger... sure enough, my on board flash went off.. but no strobe...  I flicked the switch back and forth.... nothing... the batteries were dead!!  I had thought to switch my camera batteries but had not thought that the strobe batteries would be that low.... Grrrrr!!!

Well, with my photography done for the day, it was time to follow Wes and my buddy around.  Now my buddy didn't seem to be taking many photos either, she seemed to be mostly following Wes and watching what he was doing... looks like great minds think alike... literally... she had forgot to switch her batteries too...lol.  As it turned out once the dive was done, Wes had a failure in one of his strobes, and pretty much everyone else had battery issues. 

All said and done it was a great day and fun dives and I even got a couple images that I am sort of happy with.  I've attached them below, let me know what you think, and if you have tips.. let me know those too.

You may call me... "The Dolphin Poop Cleaner"

Last night I got the AMAZING opportunity to go to the Volunteer Orientation at the Vancouver Aquarium!! 

So why is it in my dive blog, you may ask?  Well, because I am a volunteer diver for the Vancouver Aquarium.... or will be once I:

1. pass my interview
2. complete the seven 3 hour modules about the aquarium
3. complete the 3 hours module on Marine Biology 
4. pass my dive theory exam
5. pass Diving emergency and accident management
6. pass the DAN Oxygen First Aid for SCUBA Diving Injuries 
7. complete the swimming evaluation (wee.. more fitness)
8. pass the Powered Equipment Safety exam
9. complete the check-out dive and skills circuit and
10. complete my surface supply diving equipment training

Then... then I will be a Volunteer Diver for the Aquarium!...lol.. and get to swim with all the animals and pat them and play with them and ride them.... WRONG!!  As Melanie Knight, (Acting Manager for Volunteer Services) had us (me and 90 other volunteers) repeat... I WILL NOT TOUCH THE ANIMALS...lol.  No this is not the Aquarium being mean, and no they are not selfishly all sitting in their offices hogging all of the animal hugs for themselves...lol.  The aquarium for obvious reasons can't guarantee anyone will ever have the chance to touch any of the animals, in fact even the divers (me) are in tanks, like the dolphin tank, while the animals are safely somewhere else.  For obvious reasons the aquarium does not want to mislead anyone into volunteering with the misconception that they will spend their hundred plus hours hugging and kissing cuddly animals only to have them get to their first shift and find out, no... they get to talk about the animals, they get to point to the animals, they get to answer questions about the animals, but they do not get to touch the animals.  A disillusioned or disappointed volunteer is an unhappy volunteer, and an unhappy volunteer leads to unhappy guests and unhappy guests don't come back, and without guests there is no need for volunteers and no resources (money) coming in, and without the money, there is no means to support the animals! And the mission of the Aquarium is to be a "self-supporting, non-profit association dedicated to effecting the conservation of aquatic life through display and interpretation, education, research and direct action."  In other words, their around to keep the animals around, show us what the animals look like (for anyone who doesn't actively swim with Jellies or Belugas and everything in between..lol), tell us what the animals are doing, and why they do it, all while themselves continuing to find out more on what makes these wonderful animals do what they do, in a deliberate and effective manner.  The other reason you can't touch... they don't want you to get hurt by the animals...lol

So... where does this leave me... Mr Active and Involved diver... new explorer and photographer of the undersea world?  It leaves me right wherever the Aquarium needs me, and for now that sounds like in the empty dolphin tank cleaning poop!  Doesn't sound exciting to you? Ok, then look at it through my eyes... I have been to the Vancouver Aquarium maybe half a dozen times in my life, for those of you doing the math at home that's roughly once ever six years... the Aquarium changes programs and adds exhibits on a continuous basis so if your not there like once a month you're missing stuff... so to think of the exhibits, animals and adventures I have missed over the 420 months I have been around is mind boggling - as a Volunteer, I can go whenever I want, if I don't understand something, they have staff that will help me, almost every diver I know pulls their information on local marine life from a book, if I can catch a picture or provide a decent description, I get the information live, from an expert!... Need more reasons... all three of my boys have been on field trips to the Aquarium and (surprise surprise) each of those field trips is led by a volunteer, someone who has given of their time to enrich my children's lives!  Nearly 30 years I walked the earth and knew that littering was bad and it hurts things like animals and mother nature, etc.  It wasn't until a trip to the Aquarium that someone actually "educated" me and the children I was working with on the dangers of plastic pop can rings and how birds (and other animals) get their necks caught in them and die.  Years later on another trip to the Aquarium I learned, (from a volunteer) that plastic grocery bags, you know the ones you now have to pay $0.05 for, the ones people will let blow down the street if the bag falls out of their car, those bags, when they hit the ocean very closely resemble a Jelly Fish, now as a diver I avoid the Jellies, but the beautiful Sea Turtles that we all dream about riding and loved watching in finding Nemo, they eat those "Jellies" and surprise, plastic bags are no better for them then they are for our babies!  These lessons are taught to our children and grandchildren and their friends on a daily basis by people who freely give of their time!  Don't you agree it's time to give back!  Now you understand a small percentage of why it's important for me to be involved in something this big.

Well, I'll be off for my Interview in a little bit, fingers crossed that they like me enough to give me a chance and hopefully I'll be able to provide updates as I go through my training and maybe, all going well... soon you'll be able to call me "The Dolphin Poop Cleaner!"

Working The Triangle.

Monday night marked the start of what I hope will be my favorite dive topic... PHOTOGRAPHY!!

After reading the manual and carrying my camera around the house with me playing with buttons I figured i was going to be all set for this class.  The only thing I was worried about was lighting... lighting is one of the hardest things about photography (land or water) but those issues are compounded under water as light can't travel through water very well, even less in poor visibility and without light, you need strobes and strobes are a whole new challenge.

Class was a ton of fun, Chloe and another dive master from a different school were auditing the class in hopes of getting certified to teach it one day and then there was Matt and I and one of my dive buddies who does most of my courses with me.  Matt just recently purchased a new camera and the shop had purchased the same one for divers to rent or borrow when doing the photography course and of course Chloe, the other DM and I all have our cameras.  Now photography is always a tough course to teach (even land) when students have different cameras. This is complex as each camera has it"s settings in a different location or configuration and some have features others don't.  All this combines to make a tough class.

Once class got kicked off, our instructor, Wes, underwater photographer extraordinaire (you can see some of his work here), took us through the basics of photography.  Now this was a fun part for me because while lighting has it's challenges and composition is an area I struggle with, ISO, Aperture and Shutter speed are my second language...lol.  Being able to help explain concepts to some of the students and assist Wes with moving through the Triangle was exciting... finally I know something most others are not too sure about...lol.

Now the Triangle, for anyone who has not taken photography is the balance between ISO - Shutter Speed- Aperture.  As you adjust one, you need to adjust one or both of the others to compensate and ensure enough light reaches the sensor (or film in pre-digital cameras).  As you decrease the ISO (the sensors sensitivity) to increase the quality of image, you must either narrow the depth of field (lower aperture) or slow down the shutter (lower shudder speed).  To catch a faster moving object you need to speed up the shutter (increase shutter speed) meaning you need to either narrow the depth of field (lower aperture) or increase the ISO.  To get lots of items or area in focus you need to increase the depth of field (Aperture) and as such need to lower the shutter speed and/or increase the ISO.  For some people this just makes sense, for others this concept baffles them beyond compare and despite their continuous attempts they just can't grasp the concept.

The triangle, as in many classes, took up most of the night and what was left was on cleaning, prepping and composing.  Now for composing the initial encouragement was to focus on Macro photography (the really close stuff) and try to find non-moving or slow moving objects so that we would have more of a chance to practice our SEA skills (Shoot - Examine - Adjust).  Wes was also able to show us some tricks for light placement for doing Macro work and even move from camera to camera to help review settings to ensure the best ones were set-up before heading to the shore on Sunday.

With class wrapped up we visited for a few minutes and then headed out, all of us excited for the coming Sunday dives and BBQ.

You are healed!!

Ok, despite the blasphemous humor, I was not actually healing anyone, more saving their lives... and believe me Mr Matt Mendez needs a lot of Rescuing...lol.  I mean, he got tired all of a sudden, so I towed him in a little way and reassured him, then he went back out and panicked, so I went out and got him and brought him back in, then he panicked again so I had to go under the surface and come up behind him to settle him down.  Then he was tired again but when I got to him he went into a panic and tried to climb on me so again I had to submerge and come up around him to secure him and get his BCD inflated so he could calm down.  No sooner was all this done, then he ran out of air at depth, so being the good buddy I was I shared mine and we made the gentle ascent to the surface. 

The day didn't stop there, Matt first started over-exerting himself meaning I had to get him to calm down, then he tried to make a rapid, panic ascent to the surface so I had to deflate both our BCDs and arrest his ascent and then control our combined ascent to the surface!  A short time later Matt ran out of air again, this time he was in a panic so I had to quickly grab my octo and just about ram it into his mouth, make sure he had it and then control our slow ascent to the surface. 

I think all the activity on the day wore on Matt though, it wasn't long before I found him unresponsive on the bottom and after attempting to get his attention I had to grab his BCD and making sure his reg stayed in place and take him to the surface and inflate his BCD so I could assess further.  Of course this whole time, Dennis was of no help, he just watched me save Matt over and over again and even (I suspect) led to some of Matts precarious situations...lol.  Fortunately I think Matt was paying attention because when Dennis told us there was a "missing diver" (ankle weight), Matt was very useful in counting our kick cycles as I navigated across the bottom in our U shape search pattern.  It wasn't long before we recovered our "missing diver," don't worry the ankle weights recovered just fine and will live to dive again! and Matt and I were even so careful with our recovery that after finding the "diver" we decided to have a safety stop even though we hadn't exceeded 20 feet, and played a couple rounds of Rock Paper Scissors before I felt the need to do a couple Mask R&R's (remove and replace) before taking the victim to the surface. 

Honestly I don't think it was anybody's day, there were unresponsive divers everywhere, or at least in our group it seemed like everyone but Dennis and Matt (he finally learned) were having issues and were requiring their buddies to flip them over to get their faces out of the water, remove their masks and while administering rescue breathes move them to shore while pulling all theirs and their buddies gear off and passing it to someone else in the group to hold.  Even I had a bout of unresponsiveness followed by an immediate recovery in time for me to find my buddy face down and in need of rescue! lol.

As all of you have probably assessed, all of these events were controlled and planned and very well supervised.  This was class number one of two for my Rescue Certification with Dennis instructing and Matt surving as DM and buddy to me. No one was ever in any kind of danger, no one really ran out of air or became non-responsive or truly panicked...lol.  This was probably one of my most exhausting days in the water but despite the sore muscles and hard work, this was probably one of my favorite courses as I definitely feel more confident in the water.  I know I am still a baby as far as divers go but I certainly felt that getting through this first part of the course has raised me up a few bars and combined with my EFR course I am confident that I am becoming a better diver and a better buddy every time I am out.

Next week is Photography, which should be interesting considering I have a fairly solid grasp of photography on the surface, but underwater.... a whole new adventure!

Andrew to the Rescue part... Doh!!

Ok, so last night was classroom take #2...lol.  As those of you who read Andrew to the Rescue.... Or Not?
 you are well aware that in February I completed the classroom session with the one other student enrolled in the Rescue course at that time but the following weekend when Virpi was to take us to Wytecliff to drown us and have us rescue each other.... just kidding Moms, nobody drowns, we just pretend... my partner was unable to join us!  So the course unfortunately, was put on hold until we could find a suitable date.  So, inevitably, in March we finally settled on the end of April to get the Rescue course back on track, so then it was just time to hurry up and wait.... This brought us to Thursday where (since new people had joined the group) we had our second classroom time.  Showing up right in time for class and greeted by my good friend Ward... apparently the Wonder Woman herself, the one who never catches anything and, through absolute sheer will, doesn't get sick.... got sick!!   No worries though, Ward is an amazing teacher... and besides the irony still play true... he was one of the three divers from the shop that went into the water during Seals to Emergencies to demonstrate a live rescue scenario for us brand new students (how kind of them...) I had decided to attend class to brush up on my Rescue theory, besides, if I was gonna rescue you, wouldn't you want me to have as much training and knowledge as possible.... I thought so!

So as Ward took us through the book, the videos and the review questions, taking his time to highlight specific things and open others up for discussion, the group of us all reached a solid understanding of not only what to do, but why to do it and what to expect when it happens.  All in all, as usual, a GREAT class!

The end of Wards class' always come too early, I don't think I could ever talk about diving too much, at least for me, I know it's too much for a lot of people who hear me talk about it but that is also why I type this, so I can talk and for anyone who's interested, they can listen (or read).  Class ended and of course the question comes up, who's teaching on the weekend?  Was Virpi going to be better by then?  Unfortunately this is when things turned, you see Virpi was REALLY sick, so the weekend was out, Ward had a class to teach on Sunday and a previous, unchangeable (believe me we tried to convince him) commitment on the Saturday so he would not be available but as fortune would have it Dennis was available for Sunday!  Another instructor you say.... yes, instructor number 3!!  But would you believe the fates!!!  Dennis, as some of you already knew and others have guessed, was diver number three from the shop that was involved in my famous Whytecliff Seals to Emergencies  adventure.... what are the odds of all three of the shop divers involved in the rescue attempt at Whytecliff to be the ones to teach me how to rescue people!  So it looks like I will only finish half of my Rescue dives this weekend... who knew you could spread a one evening and one weekend course across 4 months...lol.  Talk to you Monday!!

Flutter kick, flutter kick goes the Easter Bunny....

Well, I guess if fish can lay eggs under the water, why couldn't a bunny... or bunnies... bunnies from Langley Diving.  Last week I was fortunate enough to receive an email from Langley Dive inviting me to join them on the weekend for their Easter Egg hunt at Porteau Cove.  I am assuming that because Langley Dive were involved in the Whites Demo that I participated in they ended up with my email address.  However they got it, they did, and I was off to Porteau to hunt for eggs for the first time since being a kid, and for the very first time under-water.

Saturday was a beautiful day and with the meet time scheduled for 10:00 am it was late enough to get a good sleep and enjoy a leisurely drive and still have tons of time to assemble my gear before anyone else arrived for the day.  Up at the dive site at just after 9:00 allowed me ample time to pull out my kit and take my time to assemble everything then walk out an look at the conditions, and then head over to the Langley Dive van to see what the plan was.   After a couple of minutes, one of the Bunnies, Monique Score,  having finished her dive, came over to say hello and welcome me to the dive.  A few minutes later I met Rebecca Barrett, another Instructor from Langley Dive and the second Dive Bunny.  Soon a group had formed, and Monique and Rebecca called everyone together to welcome us and let us know the details of today's adventure.

Earlier in the day Monique and Rebecca had placed twenty-seven (27) eggs beneath the surface of the water, no deeper than 50 feet, on the surfaces of the Granthall, Centennial, Sailboat Hull, Jungle Gym, Tire Reef and along the Fire Hose.  The idea was simple, go, collect, return, YEAH!...lol.

Monique had already introduced me to my dive buddy for the day, a recent graduate of the Open Water program at Langley Dive in January and excited about his 5th dive and first time in Porteau Cove.  I was also able to meet another diver, excited to get back in the water for his 6the dive following his completion of his Open Water back in September.  Both divers (and even Monique) seemed a bit surprised to hear I have not been certified all that long myself (end of August) and was headed out for dives 36 and 37...lol.  I was also delighted to speak with one of the new divers as he is also a Detroit Red Wings fan, and amidst a sea of Canucks fans these days as the team throws away game after game it was interesting to see the Red Wings hat from across the parking lot... too bad I forgot mine.  After some hockey talk and more importantly red Wings nostalgic talk, he headed to meet up with his buddy and me with mine as we all donned gear, finished our buddy checks, being very thorough as this was the most junior group of divers I had been out with to date, odd being the experienced diver for once...lol.  With everything secure where it needed to be and dive plan discussed it was time to get in the water.

Our plan for dive one, to keep it simple, was to swim out to the first marker buoy descend and follow the fire hose out and over to the sailboat and reef and eventually the Granthall and all going well and air holding out, slowly make our way back in and reduce our surface swim as much as possible.  For those divers who have only ever done Porteau Cove, their first dive at Whytecliff is a shock because there is a long walk to the beach with all your gear on, for those who have only ever done Whytecliff Park and come to Porteau, you are blessed by the amazingly short walk (unless the tide is way out) but the ground slopes so slowly you need to surface swim a good distance before you can get anywhere that has some depth... all about what you want...lol.  So my new buddy and I got in the water, fins on, masks on and started our surface swim... fortunately doing the first buoy it is not really a long swim and we managed to talk a bit on the way out comparing Whytecliff to some of the things he would see here at Porteau.  Once close to the buoy, we caught our breath, put in our regulators and signaled for descent and BAM! it hit me... I was in charge of this dive... I was the senior diver... if we got lost... or had issues... or got eaten by a ravenous squid-a-pus (you can meet Kraken in Diving, Dinner, Demo's and the RCMP...) it would all be my fault...lol.  My nerves were not really put at ease when we descended either, as we broke the surface I quickly realized that seeing my buddy 5 feet away was a bit of a struggle, never mind seeing something further away than that....like the chain we were supposed to be following down...lol.  So on the ground we headed in what I "thought:" was the right direction... and with a couple glances at my compass.. someone had moved the hose!...lol  That had to be it.. there was no way I was lost... could I be?... yup... I was lost....and realizing nothing was where I left it...lol.. I signalled to my buddy and we ascended back up to re-orient to our target.

We actually didn't end up too far off target, we were further North-East then I had planned so a little plan change and a solid compass bearing marked us dead online to the second buoy.  Descending again and watching my compass we made a straight line to the 2nd marker, found the fire hose with no issue and continued on through the jungle gym and to the surface of the Centennial where I found a rock painted like an Easter egg.  With the egg in my pocket, and my buddy beside it was off to the Granthall where I managed to find 2 plastic Easter eggs that had been placed beside the Plumose Anemone so they were each almost invisible as the colors were blending in.  Our return trip over the Centennial led to my buddy finding a painted rock similar to mine before we turned towards shore and then towards the surface for a decent surface swim.

Back up at the vehicles with the tanks off our back it was time to grab our lunches and check in with Monique and Rebecca.  A couple sandwiches later, a nice cup of hot chocolate and a couple cookies and I was all good to go again...lol.  Gathered around the Langley Dive van Monique showed us where the numbers were on the bottom of our plastic eggs, turned out the painted rocks... not part of our search...lol, must have been another group out earlier in the week, perhaps Friday, that missed a couple...lol.  So with two plastic eggs I gave one to my buddy (we were a team after-all) and listened as Rebecca called out numbers and passed us all prizes.  Then when all the eggs (the ones that had been returned at least) were called, Monique and Rebecca gave out prizes to anyone who was unable to come across an egg in their first dive, so everyone got something anyways.

Dive 2 was my Navigation challenge, I knew (this time) that visibility was going to be tough.  So with the plan being similar to dive 1 we decided we would get right up to the buoy and follow the chain to the ground, with a little searching (it's not attached right at the bottom) we found the hose.  Then following it we made our slow swim towards the 2nd buoy over the Sailboat hull, passed the Centennial, over the tire reef, through the jungle gym, and around the Granthall (where we each found another egg.)  The return trip, with my compass bearing in mind, came almost natural, after looping the Granthall, we headed back through the jungle gym, above the tires around the Centennial (man there are some HUGE ling cod sleeping on that deck) passed the sailboat hull and right back onto the fire hose...  Then, following the hose, we made the trek back to the first buoy which was not hard to find this time.  You see, this buoy is often used by Open Water classes, so really all you have to look for is large clouds of disturbed silt and you can see where the students are landing at the bottom...lol.  A turn to the left through the cloud and sure enough there fighting for their buoyancy were a couple Open Water students..lol.  Then keeping on that line it was a straight swim all the way back in.  We were able to get so close in that my computer actually turned off, I guess I had been swimming in less than 5 feet of water too long...lol.  We actually had to back out into the bay again to take our fins off but it was definitely the closest I have ever come to swimming to the stairs, and certainly without a doubt the best navigation I have ever done.

The route we followed is below:

Well, I always say, it's a great dive if you learned something new and I learned that I can navigate and with a little practice I might actually get good at it.  Here's looking forward to Rescue this weekend, Photography the weekend after along with a fun dive and very soon.. the Aquarium!

Cuts, Records and Bad Buddies.....

Woke up this morning still feeling a little tired from yesterday with Ward but still totally jacked up about putting in another 2 dives.  For today (thanks to Chloe at Ocean Pro Divers) I had been invited to join Allen Kyte and his advanced class as they ventured into the waters at Wytecliff Park to complete their Deep and their Naturalist dives.  Armed with gear and camera I arrived at the shop (early as always) and waited to see who was up to what today.  Sure enough shortly after arriving Shannon and Chloe arrived, followed shortly by Michael Klaver and Steve Dunn.  Apparently today was instructor training day and some in the class were meeting at the shop before heading to the site.  My first few minutes at the shop were spent chasing Shannon and Steve down to hit them up for signatures in my dive log for my Emergency O2 course and EFR courses followed by catching up with Michael and Chloe and then greeting the people I had never met and being introduced to Allen.  As it turned out the gentleman who was supposed to be in the course today had suffered some bad luck last night with his vehicle and as a result was not going to be able to join us.  This reduced our group down to Allen as instructor, one student and me tagging along behind.  Almost as quick as the shop got busy, it was emptied out again leaving our group to finish loading and head out to Whytecliff Park.

Upon arriving at Whytecliff it was the same ritual as always, take a look at the water, thank God I am lucky enough to have this kind of beauty in my back yard, and grab my gear to get it prepped.  With everything unloaded and kits being assembled it was time to start planning out our day.  The plan was to do our deep dive on what is called the "Cut".  Now the cut is exactly what it sounds like, it looks like someone plunged a knife into the rock of Whytecliff park and drew a line back into the bay.  Once in the water it drops very fast and runs off to the right to incredible depths and on the left you have the wall.  Since this was the deep dive for the advanced certification, depth was the goal.  The plan was quite simple, I would buddy up with the student and swim to her right with Allen just back and to the left.  We would swim out staying along the wall and slowly make our way to a depth of 90 feet and then see how everyone was doing to see if we would go a little further.  Then once in the bay we would circle around the point and head back into the bay making our exit easier....simple!

So with gear on and group together we headed towards the entry and down the rocky path and stairs.  In the water, fins on, masks on, regs in, and down.  It was almost as if we had been diving together a bunch of times, we descended as a group and in perfect position headed out along the wall.  Then with a little signal the student my "buddy" pointed out to the right a bit and we angled a little away from the wall and into deeper water.  With almost perfect control of our buoyancy we moved almost as one unit slowly descending and moving through the cut.  Now I think it was the relaxed atmosphere or my intermittent ADD that caused it but I saw a fish and thought "Oooh shiny" and stopped to take a picture.. then kicked back to the group only to see another thing to take a picture of and another and another and another... Next thing you know I was swimming back of the group with Allen beside my buddy and me busy taking pictures.  This was pretty much how the dive finished, Allen and student together with me bringing up the rear.  At 1500 psi, as discussed, we headed up a bit to 50 feet and continued, by this time, further into the bay until about 900 when we ascended to safety stop depth and swam in further before surfacing and kicking in.

Now, in between dives (good class dives especially) during your surface interval, you debrief and discuss the dive.  What went good, what was not so good, what went according to plan, what went sideways and what would we do different next time.  Allen (much like Ward in Row, Row, Row Your Boat Gently Into The Rolling Waves.... Merrily Merrily Off To See The Circus...)  was great about reviewing the dive with his student and then, bum bum bum, with me....  You see, I broke one of the cardinal rules of diving (and of Top Gun) I left my buddy!  My job was to stay to her right side and I decided to drop off to take pictures (hand slap time...ouch!)

Now for dive number 2, our Naturalist / Navigation dive, the plan for this one was quite simple.  Gear-up, head into the water, finish the "navigational square" that had been incomplete in their dives the day before, and then proceed out along the wall looking for critters.  Not a very involved dive and by keeping shallow and moving slow, this could be a good long dive... boy was I right...lol.  For this dive, being a Naturalist one I elected (with Allen's permission) to just be the tag along photographer and not "dive buddy," this allows for me to take LOTS of pictures of all of the wonderful little creatures we find along the way.  Everything for this dive went as planned, I once again dropped more weight bringing me down to 22 lbs of weight from the original 42 lbs I started with, and was feeling better than ever about my buoyancy.  Down the hill we went and into the water, out to about 10 or 12 feet of water and descend to make a square, ascending upon completion brought us back almost to where we started, always a good start!  Then back down again and over to the wall to do a very slow, swim along the wall looking at all the plants and creatures along the way.  I must admit after about 20 minutes of our floating along I got concerned when I looked at my air and still had over 2000psi, then at 40 minutes with more than 1500psi left.  Now my rational brain didn't take long to figure out that we were shallow and we weren't really kicking, more floating with the current and surge of the tide, so we we're breathing all that much.  By about the 50 minute mark we had already started to head back and not going below 30 feet we didn't need a safety stop so we had time, but the most interesting thing started to happen... I got cold!  Looking around I realized that I was not the only one, Allen and his student both looked cold too, which was funny because as soon as I looked at Allen, he gave me the "cold" signal to which I responded "cold" and we started moving in closer to shore and closer to the surface.

All in I ended dive 2 with close on 1400 psi left in my tank, still enough for another dive...lol, and we had been in the water for 59.6 minutes, a new record for me smashing my old record and nearly breaking 1hr of dive time!

The walk to the vehicles was a quick one, the wind was kicking up and we were already cold.  Up to the cars, gear stripped off, sweatshirts and toques on and something warm in the stomach I was feeling loads better.  Then to pack all the gear, fit it in totes and load it into the van.  All done, it was time to sit and chat a few about the dive, make sure everyone was happy and everything accomplished.  Time for Allen to sign off on the books and forms and then it was time to load up and head home.

Today marked dives 34 and 35, meaning once my Rescue courses are completed later this month (hopefully) and 15 more dives are done (hopefully soon) I will be qualified to receive my Master Scuba Diver designation.  As exciting as that is, it is still a scary fact that according to the industry standards I will be recognized (regardless of association) as a Master Scuba Diver.  That seems to me to be a whole lot of responsibility.  I know it doesn't hold the same qualification or clout and Dive Master but to me it still seems BIG!!  lol.  Well, until the next time I get my nose wet and take my gear for a tour of the ocean, stay safe and I'll update you all soon... Photography is coming up!!!

In Search of Whiskey and The VT-100....

I discovered this past week that if you ever want to go diving and have nothing planned... post to Facebook and/or call Ocean Pro...lol.  I posted on Thursday, while waiting for Jenn to try on clothes at the mall, that I wanted to go diving this weekend and followed that up with a call to Chloe at the shop to see if there were any fun dives planned.  Chloe let me know that nothing had been planned for fun dives but she would make some calls for me and let me know.  Before long I had gotten a bunch of messages on Facebook.  Ward telling me we should plan a boat dive, Ashley inviting me up to Sechelt to dive with her for the weekend, a couple people letting me know they wish they could go and even an invite to dive in a friends bathtub!....lol.  No sooner had I read and responded to these messages, and Chloe called me back to let me know she had gotten me dives...lol.  Again, I am very fortunate to have the friends I do and the shop I go to.  So my plans for this weekend were to dive on both Saturday and Sunday.  Saturday with friends if it could be sorted out, and Sunday with Allen Kyte (an instructor from Ocean Pro) and his advanced class up at Whytecliff.

As it turned out Ashley was leaving to Sechelt before we could get anything arranged and that bathtub just didn't have the depth I wanted nor (I hope) any critters....lol.  But I was very fortunate to have an amazing offer from Ward to take his boat out for a dive, this was going to be an epic weekend!  So out to the shop following work yesterday to pick-up my drysuit rental and get all the times from Chloe for Sundays dives, then home to get a hold of Ward to get the details on where the boat was.  With details all gathered and equipment all put together and me bouncing around the house like a kid on Christmas eve, bedtime couldn't come early enough!  But, just before bed, Jenn (my much better half) made a comment to me that I probably should have caught hours earlier when speaking to Ward about his boat... it was in the US.... I don't have a passport... this was going to be an issue!  With a quick message to Ward to ensure my wife was correct (which she was) and let him know I was unfortunately  unable to cross  the border we decided to leave the final decision on what to do until this morning.  Morning arrived soon enough and with a call to Ward we discussed options and finally decided he would meet at my house, I would drive from there and he could show me a couple new locations I have never seen before.

It wasn't long before we were on our way and headed towards Burnaby and the mysterious Whiskey Cove in the Village of Belcarra.  With Ward as navigator it was a nice quick drive and we were on-site in no time with gear ready and changed into our drysuits.  A short walk through the woods and down to the shore line brought us out between a few houses and their docks of beautiful boat which I will never be able to afford...lol.  For the first part of the dive we decided to go out to the right and work our way along the wall to see what we might find down along there and see if we could get any decent pictures.  As it turned out there was not much to see along the wall, a few critters here and there but in the murky water it was difficult at times to see ahead and times when the only thing you could make out of your buddy was the outline or the occasional flash of the camera.  Eventually we could see a shelf or a reef just out from the wall heading into slightly deeper water so we turned and followed it to see if there was anything more exciting.  With a few fish and an amazingly huge sole laying still on the ground.  Good thing Ward pointed it out or I would have swam right past....lol.  At about half air Ward signaled for us to ascend for a moment to find our exact bearing, only being in about 25 - 30 feet of water this was no issue.  Once we had established our location (not where we thought we were...lol) we realigned with shore (not off by much) and descended back to depth to continue our exploration of the reef, heading in the direction of our exit.

With dive one complete we headed back to the vehicle to strip down our gear and figure out what was next.  After a short discussion we concluded we would go and dive the VT-100.  Now on the trip up to Belcarra this morning Ward was telling me a bit about the VT-100.  You see originally it was called the YMS-159 and served as wooden hulled mine sweeper in the 40's before it was decommissioned and sold to the Vancouver Tug Boat Co in 1955.  Now the story goes that back in the day  when a ship was decommissioned the weapons had to be shut down but not necessarily removed, so this tug was motoring the waterways with 50mm and two 20mm guns on deck.  Now apparently the residents at the time were not fond of having this ship in their marina and according to legend it was set on fire by vandals and burned below the water line and left to sink to the watery grave where it remains to this day.

Now upon arrival at the new site and parked along the side of the road in one of only three available spots for the public along this road, we did a little site tour before donning our gear.  Ward took me along the road back about 30 feet behind where we parked to where a small path (more of a goat trail..lol) was cut between the low blackberry bushes and down a steep path to the rocky beach.  Now this was our entry point and we would be traversing this with all our gear on...weee.  Despite this I was excited, any dive is a good dive, one with a friend is even better, so I was ready to go regardless of the entry and exit.  Now again, understand all I can see as I am changing and gearing up is the beautiful houses lining the opposite side of the road and lining our side... well built, gently sloping, stairwells leading to docks right at the water level.. and on the street level... little gates marked "Private".  All these beautiful "potential" entries, with their easily accessible docks right on the water and here we are rock climbing with a ton of gear strapped to our backs...lol.  Needless to say, it was not the easiest entry to traverse but with the help of a little rope someone tied up, we made it down and across the rocks and into the water.  Now,  Wards best recollection of the approximate location of the VT-100 was quite a surface swim from the entry point about 300 feet from shore in about 55 - 60 feet of water (sometimes deeper, tide dependent) .  Now, keeping in mind that the shoreline and locations of many of the docks changes from year to year we were relying on best guess to find the boat.  When reaching the approximate location, masks went on, regs went in and we signaled down...  After a slow descent we reached dead on 60 feet and set off, me following behind Ward and keeping my camera ready in case we came across anything of interest.  It wasn't more than a few kicks and Ward signaled with his light,  right there in front of us was debris... debris of the wooden ship kind... debris of the sunken wooden ship kind...lol.  We knew we were close!  A little further along was some more debris, and then more, sunken bottles, boards and even an old boot!  We continued our swim and photographed many of the items found including a weight pouch with weight inside...lol, but alas, my air was not meant to last forever (Wards apparently is meant to last a lot longer than mine though...lol) and we were forced to head back and start towards our safety stop depth of 50 feet.  Then maintain depth and head in the direction of our exit slowly ascending towards safety stop depth.  At 750 psi it was time for our safety stop at 15 feet.  At depth Ward released his SMB (surface marker buoy) for details on the use of these see To Drift or Not To Drift.....  Watching our computers closely and monitoring our time we hovered at 15 feet for our 3 minutes and then making our way to the surface VERY carefully, as not everyone knows what the marker means, we surfaced and looked towards shore to evaluate our surface swim.  We were WAY out there...lol.  Now with Ward weighed down with an extra 10lbs with the recently found weight pouch he was off center in the water and I am not all that centered at the best of times...lol, this was looking to be an interesting swim in.  It didn't take long for Ward, (who's mind never stops working) to realize he could attach his SMB to the weight pouch and float the bag back in saving him a lot of the work... YEAH!!.  Our surface swim gave us a chance to look at the docks we would love to have if money were no object and think about the boats we could have if we had those docks... and money were not an object...lol.  Back on the beach it was time for the climb... this actually took some talent, timing your steps and pulling on the rope and trying to keep all your weight straight up and down so as to stay balanced... and Ward had to do it twice as he left his SMB and newly acquired weight bag, back on shore to reduce the strain of the first climb. 


Again, back at the vehicle, stripping off gear, and packing it away in our totes, cases and bags.  It was a great time to reflect on another amazing day of diving.  We didn't find the VT-100, Ward is fairly certain that we were right on it when we dropped but swam away from it instead of in to it.  For me it just means there are more mysteries for me to uncover in Bedwell Bay and more reasons for me to return to see if I can locate the boat of legends and be able to say that I too have seen the wooden hulled minesweeper of 1942 that calls the sands of Bedwell Bay home.

D.S.D. and Me....

One Fish...
Two Fish...
Red Fish...
Blue Fish...

Lol, is it bad that listening in to a Discover Scuba Class reminds me of Dr Seuss....

It's not that I take any training lightly, please don't get me wrong, but it just seems funny to me now after this long (yes I know it's only been 8 months since I took up scuba diving) to listen to topics like the air spaces in your body, and pressurization and over-expansion injuries.  Now ask me a year ago and I would have been like "Duh... what?"  So I am not really picking on students for not knowing nor the teachers for teaching it, but simply laughing at how after what really is just a blink of an eye, the staff and divers of OPD have ingrained in me the basics so much that they seem like they should be second nature to everyone.  Of course I was also surprised to talk to someone the other day who has been diving coming up 8 years and just hit 24 dives... for you math genius' out there, that's 3 dives per year... that's 1 dive every 4 months... If I go more than a few weeks without diving I feel like my body is dehydrating and drying up...lol.  When I missed nearly 2 months across Christmas with my ear (see What was that? Speak up and talk into my good ear! for the full story) I came back feeling all uncomfortable and spent much of my first dive back in the water trying to get my buoyancy back (for what it was at the time) I can't imaging waiting months between every dive or years....

Anyway, back on track from my rambling... Earlier this week I was lucky enough to not only listen in on a DSD class (and no I didn't laugh or giggle in the back) but i also got to join in and help out!!  How?  Well Monday I was in the shop dropping off my gear from diving on the weekend and stopped to talk with Chloe and Shannon and see when Chloe might be able to get back in the water as we are doing the Photography course together in April and wanted to get out and practice a bit before hand, but with her ankle we haven't been able to get out.  So in talking to Chloe, Shannon got a smile on her face and looked at me and with her head tilted slightly and eyebrow raised asked "Are you looking for photography practice?"  At which point she let me know she had 2 DSD (Discover Scuba Diving) classes running this week and would I be interested in taking the pictures for her classes.  Now this was cool for a bunch of reasons, first the DSD classes that were happening were a result of a Groupon ad that Shannon had placed that also happened to link to my Blog, this very Blog you are reading!! Apparently Groupon used my blog entry as part of the review for Ocean Pro (so cool how everything is connected...lol.) so I was potentially going to be in the water with strangers who had seen or even read my blog...lol.  Second, Shannon was trusting me with her students!  I mean of course real Diving pros were going to be there but wow... I was going to be associated with the shop... woot.. step one complete... next to take over the world... oops sorry wrong plan, that was my one for world domination...lol.  Last but certainly not least, it was an opportunity to dive and practice my camera work... what more could one ask for!

So with permission from my wonderful wife (Hello Honey if you are reading this), I agreed to join Shannon's 2 classes and made my way to the shop on Tuesday for class one.  Upon arrival I was greeted as always by the smiling face of Shannon who introduced me to some brand new Open Water Students while pointing out that I was helping the shop out by doing photography for them.  Then it was off to the front of the store where Matt and Deirdre were teaching their first DSD classes.  Standing quietly off to the side I was able to listen in to the way Deirdre and Matt interlaced humor into the night keeping the students on their toes... literally, Matt had everyone standing up and doing imaginary regulator recoveries while trying not to hit their neighbor or wipe out any of the racks in the shop...lol.  Before long it was off to the pool, but before I could leave I had to find a pool suit, as luck would have it, Shannon asked what i needed and when she heard pool suit, she walked out onto the floor of her shop and pulled a brand new great quality suit off the rack and passed it to me.... THIS ROCKS!!

Arriving at the pool it was a quick unload of all the gear and then time to get into the pool suits.  With suits on and a couple of great photo ops (one wonderful gentleman put the suit on backwards...lol), it was time to sit back and watch the teachers teach.  After walking everyone through assembling their kits and turning on their air, it was time to teach them how to work as a team to get their BCD's on.  For this Matt let me assist by being his buddy and modeling how to lift, hold and support the kit while your buddy gets in.  Then I had the opportunity to assist a few divers as they worked their way into their kits and, of course not ever having anything of this size on their backs before, complain about the weight.  Now with everyone geared up it was time to put on my BCD.  Now keep in mind that I normally dive 32 lbs of lead (12 in a belt and 20 in my BCD) and a steel 130 cubic foot tank which is 10 lbs heavier than an aluminum 80 cubic foot tank, but for the pool I was only using my 12lb weight belt, cutting the total weight in my BCD by 30 lbs!!  So it was no wonder when I picked up my BCD it felt light as air and didn't mean anything to me when I grabbed it like a person grabs a back pack and just flung it over my shoulder with one hand.  Now as I said it didn't surprise me, but some of  the students on the other hand, seemed a little shocked...lol.

All geared up it was time to head for the shallow end of the pool and start the in-pool exercises.  After the basics of putting their faces in the water and emptying and filling their BCD's, it was regulator recover time and a little underwater time before sending them to do laps in the shallow end.

 After a few laps it was time to send the students out into the deep end.  Waiting for us in the deep today were colored golf balls, mini-torpedoes and other various toys to swim around and play with while enjoying, becoming comfortable with and inevitably Discovering Scuba!!