Good Morning America did it, but I did it first!!

As many people have seen, Matt Gutman of Good Morning America decided to suit up and try his hand at Ice Diving, if you haven't seen it, here it is - Extreme Campout: Diving Under the Ice.  What you may not know... is that I did it first!...lol

At the beginning of March I embarked on my craziest dive adventure yet - Ice Diving! 

When asked back in December if I would be interested it took me less than a second to decide and only a couple minutes longer to respond back to Wes and let him know I was in.  When I first started diving in August 2011 and looked into specialities and the Specialty of the Month program and eventually my Master Scuba Diver program one of the specialities that jumped out at me was Ice Diving.  I guess the whole thought of exploring under a sheet of ice and looking at the marine life would be a cool experience.... I was right on one thing... it was cool... in fact it was downright freakin' COLD!!  

After my 13 hr Greyhound ride to Banff Alberta and meeting up with my ride for the rest of the weekend we headed off to meet up with Wes and Shannon and the rest of our team up at frozen Lake Minnewanka in the Banff National Park.  Stepping out of the vehicle and heading for the week I was half expecting Jeff Probst to step out and say "Welcome to Survivor Banff"...

 (Yes I sometimes let my imagination and photoshop skills get carried away) 

Once out on the lake (actually pictured in my Survivor mock-up above) we headed out onto the lake and across the ice to look at where we would be diving.  Joined a short time later by Lana Taylor and Randy Kliever from Adventures in Scuba the Calgary based shop that would be offering us our course for the weekend and helping me not to die... (always a good thing).  Unfortunately the trailer had not arrived yet as it had blown a tire and would be delayed... so, off to town to grab a coffee, our passes for the national park, and a little window shopping to kill a few extra minutes until heading back to the lake where... bah bah bah... the trailer had arrived and it was time for the "ever so fun" event of hauling gear from the vehicles across the frozen lake to where we would set-up the tent and cut a hole for the next days adventures under the water... hmm, this is starting to get a little real... I might actually have to go in the water now....


As brutal as I make it sound, with the whole crew of students and staff and family around, the task went by fairly quick and smooth and before we knew it the tent was up and it was time to get started on the "real" work.  It was at this point that I delicately stepped back and out of the way. 

 With the wooden triangle assembled it was time for Terry Forsyth (Master Instructor from Adventures in Scuba) and our trainer for the weekend, to chainsaw the ice to create our hole. 


With the hole in place it was time to clean up, lock-up and head to the classroom for dinner and lesson time....


Saturday morning came before I knew it and we headed to the dive site, as we approached along the Dam road and I saw the lake, that is when it hit me... this is really going to happen...lol and I told my dive buddy as much.  A few quick trips across the ice and the gear was in place, and our briefing in progress.  Following the briefing Shannon came out of the tent and, with a big grin on her face, pointed out that, with a name like Andrew, it put me at the top of the alphabetical list... and I was diver one...


Geared up and standing by the hole, I waited for direction and then doing the seated entry practiced so many times at the Aquarium, I was in the water.  Soon I was clipped in and joined to Glenn Fines of Adventures in Scuba, one of our instructors, and then we descended.  It would be impossible to explain the feeling of being under 17 inches of ice so I won't try, what I will say is that if you are a certified diver with a good number of cold water dives under your belt... this is the best adventure you will have!

Over the course of the weekend we had all sorts of adventures from me having issues with my ears clearing, to multiple free flowing regulators.  We practised rescues, being the rescue diver, rescue tender and the person to be rescued.

Nothing truly prepares you for the adventure of Ice Diving, but going with amazing divers like those from Ocean Pro I was privledged enough to go with and being trained by amazing people like those from Adventures in Scuba.

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.

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.

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.

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!!

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!! 

To Drift or Not To Drift....

Drift diving to me always sounded like I was going to be pulling a Crush and Spike from Finding Nemo, and be flying along under the surface watching the world fly by.  This weekend I tried it.... not so much!...lol.

For yesterday's dives I was "fortunate" enough, that one of the students from the shop managed to tear the zipper in the suit I normally wear, leading to it needing to be repaired and me borrowing the dreaded neoprene suit...lol.  The last time I wore the Neoprene suit, back in my Advance Open water course way back in It's Dark... Very, Very Dark.... I had a few issues.  So needless to say I was a "wee" bit nervous going out in this suit again.  But given the choice of dive Neoprene or don't dive... I choose diving...lol. 
Sunday morning arrived and with mine and my buddies gear stowed in the truck it was time to set out to Horseshoe Bay, Sewell's Marina, and meet up with Dennis in preparation of boarding my first (real) boat to go diving.  To hear about my other "boat" diving experiences read Row, Row, Row Your Boat Gently Into The Rolling Waves.... Merrily Merrily Off To See The Circus....

The drive to Horseshoe Bay was a quick one and despite me missing an exit, it was an uneventful one that allowed me to get to know more about the friend I was diving with for the day and hear about her Missions trips to South Africa and East Africa and her exciting plans to aid the less fortunate of the world when she graduates medical school.  It's the inspired and driven people like her that are changing and shaping our world everyday, and getting to have a little peek inside that excitement was an honor.  As mentioned, the trip was quick, then it was time to meet up with Dennis, grab our manuals and review our chapter questions and discuss the dives for the day.  Our quick meeting was held in the local Starbucks and was a great place to stay warm and dry as we finished our exercises  and waited for a couple other divers who would be joining us for the day.  Having finished our reviews the three of us headed for the docks to unload our gear and move it in the direction of the boat in anticipation of our departure once the final couple arrived.  Loading up the boat was a new experience, trying to balance the gear while stepping from dock to boat and then following directions on where to strap in some gear and where to stow other gear.

With all the gear stowed, and fastened down, it was time to head out into the sound.  With Kevin Breckman at the helm and his wife Jan as our DM and tour guide we braved the waves of the Howe Sound.  Joining us on the boat were a friend of the Breckmans, joining Jan for a couple dives, and Jim Larsen, the North West Territory Representative from NAUI.  It didn't take long to understand why Kevin and Jan are so particular about making sure everything is tightened down and then tightened again.  Much the same as flight attendants check and recheck doors  because you don't want one opening in mid flight, you do not want to see what kind of damage a flying scuba tank can do...lol.  Yesterdays trip also led me to understand the term (and reasoning) behind battening down the hatches.  With Kevin behind the wheel, there wasn't a lot of lost time.  We got clear of the harbor, and the hammer was down, and man can the Topline fly!  With a relayed message from Kevin through Jan, we were told to hold on, things could get a little rough.... This is when I got excited!!  Moving into the cabin to get a better view of the water we were racing into afforded me the opportunity to not only see the water splashing over the fore-decks of the boat but also to have a good conversation with Jim and hear a little more about NAUI and his visit to Vancouver.  After a few minutes of wave jumping and drawing in closer to the islands, things calmed a bit and it was time to go back and put the rest of the kit together and prep to get wet!  After checking with Dennis to see about how much weight to add to compensate for wearing neoprene it was decided to add 8lbs and do a weight check to ensure it was enough before edging into our final "jump-off" point.  All geared up, Kevin walked me to the back of the boat, did a quick once over of my gear and with a pat signaled for me to jump.  Popping back up I signaled "OK" moved to with-in reach of the ladder and deflated my BCD.  Now for a proper weight check you deflate your BCD and with a full breath of air you should sink to about the mid-point on your mask.  Again... this is if you are properly weighted... which I was not...lol.  I hit the deflate and dropped...lol.  Fortunately I had my hand near the ladder and added some air and popped right back up.  Then up the ladder and (with Kevin's help) back on board.  All of this quite well timed, for you see while Kevin is helping me, he is not at the wheel, so it all requires lot's of attention and experience.  So, once back on board and holding on, the boat is brought back around and in close to the wall for all the divers to quickly jump in, signal their "OK" and then move out of the way.  With my team all in the water, Dennis signals "descend" and we head to depth to begin our "Drift". 

I laughed with Dennis, after our dive, and referred to it more as a slow swim than a Drift dive.  There was a little drift, enough so that you could see it affecting the plant life and see them tilted slightly.  You could also tell there was a little bit of a current as most of the marine life stayed close to the wall and the safety of the outcroppings.  But as far as moving me, there wasn't much, add to that the fact that I was REALLY over-weighted and you can imagine what I looked like...lol  With Dennis being part fish (I think he has a buzzer or something that reminds him to breath...lol) and my dive buddy being in amazing health, they just kicked a little caught what little drift there was and then moved along the wall.  Me on the other-hand, I suck air like a shop-vac, and the additional weight not helping, I would kick 2 - 3 times as often just to keep up and stay balanced out.  But, despite a few complications, the dive was amazing as always spotting some neat life I have never seen before and have no name for yet... I really do need to get better at fish id...lol, and of course just the relaxation of being weightless (yes even with the extra 8 lbs of lead).  The dive ended (or more my air supply did) and we ascended to our safety stop and deployed our surface marker buoy's (thanks to my brother Matt for buying me my marker buoy for Christmas.)  Now for anyone who ever deployed one, you know these are not the easiest things to use at first, for those of you who have no idea what I am talking about here is what they look like rolled up and then deployed:

The idea behind these devices, is that once you hit your safety stop (or just before) you un-clip (this is VERY important) the SMB (surface marker buoy) from you and with it attached to a reel (another important thing to remember) you add air and it races to the surface and marks your location for all the boats around.  This is very important as you really don't want to be ascending into the under-side of anyone's boat, nor do you want to be ascending just before a boat crosses your path.  This is also an incredibly  useful tool for your own boat as it lets your captain know that you are about 3 minutes away from surfacing and where you will be surfacing so that he can be in place to get you out of the water as quick as possible.  Now I say that it is very important to "unclip" the SMB from you first because if your still conected, you're gonna take a ride to the surface and blow your safety stop, putting you in danger from rising to fast and also placing you right in a potential boat lane.  It is also, for obvious reasons, important to attach your SMB to your reel so that when you let it go, it's not off drifting in the waves, but is actually marking your location.

Now, with SMB's deployed and safety stops completed, we broke the surface and kicked out a little ways from the wall and sure enough, by the time we had moved out a safe distance Kevin had spun the boat around and we climbed (with Kevin and Jim's assistance) up the ladder and back into the boat.  Then Kevin did a quick loop and dropped the boat right back where he needed to be to pick up Jan and her dive buddy.  Once everyone was back on board the kettle was fired up, gear was stripped off and coffee and soup were graciously enjoyed while Kevin and divers discussed our next location and moved the boat to accommodate the new drop point.

Dive 2 was very similar in that there wasn't really a lot of current, but more than the first time, that combined with dropping a couple of pounds (still too heavy) allowed me to experience "drift".  Another relaxing dive, not a ton of new creatures but we went in search of the wolf eel that occasionally resides in a grate.  He was unfortunatly away from home but that leaves something for me to look forward to for next time.... and there will definitly be a next time.  There's something to be said for only having to walk 10 feet with all your gear before you're in the water and again a short distance from ladder to bench once you come back in.

All in all it was a very good day of dives, I would definitely recommend every diver trying dives off a boat, especially if you are fortunate enough to get a spot on the Top Line with Kevin and Jan so worth the money even just for the knowledge of the area they can share with you.  Can't wait for my next trip with them, hopefully it won't be too far down the road!  Till my next dives, take care of yourself, your buddy and the wonderful underwater world we all enjoy!

Diving, Dinner, Demo's and the RCMP...

This past weekend was packed with fun, friends and food.  It was originally supposed to be my Drift weekend but due to some uncontrollable events the training dives were moved. Now Shannon being her usual amazing self emailed my class to let us know that the gear was already set aside for us so we were invited to take the gear for the weekend and go for a fun dive.  So after a quick email to a few of my favourite dive buddies it was discovered that Ocean Quest Diving along with a few other local shops and equipment suppliers were working with Whites Diving to put on a demo day to try out some of their new suits.  At the same time Chloe Boone was in the midst of organizing an evening at Porteau Cove to celebrate with Ryder Heim who was recently accepted into the RCMP and is leaving this week.

So a quick call to Greg at Ocean Quest confirmed my plan to attend the demo and pay my $10 fee.  Another call to Chloe confirmed my intention to join her and Ryder, and any other divers interested, up at Porteau for the night of diving.  Then finally a few Blackberry messenger messages and a few emails to some of my dive friends and before I knew it, Saturday nights dives were planned and Sundays Demo was booked, and partners were lined up for both.

Saturday arrived before I knew it, a quick trip to Ocean Pro was needed to pick up my tanks and the gear I was borrowing for the weekend and confirm times with Chloe.  Then it was home to pack up my gear and head out for Porteau.

As I pulled into Porteau and made my stop at the change rooms to get my thermals on I was greeted by the friendly and familiar voices of Ward and Virpi who were also joining us for the evening.  Needless to say the excitement of diving with Virpi again and finally getting a chance to dive with Ward was overwhelming.  After donning my thermals we all headed to the parking lot to set up our kits and wait for Chloe and Ryder to arrive.  Joining us down in the parking lot was a friend of mine who I had done my Night and Deep courses with so he was to be my dive buddy for the night.  After assembling our kits it was time for some visiting and to have an opportunity to see Wards newest invention, a tester for calculating gas concentrations.  This invention is in addition to his heater (yes a heater) for use under his dry suit, which beleive me, works and is really warm.  These are only a couple items amongst a list of tools Ward has build to aid himself or his fellow divers.  So after a demo of his newest gas tester, which I will surely be buying one of for when I get my Enriched Air certification, we looked at the time and realized it was starting to get late and unfortunately Chloe and Ryder had not arrived yet so the decision was made to gear up and head out for our dive before it got too late.  Of course with buddy checks complete and dive plan in place and just as we reached the stairs to descend to the water, Chloe and Ryder arrived...lol.  As it turned out Ryder was diving his twin set-up and Chloe wasn't diving so Ryder was heading out on his own to video the wildlife so our group of four headed out.

Our dive plan was a pretty simple one, surface swim to the first buoy descend and staying in our buddy team and trying to stay together as a group, we would follow the fire hose and look at the wildlife.  Once in the water it was the dreaded surface swim.  This is the part of diving I am least fond of, my force fins are amazing for moving around and control in the water at depth but on the surface I find that I don't get enough "push" with them to move as quick as many of the divers I dive with.  So, eventually I caught up with the rest of my group at the buoy, caught my breathe, and staying close to my buddy we descended to depth.  Now surprisingly despite being only 30 feet of water, there is an amazing amount of life that comes out at night.  Following behind Ward and really taking our time to move through the water we were able to capture images of some of the interesting life that moves around beneath the surface without any of us really noticing.  The highlight of the night was our squid-a-pus, when we spotted it in the middle of the water column it was carrying a prawn away in it's legs (probably a late night snack)...lol.  We came up on it and started snapping photos and video and I guess it was shy or it's parents told it no snacks after 7:00 or something because it let go of the prawn who, very happily, raced away into the dark, and then our new friend decided to rest himself for a spell on the ground, which is where I got the best of my pictures (still not very good) but after showing the photo around my squid-a-pus turned out to be a juvenile Humboldt squid.  For anyone who doesn't know what a Humboldt Squid is, just think of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or Pirates of the Caribean 2 - Dead Mans Chest.  Now of course my new friend was not a man eater nor was he able to sink ships with his massive tentacles, in fact his "massive" tentacles were only a few inches long and he probably would have had trouble sinking a toy ship...lol.  After snapping our fill of video and photos it was time to carry on and see what other wonders awaited us in the depths.  The rest of the dive was much like many dives at Porteau, lots of critters, some a little braver in the cover of darkness.  Lots of ling cod, especially daddy's watching their egg clusters and taking a run at the occasional diver to show us how big and scary they were.  Of course the ling cod of the wonderful underwater world are very similar to many people on the surface in the fact that the smaller you are the tougher you need to make yourself look.  For example if you get in the way of my oldest son at 6'3 and 160 lbs and only 14 yrs old, he'll simply give you the look that says, "I could kill you, if you make me move I will make you pay dearly!" and people usually leave him alone.  My younger two sons on the other hand are little guys just pushing 50 and 60 lbs at 8 and 10 yrs old.  Now those two, people tend to make the mistake of crossing and they find out quickly that you were safer messing with my oldest...lol.   Ling cod are much the same, in that the little ones are the ones you want to watch out for, the big ones look at you and sometimes will do a slow circle around their turf to show you where not to go, but the little guys, you often don't even see them (especially at night) before they are rocketing off the bottom to race past you or even in some cases, ram you to show you that you are in their turf, time to swim away...lol.  The dive finished and we made our short swim to the stairs and excited to the smiling face of Chloe and her crutches.  A quick strip down of gear had us deciding we were calling it a night at just one dive so it was clean up time, stow the gear away time and then head to the stairs and wait for Ryder time...lol.

After a great visit with Chloe where she continued to extol the virtues and advantages of always buying gear, rentals and air from Ocean Pro and no where else, Ryder finally made it back to shore.  It was fun to watch as he approached though, through the darkened water you could make out the ring of light that was his video light as he made his way to the stairs.  Once out it was a short visit while he got his gear stowed and then it was time to head for the cabin.

Well the drive to the cabin lasted all of 10 seconds for me, for as soon as I started driving I heard the recognizable thump, thump of a flat tire.  Quickly turning into one of the parking stalls and checking, sure enough the front left tire of my van was dead flat.  Fortunately the walk to the cabin is short (when you don't get lost the first time, but that's another story, I had to use the washroom anyways...lol) and getting to the cabin I was fortunately able to borrow Virpi's inflator, a great invention that connects to the low pressure hose on your  regulator and can be used to inflate tires.  Ryder was nice enough to accompany me back to my van and assist while I pulled out one of my tanks and filled the tire.  Then we waited as we listened for the inevitable hissing of the air leaking out.  Sure enough it was there and after a quick look at the tire we were able to see where the tire had blown up, literally with metal fibers showing through and not holding air for more than a couple minutes.  Fortunately it was a quick drive to limp the van back to the cabin and park it till morning when I would change out the tire.

Once parked, gear secure, and clothes bag moved inside it was time to join the group.  As I entered the cabin I was met by the smell of cooking, mmm food.  Crackers and cheese and chips and breads were plated on the stool and Ward and Virpi had been hard at work preparing pasta and shortly after sitting down a plate was thrust in front of me heaped with spaghetti and Ward telling me not to be shy, dig in, we were all family.  With that the music started, the beers were cracked, the wine flowed and the evening began....


7:30 the next morning came way too fast... the cabin was super warm, outside was not so much and I still had a tire to change....lol.  So up I got, changed and made a coffee (or as Ward called it "flavored water", and it wasn't even that flavorful...lol), and headed outside to work on the tire.  I was very fortunate in the fact that the tire was quite easy to repair, the spare (a mini tire) drops down from below, the jack (once found) was fairly simple to use, and the bolts came off and back on without too much of a struggle.  With the tire changed and tools stored back in the van it was time to head back inside and have some breakfast and another cup of flavored water.  A little morning visit and then it was time to say my goodbyes and head out to for Whytecliff where i would be meeting up with my next group of friends and dive buddies.

Whytecliff is a nice short drive from Porteau, in fact some of my friends from the night before had joked about filling my drysuit with air and floating me down to Whytecliff park...lol.  Arriving a little late my team was almost already geared up so it was time for me to hurry up a little and get checked in with Greg from Ocean Quest and get my registration completed with Whites and get myself in a suit.  While I waited for my turn in the Whites trailer I grabbed my dive kit from the van and got it built so that I would be ready to go as soon as possible.  A quick visit to the Whites trailer and with the help of the fabulous staff from Whites I was in a beautiful red suit much like this one.  With suit in hand i was directed to a changing and staging area, this was like being back stage at a fashion show...lol, into the changing area (a tent with the flaps drawn) hurrying as fast as possible as there are others waiting for their turn, then out of there in your undergarments carrying your suit to the next tarped area where you are met by several people who help you pull wiggle and otherwise make a fool of yourself as you get into the suit... getting into any dry suit is not an attractive act, this suit is no exception...lol.  Fortunately, Monti Richardson from Ocean Pro was there as well helping out (apparently he works with or has connections to Aqualung and they were part of the weekend) anyways he was there and was able to walk me though the dance of getting into my suit and getting my dry gloves on and otherwise turning me into a Whites Product model, and not a very attractive one at that...lol.

With suit on and kit built it was time to join my team and head for the water.  Now once again this was just a fun dive for me and the girlfriend of one of my regular dive buddies to try out the Whites suits and then for us all to go back and enjoy some BBQ!!!  As planned it was a nice and relaxed dive, swimming along the left side of the bay doing a shallow dive to look at all the critters along the wall.  Not a lot critters to see on this dive, probably due to the large number of divers in the water, many of which were trying out dry suits for their first time ever, understandably this meant a lot of divers bouncing off the bottom and then back to the surface, sometimes more than once...lol. Nothing dangerous of course, especially being in only 20 feet of water, but enough to stir up the bottom, limit visibility and scare all the critters...lol.  


Following the dive, due to a high need for gear, the staff from Ocean Quest needed to get their gear back from 2 of our divers so there was no second dive for us for the day so instead we went for a walk along the shore line to watch the divers from above (always a fun sight to see...lol.)  After seeing a few divers pop up out of the water feet first and enjoying the nice weather something caught my attention out near the day marker.  Now for those of you who have read Seals to Emergencies understand why seeing something pop up suddenly out near the day marker catches my attention.  So immediately my eyes were drawn to the location and quickly pointing in the direction of where the object surfaced and catching my friends attention we all scanned the horizon only to have one of my dive partners point past the end of the rocks we were walking on as something broke the surface, and then again, and again.  It took only a moment for one of our other team, an instructor in training, to identify the objects as dolphins, white sided pacific dolphins to be exact, hundreds of them.  Before long we could see the pod jumping out of the water as they swam back and forth across the opening to the bay.  Soon after some of the boats out in the sound, obviously now aware of the dolphins, started towards the bay.  One of the boats, a zodiac, left a wake behind it that the dolphins found entertaining to jump over as they cleared the water giving all the spectators a perfect look at their sleek bodies as they flew through the air.


Back up top, it was time to clean my gear and stow it away in my van, then accompanying my dive team, head over and grab some food and visit with some of the divers and students in town from school and on-site to aid the new divers and lead the tours.  After my fill of visits and burgers it was time to make my slow limp home in my van on it's mini-tire...lol.  Another weekend done and another 2 dives logged... more to come soon.  Next up, Drift Diving with Dennis... can't wait.  Update you all soon.