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!! 

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.

Andrew to the Rescue.... Or Not?

Ok, so last week I was able to achieve a new high in diving, assisting one of my instructors in keeping an eye on a diver who had the potential to be under additional (unwelcome) stress.  This week I was to actually  be trained on working with and dealing with people who were under stress.  Saturday and Sunday were scheduled to be "dive" days.  I put dive in quotations as the weekend was going to be less about diving and more about Rescuing.  Not necessarily my favorite topic or class, but one that is necessary to make me a well rounded diver and essential for me to make Master Scuba Diver and eventually Dive Master, Instructor, MSDT, etc.... 

So here I was, meeting one of the best instructors imaginable, Miss Virpi Kangas!  If you don't know Virpi or haven't heard me talk about her you obviously haven't been reading my blog...lol.  Pretty much click on any of my previous blogs and you'll read all about her, or better yet, go back to the beginning and get the whole story from there.  Anyways, I arrive at the site, Virpi is already there and we start building our kits and begin to chat about the day and the plans.  As we start planning out the day she advises that she has pulled some strings and my good friend and another amazing instructor of mine Ward Conley is going to be our DM for tomorrows training, which prompts my question, "Do we have a DM coming today as I am the only diver?"  You see, as a little background, there was scheduled to be two of us in the class, as mentioned in The Master Scuba Diver Challenge!!, but while I was at the shop grabbing my gear the day before I found out that buddy had some family issues and wuld be unable to join us for the weekend... unfortunately due to some mis-communication, Virpi was not aware that I would be the only diver for the day!  So needless to say, her initial answer to my question was a stunned look, followed up with, "Huh?"....lol.  Needless to say, trying to do a Rescue class that requires demonstrating elements is very difficult with only the instructor and student...  So with a quick call to Shannon Virpi set out to sort out our action plan while I completed assembling my kit.  Once completed on her call Virpi confirmed what I figured the suggestion would be, which was to post-pone the in-water part of the training until such a time as all of us could be there.  But Virpi, being the amazing person she is, offered to still go for some recreation dives since we were already there.

Part two of the plan was for me to,bum bum bum, yes you guessed it, write my final....

EXAM!!

So positioned nice and warm in my van, Virpi and I reviewed some of the Rescue material and then, as if I wasn't stressed enough about tests...lol... Virpi sat right beside me in the passenger seat of my van while I wrote the 50 question multiple guess exam on what to do in an emergency.  

Well.... as has been the case before, my worry was for nothing, I managed to write my test and after reviewing my answers and struggling intently over questions 14, 15 and 16 for which I was unsure of the answer, I ended up with a perfect 50/50!

At this time Virpi and I took a look at the water, felt the bitter cold wind and decided, nope... not gonna dive!... lol.  I know, I know I hear all of you out there who have heard me talk about how I would dive every chance I got and how I wish I were a fish so I never had to leave the water... and... and ... and... then I go ahead and call off a dive while already standing in the park with my kit nearly built... but I have it a really good reason... it was freakin' cold!!!...lol.

After deciding to forgo a dive for the day and stowing our gear it was time to head for home, so before heading out I decided to message home to let the family know I was on my way.  You think having to reschedule my Rescue class would be tough to handle, or skipping a dive would be a tough thing to miss... Jenn messages me back to let me know that while I was not Diving and not completing my Rescue class Joshua scored his first ever soccer goal... and I missed it!  Needless to say driving home my 50 didn't feel so special anymore, I had missed his first goal on a quickly ending season and who knows when the next one will come....  Arriving home the first thing I am greeted with was Josh jumping into my arms and with his mouth moving at the speed of light I heard all about the game and how players had gone home because it was too cold (told you it was cold..lol) and how he had been running to the spot he'd been practicing in his FIFA 2010 soccer video game and bang, the ball was right there and right off his foot and into the net.  Apparently he was ok with me missing the goal, and I was ok with him chatting my ear off for the rest of the day as we relived the moment over and over again.  I didn't get a dive in yesterday, but instead of others living their adventure through me, I got to live one through a 10 year old soccer star and his first goal, a goal in a 1-0 victory to send his team into the final game of the play-offs.  One of my greatest loves is diving, that's plain to see, but my greatest love is my family, so it was a great weekend after-all.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat Gently Into The Rolling Waves.... Merrily Merrily Off To See The Circus...

As crazy as this sounds this is exactly what I was up to on Sunday.  The day started with all sorts of confusion (which should have been a sign), Ward was still sick and as such would be unable to dive.  He was still coming to the site as the instructor and to make sure the day went well but since he wasn't going to be in the water we were being joined by Chloe Boone as the Dive Master for the day and another friend of the shop who would be assisting in the water.  The boats were at the shop, unfortunately  we couldn't find pumps... Finally we got a hold of two of the divers who were already on their way to the site and found out they had a manual pump from the shop and also had an electric pump for air mattresses.  So it was just a matter of throwing all the gear in vehicles, mounting up and heading out to the site.

Once on site it was evident it was going to be an interesting day,  as we pulled up we could see the white caps on the waves rolling into shore and feel the wind and see it bending the branches.  Now if you've ever been kayaking or in an inflatable boat in waves you know that going up and over and crashing into the waves is not the easiest thing when attempting to move a fair distance and secure to a buoy.

As mentioned fortunately one of the divers had his electric pump along which aided greatly in the inflation of the boats and then the manual pump was used to top up the boats.  A tank attached to an adapter was used to inflate the back-rests and with a little "chain gang" process all of the boats were completed and ready for use.  The next step was getting kits built, it was at this time that it turned out one of the divers had forgotten to check his gear and was missing his fins... normally an issue but ta da... I had a rental set and my force fins which meant I could loan out my rentals and we were back on track.  Now, with all the kits built and accessories gathered up it was time for the briefing.  Standing at the top of the stairs and viewing the water we went through our plan and groups for the first dive.  The plan, originally, was that Chloe as lead would be with me and my typical team and the other DM joining us for the day would dive with the father / son team. The whole group of us would stay together as a soft team but each of us had our hard team partner that we were not to get separated from.   With the plan in place as far as which buoy we were tying to, and how best to stow, release and don your gear, we headed off to grab our boats and start moving gear down to the beach.

Now once your gear is strapped in and you have waded out far enough and then jumped onto your boat and grabbed your oar and started paddling you can easily see who has done this before and who was not so experienced...lol.  I spent so much time trying to get the boat through the waves and pointed in the right direction I could feel myself getting tired long before reaching the buoy.  Meanwhile one of my typical dive team and my direct partner for this dive was able to pull far ahead of the group and easily reach the buoy before the balance of the group.  Now to add humor to the day my partner, the first one to the buoy, the one who was supposed to get us tied to the buoy, was also the diver on my Search and Recovery dives who had some issues with tying the knots, so as you can imagine this just added to the confusion and entertainment.

What we looked like from shore I can only imagine... six boats and seven divers all trying to stay clustered together around a buoy while scrambling to tie the boats together and tie one end onto the buoy.... Needless to say, despite the added excitement, we ended up tied together and secured to the buoy.  With that step completed it was time to get our gear on... the idea for this is to unstrap your kit and (after ensuring air is in your BCD) slide it into the water and tie it, clip it, hold it, close to your boat while, with your fins on, you slip into the water and put your kit on.  Now for a few people on Sunday this turned into quite the spectacle and was even worrisome for me, but after a deep breath and with flashbacks to my days with Virpi in my open water class (Seals to Emergencies) "I went one step at a time, pushed my tank down, sat on it, spun it around behind me, put my arms in the straps and slid off letting the tank and BCD rise to my back... bing, bang, boom... straps done up and I was done..."  Smiling probably almost as much as I did the first time I put my BCD back on in the water, I  established buoyancy, secured my accessories and headed over to where Chloe was getting the group all together.  With my team in place, and group two assembled (wow, starts to sound like a military operation...lol) we signal to descend and meet at the bottom.  After a beautiful slow and relaxing descent with eyes on my partner we settle in just above the bottom and wait.... and wait.... and wait... after a few minutes we conclude that the rest of our group is not joining us and must have had an issue so we start our very slow and relaxed ascent... back up to the surface.   On the surface is where all of the real excitement was happening.  Apparently with the switch from Neoprene suits to the Bare Nexgen suits and from steel tanks to aluminum tanks, two of the divers had dropped too much weight and were now not heavy enough to get down.  So, with the aid of our guest DM who stripped his weights and split them up amongst the under-weighted divers so that they were be heavy enough.  Of course without his weight his dives were done for the day so he became the surface manager, and the two divers that were supposed to be with him, now more heavily weighted, got to join up with the rest of us as one big group.  Now to try it again...  Descent attempt number two... after a bit of a struggle with fins, which were switched out with our guest DM's, as he wouldn't be needing them, we managed to get down a fair way towards the bottom, but unfortunately due to a couple more issues one of our previously under weighted divers returned to the surface and needed to call off that dive.  So down a diver and a DM it was off for the third attempt of dive number one...lol.  (Welcome to the circus) Now that we were all (with the exception of the two on the surface) making our descent to the bottom together the dive had officially begun.  Descending down to 80 feet and swimming just a short distance off the bottom we started looking for the sunken Sailboat the Nakaya, it took only a few minutes to find it and start our swim around it.  We had discussed some of the dangers of the Nakaya while on the surface and decided to make a hard rule about no one closer than 10 feet to the boat, it's rickety condition did not bode well for any kind of in depth exploration nor the safety of any diver who tried.  I did manage to get off a few pictures but the water was pretty murky and I'm still not very good with the lighting underwater.   But before I could get off too many shots we got to the next phase of "fun,"as I rounded the corner of the sailboat, my main focus on capturing a picture while my partner was just ahead and to the right of me, when something caught my eye.  One of our divers was almost right upside down facing towards the bottom with Chloe holding him down and trying to reach something in her pocket.  Quickly dropping my camera to my side I cut down beside her along with one of our other divers and at her indication, forced open her pocket (by the way neoprene sucks under water, it condenses with the pressure and makes neoprene pockets next to impossible to open.)  With my hand wedged into Chloe's pocket I managed to pull lose the weight she had stowed in there and pass it to her to be secured to the diver in issue.  Unfortunately with all the activity I had burned through more air than I planned to and needed to signal to ascend.  As I signaled it became apparent that the additional weight added was still not enough and the diver with Chloe close behind slowing his ascent went straight to the surface.  With only the three of us still down at depth (my usual team that I have been diving with for a while) we each signaled and very slowly and collectively made our way to our three minute safety stop then on to the surface to end dive number one.  Once on the surface confirmation was received from Chloe that everyone was fine just a quicker trip to the surface than they would have wanted to.  Now with the dive complete, it was time to strip off our kits, ensuring air still in the BCD (I can only imagine the results of forgetting to do that and dropping your tank and fully weighted BCD into the water...lol. Guess I'd be making good use of my search and recovery skills learned in Hide and Seek! and Arrrr' We be searching for yer burried treasure! then...lol).  With kits off and floating in the water close to your boat, it's again time to practice skills from Open Water to use fin kits to assist with getting back on board your boat.  Then haul up your kit, secure it in place and head for shore.


Now before anyone gets the wrong idea, yes this day could have gone better, but it also could have gone WAY worse... I learned a lot on these dives and felt so much more confident as a diver after the day.  You see unlike many of the dives before where much of it could be done without thinking, today really made me pay attention to not only myself, and my buddy, but also learn to pay close attention to what other divers are doing around me as I experienced in dive 2.

Now with Ward sick and unable to dive, one DM without weight and fins (loaned out to one of the under-weighted divers) and Chloe having just made a quicker than planned ascent, we were without staff divers looking at one more dive on the day.  This is when the true skills of the OPD staff shone through and why I will always be proud to say I am an Ocean Pro Diver (maybe even one day honored enough to join the elite divers pictured on their website).  While enjoying our surface interval Ward posed the question and challenge in saying: "Ok, you're all Open Water certified so you don't need in water supervision, you are here to learn and practice the use of the boats and the staff will be present for that but for the actual dive you don't need us with you so tell me what your plan is."  and at that he just looked at us.  Though it took only a second, I saw divers grow in confidence ten fold.  Suddenly we were responsible for the dive, we had signed up for Boat Diving lessons and were getting everything we paid for.  We were learning how to load and secure gear and dive off boats, that's Boat Diving, but we were also learning so much more.  We were divers, we didn't need our hands held, we knew how to dive, it was the boat part they were there to supervise.  So after that quick second (and some prompting from Ward) it was decided to do the fire hose, a simple dive, fairly close in and not very deep.  This would allow us a short row, conserved energy and due to the delays on the first dive this would help us recover a little time so that we could be out of the water and on our way back before dark.  The second thing that happened that absolutely made my weekend, was when Chloe pulled me aside and asked if I would partner up with the diver who had experienced some challenges on his first dive and perhaps as a result could be feeling a little more stressed than normal.  Well... this shot my confidence (and my ego...lol) up about 14 notches... a Dive Master... and Ocean Pro Dive Master... was asking me, to keep an eye on one of her students.  WHAT A DAY!!!

Well... I have discovered the fastest way to take a guy (me) who over-thinks everything and make him a better diver... give him someone else to worry about...lol.  On dive two we rowed out the short distance to the first buoy, now practiced with our tying techniques we were tied up and ready to don gear in just a few minutes.  With gear in the water and all of us functioning as a team we all got our kits on, gathered around the buoy, partnered up, signaled and descended.  Now I don't know whether it was because I was so intent on not letting anything happen to my team or what it was, but I seemed to have no issues with anything.  My descent was perfect, just before bottom I added a short puff of air to my suit, and slowed to an almost dead stop.  My buddy... not so lucky... he decided to take a close (VERY CLOSE) look at the ocean floor...lol, no problems with being under-weighted this time...lol.  Readjusting his buoyancy and finding his "hover" we were ready to go.  With the other two divers in the lead, my partner just in front and to the right of me and me bringing up the rear, we headed out along the fire hose at a very relaxed pace enjoying the scenery.  With our plan in place to turn back at 2000 psi, my buddy signaled me, and with a quick signal to the divers up front, we circled and headed back to the ascent line, back to the boats, kits off, resecured and paddle back to shore. to stow the gear and head back to the shop.

Now some people will read this and see the issues on the day, or comment on the potential dangers of diving.  But those who see it from my stand point, those that understand and accept that no course just like no dive, is ever perfect.  It's not about perfection... at least not for me.  If you learn Navigation in 30 feet of water with 40+ feet of clear visibility, did you really learn to navigate or did you practice opening your eyes and swimming...lol.  For those of my long time readers you will have noticed that nothing ever goes exactly as planned and that is when the "real" learning happens.  We finished the night with Ward having us go around thr room to list off what we learned in the day, not surprisingly, no one mentioned learning to dive from a boat.... everyone learned something else whether it was to always check your weighting, or always check your gear before leaving for the site or in my case, ways to be better prepared to tie up the boats... everyone learned something... and that is what made it such a success!

The Master Scuba Diver Challenge!!

So Many Things To Think About... So Little Time! For anyone who has ever said this to themselves or out loud... you are one step closer to becoming a Rescue Diver.  Thursday night was my Rescue class with none other than Virpi Kangas, for any of you who are not aware of who Virpi is, you need to go back to the beginning of my blog and start over again, she is mentioned in almost every blog and is the reason I made it through my Open Water course and one of the ones who got me started on my road to Master Scuba Diver.... in short, she is a very important diver in my life.  Now again, having Virpi as my Rescue instructor has a little irony to it, for any of you who don't know why this is ironic, you probably didn't take my advice from a moment ago to go back and re-read my blog so you could get to know a little more about Virpi.  But for those of you who just like the direct route, those of you who watch Daytona and are left wondering why anyone would drive 500 laps around a course only to end up where they started... read this entry Seals to Emergencies and you will understand why it is interesting that Virpi would be teaching me to rescue people.  So this was a small class, me Virpi and one student whom I had met when we did our EFR class together back in January.  So after short introductions and some chat about diving experience and what we were hoping to achieve through the class we moved on to our chapter reviews... all 5 of them.... plus video.... all leading up to the... dum dum dum...

TEST!!!

The evening went by surprisingly quick, moving through so many questions and discussion points and video clips that your head began to spin... and this is where the title comes in.  You see, to be an effective rescuer you need to be able to make split second decisions and follow through on them while being alert to everything that is going on around you.  When you hear that call for help... you need to start making decisions and answering the internal questions immediately.  You need to figure out are they panicked or just tired, what's wrong, where are they, can you reach them, what if you used a branch or an oar, can you wade in and reach them, can you throw them something, do you have to swim to them, can you use a boat, is a boat available, etc.... the list goes on of internal questions to ask yourself so that you can successfully plan and execute a rescue without getting yourself or anyone else in danger.  So your brain is full of questions (and hopefully answers) and you haven't even started the rescue yet... this is why it takes split second timing, reactions, and thinking.  So once you have decided on your course of action... like Nike said... Just Do It!  Put your action plan in place, delegate responsibilities, coordinate responses, assign tasks.  Then will all the action over, you need to be able to slow your mind down and rethink back through every step of the process so that you can document and report exactly what happened and only what you witnessed and not what others are telling you happened. 

They say that as you move through and complete the Rescue and EFR programs you begin to view yourself and other divers differently.  You start to evaluate and look closer at things you never would have thought about before.  Is that persons gear on right, does it fit right, has it been altered, is that alteration going to be an issue in an emergency or cause an emergency...  It all sits in your head when you look around.  But for me it also hit me personally,  I started to look at my personal health and well being.  I'm not going to be much help if my excessive weight tires me out before I can get to them or get them back.  What if my lack of Cardio or poor swimming is the difference between getting to someone in time and not.... So, it is my new goal, not only to become a Master Scuba Diver this year, but to look the part as well.  When I enrolled in the Master Scuba Diver challenge I read the requirements, complete 5 specialty certifications, 50 dives and become a certified Emergency First Responder and Rescue Diver.  I thought that would be an uphill battle, and on my own it would have been, but with support from home and my dive family I have completed more than the required certifications, more than half the dives, I am EFR certified and, if all goes well, next weekend I will be Rescue Certified as well.  With all that considered I am a little less than 25 dives away from certifying as a Master Scuba Diver.  But when I think Master Scuba Diver, I am left with the image of Gerard Butler in the shape he was in for 300.  

So... all that considered, I am going to create my own "Master Scuba Diver Challenge" and commit to working hard on my own physical fitness so that should I ever be in a situation where I am needed I can perform with maximum efficiency and if I am unable to make a difference then I will know that it was not because of my training or conditioning.  So I guess, long and short, I have only just begun my Master Scuba Diver Challenge and only learned that it is me that needs rescuing as much as anyone I will meet in the water.  Hopefully before long I will be able to proudly accept my certification as a Master Scuba Diver and will somewhat resemble Mr Gerard Butler... without the chest hair, I can't grow chest hair.. but that's another conversation.  This weekend is Boat Diver, should be a whole new adventure, but I'll tell you all about it next week as I prep to write my Rescue exam and complete my dives.

"All Aboard...!"

Ok, so a few weeks ago, I was searching for sunken treasure and now I am captaining my own boat! I'm on my way, look out world here I come!... Ok, so my boat is only going to be about 10 feet long and a couple feet wide... and inflatable....lol. But who knows, Napoleon was small and he was still effective...lol.  

Wednesday night was the start of my Boat Diver course and as expected, when ever boats are involved, Ward was the instructor.  This turned out to be a fairly full class, my usual team with the addition of a new father - son pair of divers made for five divers plus Ward as the instructor plus whomever joins us as dive master for our course. Ward, being the full on boat guy, started class by giving everyone the manual used to pass your safe boater course (also taught by Ward through the shop).  Apparently the typical Safe Boater test is easy so Ward has added to it to ensure that everyone who passes his course has a firm grasp on the world of boating and will be as safe as possible, the same cannot often be said some who are able to randomly take the easy / basic test, pass, and still not have the knowledge to boat safely but are licensed to do so.  Now in the spirit of safe boating, and as this was a "Boat" diver course, we received additional information to compliment the knowledge received from out Boat Diver manuals,  We covered not only Windward and Leeward, Port and Starboard, but also transoms, keels, masts, sails, lines, midships, steering, and more than I could possibly squeeze into my brain in one night.  We then talked about the marine radio, which you need a license to use, which (you guessed it) Ward teaches a course for....lol.  Now as a side bar cause I can already see my fiends out there rolling their eyes and quoting the over-used invented acronym for PADI, Put Another Dollar In... the courses I have mentioned (Boater Safety and Marine Radio Operator) are not PADI courses, in fact they are not really even dive related courses , they are however required by law for anyone operating a boat under any kind of non-man generated power and required for anyone who will be or may need to use a marine radio.  Ward and Ocean Pro Divers have put these courses together and offer them as a service to their divers and the community to ensure the on-going safety of their divers and customers.

Anyway, with that out of the way, class was amazing as always, some individuals did not have their homework completed so Ward was good about ensuring they were thoroughly picked on for answers to the questions... including teasing one of my usual dive team by saying things like: "So Mister Dive Master in Training, whats the answer to 4?" or "Mr Dive Master in Training, can you elaborate on why it might be important to ......?"   This made for a very entertaining class as I had completed my homework and was only asked to share a few times.  Following our review we turned our attention to deciding on our dive location and comparing the pros and cons of each dive site finally settling on Porteau Cove with the thought that if everything went smooth it would be a nice paddle out, fairly easy to tie off to the float and a great opportunity to see the Nakaya (a sunken decrepit sailboat that will soon be destroyed due to it's dangerous condition). 

With the decision on location made and gear hunted down, most of the divers called it a night with the exception of Ward, myself and one of my dive partners.  We were fortunate enough to sit and relax with Ward for a few extra minutes to discuss diving, and safety and upcoming courses and trips and fun dives and equipment and whatever else popped into our heads to discuss for a while.  Finally it was time for Ward to go home and attempt to get over his cold and for me to get home to bed.  Tomorrow is another day, and another class.