The saying goes that you should only take what you need. So twin-12's, two stage bottles and a gavin scooter. What could our objective be? The less than amazing answer is our local quarry! I wanted to try out my new Gavin and Clare wanted to try out my second set of Heisers. We also planned to have a bit of play carrying two stages once the battery power on the scooters was exhausted.
Here's a snap of me nervously looking over my new toy wondering if it will flood on it's first immersion!
Needless to say the new scooter was sound and worked perfectly. I followed Rich Walker's advice and stuck an ankle weight in the top of the scooter and found that actually the scooter was nearly perfectly weighted just like that. Both Andy Kerslakes and Bob Cooper's previous info on scooters helped massively as I had an idea what to look for.
First dive we toured round most of the features in the quarry in no time at all. As this was my 5th play with a Gavin I had an idea of the basics and found I was able to motor along quite happily. I tried to look cool as I passed a couple of divers and paused to let Clare pull up alongside me. Unfortunately I'd forgotten to keep my buoyancy correct and headed towards the bottom as soon as I'd stopped
all pretence of cool vanished as I grabbed the wing inflator.
All too soon we reached the end of the dive. As it turned out Clare's hands were freezing and she put it down to the flow of water while scootering.
Second dive and I took an AL80 and AL40 (brand new - courtsey of Divingniknaks) for a swim round. We did a little bit of bottle juggling between us and Clare tried out a leash. Nice 2nd dive but with the water at 8 degrees C (46F) we decided against a third dive.
Clare next to the gear.
An excellent day out, needless to say I'm chuffed with the scooter and reckon it will keep me busy over the next few winter months when the coast gets blown out.
Cheers
Al