Alastair(Offline)

Fraser was back from New York yesterday just visiting for the Christmas holiday. His plane landed at 7.30am so by 10.30am he was at quarry called Stoney Cove to go on his first scooter dive! Despite the fact Fraser's been diving DIR for about 2 years he's never managed to try one before so was really looking forward to it.

Clare had arranged to dive with Mal Bridgeman so she was lending Frase her scooter while I was on my second dive on my new toy. We got in the water with twins of 32% and a scooter each. I went through how to deal with a stuck on scooter and we had a brief go at the surface so Frase could master the basics where I could talk to him. We then dropped down and set off round the 6m ledge. This went very well and he quickly looked very relaxed.

We scootered up and down the ledge practising the turns and positioning light signals. After about 10 minutes I checked Frase was OK and then, as planned, set off to the 20m ledge. We quickly covered ground and found Clare and Mal making their way along. We paused to wave hello and then zipped off to the wreck of a tugboat called the Stangarth. Vis was excellent, about 5-10m, so it was great for scootering. I checked on Frase a few times and kept seeing him grining. After the Stangarth we headed off to the Wessex helicopter and then back to the road. Having swam this dive in the past the amount of ground you cover is quite surprising. I was expecting it to be the case but none the less it did make the place seem small.

We both came off the trigger for the ascent and were amused to see two guys just stop to watch us. Once back at 6m we got going again and zipped up and down the ledge a few times. Good few learning experiences for me. I'm having periods where it's all good and just feels great. I'm also having moments where I feel the scooter is nose up, I can't steer and forget to keep my buoyancy in check!

We finish the dive and I ask Fraser what he thought - his comment was along the lines of "that's the most fun I've ever had on a dive!". Needless to say he's hooked and will be buying one shortly.

We went in for a second dive with Mal and Clare and had a nice bimble around. Clare pulled an OOG on me just to keep me on my toes and we had a nice dive. Bit tricky to follow up on the first one, but a really nice dive all the same.

Looking forward to the next session on the 27th now when we'll be doing similiar no doubt.

Cheers
Al

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Helium is our friend - GI3

JohnKendall(Offline)

Sounds like a fun day out.

Just need to put new batteries in my toy and then get it weighted for the Icebreakers gig.



J

Alastair(Offline)

John - that sounds like an excellent plan :D

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Helium is our friend - GI3

Phil O(Offline)

Al

Will you be back at Stoney on the 27th? If so I'll keep my eyes open for you as I hope to be taking my wife up there for a splash.

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Phil

ericfine50(Offline)

Sounds like you guys had a blast.

Very cool write up!
Eric

Little Pete(Offline)

Welcome back Frase

Clare Gledhill(Offline)

Hmm... what he doesn't say is that they flashed me and, catching a glint out of the side of my mask I though Mal had serious problems (it was the first time we had dived together) and I span round to see what was wrong... catching a bank with my fins....kicking silt up and making the scooter boys laugh...

Oh well... that's DIR I suppose - you try to look but end up looking

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Alastair(Offline)

Hi Phil,

We're at Vobster on the 27th I'm afraid. There are quite a few from Yorkshire Divers going so if you fancy a long drive you could always join us.

Cheers
Al

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Helium is our friend - GI3

Clare Gledhill(Offline)

Just managed to defrost from our two days team training and Fraser is now back on a plane to New York, so I thought I'd do a quick report.

First of all it was f'ing freezing..... I really don't know how you manage in Norway, Alaska etc. but I'm just not cut out for this and spent most of the time thinking fondly of chocolate, open fires and bed!

Dive 1, I can't explain why but when I was kitting up for this dive I just didn't want to get in - I felt hassled and rushed (although there was no need to), was not in the right state of mind to go diving and I essentially thumbed it on the surface. Al managed to talk some sense into me and, like a good buddy would, said that they would wait until I was happy to get in. I still don't know why I felt this way.... but when I got in to the water knew that he had been right to talk me in to it.

Fraser was trying out Al's Heisers and we just toured the quarry getting back into the team again. I was carrying two stages and tried swiimng through a few tightish gaps to get an idea of my profile in the water - clunk Nothing much of note happened on the dive until Fraser thumbed it - Al's set had only 70 bar in it at the start of the dive and he had reached minimum gas.

Then things got a little interesting.... as Fraser has not dived much (well at all really) since he went to the states, we asked him to put up the DSMB. He has an oral inflate bag but after getting it out and attaching it to the spool he found that he could not get it to inflate. Al tried as well, but to no avail. I thought that there was a problem with the mouthpiece (which is oral inflate only) so took it off them to restow it and, while I was doing so, Al deployed a bag. (It turned out that there was nothing wrong with Fraser's bag but the cold meant that neither of them could actually make a seal round it with their mouth ) This had taken rather too long from start to finish.

We made our way to 12 metres or so and Fraser showed me his gauge. Not able to read it, I decided that he was telling me that he was low on gas and, as I was running the ascent he wanted to get up a.s.a.p. Given that I was cold I had not intended to hang around any longer than necessary so I nodded. Upon which he showed me the gauge again and I went forward to read it - 10 bar So Al took over the bag and we ascended with Fraser on my long hose - nice scenario!

Dive 2 was perhaps more fun for the boys than me - I lent Fraser my Gavin and they towed me out to the far side of the quarry wearing three stages - which, as they buzzed around, I practiced clipping, unclipping, and restowing. I had wanted to work on my back-kick which has vanished since I changed my weighting - I made some progress but the memorable bit of the dive was Al hitting a lone rock with his Gavin - and stopping to kiss it better underwater!

Other members of this board were around (the non GUE but geniable Janos and Diving Dude) diving CCR and we made the expected 'farewell' statements to them as they left for their dives. Actually felt quite sorry for Howard who does indeed appear to believe that his unit is trying to kill him - but then he stole lots of the chocolate biscuits so I decided that he didn't deserve my sympathy after all

Janos joined us at our hotel for a drink and a chat about DIR/BSAC differences - and a lot of teasing. He set off for Plymouth and we got the Gavins and torches on charge and had a very pleasant dinner (Talbot Inn - quite pricey but very near Vobster and great food and accomodation).

Day 2.

Hmmm.... it's a bit of a hint when there is ice on the inside of the windscreen. It's a bit more obvious when crotch strap is frozen solid, your Din fittings have ice in the threads, your O2 tank appears to be sending out air in chunks rather than a stream and your gloves can't be turned the right way round as they have frozen solid inside out.

Fraser's wing inflate was frozen open so was constantly filling - he had to entre the water with his right post off. We agreed that we would not head below 3 metres until we were satisfied that all kit was functioning but as the water was considerably warmer than the surrounding air we had no further problem on the dive.

I was still wanting to work on my trim (boy - and extra pair of socks was making me pay big time) so clipped one of my stages off to Fraser - and Al did the same. This left him with four stages for the first time - and he was very happy to find that he had no problems at all. I ended the dive slightly earlier than I would have wanted as I started to shiver violently - wow - this is not that much fun... and we did what we could to find some warmth between dives.

Dive 2. Fraser was trying my kit to check out the Evolve - so I was wearing his. The backup reg was freeflowing and was not recoverable so, like the first dive, I entered the water with a post off. No problems after the water got over the regs and I was able to turn it back on.

I carried two stages which I was going to pass to Fraser once he had had a chance to get used to the wing but when I handed them to him he found that he was tipped head down and had to hand me back the 80 for the ascent. He hated the wing - hopefully he will post on the thread to give a balance to the reports from us who like it.

I had sent the bag up on this dive, and the outside of it had frozen solid by the time we surfaced Mugs of hot choclate weren't enough to touch the cold and we shivered all the way home. But from a team perspective we had a great couple of days, finalised what we hope to do next year and confrmed that the one thng we can do is keep each other sane :D

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daz(Offline)

Well frankly...........