DIR Diving Blog

With another trip cancelled I ended up taking a trip to Vobster to try out the new TLS 350 I’ve bought.

The TLS is a full WKPP spec suit as it was actually destined for Mark Messersmith. Me on the left, some dodgy DIR diver on the right.

Kit wise the first dive was in the 200gram undersuit and the tail weight. Second dive 2kg on a weightbelt plus tailweight and trim was much better. I used 32% in the twins for both dives.

In terms of how it went, well it’s very nice suit, it felt like I wasn’t wearing it. Reaching valves was a doddle and the dump is brilliant.

We did two dives despite the snow and the cold. First one past the plane and alongside the rock face in stunning vis easily 10-15m. Back past the crushing works past the wheelhouse and boat and up and out. I have to say I’ve never seen so much of the quarry layout before. I actually could see that the wheelhouse rests on a slope!

Second one down the tunnel (which was amazingly clear) round the crushing works, past the wheelhouse onto the boat and then an ascent. I did have to bag off as Clare thought I needed the practise.

Overall an excellent if cold day out.

An article from the 5thD forums that’s worth a read

Article

Plymouth looking ropey so we ended up at Vobster for three dives. The goal of the day was just practising with stages.

Dive 1 – One AL80, One 7L stage. Vis was pretty bad in places, in the tunnel I could only just make out Clare’s fins. We practising deploying and restowing stages while hovering next to the crushing works. Bit of a tour around.

Dive 2 – Two AL80, One AL40. More of the same, although we did have some fun handed the stages between each other. Clare handed off one of my 80’s which was at 220 bar. She shot up I sank!

Dive 3 – Two AL80. Just a swim off to the right side of the quarry where the vis was good to look at the quarry walls. Struggled badly with tipping head down. Even draining the bottom gas 80 to 10bar didn’t help!

Considering how new multiple stage diving is going I’m happy enough with how it’s going. It gives us something to practise in the quarries over the winter months.

Hmm weather defeats us again and we end up inland at Vobster. Had a good day out though all the same as there was a crowd of YD-ers there – Howard, Digger, Mattbin, Mark Chase, Janos, Clare and myself.

I met Mark first at 8.30am and we had a bit of a chat and a peer at his one piece harness. Clare and Janos arrived and the four of us did some quick finning demos on the picnic tables. Once in the water I led out followed by Mark then Janos with Clare in fourth place. We swam down through the tunnel into the crushing works through the hole in the wall and then up the shute. We toured both bits of plane before settling by one of the platforms for more finning practise. From there we swam back to the entrance past the blockhouse and exited. Just used twinset of 32%.

Dive 2 was a quick bimble to the wreck watching one of the Dive Monkeys instructors. Good fun none the less as I took a 50% bottle, and staged switched and bagged off the the ascent.

Dive 3 and myself and Clare went in with Janos each taking two stages. We had some fun clipping them all off to each other and I tried 2 x AL80’s and 1 x AL40. Bit of a pain to swim with but just about acheivable. I spent most of the dive with just the 2 x 80’s. Used the 32% 80 as a stage of bottom gas. We moved on round the features and went past the wheelhouse and boat.

Dive 4 and we had Howard, Mark, Clare and myself. We set off round some features looking at the top of the crushing works, the plane sections and then the boat and wheelhouse. Took a single bottom stage and pretty much drained it down. It was a nice tour round and all went well.

Overall a good day out – quite a good bit of practise.

Some more videos:

Cave Diving Mexico

SLPS – Try Ojama mine

Well my planned dive out of Portland to dive on the Buccanneer got cancelled due to the weather. This meant a trip to Vobster.

Dive 1 – backgas of 32% and two AL80 stages one 30% (air top on a 50%) and a 50%. For the first dive we toured most of the features including the deep plane, boat, wheelhouse, crushing works, shallow plane sections and platforms. Vis was poor by the plane but about 10m in other places. Managed to fit in a valve drill and then tried some stage switching on the ascent. 6m onto 30%, up to 4m – stow the 30%, switch onto backgas, deploy 50% – switch at 3m. Ascend to the surface. Bit scrappy but not too bad for a first attempt. Struggled a bit with head down trim and was about 1kg overweight which was more noticeable with two stages.

Dive 2 and we set off towards the boat and on pass it at 17m. We kept our depth and heading towards the wall of the quarry. There was a noticeable thermocline at 17m with a layer of silt lying on top of it. We ascended slightly when we reached the wall and swam around the side of the quarry. We past through the petrified forest which was very eerie with the silt floating around it like clouds of mist. Used the bottom stage for most of the dive. Took 1kg off for the dive and used just 2kg and tailweight.

Good day overall couple of really nice dives, even if it did rain most of the day!