DIR Diving Blog

A good URL I picked up today showing some cave diving pictures:
http://www.slps.net/slps/html/gallery/florida_caves/index.html

Met up with Clare and did 3 dives today 32% in all cases.

Dive 1 – we took the scooters out for a run. We adjusted Clare’s by adding two lozenges (it is now probably too negative) and went for a run off round the 14m ledge. We paused for a valve drill and s-drill and then carried on to the wheelhouse before exiting. It was a good run on the scooters. I also adjusted my weighting to carry 3kg on the left side of my weight belt and 1kg on the right. I found I could balance with just the twinset no problem at all – the next dive would show if it helpded me balance stages.

On the way back we had a bit of an incident with an underwater mugging! Bit of a bad end to the dive

Dive 2 – we set-off with 3 stages an AL80, AL40 and 7L and scootered to the 12m platform. Once there I ran a line with the spool and we clipped off the scooters. Again valve drill s-drill. I had a problem with my s-drill as I’d managed to tangle my backup with the long hose so it wouldn’t deploy fully. Once that was sorted we did the drill successfully. We then started trying to move the stages around. The change to my weighting had worked well and I could balance 2 or 3 stages fine. Moving the leash forward was quite difficult as I found it threw me off balance. Managing the switches and restowing was easier with the new rubber bands. Clare has some grief with managing multiple stages as well. I tried 4 and my trim went to pieces with the weight sinking my legs. However for one of our first dives with a number of stages it was a good start. We tidied up and scooter back to exit.

Dive 3 – we went in with Janos for a swim about with 3 stages. I removed the leash and tried just an AL80 and 7L successfully. I basically just practised getting used to multiple stages. I bagged off for the ascent and we had a smooth ascent rate to the surface.

Overall a very good day out. I was pleased to have sorted the tipping issue with 2/3 stages and the new semi-dry scubapro gloves, DUI hood and 400 gram undersuit are all doing well to let me do three 45 minute dives in 5 degrees C.

Back at Vobster again playing with new kit. This time it’s not me with the new toys though. I was diving with Mark Emery who has just bought a Gavin scooter. Dive 1 was just the twins of 32% and the scooter. We set off around the 14m ledge and visited the top of the crushing works, plane sections and cars. Mark said he was happy so we then moved off to the wheelhouse and boat. We circled the boat for a couple of passes before we moved off towards the deep plane section. Vis was excellent easily 8m+ so we actuall scootered over the top of the plane at 17m. We then went back past the boat, wheelhouse and crushing works and up to the 14m ledge. We flew round a few times before off to the blockhouse for our ascent. A scooter really does make the quarry seem small!

Dive 2 and it was more of same. We started off with a trip down the tunnel a pass round the crushing works and then a tour of all of the features again. We then traded scooters so Mark could try mine. His scooter was very negative in the water and it made it more of a challenge to control but it was ok.

Dive 3 I just took an AL40 and AL80 and left the scooter behind. Joe Hesketh had a quick go and the scooter and then went with us. We did a tour round some of the features of the 14m ledge and had quite a sedate dive by comparison. All in all a good day out.

2 more dives were part of my TDI course so for inclusivity I’ll include them.

Dive 1 was a skills dive with Frank Bruce and Andy Kerslake. Myself, Clare, Justin and Mal set off as a team of four. We dropped down and completed valve drills then s-drills before moving off to the Stangarth. I had a fixable left post failure and went OOG on the ascent. Everything went ok although the ascent wasn’t perfect – we were a bit slow at 6m.

Dive 2 and it’s another skills dive. Again valve drill then s-drill. We then did some unconcious diver drills followed by toxing diver. Definitely improved the toxing diver rescue, I got better at using the under arm grip and keeping the purge going. Clare and I then had to carry two stages to the bedstead and hand them over to Mal and Justin.

Big meet-up at Stoney Cove today. Lot of people turned up, in this photo a couple are captured on film.

John Kendall, David Martin and a few others sent up an unusual SMB!

Personally I ended up doing 4 dives. Dive 1 was a skills dive with Frank Bruce and Andy Kerslake. Myself, Clare, Justin and Mal set off as a team of four. We dropped down and completed valve drills then s-drills before moving off to the Stangarth. I had a fixable left post failure and went OOG on the ascent. Everything went ok although the ascent wasn’t perfect. I used 4kg on belt with 32% in the twinset and an AL80 stage. Perfect weighting.

Dive 2 I took little Pete for his first scooter dive! Myself on the right, Pete on the left.

We had a good blast up and down the 6m ledge. Pete rapidly got the hang of it so I then upped the pitch of the prop and we really motored. After the dive Pete did mention that he had noticed the reasons for the old crotch strap size comment by George. I’d added 3 lozenges to the nose of my scooter and this made it neutral at 6m so it was very easy to drive. Just took twins for this dive.

Dive 3 and it’s another skills dive. Again valve drill then s-drill. We then did some unconcious diver drills followed by toxing diver. Definitely improved the toxing diver rescue, I got better at using the under arm grip and keeping the purge going. Clare and I then had to carry two stages to the bedstead and hand them over to Mal and Justin.

Dive 4 and I went in for a scooter with Davey Wilo and Jen. We just had a blast up and down the 6m ledge and I tried both Clare and AK’s scooter. Was excellent fun, I started swooping in and out of the arch under the pub!

Overall an excellent day out!

Found these and thought it was curious to see when the inland sites get cold throughout the year. It’s certainly into the cold season now so freeflows are more common.

It was a bank holiday monday and as the missus had lots of work to do she packed me off diving. Nothing too interesting to write-up – I was just working on carrying and moving multiple stages so this is purely for me to remember what worked and what didn’t.

First dive and I have moved back to 3kg on weight belt and 1kg v chunk. With two stages – an 80 slung and a 40 on a leash this was well balanced. Dived 32% in the twins and worked them down to 60 bar for a weight check.

Second dive and I tried three stages successfully and handed one off to Clare so I was then using an 80 and 40 both slung. This threw my trim out and I was head down again which is somewhat annoying. It was almost correctable but a pain in the arse. I’m going to try all 4kg on the weightbelt again and see what I think.