Farne and Back

It's Sunday night and I am tired and weary after a satisfying weekend diving in the Farnes. No doubt there will be a fuller report on the main web page in due course. Suffice to say at this stage it was something of a tiring weekend with water temperatures hitting 8 degrees and northerly winds making for choppy seas and challenging diving.

The diving was good if not spectacular and of course we all got sight of the grey seals that make the islands their home. Travelling up to Seahouses on Friday afternoon I had not felt 100% but I still managed to be ready to dive first thing on Saturday morning along with Gill, Tony and Dave. The first dive was superb with more squat lobsters than I have seen on any dive. Below 20m the sea bed was literally crawling with life notably so with a multitude of brittle stars fighting for space. Small critters were in absolute abundance with the normal distribution of star fish and urchins.

After 45 minutes I was starting to feel the chill as was Gill so we departed the sea bed where upon it suddenly seemed to get much colder so that by the time we surfaced both of us had a shiver on. At that point the new lift on Sovereign II decided to play up so that by the time we got out Gill was really really cold. It was a great dive but no seals and both of us were too cold.

Sunday continued without any underwater sightings of seals. The sea was rough and the water freezing cold. It didn't stop a couple of reasonable dives and some excellent DSMB work from Gill and Tony as they underwent their Distinctive Specialty.

Whilst the absence of seals was disappointing all 12 in the party were encouraged by the weather which we heard was favouring the North East with sunshine. Had we been in the South it sounds like there was no decent weather to be had and therefore no diving.

On Monday the wind was still northerly and still we managed to dive. On the first I was rewarded with a glimpse of two seals racing behind Kelly in the kelp. Despite how much we searched from that early sighting we didn't find any more so with his camera unused Kelly and I surfaced to be told all the others had seen seals galore. On the last dive Kelly and I found two large well worn cannons at around 15 metres amongst the myriad of crustacean life and pumnose anemones.

My thanks to Dave for driving all the way back to Essex and to everyone else for their company.

Club Night

Back in early April whilst in the Red Sea one of our newly qualified advanced divers came to me with their log book looking very puzzled. We had just done a dive to 28 metres for 56 minutes and having referred to the RDP to make a record of the dive confusion now reigned as the maximum time for a no decompression dive was coming out at 20 minutes. What was puzzling our intrepid diver further was that her computer was fine with what she had done. At the time my explanation that the actual dive profile meant that we had not spent much time at 28 metres and most of the dive was actually at much shollower depths quickly dispelled the confusion and concerns. But how then to keep the log book neat and record the pressure groups rather than just a note about diving this one on a computer?

So I promised that I would reveal the mysteries at a club night at the same time as encouraging the student to extend their education into the realms of multi level diving. So it was that last weekend I recovered my diving wheel from its' safe and undisturbed home in my log book and calculated some devilishly fiendish dive profiles to discuss at our club night.

On Thursday night all was revealed at our club night. We started the night by presenting certificates for some of the club who had recently qualified including Nicki, Annabel, Gill, Paul, Louise (represented by Mum and Dad) and Julie.

Then it was down to business. I covered a little bit of history and theory including some brief explanations of compartments, halftimes and M-Values. We then all had a go at remembering how to use the RDP before using some worked examples of using the wheel. It was really rewarding to see that everybody picked up on what they needed to do and they are all now in a position to plan their dives more accurately, not having to rely on the computer and just as importantly they will all now be able to fill in their log books confidently.

Now all they have to do is complete the Multi-Level Diver Specialty and they can't go wrong.

It was a very good night overall and thanks to those kind enough to join me in the pub afterwards, hic!

Dry Suit Specialty

With May's specialty of the month being Dry Suit Diver I decided to search my photo archives for some suitable pictures that might inspire visitors to the centre to consider the course and starting their UK diving adventures.

I did manage to find a couple of inspiring underwater shots of divers looking warm in clearly cold, chilly water including a shot with ice in the picture. Somehow though I felt compelled to share this one with you.

This is Colin demonstrating the time honoured technique of using talc to help ease the suit over the head. It is evident from the grin that Colin enjoyed the experience and I am sure that it is a look that we will see again this weekend as we head off to the Farne Islands.

There are 12 of us off diving for the long weekend hoping to catch sight of the seals though I will be looking out for replications of this particular pose from those using a Dry Suit for the first time.

Look out for some images from the weekend next week.

Buoyancy Competition Update

On Friday we put several of the younger divers through their paces in the Buoyancy challenge. A number of the Orca fraternity are having a go at this throughout May with the chance to win an Orca T-shirt or a Peak Performance Specialty course.
Of course we have also tied in the prize with next months PADI specialty of the month challenge so there is a further chance to win prizes for the outright winner of the competition.
On Friday evening during our monthly club night James, Lewis, Danielle,Louise and Harry all had a go. With ten points each for five tasks and a further ten for overall style each of the contestants had a good chance of getting some decent marks on the board.
Harry was outstanding as he has yet to complete his full open water course. Meanwhile James took a lead in the overall competition showing off some classy hovering skills.
The five tasks all include a variation on the hovering theme and included swimming through hoops, hovering while removing and replacing a mask, vertical hovering and the more challenging inverted hovering.
I should add that the whole thing is handicapped which does mean as some of our Dive Masters have entered the fray they can rest assured that they will have to put on a good show to overtake James.