28th and 29th at Vobster
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 DIR X 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 
