Vobster weekend
Friday morning found me at the station picking up Daniel (Galobeast) and driving to Vobster to meet Diane for a couple of dives.
Daniel, who is from Brazil, was very excited to see it begin to snow as we kitted up for the first dive. I can’t say I shared his enthusiasm. We just pootled about, practiced a few gentle ascents so Di could get comfortable - very nice. Daniel thumbed the dive as he was cold - I found out later on the surface that he was diving in just a 200 gramme fleece
After much choccy on the surface and an achingly funny session where Di compared me to Eva Braun (ve ave vays of getting you into ze trim!) we headed back in for another dive. Di did an excellent shutdown and Daniel and I had a bit of fun throwing some stages about until our hands were so cold we couldn’t feel the clips anymore.
Fun day.
Saturday morning I really didn’t want to get out of bed. But I was expecting Janos at 6:45 am so struggled out and got the extra kit that I would need after the day before into the car. It was chuffing freezing! To say I was non too pleased when I found he was running late and I could have had an extra hour in bed would not be an exaggeration!
Getting to Vobster it was great to see DJL, as well as Al and all the boys on the DIR F course.
After a few weeks (well months if I’m honest) of ignoring skills a bit, Al and I were determined to get some done today. First dive though I was going to try to get more comfortable on the Gavin - which I’ve not been very happy with since I got it.
We scootered out round the quarry without stages. Al had added a bit of weight to mine and whilst it was easier to manage in the water it was clearly too heavy as it went negative below 10 meters and I stopped and gave it the last rites as it settled on the bottom Much more comfortable though - unlike my shutdown drill which frankly sucked. Far too slow and a real struggle to reach the left post in the new (but really warm) undersuit.
Second dive was three stages each and an attempt to start finding our way round the switching drill we need to get sorted. I have to say scootering out to the 12 meter platform I felt like an aircraft carrier with the gavin and the stages… Woe betide any OW diver I came across in the vis - I may take a while to stop
The valve drills went better this time, but the stage switching was horrid, and I was again unable to unclip my pressure gauge when the leash is in place. Talking to RichW on the surface my leash is too long and my hip D ring may need repositioning further back for multiple stages. All food for thought next time I suppose. Scootering back we saw SoB and his mates - even if he couldn’t tell who was who!
It really was warmer in the water (5 degrees) than on the surface so we got back in again. Janos joined us on dive 3 so Al and I decided to swim the stages around. Shutdowns were a bit easier still so mustn’t let the practice slip again - every dive until we are Mexico bound methinks.
All in all another good day. But all the nicer that this morning I got to stay in bed in the warm!
