:Gledder\’s diving blog…

Pick Fraser up from Heathrow at 8:00am - straight off the redeye from New York.

Now it would be normal to go home and recover from jetlag - but Fraser has not been able to do much diving in New York (make that almost none) so he’s keen to get wet. We therefore head to Vobster for a quick dip.

OK we don’t get there until 10:30 - and I take it easy on him - and his set needs draining as he is on back gas inflation and the set I brought has trimix in it - but even so… 2:30 first dive - Al would have killed him ;o)

Couple of gentle dives just to get wet and stay awake really - then I drive him home to Kent. 400 miles for me - 4,000 for him so it’s a long day.

Roll on Sunday - when the team will be back together for the first time this year. Boy do we have some work to do - but hopefully a lot of fun to be had as well.

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Andy Kerslake had to take some stuff to Phill so we popped in to Stoney for a dive or two on route.

Have to say that by the time I had lugged stages and scooter to the waters edge (trolleys are for wimps apparently ) and got kitted up I was going off the idea of getting cold and wet and the pub looked inviting indeed!

I’ve never ‘dived’ with Andy (only been subject to his courses) and my gas consumption on the first dive confirmed that I was nervous indeed, especially when the blue gloves came out, but it was great fun. We did the whole tour - which I have not done before - over to the far side of the quarry where there is a plane and another boat and then back to the Stanegarth where Andy went through like a rat in a drainpipe. Took me a bit longer to get through with stages as well so vowed to leave them behind on the next dive.

The stages also added greatly to my drag in the water and although Andy wound his back a lot, I was definately lagging behind - allowing him to play with barrel rolls and turns until I caught up!

Dive two was the rest of the quarry - again bits I’ve never been to before. It’s quite nice away from the usual travelled sections - we saw very few divers in the water although the one we did see seemed a bit surprised :o)

Then off to Niknaks - where we bumped into a few familiar faces Nice set up Phill - even if the promised Hobnobs never appeared

After a great deal of talking bollocks about diving we set back off home - where Andy lent me some twin 18s to try out Oh boy!

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Salsette or not….

We should have been diving the Salsette, as organised by Mark Chase, but a very senisble skipper (Grahame - Wey Chieftain) cancelled when snow was forecast.

Six rather less sensible divers from the trip decided to go to Vobster instead. It was a bit cold!

I nearly packed up and went home before I started when the snow stared coming horizontally into the car when I opened the door - but Al grabbed me and said something which boiled down to ‘Shut up - you are diving even if I have to throw you in’

Luckily Bob arrived to break up the fight….

Mark Chase and IanI were already there, as was GLOC who would be diving with Wilbo. AndyP arrived later on - honestly, the three of them together made Vobster like a real live version of grumpy old men :o)

IanI did a very good job of taking the piss out of DIR divers. And then very generously gave me an awful lot of ammunition to take it back in copious amounts….
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Nah - I’ll let him tell you - it would be too much like taking candy from a baby!

First dive

Bob wanted to check out the weighting and tracking of his rather large standard Gavin. So we jumped in and did the whole quarry in about twenty minutes - including down the tunnel. Luckily for me, Mark had mentioned to me at Stoney on Wednesday that it is good practice to bump the fins of the diver in front to let them know that you are OK. That way when Bob started bumping me every now and again I didn’t feel the urge to thump him!

Bob

Got out and tried to get warm - which took rather a lot of effort. Found IanI looking even more grumpy…
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Nah would still not be fair.

Mark Chase dumped his Inspiration and got out his DIR rig (Al and Bob muttered something about riding with the cowboys and shooting with the indians ) and jumped in with Wilbo and GLOC. Bob started fettling scooters to try to iron out a few problems from the first dive.

We then (eventually) jumped back in for another go. Wilbo had got cold and so Gareth and Mark jumped back in with us. Bob had a spare scooter so Mark used that and Al towed Gareth over to the platforms for a bit of practice.

Al

Al and I (and Bob for that matter) are doing a trip at the end of the year where we will have to dive scooters and three stages (as the dives are in the 60-70 metre range) so there is a great deal of practice to be done. Days like this are helping as I am still new to the Gavin and have helped me get the weighting and trim reasonably good (for fresh water). Managing to add air to my wing, equalise, keep my light in a sensible place and check my gas at the same time as keep on the trigger is proving slightly high on the task loading front! But getting easier….

Me

I was in the middle of doing a shutdown when I looked down and found Bob scootering underneath me!

After a while of not being sure whether I was getting wet I could now feel the water in my suit reach my elbow and it was time to thumb the dive. 5 degrees (4 by Mark’s computer) was cold enough….

Time to lug out all the equipment - Wilbo and GLOC got busy and dragged everything out while we got our kit off…. calling us back to see what they had amassed. Not bad for three divers…

Stages

Not quite the day that we thought we would have when we signed up for Mark’s Salsette trip - but a fun one nevertheless.

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I don’t know why I am surprised that there is factionalism in diving, it is one of the less likeable but nontheless prevalent characteristics of the human race after all.

We are conditioned to see the world in a ‘them and us’ way. The face which we choose to present to the world makes a statement about where we believe we ‘fit’ in many ways. Whether it is a car choice, a fashion style, a football shirt, political allegiance, job choice, consumer purchases, the newspaper we read on the train, each of the choices we make gives information to others on which they will base their initial view of us - deciding whether they can relate to us or not.

In diving there are many of these ‘them and us’ divides. PADI V BSAC (to snorkle or not to snorkle) TECH V REC, OC V CCR, Inland V Sea, or DIR V everyone (or is that just the way it sometimes seems?) The DIR kit is certainly associated with certain ideas and beliefs, which may or may not reflect the of inions of the wearer.

What a waste of time and effort. We have lost sight of the fact that we are all divers, albeit with our favoured way of diving, and we should all have much more in common with each other than we have differences.

I have lunch a couple of times a week with someone who dives a CCR. It’s great - I get to sit at work and chat about diving, wrecks, deco, etc., rather than work. We tease each other about the differences - but relish the fact that each of us is lucky enough to be able to enjoy our sport - the fact we choose to do it differently need not matter in this.

So the next time you feel like criticising another diver for doing it differently, take a step back and ask yourself, if you are not entering the water with them, is it really any business of yours how they do it…

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Lanny

Met up with Mark, Lanny and Al for more scooter diving - starting to get the hang of it.

Lanny brought his X Scooter - it is SO light and easy to carry - I was jealous the moment I picked it up!

Me

On long tracks across the quarry mid water it seemed to hold track really well - nice piece of kit.

We did three dives (Lanny bottled out after dive 2 as the balmy 5 degrees that Vobster offered were a little different to the Carribean where he has been for six months or so.

Mark

Mark was breathing from his stage as he entered the water with not much in his twins. Whilst he had plenty of gas we decided to switch stages under water after a bit to extend the dive for a while - a swap which went very smoothly indeed.

Last dive the viz really was bad - the rain had made the water close to the cliff murky and the ambient light was enough to ensure that lights were pretty useless. Keeping the three scooters together was a challenge indeed - as was avoiding the cliff which loomed up out of nowhere :o)

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