[JAG]

A bit late in the day but a mini report none the less..

The weekend started in the usual way with Garf and I meeting up at Dive Inn on the Friday evening after a tedious trip up the M1, but this time we were joined by Mrs JAG who was looking forward to starting her dive season.

Saturday
Up at the crack of 5am to start with the customary hurry up and wait tactic of vying for a space in the bottom car park. Fortunately we got there early enough to achieve this.

Dive1
As it was Mrs JAG's first dive we had planned to keep it shallow to let her get used to her kit again and to make sure she wasn't cold in her semi-dry. Gave her a few minutes to get adjusted and we just pootled along the 6m shelf to and fro, almost butting to large pike. During this Garf and I did some stage drills which went well. Found a £2 coin! 54 minutes later we ended the dive. Despite dodgy ankle weights which Garf noticed was making her work quite hard, Mrs JAG enjoyed it and was maybe a little chilly at the end but overall it was a decent introduction to UK waters again for her. I used my 3.4kg V-Weight for the first time and believe that this helped my trim quite a lot. I'm sure Garf will put me right though if this wasn't the case.

Dive 2
We had planned to do a couple of more drills then head off to the Stanegarth. We dropped down to 6m, did some more stage drills which went well again then headed out to the Stanegarth. When we arrived it was swamped with divers, so much so that I felt I was being bumped and rammed all over the place! After about 25 minutes I gave the sign to head back. When we got back to the "cliff face" at about 20m I sent up the blob, only for it to jam, so I let it go and settled back down. We started a nice slow free ascent, which I was very keen for Mrs JAG to practise. All was going well till about 10m when I started to struggle a touch with my buoyancy, I was unable to dump all my air, or that's what I was thinking at the time. I was going up to 6m, back down to 9m, up to 4m, back down to 6 and so on. In the end I surfaced missing 1m 30 sec of a safety stop. At this stage I was a bit worried about Mrs JAG not knowing where I was, but was very happy she was down there with Garf, I knew he would be looking after her. I was hacked off about what had happened because I couldn't put my finger on it. Maybe underweighted, but I had done enough dives with this kit and weight to know this wasn't the case. Open verdict on that one.

The lovely Mrs Garf drove up to join us for the Saturday evening for dinner, but by about 8.30pm we were all ready for our pits! As always, it was lovely to see her.

Sunday

Dive 1
Mrs JAG had said that she wanted to try my Buddy Travelwing that I only ever use on holiday, to see what it was like. Well, it's the last time I will ever see that! She loved it! During this dive you could see her confidence building and her trim was much better, she was also frog kicking!
The plan for this dive was simple, drills, drills and drills. We dropped down to the 6m shelf and headed past the Nautilus and pub to find a bit of water that was free and not kicked up. Garf and I settled down here to do stage drills, shutdowns, mask removals and replacements, line following etc.. Stage drills were good, shutdowns getting better and quicker, line following went ok, mask removals and replacements didn't start great but got better and gas switching went ok. Need a slight adjustment to facilitate better hose routing though. Whilst doing these I could see Mrs JAG swimming circles around us and noticed that her trim was much better after removing her ankle weights and using the wing. (She had always complained that she felt her legs were too light, that's why she wore them). After we finished the drills we pootled back towards the APC, passed it to send up the blobs, primary and backup.

Dive 2
Similar plan to the first. We went through all of the drills again and all are getting better, but with lots of room for improvement! Upon completion bimbled to and fro along the 6m shelf dodging the dropping students and being depth charged with weight belts!

All in all it was a hugely productive weekend. Mrs JAG finally back in the water, now with a new wing and enjoying it, immensely. With Garfs guidance and perseverance my drills are so much better than a month ago.
I'm not great at writing reports so if I missed anything mate, please feel free to amend.

Roll on Plymouth this weekend..