[ancl]

Well its been a while since diving for one reason or another.

I've been in the Netherlands for two months today and had been looking around at various dive centres and clubs over here.

After getting frustrated with trying to get into an ex-pat diving club over here, I happened to find a PADI dive center in Vinkeveen ( which is a huge lake where various water sports occur ) so after visiting them last week and having a chat with Fred and Ans, the owners I decided that it was about time I got to use the EAN40 thats been in my twinset for a few months, so booked on a dive which happened today for 11euros.

I spent last night checking and double checking, and triple checking all my kit was here and not back in the UK, loaded up the car and an early night.

Up at 0700, another check of the dive kit, ensuring no local scally had decided to help themselves to any kit.

Leave home at 0800 to be onsite at 0900 to kit up with the boat leaving at 1000, paced myself drinking bottled water, on the journey to the dive center ensuring I wouldn't be dehydrated ( after a couple of suspected DCI hits in the past, I'm doing as much as I can to reduce the risk of a further chamber ride )

First to arrive at the dive center, couple of cars turn up, nod to each other - ah divers - cool, introduce myself to one of the guys, brief chat explaining this was my first dive in NL.

0900 everyone has arrived, I'm introduced to the rest of the group, hand-shakes and smiles all-round, I was made to feel welcome, Ans, one of the owners did a talk on how the morning would go, how to load the kit onto the boat in Dutch, then turning round and explaining to me in English - cool.

I was introduced to my buddy, one of the dive center's DiveMasters, Richard, would be my buddy for the dive, we chatted about our dive history, agreed a nice shallow dive to get back into the swing of things, no deeper then 10M.

I watched the other divers start putting their single tanks and bcd's into the boat, felt a bit out of place with a 12l twinset and wing, had a word with Ans saying I felt awkward going on with a twinset, not to worry she says, its not a problem ( a common phrase I hear often in NL )

1000 the boat departs for a 20 minute ride to the dive site, the Sun is out, the air temp is comfortable. Get to the dive site, Fred the center owner, puts a couple of shot lines down and an anchor, a speed boat is moored up with the owner trying to teach his dog to swim whilst his attractive young girlfriend was watching ( topless !! ) I laughed to myself and said I like the scenerary to which Fred said he was able to offer a PADI "tittie" speciality :-)

We had the dive brief, in Dutch and subtitles in English on Teletext 888, Fred explained to me there was some small boats at the bottom to have a look at.

Helped the other divers kit up and get them into the water, Richard and me kit up, quick run-through on our kit, time for a back roll entry into the water, heart starts to race, time to get wet, less then perfect entry into the water, signal OK to Richard who is in the water as well, right time for the dive, drop down to 3M, OK, sorted out my buoyancy, suit is causing me some aggro, feet starting to hurt as suit is squeasing ( I try and use the wing as I've had problems with the suit in the past dumping air ) drop down to 6M, add a bit of air to the suit, can't clear the squease in my boots, carry on, struggling to fin as my feet were hurting, mental note buy a MTM dry-suit or go back to a semi-dry.

Had a look around the boats, not as big as the Stanegarth but its something to look at, not much life down there, apart from fish fry at 3M, Richard found a small inch long monster, we both don't know what it was, but I think it was a baby crayfish ( possibly ?? )

I decide to stop and remove my ankle weights and see how I get on.

Feet start to go light, foot squease has gone but started to ascend, dropped some air in the wing, feet still light, not enjoying this, another mental note to dump this damn suit.

About 30minutes, still not feeling happy about this suit, sat at 2M just watching the boat, signalled to ascend, we both ascended, bit quick for my liking, dumped air to slow the ascent, okay its from 2M to the surface but still not 100% happy about it. Explained to Richard about I felt uncomfortable about the suit, but could we drop back down to 2M and try some fin-pivots, no problem, dropped back down, feet still light, can't get the air from my feet up to the dump, after a couple of attempts I decide to call it a day with the dive, so we ascend.

Apologised to Richard for the problems, don't worry about it he said, have a chat with Fred and see what we can do.

Back on the boat, apparently I'm brave ( shucks ! ) or crazy because I dived without a hood, everyone else was wearing hoods, hang on a minute some of you guys are in wet-suits, and I'm brave !!!!

Slow ride back to the dive centre, to unload and do the dive logs. Hung around and had a chat with the Dutch divers who were asking how I was settling into life over here, said its good, and even better now I've had a dive.

Spoke to Fred about my dry-suit, I'm going back on Wednesday for him to take a look at how the suit fits on me and possibly off for an evening dive if I'm interested.

I really liked the dive operation and the friendliness of the people that I intend to continue to dive with this center.

Apparently the lake is 50/60M deep in some places, but maybe others who have dived here could confirm.

I think I'm probably going to dump the suit and either purchase a new suit or go back to a semi-dry as I'm sure this one is more trouble then its worth.

Runtime : 30 minutes
Water temp : 17c
Viz : 3/4M

Hopefully I will be able to post some more reports in the future, want to get down to Zeeland and have a play so stay tuned.

Tot Ziens
Andy ( ancl )