Wow - what a fantastic weekend
Only YD could give us such a mix. My first sight on arriving in Stoney Cove on Saturday morning was Howard with his (well Chase's actually) rebreather in the car hemmed in by Bob Cooper, Andy Carrol and Andy Kerslake. They had clearly decided to save him from himself... (or from Frank
)
Next arrival was Mark Chase... it just keeps getting better
As a new(ish) member of YD who has read both Bob's and Mark's trip reports over the last year describing dives which were (and still are) out of my league, I found myself quite intimidated fitting a harness on Mark and then jumping in the water with them both.
Mark has been very harsh on himself in the above report - he did fine and should get full marks for entering in to the spirit of things so wholeheartedly... it was a pleasure indeed.
I'm still giggling about the single tank diver who looked so baffled at Bob's antics with Mark's rig that he asked whether Bob had ever dived before... priceless.
Rich was busy with four YDers who had turned up to do a bit of an explore DIR session. Diane (Madfish) was one of our newbies and she had a problem with her inflator hose. She was assisted by a kind hearted chap who got her to rest spread eagled on the back of his car while he sorted it out. She had been in this position for about five minutes when she said "who are you by the way" He said, I'm Andy Kerslake" She said "you're joking - that's terrifying"... but later she said to me - "I thought he was Woz..."
Jonathan (Tonytheteal) who I had dived with on Friday, along with our newest recruit and photographer Galobeast (better known as Daniel from Brazil) came back from his fundies resit announcing that he had passed
as had Alex. Well done to you both.
Saturday evening was great fun... much piss taking had by all. Seeing Little Pete in Bob's twin 18s was memorable - they are as long as his legs. I think the DIRers and our YD guests all enjoyed the proceedings and the after dinner chat (I swear that I saw the odd glass of alcohol but it must have been my imagination - it was a DIR gig after all
)
Sunday Al and I went in with Andy Kerslake for a scooter dive as I was still having difficulty with it. Difficult became impossible when it turned out that it wouldn't go at all - and Andy made some battlefield repairs - on top of those made by Bob the day before.
Still unhappy I went out with Bob and after much faffing finally got it comfortable. I don't know whether it was poorly directed prop wash or my grinning which made my mask flood but I felt great that it was finally coming together.
So that was the weekend from my perspective. I dived with Al, Tonytheteal, Galobeast, Bob Cooper, Mark Chase, AndyB, Little Pete, Alun, Andy Kerslake and Howard Radcliffe - a mix of non DIR, new DIR and scary DIR divers
Bob, And, Rich and Andy worked like trojans running workshops, mending kit and answering questions.
One quote from a YD guest made my weekend when he said "I've had fun, really good fun. Just tell me one thing - everyone here is normal and nice - where have you hidden all the obnoxious DIR divers we hear so much about?"
Lets do it all again next year.