Stoney this Friday 27th Anyone?

[warmwaterdiver]

Sounds like I missed out on a good one

As soon as this cold clears up, I'm up for another Friday or weekend

[Ian@1904]

I did not take a stage with me, so was using 37% all through the dive.

I use the smb to measure my ascent rate, if the line gets slack I know I have "issues" to sort out.

Phil used his own gas for the diving through out, even if he did have to do a shut down. Very smoothly done, even if I did not see it happen

[stewbie]

Well - was best described as a dive for the appreciative audiance.

I was there trying out the new wing - to be honest, I didn't find it too different from the SMB, apart from the lack of bloody pockets. Also seemed to need slightly more weight - which caused some fun at the initial weights check. I ended up eyeing Phils backplate and p-weight with envious eyes. I may have to consider a Wozplate in the future to get some of the weight off my belt - well, that or maybe someone will be seeling one second hand at some point

Must make the straps a bit longer though!!

Anyway - weight check resulted in me having to attach a 2kg block to my harness, closely eyed by Ian - I later found out he was considering nicking it if he proved underweighted at the end of the dive.

Off we pootled - I am used to the regular and instructor types sipping air like a wine afficianado, so the low on air signal from Ian caught me by surprise as well.

It was then that the action started. Ian was keen to get his SMB out, but not as keen as Phil was to inflate it. I learnt that dry gloves are great at keeping your hands toasty warm, but no good at fiddly jobs at 20m. While Ian began to reassemble his SMB, Phil, almost in indignation, decided to show off. He began venting air from his reg, turned it all over the place, stuck his thumb in it, then decided to do a good impression of a contortionist with a shoulder displacement. His manifold was shut down in a juffy - the left valve seemed a bit more problematic. Fingertip shutdown underway, i got caught in the bubble trail, which sufficiently buggered up the water density to send me up by about 5 metres. Once out of that, I got back down to my front row seat and hovered between Curly and Larry with a pony and Octo ready depending on the circs.

As it was - no worries from the dynamic duo, and a textbook ascent resulted, followed by the longest surface swim I've done since my rescue course.

So what did I learn - well, Phil can bend his body in ways I wouldn't even like to attempt. The importance of having a fully redundant air source was underscored, but for the non twinset types amoungst us, I still believe that the pony is more than adequate folks!! (at least for that type of dive)

Both Ian and Phil are top blokes although I was a bit concerned by the invitation to closely examine Ians crotch. I assume it must be a BSAC bonding thing that instructors do. Didn't enquire any further...

Oh, they also have this tendency to make threats to nail me to the wall or something (did I mention I'd been to the Red Sea recently!!)

All in all- good and action packed dive.

[Ian@1904]

Originally Posted by stewbie

Both Ian and Phil are top blokes although I was a bit concerned by the invitation to closely examine Ians crotch. I assume it must be a BSAC bonding thing that instructors do. Didn't enquire any further....

I was merely demonstrating how knackered my suit is, and why I have ordered a new suit. If you were a BSAC diver you would have been recommending repair solutions.

Originally Posted by stewbie

Oh, they also have this tendency to make threats to nail me to the wall or something (did I mention I'd been to the Red Sea recently!!)

Quite rightly so IMO. Phil and I actively discussed the best approach to insert the ship wheel above the fireplace to somewhere that the sun does not shine

[recurve]

Ian is of the opinion it was a good days diving despite the fun and freeflow games, I tend to think it was a good days diving because of them.

The dive raised several important issues that shine through in spite of the relentless p*ss taking that is such a (great) feature of YD.

1) Make sure you have an adequate armoury of signals to let the others in your group what is going on.

2) Anyone can have problems

3) When someone IS having problems, their focus will shift from the buddy group/pair to themselves.

4) In a freeflow situation I managed a half decent shutdown, which pleased me no end.
Great dive, great fun, great guys to be with. Thanks for today.

And the shoal of tiny fish looked almost like a tropical reef, fantastic swimming through them