Stoney - 24/4

[MATTBIN]

Trundled up to Stoney yesterday for an RD taster courtesy of Scott (DiveFunScuba), cheers mate really appreciated your time and effort. Beautifull weather, the place was heaving, but fun none the less.
Taster 1 was a paniced surfaced diver, Scott ran through the drill and as he did my long hose O ring blew just at the joint of the DV, good start. Shut down right post and all was well, but I was down to one dv, as we were in 3m of water we decided to carry on. The 'victim' wouldnt play ball and refused to let me get behind him, so he didnt get rescued. Rule 1 in First Aid - one victim is better than 2, if he's aware enough to keep turning to face me he can rescue himself. Wont add my comments as to what I thought about the victims actions.
Taster 2, bring up a body, went well enough although I was surprised my wing (which comes off the left post, I just knew that was right when I decided that arrangement for me) managed it as I thought it was pretty marginal with twin 10's and an excess of my own lead, see later comments.

Second dive was just a pootle around as Scott was also looking after a young lady coming back to diving after a lay-off. Graham, one of Scott's mates supplied me with an O ring as the shop didnt have any, really! At the end of the dive with 100 bar I decided to do a weight check, I was carrying 10Kg, I dropped 2Kg off and checked that I could just float at eye level, I repeated this again and again until I wasnt actually wearing a weight belt at all and just managed to stay at eye level. Even though I realise that 100 bar weighs about 2Kg I cant believe I am/was that much over weighted, further investiagtion is required, at that rate I'll need 4Kg in sea water. I have a plastic b/p so that's not the reason. If I was that much over weighted it might explain the SAC I suffer/endure. One other kit failure on the second dive, the dv that blew its O ring was constantly leaking water into my mouth, so that's gone back to the LDS in the hope it will be fixed by next weekend's trip to PortKerris.
Watch this space as they say.

All in all a good day out, saw a bit of what RD is all about and coped well with kit failure. Oh and got the tanks filled as we went for a beer, except of course the lad didnt open the isolator and neither did I so I didnt get a full 220 bar, more like 150 (again) when I equalised the tanks.

Met AndyW (Wetlettuce) swapped my 12 for his 15 and had a look at each others kit, must say the DIR boys do look cool, his dry suit fits better than my wedding suit did, the b/p and harness look very tasty and I was genuinely impressed with their very tidy appearance, not though they need my seal of approval, obviously. Being good on names I've completely forgotten who was with Andy, I think it was 2 Tanks, forgive me if I'm wrong, but he did have a real life genuine 4 leaf clover.

Matt

[And]

<font color='#000080'>Hi

It was Davey Willo.

We had a good time. Lucky enough to get into the bottom carpark, and although it was really hot with all the suits and stuff, the water was a cool 9 degC.

Nice to meet you Matt, Scott, and co.

Kindest Regards

Andy

[MATTBIN]

Andy as I said to you on Saturday, you swiped my spot, had I got there at the planned for 10 I would have slid in nicely, as it was I arrived far earlier and missed the bottom carpark and they forced me into the top one.
Sorry Davey. I only remember girls names (eh Lou? &nbsp; &nbsp;or is it Caroline)

Matt

[louigi]

<font color='#FF0000'>that exess weight is probably your nemissis when it comes to air consumption mat. See you again soon Lou.

[daz]

Hey Matt, this floating at eye level is all well and good but could you actually sink!

I used to use 5kg (2kg backplate and 3kg P weight in salt water) with my heavy 10's (each is about 12kg!).

Anyways you might get away with less, who am I to comment on whether you are more dense than me or not &nbsp;

And cool though Andy and Dave look, Dave is not strictly DIR. &nbsp;He fails on the &quot;It's got to be black&quot; until he starts using Grecian 2000 &nbsp;

Daz

[Noel Johnson]

I'm sorry I miised you all - I was there on Sunday but I didn't dive, I was visiting some friends. It was bloody busy though.

[MATTBIN]

Daz, sinking wasnt a problem, even without the weight belt.
I reckon its cos I've been on a diet, see food diet, see food, eat it.
No, its odd because I did all the weight calcs for swapping from single 12 to twin 10 including extra bouyancy etc and I was sure I had got it near enough, just goes to show theory and practical dont always add up, anyway I'll have another check out at the weekend coming down in Cornwall, where we hope to see the Basking sharks, did I mention that already?
Any sightings yet that you know of? I hear the plankton bloom has started, so we might be lucky.

Matt