Lyme Regis 14/15 Oct

[Ian@1904]

Friday evening saw Cathy and I driving along the motorways with Cathy texting like mad to everyone that the diving was on. There were various texts back concerniing the M3. The best exchange being

Dave " Do you have the phone number for the B&B?
Cathy"Yes thanks"
Dave "Git"
Cathy 01........etc

The Smuggler B&B turned out to be up an alley next to the cinema. However a reel and line is advised for night time treks to the loo. Nice breakfast and friendly people.

We met up with skipper Doug about 8.30 am and Doug went into fussy mode about setting up chain gangs and where to load all the kit. However once all the kit was on aboard things settled down and there was no need for Howard to start a fight.....

Our first dive was the St Dunstan in about 30m. By process of elimination I buddied Howard as bailout. So down the shot we went, marred only by decent 5-7 m viz and abundant wildlife. Howard even cut free a spider crab caught in fishing line. We chased some lobster. Howard (without drain rods) proceeded to tickle a conger, which swam off, and then swam back now facing Howard. Howard retreated ripping his suit. Matt and Tom came along and took some footage of the Dude diving style, and I eventually decided to bag off and ascend. Howard used a distinctive deployment involving a fully inflated smb, and jammed reel, and a mini reel. Howard then indicated how pleased he was with the deployment and leaking suit.
Anyway up the lines we go and off for the long deco hang.


A real entertaining dive. On the boat we had the usual banter and some hot dogs.

About half an hour later I developed an itch......



About half an hour later the itch had got worse. So I had a chat with Doug, he had a look at my shoulder. Dougs view was that I had a skin bend............Quick chat to the Coastguard and Whisky Bravo was sent out. Paul did some DCI checks on my and we could see no other symptoms. Anyway the copter arrives and I was airlifted. Lots of O2 on the boat and the chopper and the itch has gone.
At the chamber we discussed my unhealthy lifestyle-no smoking, not overweight, been running and cycling this week, hydrated, and the dive, no rapid ascents, all stops completed, nitrox tested the previous day. The O2 was obviously curing the skin bend, but as there could be as yet unseen issues I was potted.
6 hours with Sport Diver magazines is very very dull. But having a chinese takeaway lifted the mood.
Special thanks to Tom for driving round and collecting me.

So the moral of the story. You can plan a dive, execute the plan, follow the stops on your computer and still get bent. Just don't get complacent, do not do denial.

I will let the other tell you about the other dives. Apparently they were all lousy.


PS
Doug if you read this you know I am booking for 2008(fully booked for 2007) and I never fed any chocolate to the dog, it was Howard.

[Ian@1904]

Howard kit ready for action. I am referring to the drain rods of course.

[Odin]

Just pleased you are Okay Dokey!
Thanks for organising the w/e.
I had a cracking dive with Adrian - but due to swallowing half the sea trying to free the DSMB from the boat... I canned the rest of the dives.
I'll pm you later Ian.
Paul

[Ian@1904]

Cathy, ecstactic at remembering to wear a welt belt


Howard showing the correct way to wear gaffer tape


Random people going for yet another lousy dive. Don't know why they bothered really

[triplefin]

Many thanks to Ian for organising the trip and everyone for some great company. Also to all you guys who helped me lift stuff.

For those of a more sensitive nature it may be best not to view all these pictures as they show some nakedness. Rest assured these pictures were taken in the best possible taste and only in the pursuit of science. (Adrian wanted pics of a skin bend for training actually). Anyway I am sure Ian will forgive this flagrant breech of his rights as his naked body is emblazoned all over the net. Should anyone want copies…..…..for training purpose only of course! …please PM me (promise I wont sell em to any seedy mags Ian )

Paul Ian Adrian Rob



Cathy and Tom


Ian on the good stuff


Howard and Dave


Tom Howard and Cathy


Rob Howard and Matt


Lto R
Adrian Dave Howard Matt Sonia Rob Cathy


IAN GETS NAKED!

[Paul Oliver]

Ian

Nice report, i think you can now have the job of Dude's buddy on any future gigs

Doh, you forgot stress in your DCI hit, certain buddy's can bring this on

[Paul Oliver]

Damn those are good photo's for lessons, all the other skin bend pic's i have seen are much more extreme.

[Diving Dude]

Well l had a blast, thanks for organising things Skinny.

I drove down with Matt, which meant numerous toilet stops for him and a four hour ear bashing for me, l really needed a beer when we got there.

So day one, as Skinny says, we meet up on the quayside and the skipper tells us how he wants our gear organised whilst moaning like a girley about how much gear we have. L stand on the quayside thinking “what a knob” me and him are going to have to have words, but l keep quiet for the sake of the group, thinking l’ll leave it until the end of the days diving on Sunday. However the skipper sort of morphed into a really nice guy by the end of the two days.

Dive one, l end up having to buddy Skinny on the St Dunstan, superb dive reasonable vis, loads of life, coming around the bow l found a spider crab trapped in monofilament netting, so l cut him loose, which in my mind means that l’ve paid in advance to ‘the creator’ for the rest of weekends wildlife fondling.

I’d brought along my conger persuader (patent pending) which of course was back on the boat, so l had to use my hand instead, which didn’t turn out to be one of my best ideas…
So boys and girls, next time your laying flat on the deck with your arm up to your shoulder in hole squeezing a congers tale, it may just shoot out of the hole turn 360 degree and shoot back in, you would then whip your arm out pretty quick which may then rip your dry suit, you would then spend the next ten minutes of the dive holding your hand down as your arm fills with water, which then runs into your boots as you raise you arm to set off your gas dsmb which is attached to your jammed reel. You may then think it’s a good idea to hold on to the wreck and attach your spare spool, all this faffing about would evenly distribute the water within your suit. So don’t do it boys and girls.

Today l remembered to take the persuader, but it didn’t work that well on the first dive, still my new buddy Tom (my third of the weekend) and l saw a John Dory.
We saw rakes of Congers on the second dive, l tried to “free” a few without success before l finally got one to play, l gently prodded its tale and in moved along under the bricks (ballast and cargo from the wreck) it turned into another hole which already contained a conger then it was swan free for 3-4 mtrs and went back under the bricks, so out comes the persuader again and once more its free, it swims 2-3 mtrs and turns back towards us swimming past five divers.

I have never laughed so much during a dive, however all this work, including moving the shot at the start of the dive had made start breathing heavy……..
On the first day l’d done 1 hr 40mins on the scrubber and it was looking highly unlikely we’d get two dives in today, the skipper said we may get one if the weather didn’t worsen, so l hadn’t changed the scrubber….ok..ok l know l’m a knob but….
So back to the bit where l’m breathing heavy, the scrubber time springs into my mind and l can’t slow down my breathing, so l think l’ll go to oc bailout just in case, after 2-3 mins l still can’t get my breath back so l think bollox l’m going up, by the time l reach 6 mtrs my breathing back to normal and l decide to go back on the loop and use it as semi closed on 02. After a couple of mins l then go fully closed and everything seems fine. So back on the boat l was wondering if maybe l’d over-reacted and maybe it was just the workload/excitement, still it gave me some more OC bailout ascent practice which means when the shite really hits the fan l’ll hopefully be prepared.

It was nice to meet some of the old YDers again and a few new ones as well.

l wonder if Jane will post the pickies of the innocent RNLI guys she was ogling

[Steve S]

Hi Ian,

sorry to hear of your skin bend mate, and I hope you are back to it soon, that is quite scary as skin bends I've seen were much more noticeable than yours.
Howie mate I believe you have now experienced karma be prepared for more conger backlash

Safe diving,
Steve

[Paul Oliver]

So who's the next sucker to dive with the Dude?