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I thought I would post a bit of a trip report.
My last two or three weekends , in fact all my diving since getting back from Sharm have been spent at the National Diving Centre, I am totally bored with the place now.
First the NDC itself, I have found it to be an awkward site to use, no problem with the facilites or the staff, it is just a faf. To get to the water you have to load your kit onto a trailer, it gets ferried down, and you either get into the back of a truck for a lift or you walk. Down is OK, back is a hike. Once you get down there your kit is dropped off and you get it down to the pontoon, there are trollies provided so it is not all bad, but it is still a lot of messing around. Once your in there there is precious little to look at, no fish, no sunken cars, boats, in fact nothing except a few plastic tubes that have been set up for swim thru's. These are a bit of a giggle the first couple of times but the novelty soon wears off.
Now having sounded so negative, the site is not too busy, the vis seems to be around 10M pretty consistantly, as a training site it is superb, and the girls in the food truck are a bit of a laugh.
Now the training dive from hell;
This was my last dive on the TRIMIX course, nothing clever, down the 70M line paddle around back up the line , stick a bag up at 6M and navigate back to the pontoon. I was warned that they were going to mess my life up, but a wouldn't know where or when.
So off we go, 6M bubble check, la de da down the line. Now on the way down I had been slowly turning on the line , no reason just was, theres no current so you just kind of keep yourself amused, the other two are below me, at about 70M they stop, so I stop just above them. I was still turning, well my head was, my body was not, I looked at my compass and this was not moving, but I was, well my head was. So there I sit, I am thinking, ah, this is vertigo, not the best place to get it, so I look for a point of reference, no, nothing, and I mean nothing just pitch black. This is less than fun I think, ah well, we will have to swim off the line as it is no longer at 70M, more like 75. So I set about persuading myself that the compass knows what it is doing. I glance up, the spinning instantly stops. Well, at least I know how to get rid of that now. The next thing I know is the other two are on there way back up, they just sail on by, the instructors torch has failed, no back up, I consider lending him my back up, which is on the back seat of my car, bugger. So thats it, were going back, good I think, oh, now the instructor has decided it is time to be out of air, oh what fun, by, by, main reg, other one goes in my gob. We swop back after a few mins. I am left alone for the rest of the assent. Up with the bag at 6M, quick check on the compass, and off we go, actually, no we don't. The nice belgian chap, has deided to swim round me a couple of times whilst sending his bag up, so, we un-wind ourselves. And off we go, oh goody the instructors deco gas has failed, buddy breathing time, except he gets a big gob full of water and now he won't give it back, god I need a breath, f**k it I'm having it back, so I take it. He has a bit of a moment, and now he is breathing back gas off my necklace. I have three regs on me to choose from and he goes for the one on a bit of string around my neck. We are VERY close together.
After a few moments, he gets himself sorted, remembers his reg is infact in his hand and all is ok, except of course our bags are now inextricibly entwined, this is such FUN.
We head off to the ladders, up I go, get to the top and slip, now my leg is caught in the rungs, I've got twin 12's and 2 x 7L stages, can I hold on, can I f**k. I know I am going to have to drop back, but how to do this with out breaking my leg.
I did it, but I have a very sore leg, I passed, I have no idea how.
It was an interesting day.
Enjoy your diving all. I am having a day off.
Andrew
I thought I would post a bit of a trip report.
My last two or three weekends , in fact all my diving since getting back from Sharm have been spent at the National Diving Centre, I am totally bored with the place now.
First the NDC itself, I have found it to be an awkward site to use, no problem with the facilites or the staff, it is just a faf. To get to the water you have to load your kit onto a trailer, it gets ferried down, and you either get into the back of a truck for a lift or you walk. Down is OK, back is a hike. Once you get down there your kit is dropped off and you get it down to the pontoon, there are trollies provided so it is not all bad, but it is still a lot of messing around. Once your in there there is precious little to look at, no fish, no sunken cars, boats, in fact nothing except a few plastic tubes that have been set up for swim thru's. These are a bit of a giggle the first couple of times but the novelty soon wears off.
Now having sounded so negative, the site is not too busy, the vis seems to be around 10M pretty consistantly, as a training site it is superb, and the girls in the food truck are a bit of a laugh.
Now the training dive from hell;
This was my last dive on the TRIMIX course, nothing clever, down the 70M line paddle around back up the line , stick a bag up at 6M and navigate back to the pontoon. I was warned that they were going to mess my life up, but a wouldn't know where or when.
So off we go, 6M bubble check, la de da down the line. Now on the way down I had been slowly turning on the line , no reason just was, theres no current so you just kind of keep yourself amused, the other two are below me, at about 70M they stop, so I stop just above them. I was still turning, well my head was, my body was not, I looked at my compass and this was not moving, but I was, well my head was. So there I sit, I am thinking, ah, this is vertigo, not the best place to get it, so I look for a point of reference, no, nothing, and I mean nothing just pitch black. This is less than fun I think, ah well, we will have to swim off the line as it is no longer at 70M, more like 75. So I set about persuading myself that the compass knows what it is doing. I glance up, the spinning instantly stops. Well, at least I know how to get rid of that now. The next thing I know is the other two are on there way back up, they just sail on by, the instructors torch has failed, no back up, I consider lending him my back up, which is on the back seat of my car, bugger. So thats it, were going back, good I think, oh, now the instructor has decided it is time to be out of air, oh what fun, by, by, main reg, other one goes in my gob. We swop back after a few mins. I am left alone for the rest of the assent. Up with the bag at 6M, quick check on the compass, and off we go, actually, no we don't. The nice belgian chap, has deided to swim round me a couple of times whilst sending his bag up, so, we un-wind ourselves. And off we go, oh goody the instructors deco gas has failed, buddy breathing time, except he gets a big gob full of water and now he won't give it back, god I need a breath, f**k it I'm having it back, so I take it. He has a bit of a moment, and now he is breathing back gas off my necklace. I have three regs on me to choose from and he goes for the one on a bit of string around my neck. We are VERY close together.
After a few moments, he gets himself sorted, remembers his reg is infact in his hand and all is ok, except of course our bags are now inextricibly entwined, this is such FUN.
We head off to the ladders, up I go, get to the top and slip, now my leg is caught in the rungs, I've got twin 12's and 2 x 7L stages, can I hold on, can I f**k. I know I am going to have to drop back, but how to do this with out breaking my leg.
I did it, but I have a very sore leg, I passed, I have no idea how.
It was an interesting day.
Enjoy your diving all. I am having a day off.
Andrew
