Sidemount in Gozo

Off to Gozo, Malta

After having enough of the cold weather in the UK, time has nearly come to hop over to Gozo,Malta for 10days.

After thinking what to dive on, well sidemount is the order of the day. James is coming with us to complete his Tec 50.

Zante July 2012 - Caves and Caverns

What a wonderful week on Zante, diving in the sea caves and caverns. Can't wait for next year, this year was amazing......!

Managed to cram in 10 boat dives in the week,

Dive 1: Daphnie
Dive 2: Marathonisi
Dive 3: Marathia
Dive 4: Keri Caves
Dive 5: Keri Caves 2
Dive 6: Lakka
Dive 7: Cave Tunnel
Dive 8: Poieden Cave
Dive 9: Maratha
Dive 10: Oktopus

Tec 40 at Stoney Cove in March 2012

Well what a cracking few days at Stoney Cove we've all just had. With the tempature reaching nearly 20C in the middle of March. When we arrived on the Tuesday morning we was amazed that there was no queue at the gate and only around 20 cars in the car park.
We had 3 dives to complete over the 2 days, with the final deep dive down to the hydrobox (36m) for tomorrow morning planned.
The first dive had already been completed and the boys where raring to go.
Dive 2:Anyway with 2 dives planned for the tuesday we call kittd up ready for dive 1 of the day, this was going to be the deepest dive of the day, were John B and John S had a couple of surprises waiting for them. This dive was planned using z planner, all the slates written up ket was checked and gases tested, we was ready to go. We had decided to go from the bus stop and decend down the road until we got to our maximum depth. The two John's had some skills to complete which they completed without any problems.However on the way back up I'd decided that they would loose their SMB's which was rather funny to say the least when I took John's SMB off him.

Dive3:With the last reminding skills it was out to the 18m plateu, we all had a good laugh pulling some little tricks on them both however, I could see that they was jelling together as tec divers from what I'd seen in the early dives it was like they had dived together for years.

Wednesday morning arrived to yet another glorious sunny day, leaving the hotel for the couple of minute journey to Stoney Cove, when we arrived there was only about 10 divers in the car park. We all proceeded to setup our gear. Analyzed the gases and labeled up all the cylinders. Checked the dive plan, made sure everyone was happy with the plan and knew what the plan was. Breifing completed and our surface support Val, knew the plan and where we should be at certain times, we all kitted up ready for John and John's deepest dive to date.

Dive4: Finally ready to get into the water, one by one we entered the water from the Bus Stop, it was a refreshing 8C in the water, we all sorted ourselves out ready for the rather long surface swim out to the bouy that marked the Hydrobox. We settled down and made sure everyone was ok, and we started on the line down to the box, the visability was around 6-8m as we descended into the depth's of Stoney Cove, finally we was down. We started swiming around the box trying to find the deepest spot however we could only manage a little over 36meters.

After our aloted time down at the Hydrobox, it was time to leave and follow our planned dive to the surface, Jon N led the way not getting lost in the slightest, however as I followed the two John's it was amazing to see them communicate underwater and both knew where they was, not one leading and the other following. I knew my job was done. The switch on 50% deco was semmless at 20m then we slowly followed the road up to plateu of Stoney Cove.

A Big well done to John B and John S at becoming Tec 40 divers.

My Rebreather Inspiration Classic

I managed to get myself a secondhad APV Inspiration Classic from a fellow club member at a very resonable price, however the unit had been sat around for some time.

Well never the less I'm currently in the process of servicing it having ordered a complete set of O rings for it(nearly 120), cylinders are going off this week to be tested and O2 cleaned.

Changed the yellow lungs to some black ones I managed to get my hands on, the new wing replacing the APV redwing 16 will be collected this week.

However the best little toy for the unit has to be a 4/5th cell that Narked@90 sells allowing the unit to be connected to a Shearwater computer so you can  monitor gasses in the head  unit.

The last toy I'm looking for now is a APV BOV which allows easier bailout between the rebreather and a stage cylinder.

A week to Go

Well just over a week to go before I fly out to Sharm in Egypt for a week on a liveabord, we are going to be diving some of the best wrecks and reefs in the area.

This is going to be the first time that I'm taking the DLSR camera can't wait to see the pics and video at the end of the trip.

My new toy: AP Valve Inspiration Classic Rebreather

Well after months looking round for a secondhand unit, I found one close to home, well from a local club member.


So after a little time to think about it(10 seconds) we arranged a try dive on the unit, just a quick check out dive at Holborough lakes.

Well colin and myself checked the unit on the saturday, topping up the cylinders with air and oxygen, packed the scrubber. and then switched the beast on, to calibrate it and make sure all the cells was working correctly.

On the sunday I drove to Colin's and we shared the journey up there, I was feeling a little bit nervous trying out the new bit of kit. As Holborough is only just of 10m in depth this wasn't going to be a problem. For extra protection I took a 7Ltr stage with air in which was also attached to my drysuit.

We unloaded the car and put the rebreathers on the benches and kitted up, drysuits on and stages all ready to go. Well it was now or never!


Dive1: This would allow me to get the weighting correct and make sure that I could breathe properly before we went out to the 6m platform. Well I needed 12kg og lead and had another 2kg's on the pouch at the top of the rebreather. This amount of weight allowed me to sink easily however not to fast. We did a surface swim out to the 6M platform, making sure the mouth piece was always on my mouth. So time to descend, this is where my problems started , with the rebreather you need to breathe out of your noise to reduce the air in the loop, well becuase my hood was far to loose everytime I breathed out my hood filled with air and started to pull my mask off, however I was descend to 6m. I thought this was a mask issue, so off with the mask and straight on with the backup and full mask clear. Sorted my bouyancy and was hovering over  the platform no problem at all. We then completed a bailout to the 7ltr stage making sure I closed the mouth piece of the rebreather, and then swapped back.

We was about to go for a swim when my hood filled up with air again and the mask was being pulled off my face. I signalled to Colin that I was going up and that ended the dive.

Dive2: Well thanks to Dave from Holborough Lakes who lent me a nice snug hood backup mask on we entered to water for dive2. As my weighting was right we swam back out to the 6m platform , desended down to platform, what a difference no mask problems and no floaty hood, again I completed a quick bailout, Colin checked for bubbles and we was both OK. I then started to hover over the platform, and things were good.

After a couple of minutes swimming round the platform, it was time to test it for a bit more of a dive, so we set off for a circuit of the lake. We had a good luck around the Sweet Mystery wreck, and then followed the ropes over and round to the 10m platform, where I completed another bailout drill. and then swam back to the 6M platform where we had started from.

You just have to love these rebreather things for being so quite.

I now have an AP Valves Inspiration Classic.