Strange things that you capture with a camera

SMB fun

I now have 5 Instructor Specialities to be able to teach

I finally managed to gain 5 speciality instructor courses now that I'm able to teach, all I need now is to get some people to do the courses and then I can become a Master Scuba Diver Trainer Instructor (MSDT). So please I need some students (Victims) to practice on.




What speciality Instructor courses can I teach:-

Drysuit
Enriched Air (Nitrox)
Night Diver
Emergency Oxygen Provider
Boat Diver
Along with being a Open Water Scuba Instructor I can also do Peak Performance Buoyancy

London Diving Chamber 50m Dry dive

Well a few of us made it to the London Dive Chamber last night to complete a 40m dry dive, however after a couple of people not turning up this all changed to a 50m dive. Got to say thanks to the guys that didn't turn up the rest of us enjoyed it even more.

Having never been in a hyperbaric chamber before I thought it would be a good idea to go have a look at one, the good people of the London Diving Chamber http://londondivingchamber.co.uk/ offer this for a small fee



Anyway on the list was Lindsey, Chantelle, Angela, Elwyn, Vicki and myelf(Paul). We paid our money and got changed into our jim jams ready to get into the chamber. We was asked to complete a simple test on the surface which would be repeated at 50m to check how we was effected by narcosis. After a briefing about the chamber and also about the dive, we all climbed inside and the doors was shut behind us.


Even though this wasn't a real dive with regards to kitting up and getting wet this was going to be a first for alot of the group including myself down to 50m.
As we started to descend the chamber started tp warm up and we was soon at 15m we had a quick check to make sure that everyone was OK and then it was down even deeper we was soon at 30m , and then it started Chantelle couldn't controll her laughing so we worked out that she was NARKED already and we was only just over half way down. We soon was at 40m and onwards to 50m. After about 5minutes we was down at 50m, we was given a sheet of paper which had some wording on in a set time we had to circle as many L's as possible.

Well this sent certain people over the edge, like Vicki's pen not working at 50m. We started to ascend with the first stop at 12m for 2 minutes then 9m for 6 minutes, followed by 6m for 28 minutes.

After getting to the surface we all completed our logbooks and checked our dive computers mine read 50.2m.

Result for the narcosis test well I scored 25 on the surface and 25 on the bottom.

The road ahead

As my journey to become a PADi Scuba Instructor the time is fast arriving for me to complete my EFR Instructor course.

I can remember falling asleep to the EFR dvd over a year ago, so it's going to be an early night on the thursday and then some large vodka's when I've completed it.

Completion I'll have to pay them £80 for a shinny new EFR Instructor card.

Alunia out of Eastbourne

On sunday the 15th August George arranged for some of the members of UK DiveBuddy to dive the wreck of the Alunia about 10 miles out from Eastbourne.

We all met up at Eastbourne Marina at 8.00am ready to board our boat for the day "SUSSEX". George and myself was joined by Tony, Mark, Cel and Dieago.

Wind could have been better however we gave it a go and headed to the lock, and then the 10 mile trip out to the Alunia.

The Alunia is one of the largest ship wrecks on the Sussex coast approximately 532 feet and standing about 6-8m up from the sea bed and lying in 30m of water. As we all kitted up and checked our gear the usual banter started .

This was Cel and Dieago's first real UK wreck dive, so we buddied up George and Dieago with Cel and myself this left Tony and Mark to do there own thing. The skipper lined up and the first 2 divers went in and down the shot line, the 4 of us had aggreed to go last in giving everyone else a chance to get clear as we knew there could be possible problems with Cel never being deeper than 18m's. It was our time to get into the water as we stepped off the lift one by one into the water. We gathered at the top of the bouy and prepared to desend down the shot line, Dieago and George went first then Cel and myself followed slowly, we got to about 12m and Cel just needed a few seconds to settle himself then down the shot line again we went. we had soon reached 20m so I stopped and shock Cel's hand he'd already been deeper than ever before, this also had the effect of taking his mind of how deep we was, we looked down and could see the dark mass of the wreck below. We reached the wreck the visibility was around 5-8m's the torches was switched on as we started to peer through the hull, George managed to spot a huge conger in one of the holes, the hull had hundreds of small pouting and the occasional pollock swimming by.

Cel followed me to the seabed where eh managed just under 27m of depth again this was another personal best for him. We continued to explore the hull however all to soon our time was up and we had to start back to the surface. I signalled George to send up his SMB passing me the reel he inflated the SMB and off it rocketed to the surface. I then inflated mine and another SMB missled to the surface we split into our buddy pairs andslowly ascended to the surface.

The boat came round and Cel got on the lift first, then follwoed by myself Dieago and George had already been picked up, as we dekitted the boat manouvored around to pick up Mark and Tony. Soon we was all safe on the boat , with Cel having completed his first wreck dive and achieved 27m also.

Rescued by the RNLI



They have found us!

 Well the first dive off the rib didn't go as planned, the day started off badly and this was before we got out of the harbour. I'd arranged to meet up with Loraine, James, Mark and Steve in the car park at Sovereign Harbour Yatch club. I was getting some petrol for the rib when James called to say he was lost and could I guide him in. I told him to meet me at the Eastbourne Swimming pool and I'd help him from there. Finally they made it, never give and ambulance driver a GPS and get a woman to drive. Well I got them to follow me down to where the rib is parked and told them that they could unload there gear and then would have to move the car to the side of the car park and then we could go round and pick Mark and Steve up from the right car park. Well they went off to park the car and was never seen again what should have taken no more than 2 minutes.

Well after waiting nearly 30 minutes I decided to go round and pick Mark and Steve up. It was no better with them Steve managing to loose his mask in the carpark, and Mark just taking his time so we'd already missed the tide to do the wreck dive so it only left them with a drift over the shoals.

Finally with Mark and Steve on the rib I headed back round to my mouring to see if I could find the others, then I had a call from the Marina asking me if I was missing 2 divers. Not a good call when we've not even got to sea yet. Finally I picked them up by the locks and there was 4 divers and myself onboard, I headed into the lock and waited until we got the green light to leave to lock and start getting out to the drift area. On the way out the engine decided to cut out and I got it restarted OK.



Finnally at the dive site they started to get ready it was decided that one from each side then the next 2 divers they would meet on the surface and then descend together and would share a SMB between the buddy pairs, this didn't go to plan as James and Lorraine was already in the water before Mark and Steve had completed kitting up. Mark flipped off the boat then Steve, however Steve managed to loose his mask I asked him if he had a spare and he said no. So that was the end of his diving for the day. Mark headed to the other 2 however it soon become notoceable that they wasn't together as a group so I decided to follow the SMB of MArk, after around 30 minutes, finally surfaced and I moved the rib round and picked him up. James and Lorraine made it surface and I fetched the rib round and got them on the boat.



On the way back into Eastbourne the engine had enough and cut out and no matter how much I tried it had different things on it's mind. After a call out to Sovereign Diver Eastbourne  BSAC's local dive boat and them not hearing me, it was time for the call you never like to do.





Steve & Mark



"Dover Coastguard, Dover Coastguard this is Cobra 1 we are dive rib out of Eastbourne with 5 persons onboard we have engine trouble, our position is 6miles south of Eastbourne Marina" this was follwoed by " Cobra 1 Cobra1 this is Dover Coastguard please standby on channel 67"



Switched to channel 67 to be told that Eastbourne Lifeboat was already out playing games with there crew and they would be heading over to us shortly.



After around 30 minutes the lifeboat was along side and we tied on a tow rope and then the long tow back to Marina. Once is the harbour entrance we was brought along side and waited for the work boat from the marina, they explained that the Coastguard would be waiting to talk to me in the lock which was nothing to get worried about. Sure to there word they was waiting for me. After a short chat nothing that I couldn't answer or provide they was happy.

We was first out the lock and was soon on the mooring it was then time to get everyone back to there cars with there stuff, this was just not my day.



I drove Mark and Steve round with there kit, then spent over an hour with Loraine trying to find where she had parked only to find it was round the corner.



Sad Day for James





I headed back to the boat to finish up sorting it out and getting the cylinders back in the car, monday would be fun ringing up to get someone to fix the engine.







Aeolian Sky Wreck Dive

George and myself joined some of the usual Wraysbury divers for a trip on TANGO out of Weymouth for 2 dives the first being a dive on a Greek Container ship Aeolian Sky that was damaged in a storm around 20 years ago and the second dive would be a drift over a scallop bed.

George picked me up a silly o'clock (around 5.00am) for the 3hour journey down to Weymouth, well as for kit it was the usual twin 12's filled with 28% nitrox and a seperate 7Ltr pony with 50% nitrox, for the second dive I had just a singlw 12Ltr with 32% nitorx.

We arrived at the boat and loaded all the dive gear onto we was the first to arrive.
Finally everyone had turned up all the kit was loaded aboard and the engines was soon started and the mooring ropes was released and we started down the channel. The trip out was going to be about 2 hours so we had plenty of time to setup and check the kit. George and myself was going to buddy up together as we are regular dive buddies anyway.

We arrived at the wreck and Phil the skipper throw in the shotline, we arranged ourselves in order to go into the sea George and myself we the second group to go.

Phil brought the boat around and George and myself lined up to jump into the water, then splash we was in we swam over to the shotline. One quick last check and we started to follow the shotline down to what was the accomodation block on the wreck. Phil had managed to get it spot on we was at 18m. We dropped over the side of the accomodation block and onto the lower part of the wreck which was around 28-30m,

George was already looking for eating crabs or lobster, he;d already missed a lobster. As we continues to look at wreck we both saw the mother of all lobsters, what went through my mind was I was going to need a bigger bag to put it it, however this lobster was having none of it and then decided it would chase us, so we let it off.

After 30 minutes on the bottom it was time to ascend we moved up to around 25m and George sent up his SMB, we did a deep stop at 21m for a minute this allowed me to swap onto my 50% deco cylinder and then made a nice slow ascent upto 6m where our final safety stop for 5minutes.

Once on the surface Phil brought the boat around and George got on the lift first then I was on next, that was dive one completed.

Once everyone was on the boat we headed back in to Weymouth so we could do the Scallop dive, which was only going to be around 30 minutes. Phil provided us all with hot cross buns and more tea's and coffee's.

After nearly 2 hours we were ready for the second dive a few people decided not to dive however this didn't stop George and myself, so in we went again this time straight to the bottom and start looking for scallops, they was all around us and we managed to get around 50 between us.

Once back onboard we started to sort them out with all the undersize one going back into the sea, we ended up sharing about 40 between us.

We moored up again unloaded all the dive gear and went round for a drink in the local pub, then after we had fish and chips on the quayside

Padi Open Water Diver

After retuening from Greece I wanted to complete my PADi Open Water Diver course, after looking around on the internet I found a company called Maidstone Scuba. They answered my questions promptly and also offered me a deal on doing my Advanced open water back to back.

Finally the books and DVD arrived in the post which allowed me to complete the class room stuff, then it was office to what I thought was there offices however this turned out to be in John's living room, not what I was really expecting.

However I was more bothered with getting on with things this never bothered me. John was always trying to sell you something that you would need for the course.

I completed the exams and passed, there was a short break and then off o the pool this is held at Maidstone Lesiure Centre just up the road form there plush Offices (sorry house).

Well the pool session was to complete the confined water dives and to master the 20 skills that PADi set. We was given diving kit and helped to put this together, everything with them just seemed rushed. We went straight round to the small pool and sat on the side all kitted up. There was 6 of us we was helped into the pool and then started with some of the skills, John would demonstrate this first and then we would copy, if anyone had any problem with this he would just move on and say they would catch up later.

After an hour or so we was moved to the deeper pool, again everything seemed rushed, we continued with the reminder of the skills. It was then out of the pool and straight on to do the swim tests first the 200m swim and then a 10min tred water.

Well that was the end of the first day, only to be told we won't be returning tomorrow as we had done all the skills and had met the PADi standard. I was totally knackered and had a drive of around an hour to get home.

On the way home I remember thinking how things had been rushed and there were a couple of skills some people didn't catch up on.

Open Water at Wraysbury:
I'd emailed John aweek before asking if anyone from my neck of the woods was also driving upto Wraysbury, however never got an answer, on arriving there I was interduced to all the other people on the course, and yes there was someone who was local to me he was called George. When we was talking he said he'd asked the same question and didn't get a reply.

We kitted up, with the help from John and Mary (his wife), it was into the water for Open Water dive 1, mary stayed by the van and John came in with the 4 of us. THERE WASN'T ANY ADDITIONAL DIVEMASTERS OR INSTRUSTORS WITH US.
We completed all the dives we needed to that day, George and myself decided to car share for the remaining days of the course.

Day 2 at Wraysbury, we was met with some other Instructors from Maidstone scuba, this time there was surface support and also additional divemasters to help out. We only  had one dive to complete and then we would be open water divers, it was the last skill the CESA. We went out to a platform around 6m deep and then one by one we ascended to the surface, job done I was an Open Water Diver..

1st Real Boat Dive

It seemed to take ages for wednesday to arrive, ever to slowly did that clock turn, then at 12.00 o'clock we set off to Keri and the boat.

When we arrived at the dive center only a few had turned up so we had a drink and waited , then we started getting the kit ready to be packed into the van for a short trip to the quayside and then unloaded onto the boat.

We walked down the quayside to the boat in the baking heat, I then found out that everyone mucks into get the equipment unloaded onto the boat. After about 15 minutes this was completed and the boat headed out from the quay. The water was clear blue and you could see down to the bottom.

The boat moved up a gear and headed over to Keri Caves, I'd been there a few years ago on sight seeing tour, but never in the water. About 40 minutes later we slowed down and anchored the boat, as I was the least experienced diver onboard we was going off last letting all the other divers go off first,Sabina told everyone that this was a 45 minute dive. I watched as they went off the back of the boat one at a time then disappeared into the blue depths, then it was my time to step off the boat, I placed some air in my BCD and then stepped off, coming up with a mouthful of water, the regulator seemed to be on the small side, however after a couple of minutes we was right to descend, slowly we began to go under, it was amazing it looked to be around 60 feet deep or maybe deeper.