REVIEW Waterproof H1 5/10 Sandwich - 24/03/2020

So with the snow melt starting to dramatically cool the seas near where I live and the first dive hood I ever bought starting to disintegrate, I decided to invest in a new dive hood. I mean, with coronavirus madness dive kit seems like as good an investment as any, right?

I'd seen an online discussion on a local Facebook page about a Santi hood and the Waterproof 5/10mm. The general gist of it was that there was little difference between them except in price. So I went to the local dive shop and made my order of a new Waterproof hood which I'd subsequently sneak into the house after its first use and my wife wouldn't even notice there'd been a hood switch. Smart.

The mission was deftly accomplished and I've now used it on three dives, so I feel qualified to comment on it. 

If you've used Waterproof H series hoods before it's essentially identical in terms of pattern. The face section is the more flexible section which makes tucking your mask skirt in pretty straightforward. The 10mm section doesn't feel any different to a 7mm  when you're wearing it on your head. So that should allay any fears about such a thick hood.

I suppose the one question I should answer is 'was it warmer'? Well the simple answer is yes. I certainly came out with a toasty head.

On each of the dives the water was a balmy 5 to 6c (that's 41-43f in old money.)

New Year - 04/01/2020

OK, so last year - with the volume of dives I did - I found it difficult keeping up. In fact, the volume of diving somewhat overwhelmed my desire to write the blog. 

So for 2020, I'm taking a different approach. I'm not going to blog every dive, just the out of the ordinary stuff, the cool stuff, and maybe some product reviews as and when I invariably buy new kit. :)

So what did I omit in 2019 that I should of mentioned? Well:

• Lanzarote Technical Dives
• Scapa Flow, Orkney
• Clyde Wrecks, Glasgow
• A second trip to Kinlochbervie, Northwest Scotland
• Qualifying as a Seasearch Observer 

Aside from that, the usual run of the mill stuff totalling 113 dives in the calendar year. For some of you full time dive pros that's nothing, but for a recreational diver who has a full time job that's not an insubstantial number.

So I've dived twice already this year - once on New Years Day with Eastwood Divers and once with Deathbox Didier.

The latter turned out to a lovely swim around Anchor Point, Loch Fyne that ended up a glorious nudibranch hunt and, by deliberate coincidence, my 700th dive. I had quite intentionally selected a buddy who:

• was more competent than me (although this is highly debatable 😃)
• wasn't a club diver who would expect me, as an instructor, to look after them
• could help me make it a fairly lengthy memorable affair (70 minutes and ultimately limited by the cold water and not air)

Old Deathbox was the natural choice and what a fine choice he was!

700th Dive Montage

Mind the Gap - 28/12/2018

The gap between Christmas and New Year is a sacred time when divers who:

a: wish to off gas excess turkey & trimmings
b: are full of festive cheer
c: climbing the walls with boredom

...can all get together and have a wee dive.

We had a fairly meaty group of six divers who all went in and out safely. There is little to say about it. Other than in his excitement to show me a pipefish, the trainee I took in unleashed a tsunami of silt that obscured half the loch. :)

Floodlight Sonata - 22/12/2018

When Beethoven wrote his Moonlight Sonata, it was probably beyond even his imagination that it would be whizzing round my head when around 207 years later I was diving the Breda at night, floodlit with the Barrman. I mean, he had an impressive imagination, but I'm prepared to wager that he never composed it as a soundtrack to something of that ilk. In fairness, it was probably the Barrman that tipped it over the edge of probability.

We had agreed we wanted to do it some time ago, along with StewPatz and his good lady. At the time of booking we didn't know what the weather would do. As it was we were blessed with flat seas, low wind and moonlight. 

In the end the Barrman and I headed in and swam around the deck of the Breda. It was very relaxing, with lots of fish.

Deepest Night - 05/12/2018

I'm not depth junkie, although those who only ever dive to 20m say that I am. Meanwhile those who dive regularly below 50m just laugh at the absurdity that I might be. However, I do enjoy taking people deeper than they've gone before, especially at night. They seem to be thrilled at the end of the night. So when I took StewPatz and Freeflow Bob for a 31m night dive at the A-Frames I was quite tickled.

It almost never happened when one of our divers, I shan't say 'Stew', forgot fins and his weightbelt, but somehow we cobbled together enough weight and a spare pair of fins from nowhere.

We kitted up and headed spotting some cracking life:

• a snake blennie
• a cuttlefish
• deeplet anemones
• firework anemones
• nudibranchs

We emerged, delighted with out hall and two divers thrilled that they'd done more than 31m at night.

A Giant Stride for Mankind - 02/12/2018

OK, so it would be an exaggeration to say accomplishing a stride entry is a big deal, but when we noticed the tide was high enough at the Caves for a stride entry it was too good an opportunity for the Barrman and I to miss. We grabbed two trainees, who required to do the skill to complete ScotSAC's branch diver award and took a step into the relatively unknown for them.

I never took any pictures.

Dude, What Do You Bench? - 19/08/2018

Recovery

So after our last epic failure lifting the anchor Jester and I returned to have another go. This time we were joined by the Wylie Fox & the Wee Barra.

We were working on a two dive strategy:

Dive 1 - Locate and buoy anchor, survey

Dive 2 - Controlled Lift

This time we had two LOMO 70lb lift bags with dump valves and a further 25kg bag borrowed from a friend.

We planned to fill one bag at the top of the anchor and partially fill the second at the same place until the anchor was neutrally buoyant. Then we'd control the lift by dumping air from the full bag. Meanwhile we'd attach the second bag to the chain attached to anchor. It would all be attached using a 23kn screw gate carabiner. The Wee Barra would be charged with reeling in the marker SMB. 

We began and to our surprise it worked perfectly. Our only problem was at the shore where the lift bags no longer shared the combined 100kg weight.

Up, Up and Away - 12/08/2018

When I was asked about doing a seabed survey for the Long Long Jetty Association I immediately hatched a plan. My plan involved getting ScotSAC Master Diver trainees to do sweep searches, noting anything they could see.

They did a sterling job, and I managed to create a map that puts the Jetty Association's mind at rest as to any potential problems they might encounter in their quest to reintroduce boat visitors to Arrochar.

However, someone had also mentioned that there was lost 50kg boat mooring that had been accidentally dropped in water that was a little too deep. We were asked if we could find it and potentially recover it. This appealed to Jester and I. We haven't enjoyed a good adventure like this in a while. So armed with a lift bag, we left the trainees to enjoy a dive by themselves as we then attempted to lift the anchor.

The anchor had been located by Jester on a previous dive and marked with an SMB. We then headed over to the anchor with a my £5 lift bag from ebay. We connected it up and started filling. The bag worryingly had no dump and as it began to lift we had no way to slow it. Our only choice was to swim away from the danger of anything coming back down. 

I looked aup and saw the bag hit the surface with a jar and our lifting rig broke lose of the anchor causing the anchor to fall back down. thankfully we had exercised the no one underneath rule.

I came to the surface only to see my lifting bag floating away down the loch. I never recovered it, but I did see it in the middle of the loch a few miles down the loch.

We returned to shore a little wiser with a plan....

Our Map

Floating Away

Nerves of Steel - 04/08/2018

I always hate training. I get nervous performing even the most basic of tasks. As an instructor I thought I'd get over those nerves as all I'm doing is demonstrating and watching other perform the skills I've mastered over the years. However, I've come to realise that I now I get a little nervous for the student. I genuinely want them to succeed. Each move they make in a lift or sweep search or whatever skills - I'm rooting for them.

This weekend at Caolasnacon brought me three dives assessing four skills:

• Sweep search
• Aqualung removal
• Compass course
• 15m rescue lift

The Landlady was doing all the hardwork. I was just watching, nervously willing her to succeed. She did. I feel, because she's done it right. She went out and got over a hundred dives under her belt before attempting the skills. It seems to me that people skip the experience step between moving up the levels. It's the experience that makes the difference imho.

The wall itself was the same dark wall I'd experienced earlier in the year, but beneath the brown layer on the surface, it was dark but crystal clear. Fish had returned to it; ling, cuckoo wrasse, ballan wrasse, cod.

The good visibility also helped highlight the immensity of the wall. It's not the biggest, but at points it plunges almost 25m on a sheer drop. Really rather spectacular.

I also managed to sneak in a night dive. It was pretty good to be back in the dark.

Scapa Flow Day 5 - The Mighty Mighty Markgraf - 13/06/2018

The SMS Markgraf and SMS Brummer wre our targets for the day. The Markgraf would end up our deepest dive of the week and the point at which I started putting my limited technical dive planning skills to use.

The dive was the deep wreck, highlight of the week.Which was weird because it was followed by the worst - the SMS Brummer. I won't say anything about the Brummer. It really wasn't worth the O2, but it ticked a box. The SMS Markgraf however....

The dive started near the bow where we followed a heavy chain down to the seabed and started working our way to the stern and the phenomenonally huge rudders. before returning along the upturned keel back to the rope care of a very pleasant drift.

It's really hard to explain the scale of the wreck, or how pleasant it was to dive.

Plan the dive, dive the plan

Basic Instruction - 10/03/2018

I had mentioned in a previous post that onlt two moths ago I undertook my first Assistant Instructoring and my major take away had been the SEEDS acronym. Well today I took the plunge and had my final assessments. They included:

• Instructor session (Wanton was putting up an SMB and leading a dive)
• A rescue lift (Wanton would die underwater and I'd bravely swim up and rescue him)

As ScotSAC club we had our Regional Instructor and Branch Diving Officer Present on a day when, to be honest, none of us would really like to be there.

As such, we kitted up quickly, briefed quickly and jumped in the water. In the dive brief, I remembered my SEEDS (Safety, Exercise, Equipment, Discipline, Signals), I remembered to tell the 'trainee' to behave. That's easier said than done with Wanton.

We went in, and he led a really unspectacular dive but stuck to all the disciplines he was required to stick to. At the end of the dive he successfully inflated his 'sausage' and we exited safely. Easy, so now onto dive two - rescue lift.

Now, I'd practised this the day before and it was alright but a reg knocked out the mouth and a freeflow made it a little tricky. I was hoping for an easier time of it today. As it was, it went swimmingly and I'd nailed it.

Just like that they let me be an instructor. My first new diving qualification of the year. Now I can get back to some fun diving. ;)

Down With The Deep - 27/01/2018

As part of the Barrman's drive to get ready for diving Scapa Flow he's looking to get his Landlady up to ScotSAC Master Diver. As such, we headed to Hangman's Reef where he and the Landlady would clock up another plus 30m dive while Walker Texas Ranger and I took the opportunity to explore the site.

The guide suggests going to the left, however, I'd heard that if you dive to the right you can reach the southern tip of the Caves. To me it seemed worth the effort of exploration given that I'd only been here once before when doing my 50m qualification. 

The weather was pretty horrid. So we kitted up and headed to equally horrific visibility. In the early stages it was less than a metre, but we persisted and were rewarded as it grew to around 4m. More than adequate for our needs.

We swam along to the right passing dogfish and firework anemones eventually reaching rock formations that certainly resembled the Caves. We turned and headed back using the complete lack of visibility to assure us we were almost home. We were right.

The Landlady reckoned that was enough for the day, given the weather and left the three of us to dive the suggested guide route. In all honesty, it was pretty similar but the rock formations were a little closer than those to the right. and as we ascended we found the old anchor. It was pretty impressive.

I found myself liking the site and will definitely explore deeper (40m) on my next dive there.

The Annual 100 - 29/12/2017

It's not every year I make it to 100 dives in a calendar year. To do so, I probably have to do a dedicated dive trip to rack up a few to complement my weekly activities. I hadn't even checked my log book when Jester and I decided to brave the snow and head over to Loch Fyne.

As a precaution we took the Jeep - not one of my usual diving vehicles, but as a 4x4 ideally suited to snow covered roads. In the end it probably didn't matter. The roads were pretty clear, and to get the dramatic snow shot to the right I had to take it off the main road and into a little car park at the top of the Rest & Be Thankful.

The dive site and the water temperature were slightly warmer than they were the day before, which made for a more conducive environment for kitting up.

As it was just the two of us we went deeper and explored for a little longer. We surfaced having enjoyed some nice life and an hour or so underwater. I got home, and filled out my logbook and there it was, dive 455 was my 100th and last dive of 2017.

Once again, I'll leave you with the underwater photography of Jester.

Catshark

Nudibranch

Me

The road we came

The beach

The Dive Whisperer - 05/11/2017

With the Barrman finalising his instructor training he had asked me if I'd come out with the guys from the club to buddy his Landlady for a couple if dives. Now the poor Landlady has spent much of the last year or so unable to dive, while the Barrman has had the diving time of his life. This was therefore a chance for the Landlady to skill up while diving with one of the greatest dive ninjas in a very small geographical area.

With that we had a chat about what we'd do. I explained how the A-Frames works. We set some limits and off we went. On the first dive I could tell she was a bit nervous - being a little unsure of the site and not a fan of poor visibility. However, decent training always kicks in even throughout the dive her breathing rate slowed.

We came out chatted about and then set off to dive the same route again. This time she was calmer, smoother in the water. The presence of the mighty Frewbowski was making a difference.

In fact, in-depth scientific analysis* proved that her air consumption fell by 15% throughout the day. I should really call myself the Dive Whisperer.

We saw some cool stuff too:

• Highland dancers
• Lobster
• Conger

......And the Barrman passed his instructor training.

The dive crew for the day

* I calculated her SAC rate

The Rush to Africa - 17/11/2017

When a buddy asked me to do a couple of dives on a Friday night so he could get to 96 dives, to enable his 100th dive in South Africa I greed. However, he wasn't an experienced night diver. so I asked around and found a third buddy to join us. I'd never met the guy but he had some PADI training and also GUE training. That was good enough for me to know that he was at least competent in the water with the right kit!

We met up....late and with new time constraints headed to the A-Frames. We did the first the dive which Gooey Ryan declared was the best he'd ever had at the site, Apparently, despite diving here with numerous instructors he'd never explored much further than the big frame.

I chuckled internally when he asked me what heading I'd taken to get to each of the frames. I haven't used a compass at that site in about four years. :)

We spotted a conger, sea lemon, cuttlefish, deeplet anemone - there was some good stuff on show.

I emerged and my left ear was gubbed, but Gooey Ryan was good enough to take Michael in for a quick second. Everyone was happy.

96 en route to Africa

Play Misty For Me - 25/09/2017

Otter Ferry

After an evening camped out near the Oyster Catcher on the shores of Loch Fyne, Gill.I.Am and I headed to St Catherines to meet with the Kingmaker, the Announcer, Jester and Captain Al - who was insistent that after a considerable SCUBA lay off this didn't constitute a SCUBA refresher course.

The weather had been patchy at best, but we knew the sun was trying to breakthrough the fog and that ultimately the day would be as pleasant as the evening before. Which, by any definition, produced a beautiful sunset and a mild-ish September night ideal for van life.

The arrival at St Cats was a gloomy affair, but one ultimately lightened by the presence of the Kingmakers little 3 month old Collie pup, Misty - a name that for me always conjures images of scorned stalkers trying to kill reasonable people as a result of Clint Eastwood's 1971 classic, Play Misty for Me.

Misty

However, this little Misty's worst offence would be to lick Gill.I.Am' mug, eat some stolen grapes and chew on seaweed.

To add further intrigue to the day Jester had brought some masks and kit from LOMO, the watersports company for which he works. The hope was that we could get some natty pictures of it being modelled. However, given the collection of faces involved our chances of success were only ever going to be 50/50 - and I'll say no more about that.

Our first dive was leisurely and limited to the 30m 'shallows'. I buddied Captain Al in the event that after his lay off he was feeling a little rusty, but in the end it was all OK and the dive yielded a nice scorpion fish and a lobster amongst the teeming reef life.

However, disaster struck as I left the water and dekitted. I must have twisted and pinched a nerve in my back, leading to pins and needles in my legs. As a precaution, the Kingmaker called his better half - an A&E consultant - who reassured me that given our dive profile, easy ascent, safety stops etc it was unlikely to be a bend and more likely to be a pinching prolapsed disc of some sort. Either way I was under doctors orders not to dive again.

As a result, I got to be official photographer, enjoy my litle BBQ, the sunshine and Misty. A pretty sweet deal I think.

Fin modelling

Blue Steel

Fog, before it worsened.

Official Captain Al

Northern Promise (2) - 18/08/2017

In our messaging group the Kingmaker and I had offered Midge & Miss Hayes something a little bit special for our second day of diving. However, Miss Hayes with one eye on the rather miserable looking weather and probably the slightly sinister look of the Kingmaker decided that diving wasn't for her today and rocketed off her an old friend who lives in the area.

They were excited, their campsite had afforded them stunning views of Loch Leven and the drive through Glencoe had tipped their scenery sensors into overload. The Kingmaker and I knew our first choice of the Kentallen Wall was going be a winner....once the weather cleared up.

We waited, sipping tea, for the stair rod rain to stop in the Holly Tree Hotel. When it did we moved fast. So fast, in fact, that I forgot to fasten my crotch strap on my wing. Once corrected the Kingmaker threw the navigational responsibilities my way, absolving himself of any blame should the dive end up a disaster. I'll tell you now, I nailed the navigation bringing us along underwater right back to the slip. I took the plaudits.

The dive itself was great. There were loads of cuckoo wrasse and scallops all set against the back drop of the submerged Great Glen Fault. The visibility was cracking - easily exceeding 10m - but it was on the return that I really made the dive by spotting thornback ray nestling in the sand. I had been redeemed. Where I failed at Drishaig I had succeeded today.

I emerged from the water a hero.

Our second dive at the Slates was never going to be as good, but even the depth adverse Midge was starting to get a taste for it popping down to 34m and spotting scorpion fish. We had him. 

He'll be back to Scotland - he promised....

Kentallen Wall

Deep Rescue - 08/07/17

The ScotSAC Deep Rescue course is a requirement for a number of things. First, and my primary reason for wanting to do it, it is a prerequisite for undertaking ScotSAC's 50m qualification.It is also required by all divers wishing to obtain the First Class Diver Award.

Our club BDO had arranged for the course to take place at Seal Reef, St Catherines and all I had to do was provide a willing corpse and let's be honest, Jester would do for that! 

So off down to 30m we went Jester 'died' underwater and I begn the lift under the watchful eye of the regional instructor. It wasn't pretty as I reached 20m Jester began falling between my legs pulling me into a horizontal position - the natural position for my twinset and wing. I wasn't going to recover that - at least in my head - and any attempt to do so would of perhaps risked an uncontrolled ascent. I called cut and we descended and pottered about before coming back up. 

My second attempt went better we got all the way up without any difficulty and the only problem was applying the brakes for the safety stop. I did, just in time, but it reminded me of the moment when the lights change just before you reach them and you have to brake hard.

Quite a reintroduction to cold water diving.

Have You Ever Seen The Rain - 03/06/2017

Sometimes large groups of divers at a site make it impossible to do what you want. My plan with Ben had been to dive the A-Frames, but the presence of a local dive school had meant that there was no parking by the time we got there. As such, we headed round Loch Long to Twin Piers - a site Ben had never dived.

When we arrived we walked from the cars to site entry and I explained how the site works. It's pretty simple.

• Enter the water to the right of the piers and turn left
• Drop to 7m to see the truck axle
• Keep swimming left and drop to 12m to see the barge
• Hit the reef and look for congers
• Swim back in the shallows until you hit the piers

Ben seemed fairly comfortable with that.

Sticking to my guide for the site we found a few conger eels, but far more importantly we saw no rain. Apparently all the rain showers fell while we were underwater.

Southern Men - 27/05/2017

Leeds isn't very north!

Neil Young once penned an epic song about the Southern Man. However, it is the response by US southern rockers Lynard Skynard that we all remember. It's funny, but whenever my pals from Scuba Leeds come to visit I'm always reminded of this particular episode in the annals of rock - that's ANNALS btw.

The reason, well, when you hang about the people from the North of England you often here them self refer to themselves as "Northerners", but when you look at a map, they're lucky if they're much more than two fifths of the way up the UK. They don't even know what north is!! At this point regular readers who live 66° north will have a little chuckle to themselves.

However, it was nature who had the last chuckle as I dived with Josh and the rest of the crew at St Catherine's.

Doing two dives, we had three unusual visitors. The first I took as an omen, that strangely enough I had been imagining on the way up - a pod of dolphins on the surface. Now the irony of this wasn't lost on me because on Josh's last visit to Scotland we dived at Anchor Point and I told him about all things it was possible to see, but won't - yip, pod of dolphins was on that list. We enjoyed them for a few minutes before we kitted up and headed in.

Once in the water the second unusual visitor to the site was... a northern sunstar. I've seen them here before, but only occasionally. We chuckled back on the surface as I explained to Josh that what we had just seen (to be said in my best "northerner" accent) "t'was a northern sunstar". If this is lost on you because you don't live in the UK, then imagine the voice of Sean Bean from Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings Fame.

Then on the second dive as I photographed some little nudibranchs Josh swam over the top of the largest thornback ray I have ever seen. Too big to photograph and get in focus I switched to video...

Josh and I ended the day happy.

Northern Sunstar

Flabellina Lineata

Flabellina Lineata

Limacia Clavigera