New Frontiers - 17/01/2020

Well, my new Mares XR Extreme Undersuit arrived. I sent a buddy to collect it for me from Aquatron. I had planned to dive in it slightly earlier than I did, but in the end Craig and I chose to dive an undocumented dive site on the western side of Loch Fyne.

The site was far less important than the dive. I set my self up with a thin baselayer and put on my new Starfleet uniform then my drysuit. I deliberately did not use my Mares XR Heated Vest. I wanted to see how I'd fair in just the undersuit.

The site was near the mouth of a river so it was always going to be cool at this time of year, but at 8c for most of the dive it wasn't too bad.

We headed down the muddy slope roughly descending at a rate of one metre per minute. Maxing out at around 30m, we turned and headed back at the same rate, stopping at 5m for a safety stop in cooler 6c water.

I emerged cool, but far warmer than I otherwise would of expected. By comparison, my buddy was physically shaking. So it must of worked.

Previously I've used Fourth Element arctics which I don't think is an entirely fair comparison. a better comparison would be the hard to find Arctic Expedition one piece, but I can say that I was far warmer in the new Mares suit.

Likes

• Deep hand warmer pockets
• Left and right catheter holes (useful depending what way you *coughs* tuck)
• Comfortable low collar 
• Nice length sleeves that match the drysuit
• Smooth material for ease of pulling on your drysuit
• Compared to my old suit it's a one piece which means the top doesn't ride up

Dislikes

• My only dislike is that it is bulkier around the calves and than my previous undersuit, but those who don't skip leg day may appreciate the extra capacity

Verdict

👍👍👍👍👍

As for the dive?

A feast of firework anemones and highland dancer nudibranchs, but not much else to report. I won't be rushing back.

Pachycerianthus Multiplicatus

Pleurobranchus Membranaceus

In the shop

Kitting up

Sausage Fest - 05/05/2019

With Leigh and Stewpatz celebrating their birthday's in close proximity, they organised Sausage Fest 2019.  I was initially sceptical. However, it turned out that Sausage Fest was an excuse for a bbq with a little bit diver training thrown in.

It all went swimmingly, as I was teaching I never took my camera. I did take this arty abandoned scuba kit by the shore shot.

So that about sums it up.

Arty Scuba Kit Shot

The Comeback King - 27/04/2019

It had been almost a year since the Kingmaker dived. I broke him back when we were in Egypt last year on a liveaboard.  I mean, I say "I broke him" but, some kind of stomach bug broke him. I was just the diving conduit there at the time.

Anyway with him about to come on a trip to Kinlochbervie with my club, we felt he should at least do a dive to see if his kit still works. So we headed to Anchor Point for a quickie to 30m. 

We pottered about looking for different nudibranchs. Well I was, the Kingmaker has no regard for nudis. He's a big life kinda guy. It all went. 

Seasearch - 24/03/2019

Recently, myself and some others completed the classroom session of the Seasearch course. Today, we would head to Loch Fyne to dive some sites with firework anemones to finish our observer course.

We dived one site I'd dived once before and another that I'd driven by loads of times but just ignored time and time again. It turns out I'd been right to ignore Cairndow View. 

Jester and I would diving together 'observing' the wildlife. It was funny, because I probably could of listed everything I saw in advance of the dive. However, that's hardly in the spirit of Seasearch. 

We took some nice snaps of firework anemones. So all was not lost.

Firework Anemone

Nervous Passenger - 24/02/2019

When teaching, some dives stick out way more than others. The ones you remember tend to be when something goes wrong. We don't tend to remember the dives when you complete your objective without incident. However, today it went so well, and I learned a lot.

The plan was fot me to do three training dives with three different people:

• A 30m ascent
• A 2 minute swim with mask removal
• Drysuit buoyancy skills

The first two passed without a hitch, but the trainee I was taking in for the third dive, Prawn, had proven to be somewhat spooked and had refused to dive initially. 

I had a chat with her and convinced her it was worth trying again. I offered to physically hold her hand the whole time. I broke the dive down into stages.

1. Breath face down in the water

2. Kneel down in 2-3m of water(or swimming pool depth as I put it)

3. If we want to continue drop down a little deeper to 10m 

4. If she was happy, go for a wee swim

I spoke softly ( I always speak softly - I actually have a lovely voice, with a singing Scottish lilt), I reassured her.

We went in and had an excellent dive. Confidence restored. It was one of those occasions when it was all genuinely rewarding.

New To The Night - 21/01/2018

I'm often asked if I'd be prepared to take people on a night dive. My general feeling is that they think it's a more exciting way to dive. I mean, diving in the dark is pretty spooky right? For me, it's not so much about the darkness, or the excitement but rather my availability to dive.

Tonight was one such night. There was a small group of us, but I was buddying someone with a c considerable amount of diving experience in warm blue water, but limited experience in a drysuit at night.

I led him about St Catherine's, Seal Reef. Staying shallow. Keeping an eye on him. He did well and presented me with no unwanted surprises. As a reward, I showed him where the nudibranchs live. He was appreciative.

The Stranger in the Dark - 21/12/2018

With Christmas holidays fast approaching I took the decision that I could sleep later in the week and so embarked on 4 dives over three sites in around 40 hours.

It started with Jester and Chairman Andy joining me for a Friday night dive at St Cats. As Andy is heading towards his ScotSAC Masters Diver award we headed down beyond 30m to allow him to gain further experience at depth.

It was all pretty straightforward, then I saw a stranger. I hadn't met one in quite some time. In fact, I'd only met one once before a couple of years ago - the european squid. Thereafter it was pretty plane sailing but then something happened right at the end. As we floated at 5m doing a safety stop we could see a torch light glinting at the surface. Someone was on the surface waiting for us.

As we surfaced we could see the person on the shore. We got out and started chatting. Apparently we were chatting to nudibranch photography royalty in the form of Terry Griffiths. He was up visiting Scotland for one last diving hoorah before Christmas.

He was a nice chap and, as it turned out, he was going to be wildcamping in his van at the same spot as me the following night.

Diving with D - 10/12/2018

Diving with the Big Easy is always a straightforward affair. You kit up, go into the water and then you dive. Tonight was no different. Except we lost one another about 20 minutes into the dive. The vis wasn't bad, we just couldn't find each other. We both surfaced slowly knowing both of us had bail out gasses and were self sufficient should any air incidents occur.

At the surface we regrouped and continued our dive. Simple.

1,646 Days Later - 26/11/2018

It's been over 4 years since I last saw one. I hadn't thought about the fact I hadn't seen one in years, but when I saw it I was relieved.

Myself, Jester and the Big Easy headed out in my packed car to St Catherine's (for my 116th dive there) and curiously enough the Big Easy's first ever Scottish night dive.

We kitted up, with all of us testing out some kind of new toy. I was test driving my new Mares XR Heat Vest. I feel as a gentleman of a certain age I deserved to be able to enjoy the finer things in life.

We headed down, and as I swam towards the site's little speed boat I heard the Big Easy laughing into his rebreather. I turned and saw the flashing of Jester's camera. They had found something, something unusual. I approached. 

I recognised it straight away. I had seen one 1,646 days earlier at a secret site the Zookeeper and I explored - a cuckoo ray. It was a special memory for me, as it would become for both my buddies, who, prior to this dive, had never seen one.

We spent the rest of the time looking for a little cuttlefish which I had told the Big Easy were 99.9% guaranteed. We never found one. 

Oh, and the vest - even on medium heat - was toastie!

Cuckoo Ray

Cushion star

Spiny Squat Lobster and Spider Crab

The Next Generation - 11/11/2018

It's interesting watching the next generation of scuba divers come through the ranks. They are the guys who will be the club instructors in 3-4 years time. I may or may not even be diving.

At Drishaig Reef I took in three different trainees.

• Freeflow Bob (Master Diver Trainee)
• Smyler (Drysuit Diver Trainee)
• Chico (Branch Diver Trainee)

It was genuinely fascinating watching them all psyche themselves up for things that I now don't even think about, but 8 years ago would of caused nerves. It dawned on me - no one likes being assessed. The one plus they all have is that they all had me as an instructor. 😁

First up was Ol' Freeflow who needed a 30m assisted ascent assessed. He'd failed one and passed one before. It should of been pretty straightforward..... and it was. Afterwards we chatted about ascent rates and how it's better to be slower than too fast.

Then I moved onto drysuit skills with Smyler. He's a PADI AOW diver with limited experience and no drysuit experience. Like Freeflow, it all went exceptionally well except for a wee wobble just before we did a safety stop. I held him down, righted him and then proceeded.

Finally, it was Chico time! I was taking him in for his second dive. We went down to 9m and finned about, turned and came back up slowly. He too had a wee wobble at 4m, but I was expecting it. 

All in I emerged kind of proud of myself. Three training dives, three passes. What's more, they all loved it. That was a win. 

Chico on his 2nd dive

We may have misread the tide

 

Return to Normal - 29/10/2018

Me photographing the cuttlefish below.

After training dives, a trip overseas and a wee break. I returned to my normal night diving routine with Jester as a barely tolerable buddy. We kitted up wondering where exactly the loch was. As it was, it turned out it was low tide and I mean Barry White low tide.

We meandered down planning to dive to the small speedboat then to the bottom of the reef (taking advantage of the shallower depths) and back up. It was a pretty

Everything went to plan with loads of cuttlefish, pipefish, gurnards, scorpion fish and only a small amount deco that was worked off before we even got to the ceiling.

It was thoroughly pleasant way to spend 62 minutes, an experience only added to by the glow of the Milky Way above us as we emerged from the water.

Short Spinned Sea Scorpion

The cuttlefish I was photographing

Greater Pipefish

Gurnard

Switch Around - 12/08/2018

It’s not everyday when I turn up at a dive site and lend my entir kit to a buddy while I used his. 

We were heading to Anchor Point to help Alex get a little more twinset experience and also enjoy what seemed like my first night dive of the season.

We headed down to 22m spotting a very pleasant little nudibranch before bumping into a dogfish.  Both of us were a little of balance. It’s funny how when using a different BCD you sometimes need to change the angle of dumping air etc..

We came out the water in darkness.

At First Glance - 29/08/2018

I noticed while out for a walk with Gill - a quite unremarkable slipway. Clearly, rarely used. There was no dive guide on Finstrokes, or any other site for that matter. I had hoped it would be a decent training site. What we saw was in the end quite surprising. 

I'd taken Jester to see the site to see if he thought it was worth a dive. It was night and the weather was a bit miserable but he thought it was it too. So, we kitted up buddy checked and headed along the slipper rocks.

We descended through a halocline to about 3m and followed the slope down on a reasonable straight line using a compass*. 

We passed a few fish before spotting our first langoustine at around 7m, our first firework anemone at 10m and then many more. We swam out for around 30 minutes, both of us hoping for a ray sighting. A catshark hunting a langoustine, a sea mouse, more firework anemones.

Then as we started back towards the entry exit point we saw one. A lovely big thornback ray. Back on the surface we emerged entirely satisfied before heading off to find some food..

 

* It was dark and night time. I learnt the lesson a long time ago that in such situations on unfamiliar sites a compass is a thoroughly decent bit of kit to have on your person.

Last of the Summer Wine - 26/08/2018

Despite being a bank holiday somewhere in the world, but not Scotland, it certainly felt as though Jester and I were enjoying the last of the summer wine at St Catherine's. What had promised to be a very pleasant turned out to be pretty wet and miserable. To the extent that we decided one long 1hr+ dive to 38m and then on Gill.I.Am's request we headed for lunch at the old Inverbeg Hotel.

The dive was quite unspectacular but for a couple of scorpion fish. I paused briefly to take a couple of snaps.

Deep Learning - 22/07/2018

I like taking people down to where they've never been before. So after the wedding of two divers at Cairndow myself and the Chairman headed to Seal Reef to do a couple of 31m+ dives and attempt to sign off a couple of skills.

To help with the first skill a member of the Glasgow South Branch had agreed to be my victim. He was an unknown quantity and it didn't work out. So we abandoned that plan and just went for a nice dive to 34m.

At the surface interval we chatted, ate rolls and bacon before heading in again to complete the famous ScotSAC Master Diver Striptease or aqualung removal, swim and refit as it is more commonly called. Once that was nailed we headed down to 31m, u-turned and came back up.

That meant the Chairman had another few tasks ticked off on his journey to Master Diver.

Learning to Teach - 08/07/2018

I'm still pretty new to the instructing thing, despite being a reasonably experienced diver. In some ways, I'm learning how to talk about diving all over again. There are things I take for granted. For example, going down to 30m isn't a big deal. Neither is going to 40m if I'm being honest. I forget that for others this isn't the case.

So when I took the Landlady and Freeflow Bob down to 30m to assisted ascents. I forgot that not everyone would be comfortable going from 0 to 30m in about 4 minutes. I shouldn't of been surprised when we reached the required depth and one diver wasn't comfortable.

We tried the ascent, it wasn't great, but we still had another attempt to get it right.

This time I tried a different approach, I was going to to go slower and deeper before bringing the student up to the required 30m for the ascent.  It worked a treat. All of a sudden the depth wasn't nearly such an issue. Afterall, we were already coming back into the 'shallows'.

So there you have it. You learn something new everyday.

Work Pays - 02/07/2018

Sometimes life throws up a serendipitous moment. For me work had required me to attend a meeting a few miles from my usual diving haunts. The meeting would take me to lunchtime by which point I had enough time in the bank to flexi off in the afternoon.

Jester, who never works Monday, had agreed to drive up and meet me for an afternoon dive at Seal Reef, St Catherines.

I was still without my camera so was again on the look out for things for Jester to photograph. We had been swimming about for 15 minutes when I noticed a cluster of clam shells lying outside a hole.  I peered in and saw the pulsating mass of an octopus. I signalled to Jester and showed him the hole, he looked in and wondered what I'd seen. Eventually after an underwater argument explaining what he was looking at, he reluctantly took a picture and continued the dive. 

Back on the shore we laughed. It was Jesters first ever octopus and my first ever octopus at the site. 

Work it seems pays.

Window Shopping - 01/07/2018

With the camera out of action I headed to Anchor Point with Jester. I was just window shopping for Jester as he took photo after photo after photo after photo. We found all sorts of nudies and catsharks. 

It was two nice dives that sandwiched a cheeky BBQ. Afterwards Gill.I.Am and I headed to Otter Ferry and one of our favourite overnight spots for the campervan.

Shutter Eye - 23/06/2018

When a member of my dive club asked me if I could help her take better photographs. I said yes, but explained that I’m not really that into the details of photography and that where I could really help was by spotting things to take photographs of.

So we headed to Anchor Point  a site with a bit of everything - sandy bottoms, a wall and a rocky reef.

We got the cameras out and went looking...

More Than One Direction - 02/06/2018

Amidst the nonsense of training, my buddy (Walker Texas Ranger) and I decided to mix things up and swim in the opposite direction of where we'd conventionally dive at Drishaig Reef. We didn't think much would come of it.

We had expected the reef to end and a silty seabed to stretch on forever. For much of the dive it did. then, as we gave up hope the seabed unfurled its skirts and revealed a curious reef. Small, and stretching over a few square metres it contained a variety of life.

Multiple dogfish lazed amongst the seaweed. Large nudibranchs slugged across the rocks. While highland dancers gently laid their ribbon eggs. It was quite remarkable to see so much life in one small bit of reef.

We surfaced and wondered how many people had ever rebelled against the dive guide. It would seem sometimes there is more than one direction.

Highland Dancer

Flabellina Lineata

Catshark