Wednesday 11 June 2014

Adventures in Biff - 10/06/2014

Biff  - Adj used to describe someone with little intelligence or something that requires little intelligience. E.g. Sam got a biff job at a warehouse yesterday.

The site was a midgie infested, but beautifully calm Furnace Quarry, Loch Fyne. While the runners and riders included The Zookeeper and The Announcer. It was a bit of a biff affair. Between the Zookeeper and myself we had a lot going on/wrong. I was test driving some new gloves - flashy expensive 4th Element 7mm mittens. which seemed reassuringly lobster like and epic. 

We kitted up and made our way through the midgie clouds to the entry. By the time I entered the water I was roasting but the mittens were so thick so as not to let any cool water circulate (I'll be glad of this come winter).


Until we got a bit of depth where the neoprene was compressed, I also noticed that it had hampered my dexterity. Not because of the mitten but because of the thickness of the glove. 


We swam along enjoying the deeplet anemones, wrasse and young cod reaching a maximum depth of around 26m - the girls went a bit deeper.

Me by the Zookeeper
My real problem was that my mask strap was too loose and as such my mask kept flooding. Hampered by the fancy mitts, I was unable to fix the problem. As a result, after 18 minutes I was already willing this dive to be over. Sadly, it had another 34 minutes still to run. On the way back, Laura papped me underwater and as well as my hoses looking like they've been dragged through a bush backwards you can clearly see my mask 1/3 filled with water.



We stopped numerous times to help entangled crabs. Last time at this site this was a source of great personal satisfaction. This time it was just another thing stopping the dive from being over. 


Having fists for fingers meant I never took that many photographs. I mainly took deeplet anemone shots.


Four learning points arose from the metaphorical ashes of this dive:


  1. The midgies now mean that I don't want to dive in the evening again until September unless there is a strong wind.
  2. I had a little bit of mask trouble on my last dive. Why didn't I remember to tighten it? It's done now.
  3. The mitts will be good come the winter, but even then not for photography dives.
  4. The rush to avoid midgies at kit up meant I didn't take time to properly arrange my hoses how I like them.


Nature likes beer

Pink Deeplet Anemone

Pink Deeplet Anemone

Deeplet Anemone

Plumose Anemone

Plumose Anemone & Seaweed



3 comments:

  1. ... and 2 points I would make on your entertaining blog dude:
    1. your mask strap shouldn't be tight. If it needs to be then there may be another kit issue - even if it is a poor fitting mask. This lesson I learned when on a training dive with a mad Aussie instructor. When a student's mask strap broke he calmly swapped masks with the student and carried on like he had a working mask strap - no problem. Not necessarily recommended particularly given:
    2. a constantly flooding mask isn't on it's own a major problem, but combined with another minor problem could certainly become a major problem eg you *need* to use both hands *and* you *need* to be able to see what your doing clearly. A lesson I learned on the Shuna a wee while back.
    laters Big Chap
    Ronnie :)

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  2. Thanks Ronnie. I suppose there is too tight and too slack. This was too slack, but I take your point about being able to hold a mask on with just pressure. Loves and peace.

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