Northern Exposure - Part 3 - 30/04/2017



Diving Piste with lunge and kick.

Day 3 of our Highland adventure took us to the Laudale Slip. It was, for me, a perfect day for diving - bright, sunny, but with a cold wind. It meant that I would employ my "diving-piste" look.

 

In Scotland, it is the kind of day when your face gets burnt either by the wind or the sun - you never really know which element did the damage.

 

The surface marshall had already sorted buddy pairs and this meant that I would be once again diving with Ian, but this time we'd be part of a three with Claire  (who last appeared in my blog over two years ago).

 

As an instructor, Claire was able to extend Ian's range down to 20m and we agreed that we'd dive in the reverse V formation with Ian and Claire up top and me plodding along relatively self sufficiently at the back.

 

It worked a treat and I was really enjoying our little bimble which took us west to the main reef before heading back to a second reef east of the entry point and ultimately home.

 

Prior to the dive, we had agreed that Ian would put up an dSMB  as part of his Sport Diver training. As he began the skill I was a couple of metres below him and Claire. I watched as the SMB deployed and Ian moved up a couple of metres as a result of a little buoyant pull. I looked away for a few seconds, and then back and they were gone.

 

I waited a minute for them to reappear and then made my way topside, stopping for my safety stop and saw them on the surface safe and bobbing about 10m away.

 

A freeflow had occurred as a result of Ian using his octopus to inflate the SMB. He'd surfaced on Claire's octopus with zero air. Everyone was safe. Ian earned his new nickname Freeflow Bob.

 

The second dive saw Freeflow Bob and I head back in as a buddy pair. We pretty much did the same dive again only this time, as the tide was much lower, we glimpsed different parts of the reef. It was enough to give me the opportunity find a beautiful thornback ray - Freeflow Bob's first!

 

We surfaced, filled the tanks with the compressor and headed back round to base camp.

Freeflow Bob shows me where his freeflow occurred.

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