Upping the Game - 18/04/2019

So I'm taking a soon to be newly qualified ScotSAC to dive at Kinlochbervie in the far north-west of Scotland. At the start of the night he required 2 dives and a rescue lift to be qualified. As it was just me and him I opted to just do a nice long dive with him just to build up water confidence at the A-Frames.

The night started badly, when an o-ring blue inside his regulator, that couldn't be fixed on site. Fortunately, there was another diver on site (Charlietron) whom I know and was prepared to lend his regulators. So, a little later than expected we headed in to the water.

We meandered around looking at stuff, staying at our maximum of of 20m for as long as we could.  We surfaced in the darkness, both of us knowing that he's ready for deeper, better, more exciting diving. 

The Learning Journey - 04/09/2018

I' had agreed to take a branch diver out for a wee dive post work. We headed to the almost proverbial A-Frames for our 20m bimble. My buddy was essentially exploring a whole load of new kit, so it was always going to be a little up and down. 

We swam about for a bit before realising that my buddy was running pretty low and headed out. All in all it wasn't very interesting for me, but my buddy seemed fairly excited by everything.  Apparently, someone has been doodling in the area too.

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. ;)

The Start of the Cold - 27/11/2017

Each year there is one dive when you really start to notice the cold in the Scottish sea lochs. That dive was tonight. Myself , Jester and Edgar headed to the A-Frames. It was to be Edgar's first dive of the year at a time when most people would be clocking out.

A weekend of snow, followed by a gentle thawing meant that we knew that the ebbing tide would be drawing snow melt from the head of the loch. Our expectations were correct.

It was instantly cold as we entered into the darkness and, as we descended, you could feel a warming of the water. We passed anemones, cuttlefish, catsharks and many of the usual suspects. When we got to the end of the dive the thermocline was sitting at 5.5m so we began our safety stop at 6m and sat there for a little but admiring the haze above our head. Then, we made a dash for it. 2.8c it was chilly.

All pictures courtesy of Jester.

Snout

Anemone

The Darkness - 19/09/2017

Diving at night isn't for everyone. The imagination is a powerful thing and in the darkness people's imaginations often run riot out running even the most reasoned of minds. However, my own love it compels me time and again to introduce it to more people for the first time.

Tonight it was the turn of Freeflow Bob to experience diving in the dark for the first time. I couldn't tell if he was excited about night diving specifically or not.

On the way up I explained a few basic principles of night diving:

• Use a couple of lights to create an entry line for ease of navigating back to the shore - I rarely do this :)
• Dive the site in daylight before diving it at night - I've skipped this a few times too :)
• Don't turn off your torch underwater in case it doesn't go back on - I've experienced this first hand :)
• Carry a spare torch - top tip- I always do this
• Always, always do a buddy check. The incident pit can get so much deeper faster in the dark!

We were all set.

We kitted up and buddy checked at the car before entering the water. We dropped into fairly pleasant, clear, Finnart water. We went down to the big frame before spending the rest of the time looking amongst the wreckage for life.

We saw:

• 
  
• Catsharks
• Nudibranchs
• Lobsters 
• Wrasse
• Cod

Pretty much everything you'd expect to see. However, it was at the end of the dive when I revealed my favourite night diving feature. Encouraging the others to cover the light from their torches we blackened the sea bed then began moving our spare hands in the dark. Lighting up the sea with bioluminescence. If you haven't seen it before I recommend diving at night for that reason. 

You can learn more about the ocean at night here.

I think Ol' Freeflow may have discovered a taste for it.

Redemption - 30/05/2017

According to the Kingmaker after my last dive at the A-Frames around a month ago I had to redeem myself by proving that I could navigate all the frames on a single dive. I was confident - as long as the vis was more than the one metre we had on our last trip to the site.

We kitted up, buddy checked and entered the water. Once we were all set we headed down to what I call the A Frame where the Kingmaker issued his favourite instructions....

It was set then. From there we headed down to the deep frame befoe returning to dive what I call Frames 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Relative disaster struck at Frame 3 where I began to feel water on my back. I had sprung a drysuit leak. I signalled that I had a problem and needed to go up to Kingmaker & Jester. They were cool with that.

As we headed back in I spotted a lovely, big, aggressive lobster, but as you'll appreciate, taking pictures wasn't high on my priorities. However, my navigational reputation had been redeemed.

Firework Anemone

Detours in the Dark - 20/03/2017

When the Gandalf of the Internet and Kingmaker turn up in what feels like GotI's mobile command vehicle, you know your going to have a little fun.

When we got to the A-Frames, our chosen sight for the evening, I was nominated as the dive guide.  I made a bold promise which in the relatively poor vis seemed to be a little optimistic given that for the first 14m you were unable to see much beyond a metre. So instead we ambled  aimlessly for about 35 minutes into an area where we rarely go.

The result was that we saw a clutch of young catsharks and a free swimming baby conger eel - which caused GotI to exclaim through his rebreather.

With no real idea of where we were, we took stock and swam back towards our entry point. As we did we found a couple of the a-frames. The frames, that if we'd hit them in the zero vis earlier in the dive all my promises would have been fulfilled.

As it was GotI was delighted, he'd never seen a free swimming baby conger eel. The Kingmaker was typically nonchalant - to be honest he's gotten grumpy in his old age, I'm not sure what impresses him these days. I think he liked my selfie surprise.

Selfie surprise

Hunter Gatherers -17/12/2016

With the amateur football season currently in a hiatus, I took the opportunity to dive with the Something for the Weekend crew, who this week were diving at much more civilised hour that encouraged my participation.

We did a couple of dives at the A-Frames, Finnart. Our group consisted of Cptn Al, legendary underwater photographer and proprietor of Bridge of Weir's finest restaurant Shafiq, the Walkman and a relative scubie-newbie Hunter - not the star of 90s tv show Gladiators.

We plunged into the icy cold diving in Red Arrow formation. The vis was pretty decent but, the life was a little limited and reminded me why dark is best. After a fairly lengthy potter at 20m we got the cold signal from one of the divers. It was cold to be fair - 7c.

On the way up it went a little wrong when Shafiq lost one of his dive computers. That meant that after a short surface interval our second dive was ultimately to become a failed search and rescue mission. 

We had fun and I managed to squeeze two dives out of one tank which saved me a few bucks. So that's my win for the day. As for our scub-newb it turns out he was pretty proficient  and has dived years ago and had just returned to it saying he was a beginner. So not really a newb at all.

The camera is still out of action.

Two Season in One Day - 17/11/2016

Four Seasons in One Day by Crowded House was one of my favourite songs as a teenager. I still love it. There is a lyric that resonates with me:

"Smiling as the shit comes down

You can tell a man from what he has to say"

Tonight that was Jester and I. We arrived in monsoon like conditions despite the false promises of Accuweather for cloudy but dry. We waited 10 minutes for the downpour to restrict itself to a drizzle. At which point we made a dash for the water. It was cold - my computer said 6c.

I was still without a camera so floated between the A-Frames, just having a cold old time trying to spot interesting things for Jester.

The highlight was a catshark, but I couldn't get the idea of a more sinister shark in the water out my head. Largely because we watched the opening scenes of The Shallows while we waited for the rain to subside. Perhaps this wasn't the best pre-dive preparation. :/

We surfaced an hour after entry only to find a shift in the seasons. It was now cold monsoon with a blizzard hurrying our packing up.

Blizzard

Mark A-ah! Saviour of the Universe - 07/08/2016

"Mark! A-ah! Saviour of the Universe"

OK, so perhaps I'm exaggerating a little. However, when you arrive on site and you realise you've forgotten your drysuit, then a guy called Mark let's you use his because he's done for the day - it's pretty sweet and you do feel a little indebted. Jester too felt this, as we went on to have an excellent dive which would never have happened without the intervention of Mark. 

The guys from Aquatron were packing up for the day when we arrived. They reported pretty poor visibility, but the incoming tide was bringing fresher, cleaner water.

Feeling a little awkward in Mark's snuggish suit, we entered the water and went down. The visibility, it seems , wasn't as bad as the guys had made out in fact, it was alright - probably up to 4m.

We swam from frame to frame hitting a very definite thermocline at around 20m. We bimbled along staying deep enough, for long enough, that my computer ordered a deep stop.

The visibility was clearing constantly and by the time we exited the water, despite the wind and the rain, even the shallows had cleared up.

A good day. All thanks to Mark.

Bloody Henry

Anemone

Bloody Henry

Scallop

Edible Crab

Leeds Reunited - 29/05/2016

Regular readers may recall that I, along with some friends, went to Egypt where I met load of great diving folks. Well, this weekend the guys from Scuba Leeds were coming up to my patch for some shore diving. Being the friendly person I am, I offered to meet up with them and take them round some local sites.

In total there were around 12 of them which limited our options considerably. so the plans had to be ammended and condensed into a couple of dives at St Catherines (Saturday) and a couple at Finnart (Sunday) when I was joined by Jester.

Saturday started well with me teaching Josh from Leeds how to spot nudibranchs, while on a nice deep route around the reef. By the end of the day the score was 4 nudis to Josh and 6 to me with two seamice.

I'm not sure if it was the variety of life or the constant, reliable mediteranean West of Scotland weather, but I think a few of the Leeds people were starting to consider moving to Scotland and if the weather on the Sunday held up the deal would be done. As it was Poseidon was smiling on the Leeds divers and by the time we kitted up at Finnart on the Sunday people were rushing into the water to cool off.

The dive threw up a selection of sea lemons for Jester and I, while the surface interval threw up technical problems that meant I gave Jester my kit for the second dive. I didn't mind, I'd had a good weekend.

Seamouse

Northern sunstar

First nudi of the day

Josh's first nudis

Sea lemon

Far From The Madding Crowd - 21/01/2016

Thomas Hardy was an exceptional author, but few people know his first love was poetry. In fact, one of my favourite poems is The Darkling Thrush. In the poem, winter's gloom is palpable, but one little bird casts itself against the onslaught of winter.

"An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,In blast-beruffled plume,

Had chosen thus to fling his soul

    Upon the growing gloom." 

The weather was at best miserable: 

• marginally above zero
• raining
• windy
• melting snow

Myself, the Zookeeper and Jester had taken the decision to dive at Finnart for an evening of diving. It was my first cold water dive since returning from Egypt and the other first dive since the gluttonous Christmas period. Drysuits were to be stretched to their maximums, but not before we overcame the issue of removing an insert from the cylinder.

Without means of removal we were stumped. I took it upon myself to walk the 50 yards to the oil terminal and asked if they had any allen keys. I was greeted by a young man named Euan who told me he had qualified with his PADI Openwater qualification a few years ago in Australia. He was now planning on becoming a commercial diver and had lined up a job in Australia. He was very helpful and, more importantly, he had allen keys.

We dived. In the first three metres it was as though hell had frozen over. I haven't yet checked my computer for the temperature, but my bottom temperature was 6c. If only the thermocline had been that warm.

We bumbled around enjoying Devonshire cup corals, deeplet anemones and the regular assortment of life.

On the safety stop we ensured we stayed below 3.1m where the thermocline was visible. Once accomplished, we accelerated through the water and out ensuring that our stay in. 

Still, despite the conditions we flung ourselves upon the growing gloom. A good nights diving.

Deeplet anemone

Deeplet anemone

Devonshire cup coral

Who Dares Swims - 30/10/2105

"Who dares wins" is the motto of the SAS, perhaps the most famous British Special Forces unit. However, there is a another less well known unit called the Special Boat Services. I say all this because myself and Canada Dry, my guest buddy for the evening, watched as what I assume was the SBS performed some landing manoeuvres on the shore. Realising there were divers they beat a hasty retreat. The A-Frames is, after all, sovereign SCUBA territory.

Canada Dry, visiting from Canada, had bravely hired a drysuit and an unfamiliar weight system to join me for the evening, while Jester was coming later for a second dive. Before we went in I mentioned to Canada Dry that I was impressed by his bravery taking on so many awkward factors for a first dive in Scotland.

We headed down to the Frames enjoying the display of peacock worms, scorpionfish and scallops. However, as we returned to the surface it became clear that Canada Dry was having buoyancy issues caused the unfamiliar drysuit. I held him down long enough to complete most of a safety stop before he let go (his fancy mask having given the signal it was safe to do so).

We got back safely but the experience was enough to convince Canada Dry not to go back in. After that I was equally impressed by his lack of machismo, a factor that when left unchecked puts divers in situations that they really don't want to be in.

Jester had joined us for the second dive. So we buddied up and went back in. The second dive proved even more fruitful with a beautiful little nudibranch and some nice anemones. His ability to spot nudis is actually quite impressive.

The drive back saw us chat about diving misadventures and experiences - one of the cool things about meeting new diving chums.

Bloody Henry

Scorpionfish

Anemone

Nudibranch

Pipefish

Pipefish

The Last Days of Summer - 25/08/2015

The Mermaid and the Zookeeper were heading to the A-Frames. With them were two less experienced divers. I wasn't planning to dive as my mate was coming round to my house to collect some stuff much later in the evening. However, he came much earlier than anticipated. and left me twiddling my fingers at 6.30pm. 

A browse on Facebook meant I knew Hoddit and Doddit had just left Costa Coffee in Dumbarton and were heading up to the site for their first dive. I could make the second if I wanted. A quick look out the window and I noticed that it was one of the last days summer. I needed to take advantage this opportunity.

I arrived at the site to find three abandoned cars, a lot of midgies and bubbles making their way back to shore. I kitted up el pronto and got back in the car. The midgies were horrific. To escape them I went into the water early and waited there while the rest endured their surface intervals. 

The sun had set by the time we went underwater and I was tasked with leading us down to the 'big frame' which I did while keeping a close eye on the least experienced in our group. With just 12 dives under his belt, but he was performing admirably. I never really took many pictures, but we did see a few lobsters. 

Bubbles

This guy!

Return to the Dark Side - 21/08/2015

With Captain Al about to celebrate his 300th dive we headed to the A-Frames, Loch Long. Jester & Gill.i.am were joining us too. 

We arrived in daylight but by the time we were going in the water was dark, a factor that was enough to put Gill off the dive. We plopped into visibility of around 2-3m, but it was dark, very dark. In short, it was a night dive. It was nicely serendipitous - I first met Captain Al at this very site as we both did our PADI Night Spec. Now here we were celebrating Al's 300th dive and the return of night diving season. Happy days.

It wasn't a deep dive (15m) or a desperately long one (44minutes), but it was dark and that's how I like it. We emerged to the dim glow of the oil terminal lights.

I never took many pictures, but I'll leave you with a selection of photographic failures and Captain Al's 300th safety stop!

Fail

Fail

Almost a fail

Dead man's finger goatee

Selfie

The Recluse - 03/08/2015

With both Jester and I having red letter days the following day we decided to keep the diving close to home and go dive the A-Frames. We were still wanting to photograph the reclusive anemones we'd seen on a previous dive as well. So we headed up, kitted up buddy checked and plopped in.

The visibility wasn't great, probably caused by one of the wettest July's on record and there was a definite halocline at around 18m where natural light disappeared and the temperature dropped.  I felt this temperature drop more keenly as my drysuit is now misnamed.

As we bumbled along accompanied by the hum of a nearby tanker, we met our anemones, once again closed for photographic business, As such we decided to just swim from frame to frame. Enjoying the peacock worms, goldsinnys, young cod and a lobster.

The weather held out for us which was a bonus. In fact, it turned into a very pleasant evening.

My camera had a full memory card, so I never took any photographs. All underwater photographs were taken by Jester.

Flat fish

Peacock worm

Me

Lobster

A nice night

Colin The Conger - 11/07/2015

In diving, legend abounds. Saturday at the A-Frames saw a new legend born. Myself, Jester, Captain Al, The Wylie Fox and Sony. Had all decided to have a quick dip followed by "beer and medals" - whatever that means, given Scotland's strict dink drive laws and the complete absence of medals.

Jester and I knew exactly we wanted to do. Regular readers will recall that we spotted some beautiful anemones at a less visited part of the site that we wanted go back and photograph. This was our first chance to do so. the Wylie Fox had decided that she wanted to bumble along behind us, leaving Captain Al and Sony to do their own thing.

Our dive was nice enough. We found the anemones but they were closed over having probably been disturbed by an errant seal or diver. So we bumbled on spotting a nice scorpionfish and some dragonets. It was a nice wee dive.

We came back to the surface after about an hour to find Captain Al animatedly talking about their encounter with Colin the Conger. Well, with no real interest in doing a second dive initially. I quite fancied a wee trip back down to feed Colin. So Al led myself and Sony back in for the second dive. 

As it turned out, he was entirely unable to find Colin again on the second dive. However, Colin found me later that evening......on Facebook. It seems a legend has been born.

Sea Scorpion

Dragonet

Catshark

With Friends Like These Who Needs Anemones - 13/06/2015

Diving at the A-Frames wasn't really the dive I wanted to do this weekend, but it was where we ended up. Myself Jester and Captain Al met up with the Chuckle Brothers of underwater photography.

We dived as a three and had planned to go down to 30+m on the first dive, but mask troubles and an an uncomfortable testing of a pony configuration had meant Captain Al sensibly wasn't risking it. We passed from Frame to Frame before heading up having passed a few nice little critters in the water.

Dive two was to be the more eventful of the two. Our plan remained the same as the first assuming everyone felt comfortable. So off we went to dive down.

It was all going to plan and Captain Al led us down to the large frame before we turned and headed deeper. His initial target was what we call the deep frame, but he headed off on the wrong heading. A mistake which was to ultimately make the dive far more interesting.

As we veered off course we came over a part of the site that I've never been to. There were a number of excellent deeplet and firework anemones. which had I not been waiting for new Moisture Munchers I'd have photographed. Jester was trying to photograph them but the jet wash of a fast finning, excited Captain Al meant that:

1. silt was making for poor photographs
2. we'd have been separated as a group in the limited visibility

While bridging the gap between us I suggested to Jester that he leave them for now and follow Al to our doom or at least the end of the dive. :)

After the dive Jester and I discussed it. We'll go back soon with the sole purpose of photographing the anemone garden.

A Quick Dip - 26/05/2015

It was an eclectic bunch of divers that turned up to dive at the A-Frames, The Mermaid had put out an invite on West Coast Divers and a few folk had turned up.

The Mermaid (natch), Captain Al, Jester, Edward BSAC and too new young guns with just a few dives under their belts. I teamed up with Jester, determined to work on my weight.

We kitted up and headed down, the dive wasn't the best we've ever had, but it the vis was decent and a suspected seal sighting were enough to convince me to go down for a second look. The second dive, being later in the evening, was darker which meant that more of the life was coming out to play.

I had also decided to go in with a few less kilos after doing a weight check with an empty tank at the end of dive one. It seemed to work a treat.

After having whipped round a few of the frames we encountered a lovely little stickleback and yarrell's blenny. There were perhaps the dive highlights. Their presence at around 5m at meant that our safety stop was accomplished without evening knowing. There was no sign of the seal.

Sea squirt

Whelk

Sea Cucumber

Squatie

Ane-moon-e

Stickleback

And finally, Bloody Henry by Jester (too beautiful not to share)