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.

The Dark Side - 20/02/2017

I've often heard of CCR divers as having converted to the Dark Side. I've always assumed this to be a reference to the the Rebreather's likeness to Darth Vader's breathing apparatus. This is slightly ironic because as all true Star Wars fans know in the movies they used a Dacor (now Mares) regulator to simulate that breathing noise.

Anyway, I only say this because tonight I joined the Kingmaker and the Gandalf of the Internet. In relation to the Gandalf of the Internet we don't really know what or who he is. Only that he is an international man of mystery and his exploits have somehow made the global interweb possible. He also likes to dive on a rebreather.

This meant that the Kingmaker was essentially my buddy for the evening as GotI was effectively a self sufficient solo diver. The Kingmaker had chosen Seal Reef, St Catherines as our dive spot which suited me. The earlier than normal departure meant that I was home by 9.30pm!

We descended through a little murk into what was ultimately pretty decent visibility and enjoyed a very calm dive. Until something disturbing happened. 

I pointed out a nudibranch and then a devonshire cup coral to GotI and he spoke to me. "What manner of underwater devilry is this?" I wondered. Then I remembered the dark side. On the dark side they have all manner of Sith skills. Including talking through their rebreathers. How very, very disturbing.

We ended the night sharing stories in the car on the way home and laughing at the Kingmaker. As I've always said, "Everyone takes there turn at being the bitch." Tonight it was his.

Search & Recovery - 22/04/2014

After Sunday's dive I discovered that I had lost a weight pouch. I don't know if it happened in the water or at some other point. Today I asked Fast Ed and Sergeant Chris if they'd help me look for it. They are very obliging. So, we headed to St Catherine's after work and despite the poor traffic we arrived and kitted up before 8pm - still daylight.

There were other divers onsite - Paul 'The Kingmaker' King and Martin Kerr. The Kingmaker is well known to me - I have on occasions played badminton with him - Martin Kerr however, is a shadowy figure. No-ones quite sure what he does. All we know is that he's some kind of Gandalf of the IT World and mad, keen rebreather diver. By way of contrast, The Kingmaker, is not a rebreather diver, although he has been described as "a well used scrubber". (A little rebreather humour for you there!)

Myself, Fast Ed & Sergeant Chris entered the water as a three and retraced my underwater steps from Sunday heading down to around 25m. Life was plentiful, but I never saw the stars of Sunday's dive, but as you'll see below I took a few pictures. However, I never found my pouch.

Back on the surface, we had a brief chat with The Kingmaker and Gandalf IT before they headed off and we rekitted for a 2nd dive. This time, it was to be a night dive. Fast Ed led us down to the reef (21m) where we again began the conger hunt. We didn't find it, but we did find the big scorpion fish and cushion star - though my camera had packed in by this point. The sea scorpion was enjoying the small shrimp that our torchlight was attracting.

Add in some dogfish - technically making it a shark dive - and we all had a great time. The only down side is my still missing pouch and the late night trip home.

I later heard that The Kingmaker broke his own personal record for Scottish dive longevity - 81 minutes. Gandalf IT only had 10 minutes of scrubber time left, but I'm sure the Kingmaker will happily add to that next week. 

Rock Cook

Spiny Star

Goldsinny

Sea Scorpion