REVIEW Waterproof H1 5/10 Sandwich - 24/03/2020

So with the snow melt starting to dramatically cool the seas near where I live and the first dive hood I ever bought starting to disintegrate, I decided to invest in a new dive hood. I mean, with coronavirus madness dive kit seems like as good an investment as any, right?

I'd seen an online discussion on a local Facebook page about a Santi hood and the Waterproof 5/10mm. The general gist of it was that there was little difference between them except in price. So I went to the local dive shop and made my order of a new Waterproof hood which I'd subsequently sneak into the house after its first use and my wife wouldn't even notice there'd been a hood switch. Smart.

The mission was deftly accomplished and I've now used it on three dives, so I feel qualified to comment on it. 

If you've used Waterproof H series hoods before it's essentially identical in terms of pattern. The face section is the more flexible section which makes tucking your mask skirt in pretty straightforward. The 10mm section doesn't feel any different to a 7mm  when you're wearing it on your head. So that should allay any fears about such a thick hood.

I suppose the one question I should answer is 'was it warmer'? Well the simple answer is yes. I certainly came out with a toasty head.

On each of the dives the water was a balmy 5 to 6c (that's 41-43f in old money.)

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

New Year - 04/01/2020

OK, so last year - with the volume of dives I did - I found it difficult keeping up. In fact, the volume of diving somewhat overwhelmed my desire to write the blog. 

So for 2020, I'm taking a different approach. I'm not going to blog every dive, just the out of the ordinary stuff, the cool stuff, and maybe some product reviews as and when I invariably buy new kit. :)

So what did I omit in 2019 that I should of mentioned? Well:

• Lanzarote Technical Dives
• Scapa Flow, Orkney
• Clyde Wrecks, Glasgow
• A second trip to Kinlochbervie, Northwest Scotland
• Qualifying as a Seasearch Observer 

Aside from that, the usual run of the mill stuff totalling 113 dives in the calendar year. For some of you full time dive pros that's nothing, but for a recreational diver who has a full time job that's not an insubstantial number.

So I've dived twice already this year - once on New Years Day with Eastwood Divers and once with Deathbox Didier.

The latter turned out to a lovely swim around Anchor Point, Loch Fyne that ended up a glorious nudibranch hunt and, by deliberate coincidence, my 700th dive. I had quite intentionally selected a buddy who:

• was more competent than me (although this is highly debatable 😃)
• wasn't a club diver who would expect me, as an instructor, to look after them
• could help me make it a fairly lengthy memorable affair (70 minutes and ultimately limited by the cold water and not air)

Old Deathbox was the natural choice and what a fine choice he was!

700th Dive Montage

North West Bound & Down - 12/06/2019

I'd organised a dive weekend for the club and some friends to dive out of Kinlochbervie, with the ironically named North East Dive .

"Hey Frewbowski, where the hell is Kinlochbervie?", "Why ironically?", I hear you ask.

Well of you've ever looked at a map of Scotland, Kinlochbervie is at the top left hand side. Bar some midgie infested moorland its about as North WEST as you can go and still be on the mainland.

I've followed them on Instagram for some time. There well worth checking out, Cathy takes some great photographs.

We did four dives over the two days and they were all belters. Even diving with my relatively inexperienced buddy - the VHB. We saw some cool stuff and did some decent deep dives in beautidul crystal blue water,

We saw nudibranchs and anemones, schools of fish. We drifted through tunnels that felt like caves and enjoyed the experience. It was definitely reinvigorating.

Rescue Me - 6/5/2019

So we had decided that we'd do a rescue session at St Catherine's. I took a student did a lift. It was all quite uninspiring.

That's what I've discovered teaching people to dive isn't huge amounts of fun. I mean, for the trainee I'm sure it's all very exciting, but for me it's uninspiring. Fortunately my next few posts will be way more interesting.

Saving Leigh - 23/04/2019

Teaching rescue lifts is hard work - for the instructor and the trainee. The only person getting an easy ride is the person who is acting as a body. When we went to Seal Reef, Loch Fyne I had pretty much decided that I'd give my trainee two goes at it. Then we were packing up. 

We had kitted up. I had two assistant instructors and one trainee. It seemed like overkill (it was overkill).

We headed down. Lift 1 went, well, quickly. At the surface we had a wee chat and reset back down at 10m.

This time Malcolm had clearly relaxed and listen to the tips the Assistant Instructors had given him and he took Leigh perfectly to the surface. At the surface we towed and relaxed a little. Before heading out, all ScotSAC Sport Dives complete. 

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. 

Teaching Teachers - 13/04/2019

With a number of Eastwood Divers divers' undertaking the ScotSAC Instructor Course at the end of March, we have a number of trainee instructors all keen to get experimenting on students. Well, for Chairman G, today was that day. We were taking M-Dawg in for his every first dive. 

Now, I'm fully aware of how bad everyone is on their first dry suit dives, but experienced divers who are new to teaching totally forget!. Chairman G was a little surprised and later confessed how he'd been totally exhausted by the end of the day. It was tiring, but I think by the end of the second dive M-Dawg was starting to get it.

The Day's Divers

Discovering Atlantis - 04/04/2019

I'm told that the story of Santorini in the Cyclades forms the basis of the Atlantis myth when the so named Minoan Eruption wiped out ancient Akrotiri, one of the most impressive outposts of the bronze age Minoan Civilisation. So while in the area I decided to a dive with Aegean Divers. 

I had contacted a few dive companies before my day, but they were the only ones that seemed enthusiastic about someone like me coming... and they'd pick me up from Fira where I was staying. Turns out they are an SSI school, with decent kit - just as well as I was hiring!

I had told them before I arrived that I had over 600 dives and trimix card to 52m. In the hope that I would just be able to go diving, without any newbs. However, dive one saw me dive with three people. 

One Canadian ex special forces, firefighter with limited experience, but a lot of enthusiasm

Two French girls with a a PADI AOW ticket and about 14 dives.

Surprisingly they were all competent and seemed to enjoy the 24m dive without any significant issues. More surprising was that I enjoyed diving with them. They were nice. Of particular note was showing the Candian guy his first ever nudibranchs - Swiss Cow nudi and a little flabellina.

The day also got better when the dive guide said he'd take me on a dive to see some pinnacles on the other side of the reef. Beautiful structures with swim-throughs, even more nudis and down to 35m.

This was my first taste of Mediterranean diving and I liked it.

Swiss Cow Nudi

Seeing your first nudi

Prima Seal - 26/03/2019

There is something enormously satisfying when a training dive with a trainee you give a brief and it all goes to plan, even down to the last detail. Tonight was one such night.

I briefed about the site (Conger Alley), the activities (an assisted ascent), and what we'd be likely to see. Now, I mentioned a seal, not because I thought it would happen but because I wanted him to be prepared if it did.

We entered the water, went down and undertook the drill exactly as planned. Then, once we had reset and checked our air, headed for a wee paddle round the reef.

I was showing him nudibranchs when I felt it - the gentle push and pull of a large animal swimming by. I stopped taking pictures and waited. Then she passed again. I could see my trainee was excited and delighted rather than fearful. However, from then on in I watched him like a hawk to make sure he never went rapidly to the surface.

He emerged buzzing and happy.

Nudi

Firework Anemone

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

It's Going Down, I'm Yelling Timber! - 17/03/2019

When Pitbull penned his little ditty, I'm not entirely sure he knew it would be used on the shore of Gare Loch as a pre-dive anthem. However, it was.

"We're diving down, we're diving Clynder,

You gotta move, you gotta dive"

Repeat ad nauseum.

It was an entirely unspectacular dive where I taught someone how to do a circular sweep search.

I'll say no more. :)

Blame It On The Weatherman - 16/03/2019

I'm not entirely Bewitched were correct when they decided to blame the weatherman, but I had set aside this day as day when I'd take students training months ago. Then when the forecast came out it was for bad weather.

We were valiant. I mean, fighting throw the snow storm to get there. Kitting up in high winds and blizzard. Entering the water with a surface current and waves. Going down in what seemed like zero visibility. 

However, we were then rewarded with a calm dive around the Frames. Malky saw his first shark. We surfaced and the rest of the gang all agreed that a trip to the Village Inn seemed like a better idea than a second dive.

Heavy Lifting - 03/03/2019

Instructing when everything is brilliant is quite good fun and somewhat rewarding. However, it's when things are going wrong that you're actually earning you're money - metaphorically speaking. Today was one of those days.

Myself and the Barrman had a trainee each and were attempting 20m assisted ascents, with the two trainees. We had been down for a few minutes before we started the "ascent". I watched for a few minutes as they made no progress. Both Barrman and I had been about to call cut when the attempt naturally split and one trainee headed for the surface and another slumped into a vast cloud silt.

We had agreed which trainee we'd each go and help. I headed into the zero visibility silt found her and guided her back to clear water.

The second dive I took the less experienced person in for a potter about twin piers and found a couple of nice nudies. 

I wasn't a totally wasted day.

 

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.

Growing Pains - 27/01/2019

A trip to Twin Piers is never the most inspiring dive, but as a ScotSAC Instructor I had agreed to help with club training. I had experienced some sinus pain while helping in the pool the night before, but thought nothing of it.

Today I was going to be doing some skills with Vadar. He's a pretty decent fellow and for a very new diver actually shows considerable promise. 

Our dive was to be unspectacular, down to 7m do some mask stuff, have a swim about and head out the water. We did it, but not before my sinuses screamed and Vadar had a suit leak. I couldn't get out the water fast enough.

These things are sent to try us.

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.

Join Me in the Club - 03/01/2019

Day two of my midwinter dive adventure saw Dive Aqaba take me to a beach club near the Saudi border for a couple of dives.

The first and by far the most impressive was The Bowl. The second, and the one I was meant to get excited about was The Cathedral. The Cathedral turned out to be a man made structure that housed a small lighthouse on the surface. The Bowl was where the action actually happened.

We had been swimming for some time when I first saw something in the gloom. The dive guide saw it too. It could of been a shark, a tuna, a turtle,or a dolphin. We'll never know as it only ever remained a shadow in the distance. However, once we gave up on seeing it came round a small rock formation only to see a remora.

I 'd never seen one before, but when I saw its suckers and its interest in me I knew instantly that I didn't want it to attach to me. I sensible kept my distance and performed manoeuvres that would keep it away. It was nice to see and gave credence to the larger creature in the darkness theory.

Dive two never saw anything that would compare, but we did see some nudis.

Nudi!

Shadow of the Cathedral

Hunting

Puffer

Remora

Mind the Gap - 28/12/2018

The gap between Christmas and New Year is a sacred time when divers who:

a: wish to off gas excess turkey & trimmings
b: are full of festive cheer
c: climbing the walls with boredom

...can all get together and have a wee dive.

We had a fairly meaty group of six divers who all went in and out safely. There is little to say about it. Other than in his excitement to show me a pipefish, the trainee I took in unleashed a tsunami of silt that obscured half the loch. :)

Apeks RK3 Test Dive - 15/01/2019

Apeks RK3

Despite sounding a little like a droid from a Star Wars film and also being the actual name of a blaster used by the Galactic Empire, Apeks RK3 are the latest fin offering from Apeks. Designed for the rough and tumble of the US Military, they are based on the pretty standard vented rubber fins popular among military, professional and technical divers.

As a club, Eastwood Divers decided to spend some cash on new fins. We bought three pairs of Scubapro Seawing Novas and three pairs of RK3s (as a starter) to allow members to try different fins before they jump in and spend the best part of £100 on their own purchase. As I happened to be diving with Gusto Leo and the Barrman on the day when the Barrman picked up the fins from the local dive shop I opted to try out the RK3s fresh from the box at Conger Alley.

I'm a Scubapro Seawing Nova user, so this type of fin is a little different for me and I'm predominantly a frog kicker due the silty bottoms I dive in. On my dive I did helicopter turns, some reverse finning, took a few photos and tried frog kicking along with standard flutter kicking. So, here's what I liked and didn't like. 

PROS

• Helicopter turns were very easy, helped by a shorter blade length than I am used to 
• Reverse finning was super easy, which helped reduce silt after stopping to take a photograph 
• The short blade also meant that flutter kicks threw up less silt than a Scubapro Seawing Nova would 
• They seemed pretty robust, and the length was certainly more compact than my existing fins 

CONS

• Frog kicking lacked power compared to my Seawings 
• Seawings are super easy to put on, RK3s aren't bad, but they certainly aren't as easily donned and doffed. 

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

• We've bought the standard RK3. As a regular shore diver I was pleased to see they float. It means you can walk in wast deep, let go of a fin put one and then easily grab the other. If you want a heavier, negatively buoyant fin consider shelling out a little extra wedge and buying the RK3 HD. 
• Apeks also have a very generous instructor discount 

Am I going to buy a pair for myself? Well, mibbe but that doesn't mean I'm a convert, it just means I can see the advantages of them for different dives. Let's be honest every gentleman spy / scuba diver should have more than one tuxedo or pair of fins . :)

Oh, and as for the dive, it turned out to be thoroughly decent...

Carronella Pellucida 

Sepiola Atlantica 

Firework Anemone 

Facelina Bostoniensis 

Bloody Henry