Twin Set & Pearls - 24/06/2017

It's no secret that since the start of the year I have put a concerted effort into getting 'more qualified' as part of a push to get myself ready for some more ambitious dives. My plan at the start of the year was to:

1. Finish the ScotSAC Master Diver Qualification
2. Do ScotSAC Deep Rescue
3. Do ScotSAC Deep Diving (50m)
4. Do BSAC Accelerated Decompression Procedures

With number 1 complete and 2 & 3 organised for July and October respectively, 4 had been cancelled for June. As such, I had a little window for some training. So with just seven twin set dives under my belt I decided to do the PADI Twin Set  Distinctive Speciality Course with an instructor friend - Lifeboatman Ken.  If you're interested in learning more about the course you can click here, but if you're in Scotland and interested in doing it message me and I'll pass your details onto Lifeboatman Ken.

When I arrived Lifeboatman Ken was waiting along with a few familiar faces who had decided on the same location for a Saturday morning.

It's been a few years since I've done a PADI qualification and to be honest I forgot the repetition of many of the skills one must demonstrate, Skills, that personally, I'd just take for granted - maintain control of your buoyancy, perform a safety stop, etc. Other skills included practicing going along on your side, sharing air..... but not shutdown drills - which to be honest I would of expected as part of the course.

As such, the real value of the course was just spending one on one time with a guy who has over 1,000 twin set dives. That's where the true pearls of wisdom are.

So what did I pick up? Well...

• where to put my reel & SMP that bests secures my long hose
• good tips for equipment doffing and donning in the water
• better ways to set up my regulators 
• more experience of diving with the twins

Well, that's another card for the folder. Next up for me in terms of training? ScotSAC Deep Rescue in July, but before that, time for something fluffier in warmer waters.

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

Double Trouble - 28/06/2017

Double Trouble is, simultaneously, perhaps one of the worst Elvis movies and also the title of another terrible movie from the 1990s, but that doesn't deter me from using it as a blog title to describe my first dive on my new twin set.

My buddies were Captain Al and Jester and we had chosen the Slates because I had agreed to show the site to a group of divers from Scuba Leeds on their annual pilgrimage to the west coast sea lochs (or "locks" as they call them 😃 ). My plan had been to dive my first dive with a 15l tank and then have a shallow splash with the twins before heading down the road.

In the end Captain Al advised me to get a bit of time with them to start to get used to them before doing any formal training. So, I jerry rigged up a regset that was a representation of a Hogarthian/DIR twinset regulator set and set about testing my system before doing any formal training in it. I've been using the Rectotec blog as background reading as well as discussing it with more experienced technical divers.

PLEASE NOTE: I am a relatively experienced diver with experienced buddies, I do not recommend this kind of ad hoc experimentation for inexperienced divers!

For those interested in the geekier side of it I dived:

• manifolded twin faber 12l
• Scubapro horseshoe wing
• Steel backplate
• jerry rigged regulators

Anyway, once kitted up I realised that I'd need to make some adjustments as I couldn't  reach my knobs on the dive, so that meant that in reality I was really just getting used to diving the wing with what was in effect a single cylinder.

The result was that I wasn't really into taking many photographs, but the weather, light and visibility were all so good that I took a few snaps.

Dive one saw us spend the best part of an hour at around 15-20m spotting ling, cuckoo wrasse, dogfish, nudibranchs and sunstars. 

The first thing I noticed is that the dump valves weren't effective given their position, and to get the best out of the hose dump I really had to be in a fairly upright position. It meant that on this dive there were a few minor buoyancy issues on this dive. Which, by the time we shallow dived the bay on dive two I had rectified, despite breathing the twinset down to just 40 bar ( a common tipping point or so I'm told).

Anyway, decent little learning experience with fine buddies.

Dogfish / Catshark

Common Sunstar

Flabellina Lineata

Northern Sunstar