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From Cindy . . .
The joys of cold water diving...
I hesitated more than once going out of my warm toasty apartment at 7:30 Sunday am. The temperature was in the single digits for those of you who stayed under your cozy covers. You will be in a great deal of trouble if you planned on joining us but had breakfeast in bed instead! Susie Freidman, Ron"Rob" Lobb, Charles McClung Jr. braved the cold with me. We set up camp at the lower level of access "A" hoping to stay warmer in the cabin. Susie planned on using her monster camera set up to practice for her trip to Antartica. When we got closer to the waters edge we saw ICE! That is right folks, ICE class may very well happen again this year. In spots around the lagoon it was too thick for Ron to break through. I quickly told him to stop jumping up and down on it, being the boy at heart that he is. We need to let it develop if we are to get some ice diving and ice classes in this winter.
We had several lessons to remember and learn while we prepared for our dive. I reminded the group of most of the basics: not breathing through the regulators to test them on the surface, not putting the bcd strap in the water prior to putting it on your tank, and finally, while in the water, not to inhale while inflating your bcd or drysuit. The cold water is not kind to your gear. What I failed to remember was NOT to fill your mask with water and leave it sit for an hour while you work on Charles' regulator! Both Ron and I had to THAW the 1/2 of ice in the water prior to the dive. After we got all that mess out of the way... we actually did a dive. We had to climb the hill and take the long entrance into the water. The ice in the lagoon extended about 1/3 of the way out.
Dive plan... We PLANNED on visiting our Christmas tree as a foursome. Charles and Ron decided to take off while Susie and I tried to clear our ears. That was ok, we could see exactly which direction they took by the silt clouds that Ron left behind for us. I felt like Gretel following breadcrumbs. After a few detours Susie and I successfully completed our dive. As we exited the water, we failed to remember there were a few inches of ice at the edge. Susie went down, I wish I could say like a swan, but it was more like a rock. After getting her back on her feet we returned to the pavillion in time to have some of Ron's hot coffee! The perfect way to end the dive-THANKS RON!
I decided to stop at one dive, but the die hards went back in for another. The returned without further incidents and eagerly look forward to diving this weekend.
From Darth Vern . . .
Well I am fresh back from my trip to Las Vegas on business [yes there is actually biz in Vegas] with a short trip to Catalina Island in the middle. As it would figure I got a head-cold the day I left so I only got 1 day of diving in. I will post a photo album with my pics and info! On another note: I got some of my pics posted from our recent Smokeys trip to British Columbia in August. I have an Amphibico housing for my Sony camera and I sent them some pics and they put them on their website [click on photo gallery]
We have divers out this weekend at BSC. Also we will probably work on putting an Ice Class on soon, call the shop if you are interested in either! Dennie has certified many Smokeys divers and a few from other shops the past few years and is looking forward to many more this year!!!
Keep on diving and LIVE THE ADVENTURE!!!
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