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Click To Enlarge
From Darth Vern . . .
I have included the pictures from the Ephrata Parade in this report since I forgot to put them in their appropriate report! This is the whole parade gang!
From Uptown Jim Brown . . .
Saturday's rain gave way to a gorgeous Sunday for diving. Blue sky and sunshine punctuated our arrival at BSC, well, second only to Vern's sparkling personality at that hour of the morning! We goofed off just enough to consume a couple of double D's for energy and get geared up for a 10:45am entry. Vern sported doubles and a 70% deco bottle and I carried my 120cube with 32% gas plus the usual redundant pony.
Down the grassy slope past the dozer to the deep boat to start. The dozer was pretty clear but only half of the deep boat was in view as we approached. Off the bow to the pipe and we grabbed the line to the step van. It apparently separated from its intended destination so we dragged it along the south ridge of the hole to the debris pile just west of the van. I tied it off as best I could and we left our mark on the step van - Darth Rulez! The Diver Dan memorial tag remains firmly attached by wire ties to the inverted mirror bracket on the van. We could see the tanker outline from the nose of the van and rounded the tube toward the barn. The concrete anchor and upline remains in place leading us directly to the debris piles about 13 kicks north of the barn. The barn came into view but we couldn't see quite to the end of it. Vis was pretty clear here but the distance was limited to 20' tops. Its an incredible landscape of haze at 95', from the deep boat to the barn and on to the south wall. We turned west at the wall and passed the blossom tree, boulder and blast shack. The BSC turtle stills sits atop the horizontal shack, awaiting the next visitor. We cruised NW over the stinky pond, under the 60' platforms and checked in at the pumphouse. Vis was clear again with limited sight distance. A nice slow, controlled ascent up the ridge into the Bowl brought us to the dolphins and platforms for Vern's deco on 70% and our buddy safety hang. This is a great tour of the bottom and can be done with good air management on a 120, doubles not required. The best part about this barn run is that there are numerous, safe bail out points for those who need to ascend before the tour ends. A great dive to start the day: 95' for 1:07, 41F.
This was my first real dive on the OPB fin technology used in the Mares Volos and Dacor Tiger/Panther fins. I finally gave up on my highly-coveted, Vern-embossed Avanti Quattros for the Volos. In one word - awesome! Comfort, acceleration and speed (where required), ankle relief and overall reduction in physical exertion to fin inspires me to encourage everyone to try out this OPB technology. I'm only sorry I was stubborn for so long!
Dives 2 and 3 were DM escort dives for newly certified Jr. OW diver Patrick Beck. Vern, and I showed him the ropes on dive #2 and Patrick and I were on our own for the 3rd dive. James Zimmerman shadowed us on both dives as he test dived his new doubles rig. Patrick is a highly enthusiastic 12 year old who loves the water. He's organized with his gear, attentive to comments and suggestions and showed tremendous poise in the water. We started him off on and around platforms to get comfy in his new BC and continued to the pipe, tunnel, water tank and gears before cruising the west wall and boats. Jellies, sunfish, crappie and catfish entertained us along the way. We shot a bunch of pics of the jellies and catfish - check them out on the Smokey's Dive Report page.
Vern and James were kind enough to capture some jellies for Patrick's science class. With air in the jars upon descent, three of the jars escaped when Vern opened the goodie bag in the lagoon. You can see a pic of Patrick longing to retrieve one of his jars as he stands on the Road looking into the lagoon for lost jar #3. Kudos to Vern and James for helping Patrick raise the bar (or raise the jar) on his science class project.
On Dive #2 Patrick helped reinforce the importance of buddy diving. He pointed out what may have been considered by most a simple underwater obstacle, something that an observant diver would simply avoid. It seems that this small wreck reel upline on the slope, weighted by small circular gears and marked by a diamond mid-water, became much more than that for one of our beloved DIT's. We now believe that any seemingly harmless, unnatural object in a scuba environment should be referred to not as an obstacle, but as a Rockstable. Thanks to Patrick, one of our beloved DIT's was freed from the entanglement and spared what most certainly would have been nothing short of a reportable incident, causing public shame and demoralizing of a "Rock solid" Divemaster In Training. Be sure to see the pics of the savage Rockstable, a small, harmless wreck reel upline, awaiting its next victim! Thank you Patrick for being so brave and reaching out to a scuba brother in need! Dives 2 and 3 with Patrick were limited to the Bowl: 40' for 51, 58F and 40' for 38, 58F. That's all for now folks - that's enough isn't it?
Jess Zellers . . .
In the dive reports I usually try to proagandaize the expolits of dives and all the wonderful things that we see. But Sat we only did one, and thrusday Tom and I didn't use our lights! Then every time I went to sit down and write I couldn't because I had to get my gear ready for the next day of diving!!
Thursday- Even though Tom and I were there earlier we had to wait for dark... cause we had a plan brewing from the week before. In honor of his manic light we decided to do a braile dive. Poked around out on the Quest for a bit then: LIGHTS OUT Baby!! We groped out the tracks, pipe, other tracks, mixer and back. This is an extremely relaxing dive. Once your eyes adjust, really adjust it's amazing how much you can see. But it is a good test of 'who knows their quarry best'. I won't say any more to protect his guilt.
Saturday- Bainbridge- Ah, I'm ashamed that a little bit of rain and a small drop in temp kept so many people away! Just Kulp and me, a rescue class, and three Smokey DIT's mapping at B. But that's ok, the small drop in temp was felt by those there... Kulp decided he needed his argon bottle. The hole isn't even in the 30's yet! Argon in October, that's just wrong. We went down and around the hole, out along the left wall then back. Vertical viz is pretty good, lateral viz is the hole isn't that great. So coming back we go up over the road into the pond by the pravilion and go back down.... and try to go back down.... and try. ::ten mintues later:: ... and try. I can't get back down. Well that killed the second dive! But I didn't need an argon bottle for that.
Sunday-Ephrata Rec- Almost all my friends dive so I thought I'd Discover Scuba. Well actually awhile back my mother made the comment that she wouldn't mind going diving sometime if it was warmer than the quarries and she could see. This sounds a lot like a Discover, so Sunday we headed to Ephrata Rec. This is among the things Smokey's does really well. John Gross, Pete Bohling, and Ralph Spayd were taking charge of all the action. After getting use to the regulator and the idea of swimming with her legs instead of crawling along the bottom my mom did really well. After saying it was enjoyable and she wouldn't mind doing it again somewhere warmer let's say Florida or the Carribean, she added that I spend all my free time with really good, nice, classly people. Like I said she only meet John, Pete and Ralph... no one from thrusday's.
Keep On Diving and Live The Adventure!!!
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