From Rick Huck

Dive report   3/11

Finally the weather has broken and some warm weather is upon us.  So what else could we do but get out and dive?   Chris Mayo, Greg Kulp and I met up at Bainbridge, my favorite body of water next to the ocean (sorry TNIs, I still love you guys!) for a morning dip in the still cold waters.  The ice has receded drastically since I was assisting Dennie with his ice class.  In fact, the only ice was in the shadows of the west side cliffs and a little on the far end not too far from the barn.  It was good enough for one last ice diving class that was being held by another shop.  This was, I’m sure, the last weekend for the ice.  Our plan was no big surprise- head out and do the deep boat, water tower/gas station and venture into the ‘hole’ for a look see.  I, somehow, got elected to lead us out.  Vis was pretty decent on the way down, around the 15’-20’ range.  I followed my compass for a while but didn’t watch it as close as I probably should have.  After passing the cement mixer we headed down the slope into the flats.  Realizing that I had veered everyone away from where we wanted to go I made a left turn and headed toward the ‘hole’.  I knew we were a bit off course when I spotted the blast shack and then the large toolbox.  Oh well, we were underwater and enjoying it despite the 39 degree water.  I, eventually, got us on the line to the barn and back to the tower.  From here we dropped down into the depths to check out the vis.  Much to our surprise it was pretty good, in the 15’ bracket.  Since we landed on the tracks the only logical destination would be the boiler.  It’s not like we haven’t seen it before but it’s always fun to find it.  Some people might call it an obsession.   After a once around, Chris took over and led us up the north wall and into shallower waters.  Since using good ol’ argon and a nice pair of army socks I was nice and comfy until now!  Somehow as soon as we started to ascend I began getting cold.  We leisurely ascended and enjoyed floating along the cliffs.  Since we racked up about 15 minutes of deco along the way we made numerous stops including one at 60’.  There’s nothing better than to do a deep stop for safety factor s.  It seemed that for every foot that I ascended the colder I got.  I kept my mind on other things along with emptying the air out of my bladder and adding more argon to my dry suit.  This helped a bit but not completely.  After finally finishing our obligations we surfaced.  I couldn’t resist heading to the ice for one more playtime.  It was nice to have it around for a while.  Until next year………spring is coming!  

From Tom Pritchard...

2/15 Dive Report.
Four Divers and the Bread Sherpa.
            As far as Willow goes, if I can drive there, I'll dive there. This week the TNIs had two challenges.  First, the snow/ice storm made it tough to just get out of the driveway at home.  And nobody had it worse than the poor guy who was supposed to plow Willow.  Midnight Plowboy didn't get around to it Wednesday and when he showed up Thursday, he couldn't plow the frozen tundra - so he left.  The poor dear!  After vaulting the plow pile along Millardsville Road and charging through several tire canyons, I shouldered the gate out of the way and slid my way to the Lobster Shack.  Leon arrived first and started a robust fire in the world's largest wood burning stove. I was chopping the snow/ice from the steps as Bob Stichter arrived.  Big Bill Jeter made it through the mess with his AWD Acura; getting him out would be more difficult.  After finding the pipe twice in a row, optimism was high that I could find it again.  Bill and I easily navigated from Bubba to the Mystery Boat, but never found the pipe.  Doh!!  After about 50 minutes, Bill and I called it quits and got out without getting stuck to the metal railing.  And then disaster struck. The snow/ice in the parking lot collapsed under my weight and left me beached in the snow!  I got most of my clips undone, but I'd still be there if Bill had not unclipped my crotch strap. I don't want to say that Bill took a long time fumbling with my crotch strap, but if he took a moment longer, I would have had to pay for a room.  Gerhard, who had promised to bring rolls for the hot dogs, arrived just in time for dinner. GMan realized shortly after leaving the house that he had forgotten some of his gear and wouldn't be able to dive, but he wrangled his Wrangler thru the messy roads and Willow's ruts to bring bread to the TNIs.  What a champ!  By comparison, another unnamed TNI who sent an email Thursday saying, "We try not to let a little snow get in our way for our Thur. Night dive.  I'll be there." didn't show up.  Canyoubelieveit???   Air temp: 14 deg.; water temp: 39 deg - a first.  I have not seen water temps below 41 deg before.

Ice Diving - 2/17 & 2/18
After two years of wimpy winters, 2007 wasn't shaping up like a good season for ice diving - until last weekend.  Instructor Dennie Leese, with the able assistance of DMs Mild Bill Hockley, the always effervescent Huck, and Mark Myers, ran four intrepid students through their paces at Bainbridge: Dave Katz, Mark Seymour, Joe Dormer, and yours truly.  The ice also brought Uptown Jim Brown, Mark Beaverson, Corbin, and Corbin's dad, the bubbleless one, JZ.  As the others began talking about doing a 20 minute dive, I made my pitch for a "real" dive: after all, 20 minutes is a suitable deco stop, a dive is at least an hour (you can look it up).  Dave drew the short straw and had to dive with me, while Joe and Mark did their thing.  Dennie chain-sawed a triangular hole in the ice of the bowl and, two by two, we slid into the 39 degree water that had 30 ft. viz.  The PADI ice diving course introduces safe diving practices that you'll need to dive in this very hostile and unforgiving overhead environment.   Dave and I learned the fine points of communicating and co-existing with a tethered dive buddy and the surface support crew.  That said, there's not a lot you can do on a 100 ft tether. Our first two dives were about 30 minutes long; all three dives ended when we got bored poring over the same terrain.  The most interesting part was maneuvering our tethers around the submerged trees below the ice hole. On the third dive in the lagoon, I motioned to Dave that I wanted to swim thru the diamond reef, but he didn't take the bait. I would have dragged his ass thru the pipe, but our tether wouldn't quite reach it.  To exit the hole, you beach yourself on the edge of the cut, kick like hell, and wait for the surface support crew to haul your slippery ass onto the ice - while barking like a seal. It is easier to fall on the ice than stand on it; most of us did a little of each.  The accompanying photos are compliments of Dennie Leese.

2/22

With the state, local, and quarry roads now clear, it was business as usual at Willow this week; in fact, the Shack was crowded.  GM and I planned to dive with Nick Caloyianis, who was looking for a buddy last night.  Also on the agenda was testing a pair of underwater communication contraptions owned by Captain Zero. These devices consist of a soft rubber pocket that fits over your mouth with the second stage mounted on its outboard side. You talk into and breathe through the pocket and hear your partner through a speaker strapped to your ear. Old Fuzzy Face had his doubts about whether this was going to provide a watertight seal so, instead of taking a giant stride off the dock, I opted for a more cautious giant slide down the stairs. My comm unit leaked and free flowed, so I switched to my necklace reg; GM's unit sealed and breathed OK, but he had no one to talk to.  GM, Nick, and I poked through the weeds south of the lobster dock until we lost Nick near the Minnow where the viz was about 5 ft.  Nick made it to the Quest, while GM and I ambled through the bowl and then retraced out steps back to the dock.  Viz in the bowl was much better, perhaps as much as 15 ft in spots.  Even though the water temp was up 2 degrees from last week to 41, it's a little early to declare that the Spring Thaw has started.  Great winter diving.  Get Out and Dive!

3/1

The Miscommunication Dive
            Gerhard had more modest plans for the underwater communications devices this week: he would wear the microphone/mouthpiece and receiver and I would hand hold the receiver to my ear. The prospect of listening to GM dish crap the entire dive w/o any recourse was scary, but I went for it.  Down on the platform, it worked; I could hear GM say, "I'm going up."  Nah, couldn't be. I returned the earpiece, GM waved, and he was gone, compliments of a free flow and a flooding mouthpiece/microphone.  Meanwhile, Colin was waiting on the dock for me.  He never considered the possibility that I'd splash first.  Whodathunkit?! GM sent Colin down, and before you could say, "Jumpin Jack Splash," we were diving. Tonight I finally faced the ugly truth: I have a broken compass and a hole in my left glove. I compassed toward the Mystery Boat but missed it, gathered my wits and found the pipe. Colin and I came back along the along the road, jumped it, and swam west and west and west, until by rights, we should have been at Paolos. Damn compass!  Lost again.  When you can't compass the wall of the quarry from 50 ft away, it's time for a new compass - or new compass instructions.  Colin's compass, which he has conveniently lashed to his soul, is pretty hard to borrow, but it got us on track again and finally home. The water temp. was up another 2 degrees to an snuggly 43 degrees. We're having meatballs and chili this week.  Get out and dive!

3/8

Meatballs, Compliments of Sam and Dave
Last night the celebrity crowd at Willow included T-Bone Sr, Boneless Terry (Miss T-Bone), Ruppie, Kulpie (His Gaseousness), Big Bill, Dave Ho, Leon, Gerhard "Bread Sherpa" Maree, and last but not least, Dave the Scumbag Lawyer.  Jay and Joe came to bask in the glow - and drop off their drysuits for T-Bone to repair.  T-Bone left with a bumper crop of busted dry suits; with all of the torn dry suits there, it's amazing that Aunt Vern wasn't around to drop off his suit.  Speaking of Vern: He just got back from Florida where he earned his trimix cert and saw the lovely and talented Jess at (take a guess) Ginnie Springs.  Jess probably has her mail delivered to Ginnie.  Miss T-Bone used duct tape to do a field repair of a torn wrist seal and it worked. Gerhard and his bread arrived too late to dive, so I splashed without him or the bread and spent the next hr. wandering here and there with my wet glove / wet sleeve ensemble.  Back at the shack we had meatballs, chili, chocolate chip cheese cake, and walnut pie, plus the usual assortment of polysorbate 60 and red dye number 10 laden snack foods.  The meatballs were compliments of Sam and Dave - that's Sam's Club and Dave, the Scumbag Lawyer, not the duo who sang "I'm a Soul Man" before the Blues Brothers did their version (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g_sDy4pAEY). One of these nights the TNIs should have a "Ball-Off" to determine who has better tasting balls: Dave, Wild Bill, or Aunt Vern.  It might be tough to get all three there at once, Dave comes every other week, Wild Bill comes every third month, and Aunt Vern comes the first Thursday of months that begin with the letter "H" - so he's not due for a while.  

Live the Adventure!!!