Any Divers Here?

[andywg]

Well they are more than happy for me and buddy to go and just dive and to the limits of our current padi qualifications, though he had to check with bsac hq.

Buddy has been away and got back last night and we chatted about it, he's got permission from SWMBO and we're off to see them in the new year.

As the annual membership is less than the padi RD course, I can see me abandoning my original plans to do that then crossover.

Arfie

Not to mention getting taught drysuits for free.

Welcome to the British way, my friend

 

[Arfie]

Stoney was 8C today on the surface and all the way down to 22m and about 10M viz. Most of the fish were "asleep" as were many of the divers Managed a 41min dive mainly at 18-22m in my semidry

Arfie

 

[andywg]

Excellent. I shall look forward to Friday now. Mind you, I'm not overly keen on the 5 o' clock leave house time...

 

[alliersv]

Me and the other half are both AOW qualified divers.
He's been doing it for years, I only did my OW this Sept and AOW last week in Tenerife.
I got my drysuit speciality too..a necessity for UK dives I reckon!
I only have a small number of logged dives so far, but am hoping to remedy that asap.
To be honest, my interest in diving only came since I have been fishkeeping (about 18 months) and I realised I really wanted to see them in their natural environment.
We saw some ace stuff last week, I think the most impressive were some huge trumpetfish, and really cute puffers, but there were so many others I had to look at the book in the dive shop when we got back..my knowledge of marines isn't as good as my tropical.
Hoping to do the Red sea next year but want to get a bit more experience first,


Oh and merry christmas btw, I'm just off to work now !

 

[adamgreen240]

im a padi drysuit diver aswell, dont do much diving though , im only 14 !!

Love it though , let us know how your trip went!!

Adam

 

[Arfie]

Well, after visiting my club last night, it looks like I am going on 28 December to Stoney Cold for a bimble around.

How'd you get on at the muddy puddle? I hear that they were having to park in the top car park yesterday, which is always a pleasure

I went to Blue Lagoon and enjoyed lovely 4C water temps and surprisingly I didn't feel that cold, if anything not as cold as I was on Monday in 8C water

You'd have loved it though, 7m first dive for 38mins followed by a 15 min bimble with a 4m max depth.

Arfie

 

[andywg]

Muddy puddle? That's one of the (if not, the) clearest inland lakes you will find over here.

Temps were reading at 9, 8 or 8.1 depending on which of the 3 computers me and my buddy took in. I say 8.1 as that is from his VR3 and close to my Vyper. Had 29 minutes touching down to 21.5 on the Stanegarth and then 19 minutes at 19.5 taking in the Nautilus and Wessex. Cold was no problem except for my fingers and feet on the simulated decompression stop on the first dive (Now have OS3 signed off w00t). Solved the former problem by buying a new pair of 3 finger semi mittens. Nice and toasty.

Sadly there some right idiots in the water who just swam straight between my buddy and I while we were in the middle of an exercise. I won't say what sort of divers they were, but they had snorkels

While I would have loved a dive anywhere, I prefer to at least hit double figures now so those long dives at shallow depths would need some pretty amazing sights to entertain me. After chatting to my buddy who is son graduating to a box, I may look at twin 10s before long for me, with twin 7s for Nina (unless I can somehow find 10k to just take the plunge and get us both boxes). Should allow me to start looking at extending the range nicely.

 

[Arfie]

Nah, you should see it at the weekend in the summer when literally hundreds of divers are kicking the bejeezus out of the bottom. Capernwray is clearer and apparently Vivian is clearer still.

Someone else suggested the 3 finger gloves, but I wasn't keen, are they really that much warmer? Other than my face the fingers are the only thing getting cold at the moment. I understand they are also 6mm thick where most gloves including my Norther Diver Kevlar are 5mm, so how do you handle finding bits?

Not really any amazing sights other than a sturgeon, looked about 4' though the guy in the shop says it's about 5'

Arfie

 

[andywg]

Nah, you should see it at the weekend in the summer when literally hundreds of divers are kicking the bejeezus out of the bottom. Capernwray is clearer and apparently Vivian is clearer still.

Ahh, but that is due to divers, not the waters. Go dive Gildy and then hit Stoney and see which one you think is a mud puddle. Gildy is so filthy they have guide lines on the bottom between pretty much everything.

Someone else suggested the 3 finger gloves, but I wasn't keen, are they really that much warmer? Other than my face the fingers are the only thing getting cold at the moment. I understand they are also 6mm thick where most gloves including my Norther Diver Kevlar are 5mm, so how do you handle finding bits?

Made a hell of a difference to me. I found bits were easy to handle, despite jumping from 3mm to 6mm. They join the middle, ring and little fingers, so the two main dexterous digits are still free. Only other problem I have is my bottom lip goes a bit numb, but nothing major.

Not really any amazing sights other than a sturgeon, looked about 4' though the guy in the shop says it's about 5'

Arfie

After penetrating a wreck for the first time today, I'll let you keep the fish

 

[Arfie]

Ahh, but that is due to divers, not the waters. Go dive Gildy and then hit Stoney and see which one you think is a mud puddle. Gildy is so filthy they have guide lines on the bottom between pretty much everything.

No need to dive Gildy, I've done Dosthill, which is supposedly not as bad and I don't ever want to go back

Made a hell of a difference to me. I found bits were easy to handle, despite jumping from 3mm to 6mm. They join the middle, ring and little fingers, so the two main dexterous digits are still free.

Excellent, I think I'll order some then, they have had a couple of good writeups on diving forums too.

Only other problem I have is my bottom lip goes a bit numb, but nothing major.

I surfaced today and didn't realise how cold I was until I tried to get my reg back in and couldn't feel my lips or get the reg in Still once you are numb, it doesn't hurt anymore

After penetrating a wreck for the first time today, I'll let you keep the fish

Deal There's a scrapyard not far from me, I can see all the rusty metal I want without getting wet

If you go again, forget the Stanegarth, head over to the Cessna and have a squeeze through that (maybe it's only a squeeze for me ) and if you do, see if you can find my weight pouch which I lost in the summer and didn't realise until I was at 4m - 3m - surface The other option is to head off the back of the Stanegarth at 180 over the mini until you hit the wall. Ascend to about 7m and you should find "the galleon" which is a reproduction of a rotting wreck it's also the pike breeding ground B)

I thought you were a bit mad coming all that way for Stoney until I realised that it takes me far longer to get to Capernwray Still I have no option, I live in the middle of the country, whereas you live near the sea.

Arfie

 

[andywg]

No need to dive Gildy, I've done Dosthill, which is supposedly not as bad and I don't ever want to go back

Truth be told, I love Gildy. The bus is great fun for distorting perspectives, and it's under 2 hours from me, so an easy drive (better than the 4:45 roll out of bed this morning...).

I surfaced today and didn't realise how cold I was until I tried to get my reg back in and couldn't feel my lips or get the reg in Still once you are numb, it doesn't hurt anymore

While doing deco, I had a go at blowing bubble rings. Without any movement in my bottom lip the results were somewhat pathetic (especially when one remembers I am no great master at doing it in the pool).

Deal There's a scrapyard not far from me, I can see all the rusty metal I want without getting wet

But the fact it is wet makes it more fun, and once you get into military wrecks there is the fun of bringing up live shells and defusing them.

If you go again, forget the Stanegarth, head over to the Cessna and have a squeeze through that (maybe it's only a squeeze for me ) and if you do, see if you can find my weight pouch which I lost in the summer and didn't realise until I was at 4m - 3m - surface The other option is to head off the back of the Stanegarth at 180 over the mini until you hit the wall. Ascend to about 7m and you should find "the galleon" which is a reproduction of a rotting wreck it's also the pike breeding ground B)

I doubt I will hit stoney again for a little while. It is nice to do when the water is clear, but it's a long drive and once the season picks up you have to cue for bloody ages.

I thought you were a bit mad coming all that way for Stoney until I realised that it takes me far longer to get to Capernwray Still I have no option, I live in the middle of the country, whereas you live near the sea.

I got to listen to the shipping forecast today, every single area was stating winds from 5-8 gale, 9 serious gale in places. Winds like that blow almost any sea dives out. Not to mention that I might as well put my kit on and roll in some muddy fields for all the viz in the Thames Estuary where I am. As a result you are looking at inland lakes for diving in winter, and Stoney has great viz and decent depth. Plus it was nice to see more than just the beginner platform which is all I got to see on my last visit under PADI.

 

[Arfie]

When I did my OW they made me get there for 6:00 to queue up, so even this close I had to set off at 5am We now tend to go for about 10ish, when some of the early numpties have packed up and gone vacating the bottom car park spaces either that or pay £10 to pre book a parking space Only downside is that it's usually murky by then, but then I'm used to that now.

There's a bus about 15m from the bow of the Stanegarth and it's one of the few lumps of rust that I go inside and explosives hold no interest for me, so you can keep your military wrecks too

Almost forgot, at blue Lagoon there were a couple of lads messing about with DPV's, one was out after 5 mins with a block of ice around his first stage He had to slow it down when he got back in, to prevent it happening again might have to hire one, next time I'm off to Stoney

We're back there on 13th Jan I think, hoping it's still up at the balmy 8C temps There's over 60 meant to be going from the diving forum and many have already booked hotel rooms and parking spaces. most of those guys are a bit more hardcore though including quite a few instructors like Mark Powell and Clare Gedhill and some are doing intro to tech diving dives for free There are quite a few deathbox divers going too if you want to drool even more

Arfie

 

[Arfie]

Well it was still a balmy 7C

The Three Finger Mitts are great, cheers Andy.

Took a very short video of the Nautilus for you for old times sake



And some ducks from underneath



Arfie

 

[afireinside]

Oh yeah, I have a scuba licence. I need to get it updated though, so I don't have to go with an adult.

 

[Arfie]

Here we go about the best shot I've ever got of a fish. As I haven't read the manual I am still finding out what the camera can do.

A Pike in Stoney Cove on Friday.

Water temp is still 7C which surprised me as the air temp has been so low, I thought it may have dropped slightly. Should start warming up again soon



Arfie