Archive for December, 2008

six dives down .. one xmas party .. a beautiful unit on the beach front .. and a few new nicknames. yup, thats our TDI Advanced Decompression and Nitrox course !!

we were so lucky to get a session with mr pete mesley … anna, ritchie, will and i all picked up our books about a month ago and have been talking about how excited we are ever since.
… a quick note about pete – pete is probably one of the most well known tech divers in new zealand.  hes a rebreather diver, a photographer, a PADI course director and an amazing guy.

we started a couple of weeks ago with an introductory theory night which allowed us to get reacquainted with the idea of decompression and also brush up on our nitrox skills. we also talked about the gear we would need for the course (oh yes, we were going to be loading ‘arrow’ up as much as we could).
three theory sessions in all culminating in dive planning that gave us the confidence that we were carrying enough back gas, that our decompression gas was the right mix and the right amount and that we could change on to it at the right depth and decrease the amount of decompression we would have to do if we were just using our bottom gas.

anna picked me up at some god awful hour on friday morning. i think it was 5am but i only had one eye open. we blasted it straight up to tutukaka and arrived at the marina in plenty of time to wander over to yukon charters berth and to open up arrow so we could start loading. 6 sets of twins, 4 stage cylinders, a rebreather and a few boxes of dive gear and spares. luckily friday was a reasonably quiet day on the boat as we took up a lot of space getting friendly with our equipment.

friday was a beautiful day out at the knights.

our first site was crinoid cliffs and we went for a bit of swim getting comfortable with our gear. practicing reaching the valves and the isolater and getting our buoyancy and trim sorted.  man did i feel like i was back in open water again. i couldnt reach the isolater and i couldnt reach the left post. i started to get really frustrated til pete put up his hands – stop, breathe – and then showed me how to bump up the tanks using my right side. ah ha!
we also practiced taking off our masks and maintaining our depth. having no mask on has never really been an issue for me. i can see a hell of a lot without a mask on so its easy to pick a part of the wall – or pete – and use them to judge your depth.  we were under strict instructions not to look at anything! these were training dives!  however seeing an absolutely gi-normous long tailed sting ray with its tail in the air at least 1.5m – well no one could ignore that!each time we ascended, we needed to pop our deco marker buoys. mine came up like a fish had farted in it. another thing for me to practice and to work on.

our second dive was between ngaio rock and magic wall.
it was the first dive we took the stage cylinders down on. they are an absolute pain when you are standing on the boat (especially trying to clip them on for the first time when your D rings arent in the right place). we dropped down the line and clipped off our stage cylinders while pete laid out the line. we were to practice out of air scenarios – both swimming towards your buddy and then with your buddy slowly swimming away from you. holy crap, on the one with anna swimming away from me … i thought i was going to die!! i’m sure i took a sneaky quick breath as there was no way i was going to make it to her breathing out the entire time. my levels of uncomfortableness were starting to rise quite high at this stage. we swam back to the stage cylinders and tried to pick them up – and that bloody D ring caused me more problems.

two dives down and six sets of twins to fill.
we headed back into the marina and pete cracked out his compressor and cheekily loaded it down on to the dock next to arrow. we sat up at the fishing club and off-gassed (tui for me) until the rains came in … then anna and i shot off for pizza and to get the key for our accomodation.
a quick note on the accomodation – we were staying in the sands motel in wellington bay. top notch and a wonderful location right on the beach front.
after sitting on the boat with the lovely sounds of the compressor pumping a lovely nitrox mix into our twins, eating pizza, and drinking car warmed red wine. once the tanks finished at nine, we shot back to the motel for a very very very well earned sleep.

next morning, awakening to the lovely sounds of the waves on the beach and pete making coffees and teas for breakfast, we didnt have a thing to load on to the boat as it had all remained there the night before. now thats some damn fine dive planning!
dive number one was around meditation wall-ish. more practicing with gear – reaching the three different valves to manage any kind of gas failure. dropping off the stage cylinders without stopping, picking them up, buoyancy, trim. petes so good – you can hear him talking through his rebreather .. you can read his notes on his big slates and if hes not happy, he shakes his head, makes the “you think about this” signal and then gets you to do it over .. and over .. and over.

next dive was the entrance to riko riko cave. and this out of air scenario was done without a mask on. a lot easier than having to chase your buddy for sure!!!
on the ascent, i’m finally getting the hang of putting enough air in my deco marker buoy. its not quite as embarrassing.

that night was the yukon christmas party. pete parked the trailer and the compressor at the bottom of the garden and proceeded to provide us with fruit apple flavoured fills. you couldnt hear the compressor once noel got a hold of the ipod!! man, noels either very deaf or loves repeating “you gotta listen to this bit” and then playing it loud enough for a crew in chile to hear as well. a great night at noel and jos. so much food and drink! well what do you expect.

day three and we’re all rather shattered. my arms hurt. annas back hurts. i’m tired but we’re nearly there.
our mission for today was dive planning. planning a 30m dive for 30 mins – swapping on to our decompression gas at 15m and making sure we had enough to complete the dive. using the tables, there were only two stops but pete got us to use the same stops we had been doing for each dive each day – 12m for 1 min, 9m for 2 mins, 6m for 2 mins and 4.5m for 8 mins.
the weather wasnt as good as it had been. whats a little rain when you’re under the water though? our first spot was around and about outside crystal cave.
we had been working on our descents as well – to speed those up a bit. i was feeling pretty good when we got down the line. pete hit me with the first card – gas failure. i got the isolater okay but then completely fnckled the gauge/post. i had forgotten, not accounted for the gauge being on my left post but i was breathing off my right. we sorted that out okay. then he got anna to do an out of air. i gave her my long hose .. it wasnt log enough! it was trapped under my bcd belt. after he called end to the skill, i called end to my dive. i couldnt go on further – my breathing was up and my head wasnt clear.
pete, anna and will were awesome – was i okay? yup – just needed to get out of there. we came up to 15m, swapped onto our deco gas, even managed to pop the buoy and complete decompression but i had given myself a confidence rattle.
second dive was landing bay pinnacle. i was going to continue skills at another time but i’m glad i jumped in with just the twins on and went for a swim. and the marker buoy? oh yes, got that up too. no fish farts to be found. strong like bull it was!
the thing i love about the people we dive with, is they support your calls. when you know you are diving at your limits and you need a bit more time to get familiar with your equipment, they say ‘sweet’.

i learnt so much this weekend. about equipment. about planning. about diving in general. and about me.
i also have a new found appreciation for our open water students as i now remember what it feels like to be completely uncomfortable in your equipment and to be questioning yourself.

but this isnt over. i still have skills to complete.
look out for me, and some twins, coming to a pool near you.