This was a pretty exciting day for me, since it was the inaugural dive for my new TLS 350 Signature Series custom drysuit. It arrived at the shop on the Friday, and it fitted fantastically. Alan was kind enough to cut the neck seal properly, as well as give me some extra instructions on care for the zipper and the suit in general. I had already dove in a suit like this (Alan's suit) but this would be the first time with one that was actually fitted to my size. I couldn't wait! Oh, and it's red because my Snow Goose parka that I wore in the Arctic was red. Now if only my Saanti undergarment would arrive, I'd be ready to dive all winter.
It was awesome to have Lyenne Lawrie as my dive buddy again, since along with being a very accomplished diver, she is also a great person to spend time with. I was very grateful to her since she was able to pick up my gear from the shop as well as give me a lift. Thanks again Lyenne; my turn next time to provide the ride :-) Lugging my stuff to the shop via transit and getting a lift in the van was doable, but pretty heavy and awkward. Much nicer to get a lift.
Lyenne was doing her drysuit training, along with at least four or five others. It was a bit confusing since the Advanced course people were mixed in there too. I was never totally sure who was who! Our instructors were Kyle, Genessa, and Shawn. Vince was along as part of his Master Scuba diver training. Shawn rode his motorcycle to the dive site if you can believe it (minus cylinders, but he had everything else strapped to it). The weather was quite nice too, and the water at Porteau Cove when we arrived was the calmest I'd ever seen. Hardly one ripple marred the surface. The tide was pretty much all the way in when we began our dives.
We spent some time doing a dive site orientation and going over the questions we had to answer in the textbooks, both for the Advanced and Drysuit divers. It didn't take long, but during the session a train went by, then a helicopter, and then a big bus which drowned out our voices each time. Talk about planes, trains and automobiles! We had a good laugh over the “visualization” section of the book, and how we weren't going to have to sit in a circle and hold hands.
We did a quick gear up, then hit the water for the drysuit / peak buoyancy dive. Lyenne and I were in Kyle's group, but one of our group members had some problems and we were delayed a fair bit. Eventually we were swimming out and made it to the Grant Hall marker buoy. It was a pretty relaxing swim, since the water was so calm. The descent was uneventful, and we moved off of the Grant Hall's deck and started a slow tour (emphasis on the “slow”, Lyenne commented later on just how little there was to do on this dive!). To the port side of the stern, we investigated the concrete slab that anchored the marker buoy on the surface. It was festooned with decorator crabs. They were very cool. I was able to be a bit of a celebrity as showed the group the octopus that Jason and I had located the week before. He was still hanging out in his lair under the rock ledge near the jungle gym. Unfortunately, with all the people in our group the bottom got disturbed quite a bit and it was difficult to see him at all after that. He was again wedged way up in the crack between the bottom and the concrete slab, just like last time. There was also one of the humungous ling cods hanging out amongst the jungle gym. We had a pretty short dive of only about 30 minutes. Lyenne had a tonne of air left; I was jealous! Checking my SAC rate later showed it wasn't too bad, around 0.6. I'm getting the impression that I need to check my lung volume, because I think I just take in a lot of air. I think I just breath more!
Between dives, we talked about the octopus and Shawn talked a lot about his fishing business. He had a lot of stories to tell. Since it was so nice, I decided to work on my tan some, and Lyenne joked that I looked like a fireman because my new drysuit had built-in suspenders. Unfortunately, no pictures to back that up! It started to get quite windy at that point, and Lyenne was pretty cold despite the extra layers and the drysuit. With winter coming, the benefits of the right amount of thermal protection are really becoming apparent to me. Don't neglect your warmth! More is always better, it seems. Still, I can't wait to dive in the snow.
We did another quick knowledge review, and started to gear up for the wreck dive. We had some pretty bad luck during the day though. One wrist seal tore, another suit flooded, and another person had a severe nose bleed. We ended up loosing three people, so Kyle sat out and we consolidated groups. Genessa took Lyenne and myself, along with a fellow named Clint and Kent and his girlfriend out for the wreck dive. It was a harder swim, with a lot of chop and wind. It was fun breaking through the waves though. I'm glad I don't get seasick! Oh, and Vince was along on this dive, since he was working toward his Master Scuba diver certificate. It was good to have him along.
Visibility went to crap on this dive, probably because the tide was going out. Anyway, it was nice to get some experience in bad visibility conditions though. It was surprising just how fast you can lose track of someone when you can only see five to ten feet. The wreck dive was a bit disappointing, since it wasn't anything new. The last three sets of dives I had were around the Grant Hall and it was a lot more enjoyable as a duo and in better visibility. Still, Lyenne did spot a neat crab on the top deck next to one of the mooring posts, and it was fun to descend into one of the open holds. We ended up swimming a fair ways back to shore following the bottom contour. It was so shallow that my dive computer didn't even register the need for a safety stop. On the way, I saw some more of this bright orange moss-like stuff that I had noted on previous dives. I'll need to look up what it was sometime.
All in all, not a bad set of dives, but after discussing it, Lyenne and I both agreed that the drysuit training and the advanced course left quite a bit to be desired. We both expected to practice a lot more skills. But I guess in the end getting the “rubber stamp” is worth it. There really aren't any alternatives :-)
The next dive will be the night dive so I'm quite excited about that. It will be very interesting to see how I handle diving in the dark! Until then...
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