Originally, this dive was supposed to be at Porteau Cove to test out Lynne Lawrie's new underwater camera housing, but it was in too many pieces to get together in time. So Jason Kolba and I decided to do a Plan B. We had talked about doing the Cut at Whytecliff park a few times, and used this opportunity to try out a new area of an old dive site. I'd also talked to Alan Johnson and he had said that the Cut was his favorite dive site in the Vancouver area because of the wall and the ability to go to any depth you want to do. Not to mention all the critters and wildlife, easy parking, fairly easy entry, and facilities. But I'm getting ahead of myself!
This was also the first dive that I was able to test out my new p-valve, cylinders and jetfins. I decided that it was time to hang up my Triex fins for warm-water and get a pair of fins that would allow for skills like backfinning. I also got the unbreakable and fool-proof steel spring-straps so I could do away with potential strap breakage. I won't go into too many details about the p-valve, though! Suffice to say that it worked great. I can't imagine diving without it now! I was also testing out my new steel 100 cylinders. My decision to buy two cylinders of my own was based on a few reasons. One I breathe a lot, so I wanted to get a larger capacity cylinder to make me less of a factor in determining the length of a dive (especially when paired with more efficient breathers, which apparently is like everyone but me!). Another reason was safety. With extra gas, I would have more reserve capacity. Convenience was in there too, since with my own cylinders I wouldn't have to reserve from the shop and I could dive at a moment's notice. In the long run it would be cheaper, too since I see myself doing a lot of diving. I also liked the idea of going DIN and the flexibility of under-filling my cylinder to get a lower pressure that was easier on my regulator and still get more capacity than a regular aluminum 80. The cylinders would also be all ready for Nitrox when I get that training, too. Finally, the better buoyancy characteristics and smaller size of the steel cylinder made it a winner. I spent a lot of time researching cylinders. I almost went with steel 120s but decided against it because the diameter was larger. That meant there was less chance of them fitting on the racks of a dive boat, as well as them being a bit wonky for trim in a single tank set up. Once I get into doubles then I'll start thinking in the 120+ direction. Steel 130s were also on the list because they had the same diameter as a steel 100, but they were super long. Too long to be really practical for a single-tank setup.
It was a great morning for a dive. The weather was sunny, and it was fairly warm and not too windy. It was a pleasure to get my gear together since I didn't have to visit the shop at all! All I had to do was get picked up, which Jason Kolba graciously did.
We arrived around 9:15 and decided to check out the entry to the Cut first. I took a few pictures of it here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/AntonNorth/VancouverWhytecliffTheCut2009#
After a bit of searching we found the stairs and path leading down. The tide was going out at the time so a lot of it was exposed. The Cut was aptly named because it really was just a cut in the rock that lead down to the water. There were a lot of rocks and logs strewn about the place, and it was obvious that it took a pounding when the water was high. A pebble beach area lead down to the deep water where the rocks were all fairly large and covered in barnacles. Some of them were pretty sharp, so you had to watch it. It wouldn't be fun to be caught in there with some big surf coming in!
Jason and I took our time gearing up, but were ready pretty quickly. Our plan for the first dive was to head to the right and follow the rock wall at about 20m or so, and return at 1500psi. Jason was using aluminum 80s so he'd be the weak link this time! I did experience the downside with the turbo-soles that I have on my drysuit boots though. Since they aren't as robust as a regular rock-boot, you have to be very careful on entries and exits over sharp rocks. Still, the trade-off in foot mobility was worth it to me. Anyway, that made the entry a little bit more tricky since I had to be extra-careful where I was stepping. We made it into the water, and at that point I decided to test out the p-valve. It was a bit disconcerting because I was worried that the whole system would fail, and that I would have an “accident” that I'd end up having to dive in all day. But it worked great!
The descent was pretty interesting. The tidal zone that was right outside the Cut had a tonne of life living there. The purple sea-stars were particularly cool. We followed the wall to the right, and it just kept going down to nothing. It didn't freak me out at all. I have gotten used to trusting the water to keep me suspended even when there is nothing below me. I did watch my depth gauge closely though, and was glad I did because it was quite easy to just keep going down. We levelled out around 20m and started along. There were a few chimney sponges, and a lot of copper rockfish. They seemed to be lazing around quite a bit. Every so often, white plumose anemones would festoon the wall beside us. It was very cool. Jason said later that he swore there were baby octopus living in the chimney sponges. We'll have to check that out in some marine books to see if that happens. There was a decorator crab, along with several schools of what looked like perch swimming around. Of course, there were tonnes of sea cucumbers and sea-stars. At deeper depths, Alan was saying that there were cloud sponges the size of small cars. Also, there is apparently a statue of a pink pig on the wall somewhere that was put there by persons unknown. But those would have to be seen another day. We reached our return pressure and started to head back. This turned us into the current, and it was kind of rough going but not too bad. I noticed that my jetfins felt very loose for the whole dive, so I knew I'd have to get those adjusted. Jason also commented that I was a bit feet-down (this was later) so I'd have to work on my trim some more. I thought I was doing pretty well, but it's hard to see yourself!
I was leading this dive, and signalled an ascent at what I thought was the right spot. Alan had described how to recognize the Cut again from under water, but had also mentioned that it was a bit tricky to find. Apparently you had to look for a triangle of rock and a sandy bottom. But, it looked like there are several other areas close by that fit that description. It may be that at deeper depths it was easier to differentiate. Anyway, we ascended a good hundred feet from where the Cut really was. No big deal though, we just dropped back down and swam around. We spent a bit of time in the tidal zone just beneath the surface too. That's where Jason noticed the purple sea-stars. The dive was a respectable 33 minutes at a maximum depth of 21m, so I was happy. The average depth worked out to be about 14m.
It was a bit of a climb up the hill back to the picnic table we were based off of, but we made it without incident. I thought it would be pretty awful to take a tumble down that path in full gear! We geared down, had some food and enjoyed the beautiful day. I met Homie whom I had met at Porteau Cove two weeks before, as well as Novi too. It was nice to see some familiar faces. One fellow had been gearing up on double nitrox when we were entering the water and was still out on a solo dive. I don't think I'll be doing anything like that, though! I had to agree with Jason that diving with a buddy was too interesting and just safer.
We talked a bit about our next dive, and decided to do a few skills at the end. We'd head left, go around the Day Marker, past the plumose gardens and then finish up in Whytecliff bay where we'd come in shallow and do the skills there. With all that squared away, we got ready and hit the water. Jason's glove system failed though which sucked badly. One of the marigold gloves tore and was barely making a seal. He didn't have a spare, so dove on it anyway. The upside was that his suit did have a wrist seal underneath so his suit wouldn't flood. But the downside was that his hand would be wet and cold. As soon as we hit the water, the glove failed and sure enough his hand was numb, but I didn't find out about that until later. On the entry, we met and talked to some tourists from Calgary. They had a lot of questions about what there was to see, what was the gear we had, and how long we could stay down. Being the responsible ambassadors of our sport that we are, we tried to answer everything that we could. Unfortunately, the gear was pretty heavy and hot and we couldn't stand around all day! So we carefully got into the water and descended while they took pictures from shore. I guess I'm in someone's holiday snaps again!
The highlight of this dive was finding the dead-diver plaque. I had heard about it, but had never seen it. Well, we found it and it was a good sobering moment to remind me why you need to always be vigilant in diving. We passed the plumose gardens, saw a bunch more rockfish, more ling cod, nudibranchs, and the ever-present variety of sea-stars. There were quite a few urchins too. I was trying to look into every crevice I could as well just in case one might be hiding an octopus. There was one new sponge that I saw which was yellowish and had a lot of holes. Kind of like swiss cheese. I'll have to look that up later. The solo double-nitrox diver would say later that he saw two octopuses on his dive.
Eventually we made it into the bay and settled on the bottom for some skills. We did mask floods/clears, mask removals, and air-sharing. I also deployed my surface marker buoy for the first time. Let me tell you, it's not easy! First you have to unclip it from your pocket, get it out, make sure the spool and line isn't tangled, unfold the tube, inflate it, and let it go without losing the spool in the process. I think I did ok. I at least didn't strangle us in line. It was very hard to wind the line and ascend slowly while venting gas. It's going to take practice, practice, practice. I also tried to practice unclipping and reclipping my SPG. But the clipping part didn't go so well. It took me a tonne of tries to get it clipped again. The D ring was super hard to find for something so big!
Once we recovered the SMB, we descended again and did a swim while sharing air. Jason had originally wanted to don and doff his BCD in the water, but his hand was far too cold by that point so we skipped it. I checked my buoyancy and it seemed pretty good. However, I had a good 1000 psi left in my cylinder though, so it wasn't a true test. I forgot to either dump it to 300-500 or breath it down to that level before checking. But, even with the extra gas I had no problem floating at eye level and sinking while exhaling.
On the beach there were a tonne of divers doing their open water course. We talked to a few of them, knowing that we had just been in their shoes not long ago. I was amazed at all the wetsuits. They were crazy! The water was 11 degrees and just getting colder by the week. I'll keep my drysuit, thanks!
All in all a pretty good set of dives. The second was about 35 minutes to a maximum of 23m, but that was very brief at that depth. I think we investigated a crevice which had a scallop in it. I do have to remember to stay away from the saw-tooth dive profile, mixing deeper after shallower. It's all part of situational awareness skills that I'm trying to work on. Right now, I'm processing the immediate information, but I need to start thinking how that relates to the bigger picture, and ultimately my dive buddy or team. Still, this was just dive number twenty four, so I can't expect miracles! Jason and I both agreed that we were progressing, but both knew we had a lot to learn yet.
The jetfins worked out pretty well, and so did the steel 100 cylinders. I can't wait to get my canister light, long hose, and undergarment so that I can begin getting used to that stuff. As winter comes on, the undergarment is going to be a god-send.
Jason dropped me off at my place, and I borrowed my friend's car to pop over to the shop with my cylinders and fins. I got my fills, and asked Alan about tightening the spring-straps. Unfortunately, there were no medium straps in at the moment so he couldn't do that right away. Hopefully I'd have them by the night dive coming up this Thursday. But in the end, I could always use my Triex fins instead, so no big deal. I ended up hanging out in the shop with Alan and Kyle for about an hour. Alan had some great beer called Leffe from Belgium and it was cool to hang out and talk diving. They were impressed that I got the p-valve working without incident :-) I made a plan to go diving with Alan after my Advance course finished, because he offered to give me some instruction on proper use and deployment of the long-hose set up. It's going to be great. I also want to take my GUE fundamentals course next spring. Hopefully by that time Alan has finished his training for it, and I can have him as an instructor!
The next dive will be my first night dive. It's going to be super cool...
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