okay, I dove last weekend for the first time here in China... i've looked for places near and around Shanghai since I got certified last May, but there isn't anything due to the delta flow surrounding the Shanghai coastline...
That said, I did find a place in southern China near Shenzhen, a little get away called Twin Moons bay, and I just happened to schedule our management retreat for that location last weekend.
I had trouble getting hold of a local dive shop, as it turns out, I found one, but they had moved up the coast in the bay a little to a more active area for weekend customers... the place I was at was more remote, but there was a guy that was providing dive services there, and just a short 300m walk from my hotel...
I texted back and forth with him and as it happens, they had a clean up activity going on Saturday, and about 10 divers participating on a two dive excursion to try and pick up garbage at one of their more popular sites.. he told me the only way I could dive with his company was if I wanted to participate... I figured, what the heck, dive and give back for a sport I've really come to love in the last year.
So, the next morning, we met up, went to the boat and went about a standard dive boat process with everyone boarding, getting signed on, setting up gear, and enjoying meeting each other as we rode the 45 minutes to the island (Little Star Island)... on arrival, everyone got ready, and got wet... i was last since I was diving sidemount, and needed to have the tanks handed down...
As it turned out, I had a couple problems with my bungee not hooking on my valve stems, the stems on this China valve were a little short and my bungees kept popping off and of course the tanks go flopping downward... I got tired of the fight with them, so I swam back to the boat and exited the water... I was a little upset, but sat in the sun sweltering in my suit, and thinking about my set up.... decided to adjust the bottom mounting point angles a little, and get back in the water... by this time, 35 minutes has passed and everyone is coming back either for air or to exit the water for a SI.
At that point, I decide to go back in, so I get some help mounting the bottles, and jump... then try again to work with my bungee....
And now we get to the SOLO part of this.. with the other divers off picking up trash in a general direction from the boat, and the rest boarding, I was basically alone...
I'm thinking to myself... redundant air? check, extra mask? check, lights? check, cutting device? check, and since I was in a site where our max depth (unless you were just stupid and purposely went off out in the BIG BLUE away from shore) was 5m, I said to heck with it and gave a 'Okay' sign and went on down... I am sure some will freak over me not having official training (I'll argue that I've had the same instructor for AOW, EFR, sidemount, and now Rescue, and having read the solo course material, he's covered it all with me multiple times)... anyway, I thought I'd be freaked...
Visibility on the site was 2-3 meters at the bottom, between there and the surface was pretty much washout from the huge storm we had the day before in the bay... anyway, I dropped thru the haze and to the bottom and spent a good 20 minutes just cruising around, messing with my bottles and the bungees, and trying to work that out... then, since I was alone, my trash bag was full, and lunch was on-deck, I headed back to the boat (that I was never more than 100m away from at any point)..
For Dive 2, basically the same, another tweak to my tank set up which gave me a little more stability, and because I was last in, I again was alone.. this time, I headed the direction everyone else did, and about 15 minutes in, two people come out of the haze and we are all sharing bags and picking up garbage... then all of a sudden, I turn my head, and in the 2-3m vis, they are gone! and a few minutes later, another group of three comes out of the haze, and we work together and again, then they are gone... by this time, I'm used to working alone, I'm enjoying the freedom actually, I've exploring and teasing crabs, duking it out with anemone fish who are floating above some of the sickest looking anenome you've ever seen (the fish give you a look like... "hey, it's all I got, but it's mine!! now move on buster"...
So, dive 2 was 44 minutes with about 10 minutes where I was working with some of the other divers....
I have to say, I found the ability to not worry about where my 'buddy' was, or to have to keep up and follow a DM a very nice experience... I'm sure part of that is the fact that I was able to manage my gas and know that I didn't need to worry about hitting 50 bar at any point because if I did, I would have as much or more on the other tank...
Anyway, I'm sure there will be opinions both ways....let me say that for my first time diving with Chinese divers on their home turf, I was impressed with them compared to the ones I've met in places like Thailand and the Philippines... these guys were regular divers, they weren't trying to impress anyone that they had money and could buy the best gear.
And more, they were doing something about the mess that their compatriots make every day... instead of just living with it as a lost cause.. we pulled over 30 nets (about the size of 50 gallon drums) of garbage out of the dive site... and based on what I saw as I went back to the boat, we barely scratched the surface... I'll be going back the next time they invite me to help out... solo or not.
That said, I did find a place in southern China near Shenzhen, a little get away called Twin Moons bay, and I just happened to schedule our management retreat for that location last weekend.
I had trouble getting hold of a local dive shop, as it turns out, I found one, but they had moved up the coast in the bay a little to a more active area for weekend customers... the place I was at was more remote, but there was a guy that was providing dive services there, and just a short 300m walk from my hotel...
I texted back and forth with him and as it happens, they had a clean up activity going on Saturday, and about 10 divers participating on a two dive excursion to try and pick up garbage at one of their more popular sites.. he told me the only way I could dive with his company was if I wanted to participate... I figured, what the heck, dive and give back for a sport I've really come to love in the last year.
So, the next morning, we met up, went to the boat and went about a standard dive boat process with everyone boarding, getting signed on, setting up gear, and enjoying meeting each other as we rode the 45 minutes to the island (Little Star Island)... on arrival, everyone got ready, and got wet... i was last since I was diving sidemount, and needed to have the tanks handed down...
As it turned out, I had a couple problems with my bungee not hooking on my valve stems, the stems on this China valve were a little short and my bungees kept popping off and of course the tanks go flopping downward... I got tired of the fight with them, so I swam back to the boat and exited the water... I was a little upset, but sat in the sun sweltering in my suit, and thinking about my set up.... decided to adjust the bottom mounting point angles a little, and get back in the water... by this time, 35 minutes has passed and everyone is coming back either for air or to exit the water for a SI.
At that point, I decide to go back in, so I get some help mounting the bottles, and jump... then try again to work with my bungee....
And now we get to the SOLO part of this.. with the other divers off picking up trash in a general direction from the boat, and the rest boarding, I was basically alone...
I'm thinking to myself... redundant air? check, extra mask? check, lights? check, cutting device? check, and since I was in a site where our max depth (unless you were just stupid and purposely went off out in the BIG BLUE away from shore) was 5m, I said to heck with it and gave a 'Okay' sign and went on down... I am sure some will freak over me not having official training (I'll argue that I've had the same instructor for AOW, EFR, sidemount, and now Rescue, and having read the solo course material, he's covered it all with me multiple times)... anyway, I thought I'd be freaked...
Visibility on the site was 2-3 meters at the bottom, between there and the surface was pretty much washout from the huge storm we had the day before in the bay... anyway, I dropped thru the haze and to the bottom and spent a good 20 minutes just cruising around, messing with my bottles and the bungees, and trying to work that out... then, since I was alone, my trash bag was full, and lunch was on-deck, I headed back to the boat (that I was never more than 100m away from at any point)..
For Dive 2, basically the same, another tweak to my tank set up which gave me a little more stability, and because I was last in, I again was alone.. this time, I headed the direction everyone else did, and about 15 minutes in, two people come out of the haze and we are all sharing bags and picking up garbage... then all of a sudden, I turn my head, and in the 2-3m vis, they are gone! and a few minutes later, another group of three comes out of the haze, and we work together and again, then they are gone... by this time, I'm used to working alone, I'm enjoying the freedom actually, I've exploring and teasing crabs, duking it out with anemone fish who are floating above some of the sickest looking anenome you've ever seen (the fish give you a look like... "hey, it's all I got, but it's mine!! now move on buster"...
So, dive 2 was 44 minutes with about 10 minutes where I was working with some of the other divers....
I have to say, I found the ability to not worry about where my 'buddy' was, or to have to keep up and follow a DM a very nice experience... I'm sure part of that is the fact that I was able to manage my gas and know that I didn't need to worry about hitting 50 bar at any point because if I did, I would have as much or more on the other tank...
Anyway, I'm sure there will be opinions both ways....let me say that for my first time diving with Chinese divers on their home turf, I was impressed with them compared to the ones I've met in places like Thailand and the Philippines... these guys were regular divers, they weren't trying to impress anyone that they had money and could buy the best gear.
And more, they were doing something about the mess that their compatriots make every day... instead of just living with it as a lost cause.. we pulled over 30 nets (about the size of 50 gallon drums) of garbage out of the dive site... and based on what I saw as I went back to the boat, we barely scratched the surface... I'll be going back the next time they invite me to help out... solo or not.
