why oh why oh why

[MrMojo]

With so much talk of diving for the last couple of months and me only having access to a training pool at my club (ok it's a olympic high board training pool 15ft deep and they can make the floor move up and down to vary depth!)I decided this week to go diving today with a buddy from the club.Last night i finished work at 2 am and got up at 7am and drove to my buddies house to pick them up got all packed and set of for stoney cove .The rain is so bad that they have set speed limits on the motorway ,me thinking this is good as know one will be at the quarry in this weather.an hour and and a half later we arrive and we arrive at stony and it is packed ,we are lucky to get a space in the furthest car park ,which means we have to kit up into our dry suits and carry our gear to the quarry in pouring rain.we get to the waters edge and my buddies lp hose to her dry suit will not stay on the inflator we try turning the air off and starting again and eventually after 20 mins and me de-kitting we get it to stay on .Know we are ready to go out into the water.Our dive plan is to dive at about 6-7 metres for about 10 mins to practise/refresh our skills and adjust to the temp of about 7 c then go over a ledge to 20-30 metres.Once in get in all gos as planned but the area is very bad vis maybe rain and maybe other divers ,i signal to decend over the ledge after the 10 min and my buddy is signaling "no" and whats to asend to the surface so up we go up with a controlled ascent at the surface she says she is very tired due to the cold and needs a rest before going to the deeper area. This is cool with me so i take off my mask and hood so i can hear and talk,after a few minutes she says lets go,so i don my gear and then start to ascend but then my mask now floods because i must have it caught up with the hood stopping the seal so i try to clear it but i am unable to blow through my nose .Nothing.So i signal to my buddy to ascend and we go back to the surface and adjust my mask/hood.Now for the second time we decend but this time it feels like someone is crushing my head as i can not equalise so i again signal but this time to abort the dive.So thats the first and the second dive out of the window as well .I feel so guilty and annoyed as i have never had to abort a dive before.

SO...Why oh why can,t i live in the Bahamas.

Regards ,

MAL..;-0

 

[lanun]

my buddy and i had one of those 2 minute dives once. it was during one of those spectacular 30'+ vis days at the Monterey breakwater. as we swam out, we passed by a school of senoritas, could see the bottom clear as day. surface temp was in the mid 60F's, perfect !

my buddy had trouble equalizing - sinusses all stuffed up. we tried descending three times. on the third try, we got down to 15 feet, and my buddy called the dive. we musta spent 15 minutes or so on the surface before getting back to shore. just talking through what happened. me saying 'it's okay' and my buddy being pissed since it was such a fabulous day and how sorry she was.

the important thing, and i told her this, was that she figured it was better to call the dive than push on and risk injury. did missing that dive hurt ? yeah it did. but the pride of diving with a buddy that dove within her limits on that day was well worth it.

we then went to enjoy a tri-tip sandwich and drool at the photo gear at Backscatter. i logged that dive, by the way. more so because it reminded me to check on my buddy not just closer to the dive, but also during the drive over. a red nose does not bode well, regardless of whether we had to get up at 5am and drive 70 miles. and to remember the occasion when my wife called a dive and why. precious memories, those.

 

[Jonathan]

ahhh Stony in January, that takes me back a few years!

Better luck next time!

Jonathan

 

[Louie]

MrMojo,

Sorry to hear of your cold day at Stoney experience.

All these years living in London and I haven't done the legendary dive site yet and I was determined to go before I leave the country for warmer climes. All the tales of the pleasures that come from that place (overnight camping on weekends to get in, instructors fighting one another for training space, extremely long queues for air fills, bad food etc) made me curious.

But now, I think I'll save my money and go somewhere else.

Louie

 

[The Iceni]

Louie once bubbled...
. . . Stoney experience.

All these years living in London and I haven't done the legendary dive site yet and I was determined to go before I leave the country for warmer climes.

But now, I think I'll save my money and go somewhere else.

Louie

Hi Louie,

In 1975 I had my first taste of diving at Stoney and swore I would never do another there. I wish I had kept my promise!

It's ideal for drills and understand it's usuallly reasonably OK if you go midweek though.

 

[Tavi]

MrMojo once bubbled...


SO...Why oh why can,t i live in the Bahamas.

Regards ,

MAL..;-0

! Don't know!!!
But if you figure out how, please let me know!!
I'll promise to do the same for you!!

 

[MrMojo]

Hi Dr Paul and welcome back hope all is well and good,yeah during the week it is a lot better and a great place to try out/practice new/old skills as the depth varies fom 6-30+ m .
But at the weekend it is vary busy espicially during the summer as this is where most people ,if they do OW is where there check out dives are taken.it has been said this is one of the most dived spots in the world(?) after this weekend i could belive it.
i was hoing due to agency regs that you can not do a check out dive in a dry suit it would be a little quieter,but as i was do my my buddy check at the water side an instructor and student was getting out of the water and he was telling the instructor how much he enjoyed it ,i had to take my mask off to be sure but the students skin was actually blue and he was dressed in an semi dry,he could hardly stand and talk for shaking.Must not have covered the exposure protection part of the course.
Louie don' be put of because it is an experience in it's self and worth the drive as they have good falcilitiesand a pub but the parking is s**t .i have had some really good times there and recently some bad but all in all it has always been fun.As Dr paul says go during the week as it a lot better but never go on a thursday following there wednesday night dives as the water is like soup.There was even guys there with rebreathers this weekend ,why anyone would want to spend hours in stoney amazes me but there is allsorts there which half the fun.

Regards

MAL..

 

[Jonathan]

they have good falcilities

things must have changed in the last two years - have they finished building the new block then?

When I used to dive there we would arrive at 6am, queue til 7am be allowed in the car park and the bacon butty hatch would not open till 8am - surely they could open the kitchen a little earlier and make a stack more cash?!

Jonathan

 

[k4sdi]

Sounds like someone store your mojo!!!

Sorry, couldnt resist!

Mark

 

[MrMojo]

Hi Johnathan,
No they still have not finished yet but no scaffolding but must be soon.over the years it must have made a fortune(£6-10 per diver about 150-200 this sunday not including the extras,food and fills) for the owners but they still can not sort out the parking and a way of getting gear down to the quarry,i'm sure thats put alot of people off.I have inside knowledge of the catering trade and if properly thought out and seating area with a better menu for divers they could seriously make alot more money.but with a few more inland sites starting to open i am sure they will start to find it harder in the future unless they change there ways.It is still very popular with people from the north (who are much hader than us soft southerners as i witnessed this weekend) Due to the drive i am never there before 10 am which sometimes is good as i might get a space by the water if someone is leaving which has happened a few times.

Regards,

MAL..