A little light reading!

Just packing the bags and thought these two beauties were worth another visit! Great reads even if you are not a cave man.

Mark Powell's Deco for Divers makes decompression history and theory accessible to everyone! His balance of hard facts structured straight forwardly and honestly were and continue to be great resource for me. An awesome publication and a must for any underwater adventurer!

Caverns Measureless to man! What else should I say that has not already been voiced! Sheck lets you live vicariously through his own experiences at a time where there were no set rules, no standardised training and no cave specific gear that we now all take for granted! A true explorer for whom we owe many of today's innovations in advanced diving - What a read! If you have not then go out and buy it...

These two publications are very close to my heart. My partner Louise gave me Blueprint for Survival on my 30th birthday and my best bud Dave, Cave Diving Communications shortly after. Both are a rare insight into what it must have been to attempt to analyze what firstly contributed to accidents in the cave and start to establish ways in which things could be done better. If you are in Auckland I will let you read them but they are not leaving my sight ;) 

Round two ITC in Northland

Another two really posotive days spent up in Tutukaka. Field drills, Lectures and Signatures!

I have finally got the handle on some of the academics! It is hard to believe that something that you are so comfortable with knowledge wise is so difficult to present. Please believe me when I say that these are not normal or easy dive training lectures! Prescriptive teaching? Not a chance!

After presenting for the morning and mixed emotions we made it out of the classroom to get into field drills. Mel and I got good feedback on Nitrox analysis and Valve drills. It's aonther case of not just understanding the material but being able to communicate this to your students. The quote of the afternoon for me was; Remember this feeling! This is how you feel when you learn and this is how your students will feel when they have to tackle these drills... A great reminder of the intensity of the fundamentals course!

The following morning I got out for an open water session with Jamie. It was  a beautiful day In Kowhareawa bay. Peaceful and quiet, It was a welcome relief from the classroom.

We went through kicks positional and propulsion both introducing and demonstrating and then I had the chance to give in water and debrief feedback of simulated problems.

 I am glad to say I seem to have handled it well, There are still tweeks to be made but I am confident I will be able to handle this in a real course environment.

I am one tired intern now. Time for bed after a three hour return drive home....

More mix trials and tribulations at the knights

We had been looking forward to a trip out for ages. This weekend was booked at Christmas and was my last before drying gear and heading to Mexico in May. All week we watched the forecast deteriorate into dangerously high swells and winds forcing us to make a call on what was going to happen.

The call came from tutukaka  on Friday evening that Saturday was postponed due to poor weather. We sat and waited for news and provisionally planned to go up in the afternoon and head out if the situation improved.

Much to everyones surprise however the conditions did improve and irritatingly to such an extent that we may well have been able to get out in the morning after all... Oh well, Too late now we mumbled whilst furiously putting gear into the car and beginning the three hour journey up to the harbour in order to salvage some time on the trip. Who would have thought that the forecasters and meteorologists could have made a mistake? I'm sure its the first time....

Once up in Tuts we loaded gear equally furiously onto Mazurka as we were the last to arrive and stared longingly at the volcanic crater rim pertruding from the ocean twenty five nautical miles away.

It felt strange heading there in the afternoon, It was rolling through still and causing a bit of sickness within the boats company. We opted to set ourselves out on the back deck and talk about plans for the trip ahead.

All of a sudden we hear a bang and the hissing of gas! One of the twinsets has broken loose and fallen from its lashings into the safety lines. The weight of the twin 18L cylinders and the rolling of the boat caused it to rip straight through the lines and before we could stop it it was in the water descending to 90m hemorrhaging gas! We tried to maintain a fix on its location and put a mark in but due to the low angle of the sun and its glare on the water it was a lost cause, One set of twins was gone for good.

The mood was glum, We had all pushed so hard to get out and now this. This may well jeapordise one teams diving activities the following day but thank god no one was hurt! We carried on and as the sun set one team sorted the mooring for our overnight stay and the rest of us settled into the living area  for dinner.

The next morning we awoke to calm water and not a soul to be seen & the gentle lapping of the water running around the boats hull. We were in an unusual position however! Due to loosing equipment on the way out we had to work out how all teams were going to get to dive with what was left. After a brainstorm it worked out that by diving the 18/45 team and then topping the remaining back gas we would be able to get another team into the water on 21/35 to complete their tech 1 dives. This is when the penny drops for most. The flexibility of standard gasses allows us to adjust and flex to situational developments that others may not. We may have lost gear but strong team ethics and a standardized set of gear and gasses made sure no one lost diving!

A tough day out but a brilliant 60m dive at Ngaio Rock. More leopard anenomies than I have ever seen before and great country to scooter. would we make the same effort to do it again? Sure we would!

The water is still 18 degrees at 55m!!!!