Saturday Night's All Right For Diving - Dive 249

After three long dry months, I finally got back in the water last night.

It almost looked like we were going to get nailed by a thunderstorm with some impressive lightning, but it stopped just as we arrived at the lake.

Chad, Keith, Jeff and I geared up and entered the water just as the sun was going down.

Diving is a rather perishable skill. While you can still throw on the gear and get in the water, if you don't practice, you lose a lot of the fine tuning. While still not bad and passable enough, I certainly wasn't what I'd call good last night either.

Everything felt a bit off and combined with lousy visibility in the lake and that we did a long fin-kick along the north-line it felt like a lot of work. Along the way we were hitting depths of 53 feet and water temps of 46 degrees at the bottom which combined with the absolutely lousy visibility made for an interesting hour dive.

The lake became dark very quickly as the sunset.

The vis began like this:

And in minutes it looked like this:

The current camera isn't very good at night. Actually, it sucketh royally, but we'll see about fixing that.

This dive was fun but my buoyancy and trim were way off, and I kicked up the bottom once pretty badly. On the upside the back kick was still there and I didn't lose my dive team even once in the flashlight-swallowing darkness and particulate filled water.

Hopefully, it won't take three more months before dive 250 rolls around.

Dive 248 - Union Lake

So having not dove in over 4 months, I met up with Chad, Fred and Reichy for a scooter dive in Union Lake this morning.

On gearing up, I took time to put silicone lube on the scooter internal O rings, on the light's battery pack O ring and on the glove seals. Having not used the gear in for months, some fresh silicone grease was called for.

Adding it really helped - the battery went into the scooter body past the first O ring easier than it ever had, and the scooter body and tail went together easier than before as well. Should have done this back before my last dive in January.

So we geared up and hit the water.

The group is doing a mapping project of the lake, documenting where all the lines are, their lengths and bearings and noting important bottom features and depths for future reference. This will make it a lot easier to get around the lake considering may of the sunken boats have been moved and fishermen have ripped up a lot of the existing lines.

So we headed out on our scooters, zipping along out past the trolling motor boat and the A-Aron boat, and getting to the end of the first line and then Chad and Fred began measuring the distance back, recording compass azimuths and depth etc.

Here's Fred either taking some notes on the distance or writing me a prescription to get more diving in!

I was just out and happy to be in the water getting back into the flow of things. This being my 4th dive with a scooter, more than half the fun is anticipating where everyone else is going, anticipating where you're going, keeping track of your depth changes and adjusting buoyancy on the fly to match the depth and trying not to silt up the place.

On the upside, I had some good buoyancy awareness and had a nice controlled ascent but I found I need to adjust my wing setup as I'm having a hard time reaching the rear release valve on the wing, which is a problem. Other than that a pretty good time overall.

Boat traffic was crazy this weekend, with tons of unskilled boat owners mucking about, and more and more boats were going over us during our dive. Dome boats were hammering it so hard you could feel the effect of their props from 40 feet underwater. The visibility wasn't fantastic but it got more serviceable as you got farther away from the dock.

We made it down to 53 feet, and the water is still pretty chilly. Even in the 38 foot range it was 48 degrees and dropped down to 45 degrees at 50 feet.

We finished with that line and headed back to our entry point. This was good as we were all getting kinda chilled after being in the water so long. At 20 feet we stowed our scooters, did our deco and then slowly ascended.

We ascended to even more boats around the boat dock area, so it was good that we didn't come up the dock but instead came up on shore near it. We arose just in time to see a DNR officer chewing out a boater for being an idiot at the dock and even more bopats were stacking up, so it was a good time to get out of the water.

Overall not a bad spring day dive, my suit had no leaks, everything was under control, and not a bad way to wash away the rust from 4 months of non-diving.

The Details:

Dive Time: 69 minutes

PSI used: 2000

Max Depth: 53 feet

Average depth 37

Water Temp: 45

Dive 246 - Black Friday In Union Lake

I met up with Jeff at the Union Lake Boat Dock and we kicked off the first annual Black Friday Dive.

Here's a brief video of the highlights of the dive.  Hopefully this video will help to promote Union Lake dive tourism:

Happy Black Friday!  Keep Warm out There!

Dive Time: 25 minutes, dive called when Jeff's hands got too cold to function.  To be fair, mine weren't exactly thrilled with me either at that point.

Max Depth: 38 feet

Water temp: 39 Degrees

Breathing gas used:  700 psi.

Nice and clear visibility, but the trade off is some cold water in which to enjoy the dive.

Dive 245 - Union Lake In The Dark

Unbelievable, it's the end of October and this was the first dive I've done all season that was pitch black from start to finish. Clearly I haven't been getting out much this season.

I arrived at Union Lake at 7:30 as scheduled. It turns out that Jeff and Nate and Brandon had got there early and already done one dive, so Fred, Chad and I suited up and got ready to go in.

Thankfully there was only one boat, and he pulled out as we were prepping to go in, so we had an easy entrance via the boat launch, which beats tripping around the grass hill with 120 pounds of gear on your back in the dark. This made for a nice easy entry.

Then we headed out on the north line, playing with crayfish as we came across them and seeing quite a number of bass both large and small out and about.

We also came a cross a large mudpuppy which was cool to see as they're not something you come across every dive.

We made it to the A-Aron boat and had a bit of fun hanging around it, then did a diversion tot he north shore boat and headed back.

One benefit of night diving is you can really see each diver's light much more distinctly than in the day so its a lot easier to keep track of people and maintain formation,

A nice easy night dive, and my buoyancy and trim were quite excellent if I do say so myself, making the dive a lot more relaxing and enjoyable.

After the dive we headed to the Library pub to warm up with some rum and cokes and tortilla soup, which hit the spot nicely.

The Dive:

Water Temp: 52 degrees

Dive Time: 52 Minutes

Max depth: 45 feet

Breathing gas used: 1000 psi.

Dive 244 - Drills In Union Lake

Union Lake is getting colder, but the visibility is yet to improve, and some people are still putting their boats in and kicking up the bottom.

The lake was a consistent 52 degrees from the surface to 34 feet, which is as deep as we went today.

Pretty decent sized group diving today: Keith, Chad, Maki, Jeff, Fred and myself.

Today was also an opportunity to watch Chad and Keith drill the heck out of Fred as he's off to take a cave diving class in Florida in November, and they'll be going down to Florida with him to do some more advanced cave classes.

On the way out we passed the paddle boat

Then we tied off the flag

So Fred got to start to run a line

At 9 minutes into the dive:

Then they started beating on him:

That's a simulated valve failure where the other diver runs his primary regulator non-stop beside Fred's valve post. He needed to diagnose the problem and shut down the valve and go to his backup, which he did quite well.

Next they went out of air on him:

The out of air diver is in front breathing off Fred's primary long-hose, with Fred on his backup necklace regulator.

Fred did a good job the whole time.

Once that calmed down, Jeff and I did some valve drills.

Then we all stopped by the mirror to see how good we looked.

The mirror rests against the frame of a Model T:

Then it was time to untie the flag and head in.

I had my heated vest on under my drysuit and it helped chase the chill away, except by the end of the dive my hands were getting quite cold.

72 minutes of diving in 52 degrees of water - A good, cold dive full of good clean fun.

Dive 243 Union Lake To The A-Aron Boat

Quite a group of us showed up this morning to dive Union Lake.

Brandon, Chad and Fred showed up with scooters. The Jeff, Nate and me, the three of us without scooters kicked the dive off on fins before the scooters got in the water.

The water is getting colder. Here's a shot of the gauge showing 59 degrees at 30 feet, 19 minutes into the dive. At 44 feet, it read 56 degrees.

On the way to the boat I found a golf ball:

Just Dive It.

So we kicked out to the north boat, which is a pretty distant swim, and found it had been renamed:

Where did the A-Aron variation in spelling come from you ask? From here:

So here I am by the newly named A-Aron boat:

Here's Jeff and Nate at the boat:

We then kicked over to the pontoon boat and did some drills including out of air drills and valve drills and then headed back in.

After 67 minutes, at the end of the dive, you could say we were getting tired.

A darn good dive.

Dive 242 Union Lake Scooter Dive

Dive 242 with the guys in Union Lake meant one thing - Scooter Time!

Chad had his new DiveX Cuda 400, Keith and Fred bopth had their DiveX Sierra and I got to use the ol' DiveX Sierra Scooter as well.

 First, we kicked out from shore to the photocopier boat and tied off the flag:

Keith and the flag, note the scooter stowed clipped off on his left side.

 Then we deployed the scooters from their stowed positions and got ready to go:

Chad prepares to start stylin' with the Cuda

Then off you go.

Scooter diving is very relaxed diving.  You let the scooter do the work and you hang on behind it and just take it easy.  No heavy kicking, just flying through the water.

Unfortunately, visibility was sucky with an extra side of suck. Between the lake turning over and a lot of boats tooling around the visibility was minimal.

 At least we saw a fish. This one followed us around the lake for a while:

We scootered out to the boat that has its bow buried into the muck with its stern end facing the surface like an obelisk:

It looks more impressive in person....

 Hopefully when the viz clears we'll get out there again and I'll get some pics of the whole boat rising from the muck as it looks pretty cool looming out of the gloom.

After a while we headed back along the lines and stowed away the scooters, and did our deco stops at 20, 15 and 10 feet.

It was a very fun dive, as Keith indicated during the deco stop:

Dive Time: 66 minutes
Gas Used: 1400 psi
Water temp: 67 at the surface, 55 at the bottom.

Dive 239 - Father's Day In The Lake

Father's Day started off nicely meeting a few fathers and not-yet-fathers at Union loake for a serious dive. The plan: We split into two groups. Group A with scooters heads out 18 minutes before those of us without and scouts a new location and picks up some other items previously placed, to move the scuba tank boat (memorably named because it has a scuba tank on the bow) to a new location farther out on the line, planned to be in 50-60 feet of water. Group B by fins enters 18 minutes after, kicks to the Scuba Tank Boat (STB) and awaits Group A's return.

It was rather hot out so we got in our gear and decided to just hang in the water until it was time to go.

We started our dive as scheduled and headed to the STB and awaited Group A.

Visibility wasn't all that great with quite a bit of particulate in the water.

On the way to the STB, we saw this interesting pattern in the lake bed:

While it looks like an underwater alien crop circle, it is caused by crayfish skittering along the bottom - which they do backwards and rather quickly. Interesting to see such a large pattern.

Then we arrived at the STB:

We had a while to wait so we swam around a bit then did an ascent practice to conserve breathing gas consumption as we waited for them. In very simple terms, the shallower you are, the less pressure there is and as a result you use less gas with every breath you take from your tanks.

Group A then arrived and we got to the process of trying to lift the boat. Unfortunately we only had one 500 lb lift bag and the boat did not want to cooperate.

While it started to move a smidge when the bag was inflated, it wasn't enough to break suction from the mud and get it going. After trying for a bit we called it and headed back.

Considering the amount of time spent at depth, Group A had to do some mandatory deco stops and we stayed along with them doing the same. Group A had brought along deco bottles (Aluminum 40 cubic foot tanks) filled with 100% O2. I switched to my deco bottle of 50/50 (50% oxygen, 50% everything else, mainly nitrogen) along with them to both use it up as its time for it to be visually inspected, and to just get a theoretically more effective series of safety stops rather than just using air after such a long working dive. We did a stop at 20 feet for 5 minutes and a stop at 10 for five minutes follow by a slow ascent to 5 feet and after hanging around at five feet for a minute or two, to the surface. Then we got out of the water and headed to the local watering hole to chat and enjoy the rest of the morning.

Bottom temp was in the mid 50s, my dive time was 78 minutes, max depth 47 feet.

Next on the agenda some family time and some good steaks to be grilled for a fine Father's Day dinner.

Happy Father's Day!

Diver 235 - A Reel Dive

Dive 235 was a great practice dive in Union Lake.

I met Chad at the Union Lake Boat dock and decided it was time I learned how to use a dive reel properly. So we headed out under our dive flag as a few boats were about but it was overall a pretty calm morning for Union Lake.

Dive reels are used for laying lines for navigating in wrecks and caves as you always need a clear lined path back to open water whenever you go into an overhead environment. If you silt out and you have no line when you're deep in a wreck or cave, you chances of getting out drop rather dramatically.

Of course you also want to ensure you don't tangle yourself in the line or make a mess of it while using the reel.

Chad showed me the procedure on how to do some tie offs underwater and I was rather clumsy at first, but I'm getting better and have a new skill to practice.

While doing the reel work we saw just a ton of bass swimming around that were attracted by our lights and probably for a fish laugh-break watching me manipulate the line underwater, which is a lot harder than it looks like when other do it.

Now, I've at least got a clue as to how to properly use the reel, and with practice I'm going to get even better.

Surface water temp was a balmy 60 degrees and at 30 feet it was 50 degrees. 50 degrees is cold but not terrible compared to the temps we've been in during the winter ice dives.

We had a nice 50 minute dive ending with a nice slow ascent holding our depth for stops at 20, 15, 10 and finally 5 feet. My buoyancy control is getting very good indeed. Great dive.

Dive 234 Memorial Weekend Sunday Dive

Today was a beautiful day to go diving.

I met up with Chad and Keith at the Union Lake boat dock. The sun was shining, it was warm but not hot, and only a few boats were on the water.

My suit was back from having a new TIZIp zipper installed and being pressure tested for leaks, I had freshly re-webbed my dive harness, my tanks were freshly serviced and I was ready to go diving.

The dive did not disappoint. Putting my dry-suit on, I marveled at how much easier the TIZIp zipper is to close than the old YKK that used to be on it - it was very easy to close, no feeling of fighting the zipper to get it shut, nor an early stop like on the YKK where you think its shut but if you don't check you'll find out the hard and wet way that its not quite closed. The harness was a bit snug but I'll loosen it up a bit later and trim the webbing down accordingly as now there's way too much - however I've learned my lesson that you can cut more later, but you really can't add it back once you've cut it.

In the water everything was great - I had excellent buoyancy control, good trim and just had a fun time fining around. The harness and suit felt real good and I was nicely in control.

We had a nice long dive, out past the north boat into deeper water. We spent some time around the Skippy boat - a 20 footer on its nose deep in the mud, jutting out like a monolith. Very cool to come up on it out of the gloom. We then had fun ascending up one side and then back down the other. We were starting to get a little chilled as the temperature was about 46 degrees - still better than the low thirties in winter, but it started feeling cool after such a long dive.

We then headed back to our entry point, did a deco stop at 20 feet, watching the sun's rays shine in the water, and then slowly ascended up to the surface to end a fantastic dive.

The best part - I was nice and dry getting out of the suit and everything worked just as it should which was very happy making.

Max depth: 52 feet

Time: 68 minutes

Water temp: varied from 46 at the bottom to 60 at the surface.

A great dive to start the open water season.

Easter Sunday Dive

Today's dive ended with a whimper rather than a bang.

There was still plenty of ice on the lake but it was easy to enter from the shore to get under the ice.



This morning I had assembled my gear and was waxing the zipper on the drysuit. That was when I found, right at the left shoulder, a hole in the zipper right by the teeth almost the size of my pinky fingernail.

That explained the leak during the last dive - it wasn't the glove seal but a hole at the shoulder that did me in.

So I came out anyways and we tried to seal the hole with gorilla tape. While gorilla tape does many impressive jobs, including taping and holding a watertight seal on neck seals, it does not, alas, work worth a darn on the zipper as I found out shortly into the dive.

It did slow the water intrusion down a fair bit but I started feeling it creep in from the shoulder and strain to soak my torso. As there's still plenty of ice in the lake, that was enough for me to turn the dive and follow the line back to the surface.

At least I wasn't totally soaked this time- just the shoulder down to the thighs and my socks were dry, as were both arms.

Dive 232 And A Day Of Three Leaks

This was to be just a post about Dive number 232.

For Dive 232, there was no open water on Union Lake available so we had to make some:

After the hole was cut the ice slab was secured with an ice screw and tied down under the ice so it could be moved back later to close it up so the hole didn't stay open and some ice fisherman fall in. The parking lot was chock full of ice fisherman so we had to park across the street.

So we geared up and jumped into the hole.

A quick pic just beneath the ice:

A few feet down I immediately felt this wet and cold feeling on my left arm, which quickly spread all the way through the suit down to my boots. I wasn't just leaking, I was absolutely flooded with 37 degree water. Leak #1.

It's times like these I really want to be back in the Cayman Islands.

So I signaled to the group that I was flooded and headed back up the up-line to the surface. A short 5 minute dive.

Then the fun of getting out of the hole while wearing 120 plus pounds of gear onto slippery ice. Fun, and a good workout. I then headed to the car, and started wringing water out of the suit and undergarments, changed into my spare clothes.

Which brings me to Leak #2. The kitchen sink.

You see, the idiots didn't restrict themselves to just screwing up the electrical system in the house, the decided to try their hand at plumbing screw-ups too. The sink in the kitchen had started leaking below it into the cabinet area. Why was readily apparent - the paper and rubber washers and metal lock ring had fallen off the base of the trap and were hanging on the pipe. It turns out they didn't use the properly sized lock ring and had just jammed the whole thing into place with plumber's putty, which eventually failed hence the leak. The amazing thing is the lock rings come with the traps, so why the hell did they take the time to install a trap and then add the wrong sized lock ring below?

I mean how incompetent can you be to put the wrong sized lock ring on that will not thread onto the trap?

So I went to the hardware store, bought some plumber's putty and a trap. The trap, miracle of miracles, came with a proper sized lock ring and washers. I then installed it and voila, no more leaks. It's a sad day when the lawyer does a better job at plumbing than the plumber.

And of course, leaks come in threes, so I give you Leak #3.

While heading home from the hardware store, the tire pressure light came on in the RAV4. It felt ok at first and I figured it was an erroneous warning, but then it quickly became not so, with some serious bumping noises. Yep, I had a flat as hell tire. Luckily home was a short distance away when I first felt it so we made it ok. The tire was so flat that on getting home and hooking up the portable air compressor, the air was coming out of the tire as fast as the compressor was putting it in. Apparently I ran over something big with it.

Thankfully Costco stands behind their warranty and a new snow tire is on its way.

It's been that kind of day.

Thankfully, leaks seem to only come in threes.

Dive 229 A (N)Ice Dive In Union Lake

Dive 299 started with us assembling at Union lake to find a lot more ice on it than there was last week.

Quite a few people were out ice fishing, even with extensive open water visible.

So we got in and made the entry hole a bit bigger and headed off. Chad, Keith and Fred had led off and Brandon and I followed.

Here's Brandon at the entry point.

The bubbles would gather under the ice above

We then swam to the Model T:

Then we met up with Keith, Chad and Frank at the speedboat:

At the boat, a fish was patiently waiting at the copier to make a few copies.

Fifteen minutes into the dive, we were at 34 feet in 37 degree water.

We then headed to the other boat that sits in about 40 feet of water.

Here's Brandon as we begin to head back:

Heading back, Chad spotted a mud puppy and held it up for Brandon to video:

The mud puppy decided it had had enough and swam off like a shot out of Chad's hand. It swam like a fish moving its body back and forth. First time we've seen one do that.

Then we swam back to the line and headed back towards the entry point and the surface.

Upon leaving the water, out suits began to ice up and freeze solid, as the air temp was pretty cold.

The good news from the dive is that both the replacement O-ring and replacement SD1000 camera had arrived for my camera case so I was able to test it and take it out on this dive, and it worked - no leaks.

In addition I was trying out a new dive hood - A White Arrow WA hood 5.0 Millimeter. Best dive hood ever. So much better than my beat up Diving Concepts hood as well as being more comfortable and a whole lot warmer. A warm head leads to a happy ice diver.

Great dive. Camera worked, hood worked and aside from a leak that seems to be coming from the chest inflator valve i was pretty dry. I also got some video that I'll need to edit and put up later.