Having just completed my Open Water certification a few weeks back I was itching to go diving again! I got chatting to my mate Scott at the Learn Scuba diving club meet and it turned out he wanted to get diving more too, so we arranged to go for a day during the next week. It turned out we couldn't have picked a better day than Wednesday 20th April, the weather was gorgeous with clear blue skys and not a cloud to be seen.
We set off to Gildy around 630am and I was all excited to be going diving just for pleasure and not on a course, and also without my instructor! I wasn't really sure what to expect diving with someone I didn't really know all that well either. After about 45min in the car we made the obligatory stop at McDonalds for coffee and carried on with the rest of the journey.
When we got to Gildy we were a little concerned that it was closed as there was no one about, not a single car in the 'car park' and the door to the shop was closed, would have been so annoying if we'd come all this way for nothing! Turned out that we were the first divers of the day and they didn't have as many staff on during the week as they do at the weekend, which answered why we hadn't seen anyone around yet. All signed in we grabbed all the kit out of the car, we'd already planned our first dive in the car, so we got changed and just got in for the dive.
The First Dive.
This dive was planned to 18m for 30min which was my first time down to the limit of my current certification. We entered using the ramp entry which was a little different to what I was used to but still fun. Once we were in the water and ok we both surface swam across the lake to the marker attached to the coach. It didn't look that far when standing on dry land but swimming across virtually the entire lake first thing in the morning with full SCUBA on was definitely a wake up call!
Before dropping down Scott took a compass bearing for us to follow to our next destination once we were finished at the bus. We dropped down nice and slow as I've had issues with my ears during my open water training dives and didn't want to risk anything screwing up my day, after a little faffing we reached the bus and began our dive around the bus first. This was great fun as I'd not been down that deep before, and I'd never really had the chance to swim around anything at a slow pace to take things in before. Once we'd gone around the coach it was time to follow the compass bearing Scott had taken and head towards the plane near the middle of the lake.
After following the compass for a few minutes things started to look a little too familiar and all of a sudden we noticed we were back at the coach again. Scott looked at me and signalled me in a way which could only mean "I have no idea where we went, but we're here again", this gave us both a bit of a giggle to say the least. We decided to alter our dive plan as we had plenty of air left and followed one of the lines which lead to the barge.
When we reached the barge I noticed I was at 18m while still a little way off so I just lounged about at 18m just above the boat while Scott swam around a little deeper than me, both of us keeping track of where the other one was the entire time. This gave me some free time to have a bit of a play with my buoyancy control in the dry suit, and start to find the best position for me to be able to just hover in the water with little to no thought. Once we were done at the barge we moved off down another line which lead to the plane we were aiming for in the first place.
By this time we were both running on about 100bar of air so we didn't stay too long at the plane. Had a nice swim around it which I loved as for some reason since finding out there was a plane there I'd wanted to see it. This also gave me a bit of a chance to play with buoyancy control again to get over the wings without using the inflator or exhaust on my dry-suit, I didn't manage 100% this time but next time I will sort that out!
We came up following the line for the marker above the plane nice and slow. This was the first time I'd actually not thought about grabbing the line to follow but only use it for reference, I had my arm up with the dry-suit exhaust at the highest point but also watching my Suunto Viper dive computer to make sure I wasn't coming up too fast. When I hit 5m the computer told me I had a 3min safety stop, so I halted my ascent and just hung around the 5m mark while the timer counted down the 3min stop. We then carried on up to 3m where Scott's Oceanic computer told him he had a 3min safety stop. We both stopped again for another stop before continuing to the surface.
When we hit the surface we were greeted by an absolutely clear sky and lovely sun beaming down on us, I could hear Scott swearing at his computer was moaning at him about something. At the time we thought it could have been that he'd come up too fast, but after checking my Viper we'd come up well within limits. We got back to the surface and after a funny moment of Scott forgetting the ramp slopes and falling backwards back into the water we got the kit off, cylinders round for a fill, and had a debrief. Then it was on to planning the next dive, my first proper use of the eRDP which is so easy to use!
The Second Dive
The weather had gotten even nicer by the time we'd kitted up and were just finishing buddy checks for our second dive. This time we decided to have some more fun and do a long stride of the high platform. I really enjoy doing long stride entries, must be something about watching 007: Thunderball too much as a kid but I always feel like Bond whenever I get in the water. I followed Scott in and as soon as I surfaced he asked me if I was ok and how I found that entry, I was giggling to myself so much I just about managed to tell him it was awesome!
We then did a short surface swim over to the marker for the bus, did our final checks and began our descent to the bus. It was at this point I started to feel a lot more confident with my descents and didn't need to be constantly near the line as I was starting to really get the hang of controlling my descent using my dry suit, BCD, and breathing. We reached the bus a lot quicker than I thought we would which was also a good sign as I didn't have any discomfort with my ears this time, I topped up my dry suit, emptied my BCD and we began our swim around the bus.
I was warned on the surface by Scott to keep an eye on my depth as the bus is on a slant from about 11m to 16m and if you don't watch it you can easily start coming to the surface like a balloon. It seems I'd managed to sort my buoyancy pretty much spot on as I didn't need to really mess about with it at all during the swim about and we had a really relaxed swim. Once we had gone around the bus, having a look inside and pretending we'd won something with the trophy which has been placed on the bus we headed off to the forest area towards the left side of Gildy.
We had decided that we would follow the side along for about 10min and then turn back and follow the same route the other way which was a really nice route to take. While we were just minding our own business swimming along Scott noticed 2 pike swimming along beneath us, I was a little concerned to how I would react to seeing large(ish) fish but after seeing them I didn't really react at all, other than to watch them for a bit to see what they were doing. We continued for a little and turned back.
On our return journey to the pool table I spotted the 2 pike again still swimming with us, and then both Scott and I looked up to be greeted by a pretty amazing sight of over 20 roach swimming in a shoal just above us. We stopped and just hung about watching them for a bit, and followed them back the way we were headed for a while before they swam in a different direction and we reached the pool table. The pool table is at a depth of around 5m which was perfect for my safety stop so we just hung about there, had a game of pool, which was an interesting concept while under water, and then ascended to 3m where Scott had to make his safety stop. We then finished our ascent to the surface, each following our own computers this time.
I reached the surface slightly before Scott this time, and when he hit the surface and checked his computer again I heard the familiar swearing at his computer as it again was telling him that he'd come up too fast (we thought). Back on dry land again we did our debrief, this time I did the debrief quickly as Scott thought it would be a good idea for me to get the practice so that when I get to Divemaster level I am used to doing them, and then we sat down logged the dive and I had a look at his computer to see if I could figure out what it was moaning about.
Third and final dive
After a moderately long surface interval this time we planned to do pretty much the same dive as our second dive, this time heading off to the forest on the other side of Gildy. We did a large stride entry off the middle platform this time which is the one I used while doing my open water training dives. We did our final checks and headed down for our final dive. This time I had absolutely no troubles like last and we hit 9m before I knew it which was great.
We had a very quick look at the bus again before heading off the other way to the forest, as we got further round the side the visibility was starting to get very quickly less and less, we decided to turn around and head back to the other side and just do our second dive again without spending time swimming around the bus this time. On our way to the other side we made a stop at the large plane cockpit which was pretty cool, did a quick lap of that which both Scott and I were pretty impressed with and then continued to the forest again.
We followed the side just as before and just as before we saw the 2 pike from last time, again they seemed undisturbed by our presence in the area and just swam happily along a little lower than us again, this time they did seem to be a little closer. We managed to get a fair way around the side before turning back and heading for the pool table again, as we decided it was a nice last stop place for the dives as it gave me a 5m stop for my safety stop, and also Scott wanted a line to follow so he could ascend at a snails pace to see if his computer moaned again.
On our way back to the pool table accompanied by our new pike friends, we were greeted again by the 20+ shoal of roach so again we stopped to watch them for a bit as we had plenty of air left, and with our longer surface interval our pressure groups easily enabled us to dive beyond our air supply. After watching the roach for a few minutes we continued to the pool table so Scott could give me a rematch and our safety stops.
This time I followed my computer again on ascent and even came off the platform for my safety stop to practice hovering at a level to complete it. I had agreed to wait at 3m with Scott again for his safety stop and then ascend again following our own computers, again I hit the surface before Scott however this time he didn't follow me very quickly, having not removed my mask yet I dipped my head in to see if he was having issues to be greeted by a massive amount of bubbles and Scott very slowly coming up. He hit the surface and I immediately checked he was ok. He was fine and explained that he decided to come up with no bars showing on his computer so that he could see if it still moaned at him, which it did.
After getting back on dry land again we debriefed for the final time, got changed back into normal clothes and packed all the dive kit up. We then had a quick look at what on earth was causing Scott's computer to moan at him but we just couldn't figure out any reason this time. We then headed for home.
The next day I got a call from Scott in the morning asking if my computer had turned off which it had, his hadn't turned off and he was a little worried about it. It was then it dawned on me that the computer wasn't moaning because he'd come up too fast but because he was missing his safety stops. When at the pool table he would ascend to 3m to get it to activate the timer, and then drop back to the table to wait for 3min before surfacing. This was a slight error as his computer went back into dive mode when he went deeper than 4m so it thought he had missed his stop, which he hadn't. I helped him to get his computer changed so his stops to 5m as he wanted it to be the same as the PADI books and my computer.
I had a fantastic time on my first 3 "real" dives and can't wait to get my next ones arranged, I've got a really big urge to get back in the water again!