Deep and Meaningful...

This weekend - blessed with excellent weather, if a little cold - provided the perfect opportunity to complete a Deep Diver specialty course for Kevin. It was accomplished with a final dive - to 94 feet - and the bottom of the Channel south of Howe Island directly below the light tower. This third dive in a series (Kevin's earlier Deep Adventure for Advanced certification was credited towards the specialty) included examination of light loss at depth and the imposition of a compulsory, 8-minute safety stop after simulating a No Decompression violation. A minute of this stop was spent breathing from an alternate air source.

The whole excursion was really enjoyable and made the more so by the sighting of a large and lazy Northern Pike on both the outbound and return journeys. Kevin later went on to lead a visiting friend, Claude, to the Cora Post.

"Smashing Pumpkins" dive

[composed by Steve Chew, posted by Jeffy pending activation of Steve's blogger account]

Jack and Jill Pumpkin finally went for their Open Water Dive at Nicholson’s Point today. They did not equalize and suffered for it. Here they are before the dive. Jean-Olivier, Jeffy and I made up the team. We surface swam for 10-15 minutes then dropped a shot line to about 80 feet, we were hoping for 100 feet. I did not descend with a Pumpkin so according to Jeffy: I brought "Jill", the larger of the two pumpkins, and noticed a dent and a crack at about 60 feet. Jean-Olivier saw bubbles emerging from near the stem of "Jack" at about the same depth. Also significantly, both pumpkins were significantly less buoyant than before the dive. Here is the crack on Jack. And here is the crack on Jill. We followed CSI protocol strictly and used a Y-shape incision on Jack during the post mortem. Unfortunately this technique is not suitable for a squash. As a result the fluids leaked out before being assessed. This can be seen in the photo. Therefore, Jill received the traditional technique. I would say she was about three quarters full. The debriefing took place in Jean-Olivier’s Command Centre over tea and power bars; this is the way to dive in cold weather. Aside from determining that Pumpkins crack at 60 feet, I learned that its hard to maintain depth while swimming with the shot weights. At least it is for me. By roaming between 50 and 70 feet on the way back, I gave by my buddies’ fighter pilot practice. They had to keep looking up, down and around for me. Jean-Olivier helped out by trading the shot weights for a Pumpkin. It was slightly better. Have you ever traded negative for positive objects? Fun. If you try this, take disposable ballast for the pumpkin because while the start of the dive is positively buoyant it flips to negative by the end. I’ve decided to start the ‘Ad hoc Committee for Silly Tests of Diving Theory’. Does anyone have an idea for an appropriate acronym? Or a better name? [Count me in! How do you like "Society of Everyday Ad Hoc Occasional Recreational Silly Experimentors" - "SEAHORSE"? --JPS] The next experiment is to explode a pop bottle on assent. Let me know if you want to participate.

The Pool! Of course you want to know who won. My prediction was for between 60 and 80 feet based on a calculated force of 24,000 lbs on Jack at 2 ATA. But I cheated by having such a large range and was a participant. So the winner is … JENNY with a prediction of 75 feet. [I think a few of the predictions could be construed as accurate - Jim's, Adam's and Pat's to name a couple --JPS]

Did I say that the prize was getting pumpkin Pied?

Here are the predictions:

Scott	93’
Kim	110’
Dominique	93’
Jenny	75’
Jeffy	Jack will not fail under recreational dive limits
Nancy	90’
Jim	30’ then deform but not implode
Mike	Jack will survive the dive
Jason	100’
Adam	200’ predicted crack before catastrophic failure
Pat	predicted crack before catastrophic failure
Chris	Jack would survive my max. depth but would crack at a much deeper depth.

For a clear and succinct description of the dive try Jeffy’s online dive log.

Pumpkin Dive

The annual pumpkin dive was held on the 27th of October. Even though the weather was cold and rainy about 20 dedicated divers made the trek across to the winter docks on Wolfe Island. Many a pumpkin were sacrificed to the occasion. I think next year I am going to have to get a new buddy. He couldn't keep track of one little pumpkin lid while I was holding and carving said pumpkin. Just what was he doing anyways? At times I couldn't even see the pumpkin to carve it because he was stirring up the silt so bad. (I wonder who his instructor was?)


I would also like to take the time to give a special thanks to Jenny and Billy Allan for organizing the event and providing a great lunch afterwards. Well done Jenny!